The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, JULY 17.

Otago Witness, Issue 920, 17 July 1869, Page 13

The Otago Witness. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, JULY 17.

Among the telegrams of English mail news which we publish elsewhere in this issue, there is one which will be read with very great surprise. ' The Times has an article on the Defence of New Zealand, saying that the colonists do not pretend to be too weak or too few to contend with the savages, but they are * too rioh and too busy.' Most people will be disposed to think that the alteration of one word in the last part of this sentence would bring it nearer to the truth. We are too poor and too busy to put down the Maori in the manner in which he ought to be put down. Too busy because we are too poor — we are rich neither in leisure nor in money. This brilliant idea of our great contemporary is of a piece with the comparisons formerly indulged in by the British Press between the numbers of the colonists and the Maoris. Those considerations which expose the fallacy of the one argument have a great bearing on the other. Of the 200,000 colonists to be found in New Zealand nearly half are children under the age at which they can either be called producing members of the community, or additions to its numerical strength for purposes of defence. A.nd of the rest only about two thirds are adult inales^capable of bearing arms, or earning the means of supporting those who bear arms for them. Of these again, 'the vast majority are men who landed in this colony with little or no means — who have indeed sought to find in this Ultima Thule of the world the means of * bettering their condition.' England may have a right to say to these men : ' You have left us because you ware not satisfied with your prospects here ; now then look after yourselves.' But when she taunts them with the statement that they are ( too rich and ; too busy ' to care to protect themselves, she simply insults men whom she is bound by every tie of nature to assist and encourage. On the very day that our eyes are annoyed by this insolence, n Minister of the Crown for the colony stands up in his place in the Assembly to propose the following resolution : — ' That in the opinion of this House, two Commissioners should be sent to Great Britain to represent to Her Majesty's Government the exertions which the colony has made to repress the Native Rebellion, and to request that two regiments of troops may be stationed in the North Island for the purpose of affording aid and protection to Her Majesty's subjeots.' At the same time too, an advertisement is to be found is the Auokland papers for transport; to Australia of such remnants of the 18th Regiment as are still left in the oolony. What are these things signs of? There can be but one answer — they show a great Empire in a oondition of fatal disorganization. If there is any reality in the designation which we bestow upon ourselves — 'Her Majesty's Bubjeots' — the duties to the Crown which we acknowledge by it, impose on the Sovereign corresponding obligations. The protection of life and property within the bounds of the Empire id tho very first duty of its Government When we find that Government entirely ignoring that duty, and absolutely endangering life ana property by its deliberate acts, we can only conclude that it has oeesed to be capable of discharging its primary functions. There is a paralysis of its powers which possibly pointa to decay and disorganisation. Can wo wonder that men like

the members of the late Ministry, who have been in constant correspondence with that Government about the affairs of this part of what we still venture to call the British Empire — who know the mind and calibre of that Government — lift Up, as they did the other day, warning voices to their 1 fellowcolonists to prepare themselves for still more important evidences of this disorganisation ? Those gentlemen have not thought it improper or disloyal to call upon us to be prepared for that complete independence of which the present state of things is merely a foreshadowing. This telegram comes as a comment on their remarks, and confirms their vaticinations.

We may well ask ourselves — have we anything to lose by a severance of the tie that binds us to Great Britain 1 ? The alarming rumours which reach us by this mail both from Europe and America are highly suggestive of the dangers which may arise to us from this connection. The Empire which in time of peace cannot maintain the authority of its Government within ifcs own frontiers — what can happen to it in time of war but a falling to pieced, or a dismemberment by force from without? Have we any compensation for running this risk — or, having it, can we venture to appraise it at so high a value as to run all risks to maintain it 1