THE END OF THE WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 746, 17 March 1866, Page 14

THE END OF THE WAR.

(From tbe Daily Times, March 15.)

Evebt mail from the North tends to prove that the ."Native War is approaching its conclusion, and that European supremacy will once more be established. The questions in dispute between the Colonists and Ihe Maoris, without any formal abandonment of them by the latter, are virtually settled. They have simply given up their arm?, and taken an oath of allegiance to the Queen, and they have been allowed to retire from the contest wifh no other penalty than depriving them of some thousands of acres of land which they did not use. Thu3 the war has died out, and with it the romantic hopes that led some of the leading chiefs engage in it. Even fanaticism, which tended indefinitely to prolong the struggle, has lost its influence over the majority of the Natives. A few turbulent spirits still resist, but it is a resistance of a different character from that which marked native tactics at the commencement of the Instead of being the aggressors, they are driven from post to post, asd find no security in the pahs once held to be so formidable. If the war had no other result, it has thown the Colonists that they are superior to the Natives, even when these are permitted to choose the terms on whkh they will fight. Their strongholds, once deemed so dangerous, are do longer the protection they once •were, for the way of retreat from them prepared by the Natives, is found to he the convenient point o£ attack. The natural confequence is, they evidently feel their inferiority, and are glad to escape whenever a determined assault is made upon them. The moral efftct of these repeated successes on the part of the Troops and the Colonial Forces, will be greater than the immediate consequence of any previous victory. Once let it become a received fact that the European is the superior race, and a great step will be gained towards a permanent peace. But it would be too much to expect that all difficulty in governing the Native race will at once cease. Even among Europeans, crime and outrage are not uncommon. Brutal and savage murders, secret poisoning?, and degrading vice, are not rare amongst those born and educated in refined and polished society, and surrounded by influences calculated to purify and ennoble the mind. It is not, therefore, surprising that where those influences are absent, ignorant and savage mea will occasionally commit crimes aggravated by revolting cruelty. As in all cases, where war has been brought to a close, the principal difficulty has yet to be encountered. Vast tracts of land have been declared forfeited, and in order to utilise them, they require to be settled. However excellent the soil, and however capable of sustaining a large agricultural or pastoral population, there is some risk to be encountered by those who may venture to take up their abode upon the land. Although no longer the property of the natives, it has been wrested irora them by the law of the stronger. They have not formally parted with whatever right they may once have had in it. They have received no consideration for it, and it ha* not therefore the sacredness attached to it, which throws, as it were, a shield over those who hold the land they occupy by right of purchase. There is, in consequence, a fertile source of disputes and discontent likely to ari«e, which, under given circumstances, rnisht be productive of future wars. The proposal to give the control of these lands to the various Provinces witbin wbich they are situated, will require to be carefully guarded. It does not necessarily follow that 6uch a gift will be a valuable boon, for, coupled with it, in fairness to the rest of the Colony, must be the condition that the Province receiving the gift must protect its own rights against Native aggression. If the Province is not powerful enough to do this, it must wait an increase of population and wealth to enable it to do so, for there can be no reason why the gift should be supplemented by the cost ot an army to render it available. Each passing year reduces the chances of effectual opposition on the part of the Natives All the efforts made to civilise and preserve them appear ljkely to be vain. Harsh as the opinion expressed by Mr Roebuck and others in the House of Commons may sound, that the Maoris are a doomed race, there seems j every reason to suppose the fate of all aborifines when brought in contact with luropean colonists will overtake them. Dr Featherston, in his speech at Wellington, confirms the idea that their numbers are ! rapidly diminishing ; and he says it is " impossible to avoid their speedy extinc- ! " tion." Twenty years ago their numbers were estimated at 100,000 ; " now," says the Doctor, uno one believes they could v muster 40,000 souls, and in twenty years " they vrill be reduced to a mere handful." It is consolatory to think that such a rapid decline in the native population is not attributable to European aggression. The '

numbers who hare perished in battle, and through the collateral effects of war, are trifling compared with the enormous reduction that has taken place. The diminution must be ascribed to other causes. Stizelecki, in writing upon Australian coloni2atioD, expresses the opinion that the natives of this New World *' have, "where- " ever the European advances, the sentence "of extinction stamped indelibly upon " their foreheads." That opinion was written twenty years ago, and each year has tended to prove its truth. It is not that their longevity is abridged, but that from some undefined cause, whenever placed side by side with Europeans 11 the hearths of the natives, like the wig- " warns of the American Indians, retreat " or disappear before the torrent of immi- " gration." " Those," says the same author, "in whose eyes the question of " decrease and extinction has assumed all " the mournful solemnity and interest " which it merits, have inquired into the " nature of that irresistible but desolating " influence, which, like a malignant ally "of the white man, carries destruction " wherever he advances ; and the inquiry, v like an inquest of the one race upon the " corpse of the other, has ended, for the " most part, with the verdict of. * Died by " the visitation of God.'" If this theory be true, the corollary ol the Times may be admitted — " it is easier to grow 11 into the sovereignty of New Zealand " than to conquer it."