MR. STAFFORD AND THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE WAR.

Colonist, Volume VI, Issue 623, 13 October 1863, Page 6

MR. STAFFORD AND THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE WAR.

'~,.! (Prom the Colonist.) . The Waitara question is termed an old one,. but it will come up again in the coming Assembly.' On the subject of this war we do not think that Mr. Stafford, although he discoursed at great length, was so explicit as he might have been. To our thinking, in-' teresting as his narrative was, he missed the kernel of the dispute. We pass over his argument that war was "inevitable," merely hinting that the bare fact of such a con vie-. tion in the mind of any Governor or admiistrator is of itself inimical to the preservation of peaceful relations. The simple question of the Waitara dispute, and of all the woes which sprung from it, is—-Had or, had not William Bang a right to prevent the sale of the block of land ? If he had, then the purchase was illegal, and in making the forcible survey of the block which did not belong to us, and which led the natives to. rise in defence of their rights, the cause of! war sprung from us. This is the true question, and not whether Teira was paid his whole price or not. That the Government of the time were wrong is inferable from the fact of the land having been yielded up again to the natives. On what grounds we shall learn fully when Parliament meets.