THE SELF-RELIANT POLICY.

Otago Witness, Issue 921, 24 July 1869, Page 2

THE SELF-RELIANT POLICY.

If anything were required to intensify the feeling of uneasiness which prevails with regard to the disturbances in the North, we have it in the words of our Napier telegram. 'Te Kooti has been joined by Rewi, of the Ngatimaniapoto, with a force of five hundred men.' If this intelligence be true, the event which has been so long dreaded has occurred at last. Instead of having to contend with a roving band of stragglers, we are now confronted with an jtrmy, headed by one of the most formidable of Native warriors. The two hundred Taupo Hauhaus who have also joined Te ICooti will swell the force against us in that part of the Island to s°thousand men. It is not improbable that Tito Kowaru, too, may join Te Kaon. Colonel Whitmore recently expressed in the Council his belief that the King intends to fight, 1 because he can no longer wage war against us through other tribes, as he lias been doing all along.' The news we have just recoived apparently confirms this prophecy. Rewi— the great fighting chief of the King party— has been described aa anxious to secure peace. His professions, however, seem to havo been too readily accepted. If the Waikato tribes have risen, we shall havo to encounter with our Constabulary the men whom General Cameron failed to subdue with a vrclJappointed army. Tho conditions of the struggle in which we havo been engaged are rapidly changing. Instead of being- required to quell a disturbance, wo shall now bo called upon to carry on perhaps the most formidable war in the history of tho colony. At such a juncturo, there is somo satisfaction in observing that, according to tho despatches received by tho last wail, tho Imperial Government accra disposed to consider favourably any application for Imperial troops that may bo sent home. There win ovory roaaon to expect that, as Mr. Stafford jwud ; the answers to bis questions on tho

ts!thef general policy of? the Imperial Govern-* m^nii yitlireference to;tbe empl^ym&it 1 of trddps in the 1 .colonies, is no" room for doubt. > Etat it may be 'confi-' dently asserted that had the Stafford Ministry made application for troops in the early days of the struggle, it would not have been refused. The^ weakness of the colony was too apparent then to permit of any curt refusal of 1 such an application. Now that we have raised and disciplined a considerable force, and have gained some considerable successes in the fieldj we run a risk of being left to ourselves, under the mistaken idea that our resources are equal to the emergency. The temper of the Legislature on this question j is not at all satisfactory. In the Legislative Council, the Self-reliant policy has been formally proposed as 'the only one likely to relieve us from our present difficulties, and to ensure the permanent peace and prosperity of the country.' In the House, it is understood that Mr M'Lean's resolutions will be opposed by the Canterbury independents,' as they are termed, as well aa by Mr Stafford's followers. If the Ministry should be defeated on these resolutions, we think they are fairly entitled to ask for a dissolution j and we also think that it would be the duty of His Excellency to grant it. It is high time that the opinion of the country was taken on the merits of the Self-reliant policy. It appears to us that this policy has been thrust upon the people by the Stafford Ministry in defiance of their views, just as it was thrust upon the colony in the first instance by the Imperial Government. So far as opinion can be collected on the subject, it seems that the policy in question is decidedly disapproved of and distrusted by a large majority of the colonists. His Excellency has expressed himself so strongly against it that he would probably regard an appeal to the country with great favour. There is no public ques- j tion of the day as to which it is more desirable to make such an appeal, Mr Tancrbd says most truly that 'any provision for the preservation of the public peace which does not contemplate the probability _of frequently recurring collisions during a long series of years, will not meet the requirements of the case.' Self-reliance was instituted as the most satisfactory i provision for the preservation of the public peace' that the circumstances of the country would admit of. How has it answered } Apart from the greater degree of expense it Evolves, a fatal objection to it consists in its want pf permanence — which means of course want of discipline and want of efficiency. With two regiments in the Nprth Island, the colony would have some assurance that peace would be maintained, if possible. If, for instance, Sir Geoiige Grey's proposal to station a regiment of troops on the borders of Lake Taupo had been carried out, the current of events would have run considerably more in our favour than it has. Tho sea poosfc settlements would not b.aye been left so much at J;hp mercy of fifty marauders who migh* choose to descend from tho hills upon them, secure of a retreat in any ca«e nor would Te Kooti's tactics have beea carried out under such favourable cirmu»»toncf* ', while Rewi with his five hundred would not bo such a source of terror as he is. It would not answer our purpose to employ Imperial troops as they were omployod in the VVaikato war. Mr Fox, when writing in 1866 of that war and its results, asaerted very truly that the troops woro ' used in a wrong way. Thoy are not adapted for the sort of operations necessary to conquer an onomy like tho Maoris; nor, it would appear, do their officers know how to hawdla thorn for that kind of work. The tactics bavo boon to make the Queon'a troops ftgbt, and to use tho Colonial forces for holding posts, transport service, and similar work. This is exactly tho rovorno of what recent experience has taught us ought to bftvo boon dono. The colonial forces should havo boon gout to the bu»h to fight, and tho Queen's troopa kopt to protect the centres of population, and

tfaVjJf&ir '"^faidflmß Grey used fltintf'ltS *Wereroa)]6p give moral support^ to tfiie| jcdlonial/trdops, and take charge of the 4 ! prisoners.'' ! !