The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 12.

Otago Witness, Issue 876, 12 September 1868, Page 11

The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 12.

It is with the greatest pain that we publish the slight details as yet to hand of the disaster which has befallen our forces in the Western Districts of the North Island. The recent capture and destruction of the pah. at Te Ngutu o te Manu "was, after all, but a very small success when compared with the loss now susitained at the same place. The revenge of the Maoris has been but too well planned and but too successful. The loss of four brave and experienced officers, who have well earned the confidence of the country, is in itself serious. It becomes doubly a matter for concern when we reflect that amongst them were men individually known to their Maori antagonists, and feared by them. The personal prowess and indomitable energy of such men as Yon Tempsky were better recognised by our barbarous foes than they have been by the country in whose cause they have fallen. In them the Natives felt they had to deal with men who, if they were only left to their own devices, were their masters in the art of war. They were afraid of them, and called them by names they appropriate to the Evil Spirit. Amongst the more superstitions there was undoubtedly an inclination to believe that they were really armed with superhuman powers. To have killed men who were thua dreaded will be reckoned by the Maoris as a victory, however many of their own comrades

they may have left slain on the ground. That they were subsequently driven from their entrenchments, as, from the tenor of the telegram, we may suppose them to have been, is of little importance to them. They disperse, only to reassemble in some more advantageous position. That oxir men " retired in good order" is a thing we may reasonably congratulate ourselves upon as an evidence of their fortitude and good discipline. " To the Maori it is simply a retreat, the natural sequence of what appears to him to liave been his victory. Every reverse in our conflict with such enemiea counts far more against us than a dozen little victories. It may indeed be doubted whether we ever obtain a substantial victory over the rebel Maori, except by slaying him. We may overawe by successes that section of the race which is more or less indifferent on the subject ; but experience goes to show that those tribes which hate the Pakeha, and would, if they had the power, drive him from the soil, remain as hostile and as dangerous during a pretended peace as in actual time of war.

When we consider what it has already cost this colony to hold its own against that minerity among the Maoris -which opposes colonization, it is most disheartening to find ourselves still involved in Native troubles to -which we can see no probable end, short of the extinction of the race. Those whose acquaintance with New Zealand is confined to its Southern Provinces, unless they are indefatigable students of Blue Books and other records of current history, can form but a faint idea of that wonderful complication which goes by the name of the " Native Difficulty." We may almost say that as many tribes as there are of Maoris, so many are our Native troubles, for even those most friendly to our rule are constant sources of difficulty. Grave as are the domestic questions of Finance and forms of Government -with which the Assembly is now dealing, a perusal of Hansard yields the conviction that the Native Difficulty still retains its over-towering proportions, and that all other subjects are dwarfed beside it. The number of totally distinct questions connected with the Native policy of the Government which have been brought under discussion in the Assembly during this session, is painfully great. It would be utterly impossible, within the limits of a newspaper article, to give even a meagre sketch of them. With the circumstances out of which some of theai arose, our readers are moderately familiar. Some idea of rhe whole complication may, perhaps, be gathered from a mere enumeration of the more prominent difficulties. Besides the deplorable war in which we are now involved in the Patea district on the West Coast, there has been a perpetual sore on the opposite side of the island arising from the confiscations which followed the late war. These, instead of being promptly made, were so long delayed that the Natives began to think they would not be enforced. The more hostile tribes recovering courage, oppose the surveys, and through the complications so proverbial in Maori titles, numerous tribes which have all along acted a friendly part have been alienated- The escape of the prisoners from the Chatham Islands was bad enough, but it has been rendered worse by the abortive attempts made to re-cap-ture the fugitives. It is to the most disaffected districts of the East Coast that these men have made their way. It is not easy to believe that they will remain quiet there. Then, again, in the central part o£ the Island, the Maori JKing and his more immediate adherents remain as it were intrenched behind an "aukati." They have drawn a line beyond which no white man is to pas 3, on pain of death. These are the people we are supposed to have made peace with, after a war in which more than 10,000 British troops assisted us, and some millions of money were spent by and for us. These are the points at the present moment most prominent in that Native Difficulty which sits on the shoulders of our colony, as the Old Man of the Mountain sat on those of Sinbad of old. But we never know from what quarters others may not start into view. Even amongst friendly tribes there are

constantly arising circumstances fraught with danger. TJecause the Government did not interfere with, force to assist one tribe against another in a recent dispute, the country north of Auckland was not many months ago within, an ace of organised rebellion. The chiefs of a powerful Ijribe which was undoubtedly in the right of the quarrel, had discussed seriously the arrangements necessary for proclaiming Maori law and resuming the sovereignty resigned by the treaty of Waitangi Even the details of their arrapgementß for taking possession or the Custom House were ready cut and dry. The minor officers were to "be replaced by Maoris and the Collectors retained for a while to superintend for their new masters ! A fortunate accident rather than any skill on the part of our officials (who, nevertheless, did their duty throughout with patience and bravery), led the tribe which was in the wrong, to give up- an escaped prisoner they were sheltering, and everything quickly fell into its accustomed place again. But that we should have been preserved by accident from such an organized rebellion, on the part of men who have been longer our friends, perhaps, than any other New Zealand tribe, is conclusive proof of the fact, that as long as the race shall last, we shall carry the burden of a Native Difficulty.

Under these circumstances it is very satisfactory to notice that the Opposition in the Assembly have resolved to make a definite stand to localise the responsibility for Native affairs, and to fix once and for all the liability of the Southern Island in regard to it. They may not succeed in their efforts during the present session ; but the cause is too just to remain long unsuccessful. Every year the number of its .adherents in the Assembly has increased, and we make no doubt that, whether the present Ministry is driven from office or not, this great point wil ere long be carried.