NGUTU O TE MANU.

Otago Witness, Issue 875, 5 September 1868, Page 1

NGUTU O TE MANU.

The storming of the pah Ngutu o te Maim is some compensation for the reverses which the Colonial Forces have met with since the commencement of the present war. It will serve to revive the confidence of our troops and to damp the ardour of the Maoris, who have no doubt been greatly emboldened by their recent successes. The tide has now turned. Up to the present moment, we have been defeated at every point, and under circumstances which rendered the defeat itself peculiarly annoying. From the surprise of the redoubt at Tnruturu Mokai to the escape from the Chatham Islands, everything seemed to go wrong with ua. A conviction was rapidly gaining grouud that the Colonial Forces were disorganised, and that no reliance could be placed upon them either in camp or in the field. But the public will be re-assnred on this point, not so much by any formal report on the discipline of our army, aa by the vigour and determination displayed by it in the present instance. Colonel M'Dotfnell evidently understands his work. It is only when the enemy are taken by surprise that we can look for decisive victories. There is no possibility of deciding warfare with savages by means of pitched battles ; and yet, to judge from language we sometimes hear, the impression apparently exists in some quarters that a campaign with the Maoris may be settled by one or two decisive engagements. We are told now, as we were told years ago, that there is little fear of the war being protracted ; that the struggle need only be 'short,

sharp, and decinive,' and there will be an end of it. But the time for such a delusion is past. If we cannot succeed in catching the Maoris as we caught them at Pokaikai and Ngutu ote Manu, we shall make but slow progress. For triumphs of that kind we must trust to the military skill of Colonel M'Donitell. His tactics in both, these instances display a genius for war which has not often been met with in New Zealand, and which remind us not a little of the achievements of ' Stonewall' Jackson in America. By a swift and secret night march, followed by an overwhelming attack on the pah, he carried everything before him ; cut down the Maoris who resisted, burned their defences to the ground, and in a few hours began his march back to Patea. This was done with the loss of three killed and eight wounded. It was done, too, in one hour. The affair at Pokaikai was accomplished with the same dash, and the same economy of blood. We ironically compared it the other day with the tragedy of Glencoe, in allusion to Sir George's Bowel's historical parallel between the Maoris and the Highlanders ; but at Glencoe there was brutal treachery without military genius, while at Pokaikui there was military genius without treachery. We suppose however that Mr Geokge Gkaham will have no objections to urge against the attack on Ngutu o te Manu.