THE TARANAKI REFUGEES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume IX, Issue 423, 8 September 1860, Page 4

THE TARANAKI REFUGEES.

(Trum, the LyllcUon ,Timei, August IS.]

A memorandum from the Superintendent of Caiiti > rl)Ufy,a | ddr.eßsed to the Superintendent of Taranaki, on, the, occasion of the Airedale calling in at tholast nnmrd p|nce on the 24th,,ultimp, will be found in nnolbei portion of this paper. The subject matter in the opinion of the Superintendent of Cantcibmy as to Ihe piopiiety of sending the women anil children of Taianaki down to this province .is a place of refuge, and that opinion is an adverse one, for vanous nnsons given. However valid tho reasons therein stated may be, we much lea?- Hint, in the present state of public feeling, the document in question will cause a geneial amount of dissatisfaction, as failing to give eipu'ssion to the wide-spread sympathy that is felt thioughont the piovinee m the case of the helpless sufferers in this unhappy strife, and disappointing the desiie on the pait of our people to give immediate and active relief to their necessities. While none can regret more than ourselves any temporary hindiance to the practical expiession of our sympathy with these poor people, we feel bound at the same time to give full weight to the prudential reasons given by the Superintendent of this province for his piefeieiice of Nelson as a more desirable place of refuge over this settlement, and however disagreeable it is to find ciicumstances interfering with the execution of those desiies we have most at hoait, jt is nevertheless the part of prudence to consider well how lar those circumstances are impeiative. The recent settlement of this province, its rapid progiess in material wealth, and the fact of its being almost destitute of timber, have combined together to render house-room one of the most pressing wants of the place— a want which has been bitterly feluby most of our newly. landed immigianls, and which has tended more than any other circumstance to prevent the rapid distnbution of labour throughout the country. Had the Airedale biought down on this occasion, without warning, 300 women and childien, the committee for the Taranaki Relief Fund would lnve found great difficulty in pioviding any proper accommodation for them, at a time when the advent of the William Miles with a batch of immigrants is daily expected, and the Government Kanacks would be necessarily occupied by them for a time. At the time when the Superintendent forwarded this memorandum to the authorities at Taranaki, he j!oul(l not have been awaieof the movement that had "tlieTi commenced tluoughout the province, to raise funds for the relief of the sufferers, and to invite them heie, oi doubtless his views would have been modified as to the piopriety of sending down future drafts of those who had been ordered to quit tho town of Taranaki. As the matter now stands, the Superintendent of Taianaki will shortly receive a communication fiom the committee ol the Canterbury Fund, requesting him to take steps to send his people down heie, and the necessary time will be afforded for making preparations to leceive and find house-room for what, from all accounts, appear to be a band of unwilling outcasts. The season of the year, the price of firewood, the comparative high rate of the cost of living, and the dulness ol the labour maiket, are all undeniable facts, which would tell strongly against the choice of this province as a place of lefnge, were it purely a question of choice, oi a mere mattei of business arrangement; and arguing, as the Superintendent evidently does, on the assumption that the whole cost of the maintenance of the Taranaki suffereis will devolve upon the colony, the most natural conclusion would be, that the best place to send them to is that in which they can be accommodated and maintained with the greatest amount of comfort to themselves, and the smallest amount of expense to the General Government. i The immediate effect of this memorandum was to canse Ihe provincial authorities to alter the destination of a number of those people who were coming here, to Nelson, and to make arrangements for sending a fuither detachment to the same place, on the next occasion offering. Acting on the faith of an addiessfrom the Provincial Council of Canterbury to His Excellency the Goveinor, in March last, Col. Gold had issued an order to families toprepaie to embark for Lyttelton, and it was only at the last hour, on the receipt of this memorandum, that their destination was altered. Judging fiom the tone of the Nelson papeis, the people of that province seem disposed to do their duty nobly, and laying aside all selfish consideiatiom, are taking steps by the election of temporal y barracks, &c, to piepare accommodation for whatever numbers may bo tin own upon then hospitality. The Government is finding rations, and timber for barracks, and carpenters and other mechanics are giving their labour as if they had not had some liun/lieds of people already quartered upon them, and taxing their liberality for some months past. The intelligence brought by this mail points to but one conclusion. Taranaki, as a province, must be regained by the sword. The blight and devasta'tioii of war have settled upon its farms and homeitte/ids. Fresh forces aie mustering on both sides to decide the question whether Maori or European is to hold possession of the " Garden of New Zealand." Under these circumstances, who would venture to say how long it may be before these people who are driven from their homes by the stein necessity of war will be able to return ? Or how long the burden 60 checifully and manfully taken up by the people of Nelson may have to be born* ? That tho people of Canterbury will take their iihare of this burden, that they will claim their pait of this noble privilege, we cannot doubt; we fed in the matter, with one of the speakers at the late meeting, that to go out of the way to press such a claim ■would be an insult to their feelings and their sense of humanity.