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Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1172, 18 December 1868, Page 3

dispenses charitable aid by shunting them off in r siding where they do little good, often do evil, anc: are maintained at the public cost. This is not the case always, of course, but it is far too common ; and it is a failing of Governments that they hold fast by patronage which gives power and influence, through both the successful and the expectant place-hunter and their respective friends. As for the Imperial troops, what we mean by having them is that when they come they shall fight. 'l'hey are trained, and, under proper Generalship, can be made to assimilate themselves to surrounding necessities as the Abyssinian army did in the rocky wilds and fastnesses of an unknown country. What clogged the action of the troops formerly was the ineompetency of commanders, the quarrels of Governor and Generals, and the influence of Exeter Hall, now dethroned by the superior influence of the British stockholder's pocket; all these impediments must bo removed if soldiers should come. It is plain that two Governors, Sir Geoi-ge Bowen and Lord Belmore, see that troops, to be of any use, must take active service; and the offer of troops made by Governor Belmore would be simply a mockery if it meant anything else. Wo repeat what we have said long ago, that we cannot bear the cost of keeping a standing army; and the answer to the argument frequently employed of late, I hat "we cannot wait for troops from .Australia," is to be found in the fact that the steamer Alhambra, now lying in our harbor, has on board about a hundred and thirty volunteers raised in Victoria and brought down by Captain Stack. We might have had Governor Belmore's drilled and accoutred soldiers here now in preference to these ; and soldiers are better than Volunteers, for those are trained, but these are raw levies. Of the volunteers who went a few weeks since from the West Coast, many of them never handled a rifle, and yet we ere informed they were sent at once to the Front! Is this self-reliance ? We call it sending men to the shambles, at a cost in all, rations, clothing, conveyance, and accoutrements, of not less than 10s. per diem, while we can get drilled men for the asking at not. more than half-a-crown a-day, the paid halfcrown being clue to the Imperial Government, who, in the circumstances of the Colony, would prove a lenient creditor. Self-reliance has been an utter failure, and the coutinucd transmission of entirely untrained men to the Front proves it; and it proves further, that our Ministers know not what they are doing, and are not alive to the necessities of the situation, nor to the grave responsibilities they are bringing on themselves and the Colony. If they continue much longer to destroy the Colony, the next step is, that the Governor should bo petitioned to dismiss them, and to send for troops. In truth we think the time for this course has come. Without professing to possess the gift of prophesy, we are strongly disposed to believe that ere many months pass by Dr. Featherston will be Premier of 2few Zealand. Since the foregoing was written, we learn by a late telegram from Wellington that Mr. Fitzgerald, a Government officer, has written four columns in one of the newspapers to prove that we should have nothing to do with English troops. Prima facie, we are disposed by that fact to adhere more strongly to our own opinion, for, although Mr. Fitzgerald is a ready and brilliant writer and a good speaker, he is acknowledged to be remarkably deficient inbound logic, and we venture to predict that Mr, FitzgenUd's letter will prove our assertion.