The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, JANUARY 19, 1861.

Taranaki Herald, Volume IX, Issue 442, 19 January 1861, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, JANUARY 19, 1861.

It is all but impossible from day to day to form a confident opinion of the prospects of our war. The newspaper writer who is ambitious of the character of a prophet must be much at a loss ; for one essential element in forming a judgment is to be had only in a most imperfect way. Intercourse with the enemy, and information about their state of feeling, is scanty, and past history throws little light on the probabilities of the case. We have an uncommon £henomendn,, to deal with, in a people 6ense of a unity of race (the first step to nationality) bursting tipon them. Pride and suspicion impel them to continue a struggle which the more sensible among I them jjerceive can have no issue so favorable to them as immediate submission. Who can measure pride 1 And suspicion has no. relatidn whatever to its grounds. The motives which act to dissuade civilized communities from war are feeble with Maories. Their property is no incumbrance, and does not represent the accumulations of an age. Their wants are simple) and there is the wilderness and fern root behind them, for refuge and subsistence. No amount of driving from position to position will be of vital importance in a war with such men ; and it is a question of feeling rather than necessity with them how long they will continue to maintain the struggle on the present terms. . That the operations at Matarikoriko and the advance on Huirangi by a force numerically less than their own by one half has been a bitter pill to the pride of Waikato we may be sure ; but it is to be feared the sequel will show that the sanguine spirit of many writers who have described the capture of Matarikoriko has misled them, and raised premature hopes in the public mind outside the settlement of Taranaki. Far more signal blows, and much more extensive proofs of our mercy and self-restraint, than we have yet been able to give, will be necessary before their pride is quelled, and their suspicion dissipated. It cannot be doubted for a moment that General Pratt will get hold of any position he may choose to occupy. With artillery, rifles, and scientific earthworks, it is a question only of time, and the British ensign will float on every hill where our commander may determine to plant it. The capture of Kaihihi proved this, as Colonel Mould's despatch clearly asserted ; and it would be safe to "go further and say, that given the element of time in abundance, and plenty of men also, every part of the district from Waitara to Waireka may be overlooked by our blockhouses, and rendered as safe -from incursions as the 1200 yards diameter of which the Omata Stockade is the centre. In saying, however, that with plenty of men we might occupy from Waitara to Waireka, no one resident here can shut his eyes to the fact that plenty, for such a purpose, means no handful. Our quick

e nemy, and minutely accidented ground, demand close watching; and this could only be done over a large space at an expense that must soon render the insurgents practically victorious. And even if carried out perfectly, the war would not be ended •o. The invasion of our little territoiy would become perilous, perhaps impossible, and the scene would be shifted, but the drama would not be ended. The land would be left open behind, the enemy would be cut off from a mere patch, and would suffer no such blow or incdnvenience as would permanently dishearten them for the contest. Within a narrow area the system of posts is practicable and valuable. A district so protected, and under good husbandry, is almost necessary for the health of the forces, if the struggle is to be prolonged. It was first suggested by the Provincial Government and the settlers themselves, at a time when, the homesteads being unharmed, there was every inducement to adopt it. It has since been recommended by Col. Mould, but not till the hopefulness of the settlers was gone, and their farms laid waste. None were then found to volunteer for it. If carried out, it must be in a strictly military way ; and, to render it effective, a change must take place in the organisation of the garrisons. Every blockhouse must be like the castle of a feudal baron, and send out its band of retainers at a moment to give rough first lessons on the rights of persons and things. This, in combination with real fortifications, a good garrison, and an intelligent organisation for the town, with a lightly equipped force of two or three hundred picked men, free from all garrison duty, might be said to put the Taranaki district in a condition of security, and would leave the commander at liberty to push the quarrel into the enemy's country, where it is to be feared the only end of the trouble can now be found. The presence of above 2000 armed natives between the Waitara and Omata, forces these considerations on us all. The natives are nothing daunted, though disappointed by our progress. It is not unlikely that, after a few weeks, the Waikato men may return from a land barren of honor and not too well supplied with provisions. The anxiety then would be lest a descent on our straggling town, in que"slT of some sort of satisfaction or trophy to console them and maintain their reputation, which would suffer from their helplessness in the face of the regular warfare of the troops. An attack on the town is by no means a probable, but it is at least a possible contingency. Properly met it would be utterly fatal to the assailants ; but if it found us disorganised and unprepared it would be a disaster indescribably horrible. We are therefore glad to be informed that an old order of Colonel Gold's that all women and children should repair to the Barracks, and the Militia muster at their stations is dropped. Our helpless people are now ordered to keep quiet, and family men will not be expected to appear in the trenches. The streets are to be left to the soldiery, perhaps it would be even better to have said to the enemy. With perfect quiet and the absence ' of confusion — with our knowledge of the details of the ground and the houses, and with the alleys and spaces among our houses occupied by our own armed men, and better still, barricaded off from the main thoroughfares and from the river, we might wait easy in our minds and rather in hopes that the insurgents may have audacity for the attempt, than in fear for the result. Such an attack, well met, would probably tend more to a favorable and early conclusion of the war than a fortune in gunpowder, lead, and cast iron, thrown at the trenches at Huirangi.

A vert natural and healthy mistrust is felt of the interference of unauthorised private persons in any matter of grave national importance. The interviews of Mr Cobden with the French Emperor, the meddling letter of the Liverpool merchants to the same potentate, were greeted by the voice of all Britain as sickly fruits of a one-sided civilisation. There was something unmanly and impertinent about those proceedings ; and in general it must be said that the dealings of the missionary with the natives in arms against the Queen's authority is of this character. When the Government of a country takes up the sword against any refractory part of the community, the time for the exhortations of the preacher has passed by. No Government can tolerate that any of its subjects should act as neutrals. When a missionary persists in

reading Church services alternately beside Marsland Hill and at Mataitawa, or in attempting to negotiate as a disinterested though benevolent spectator, he exhibits a want of good citizenship — an unwillingness to accept his own modest place in society — that is instinctively perceived to be inconsistent with sober Christianity. But it would be going too far to say that no individual may with propriety undertake any dealings with the Maori taua at Waitara on any subject or under any sanction whatever. It is said there can be no treating with rebels with arms in their hands. But without stopping to dispute the saying, in simple fact we have not to do with rebels at all, but with a spirited race' of men who, however misguided, are fighting for an idea — men not destitute of faith and high feeling ; and it may be that even now, something of the self-restraint and judicial character which distinguishes English warfare from Maori butchery, may reach the minds of these people, who have been feeling about after the light. A definite simple attempt to lead them to adopt some of those redeeming practices that enable men of the highest class of mind to adopt the trade of destruction, if carried out in sincerity and honesty, it is not for any Englishman to scoff or rail against. It is a matter naturally rising out of the War and peculiar to it. Such we believe to be the object which has brought down to this settlement the Rev. Mr Wilson, a Church of England missionary who has spent a quarter of a century in New Zealand, and acquired, as the best authorities state, a knowledge of the Maori habits and character such as very few possess. Mr Wilson has resided in Waikato and also to the northward of Auckland. While visiting the Rev. Mr Morgan, of Otawhao, he heard from the lips of some of those natives who returned with the spoils of our outsettlers, the dismal tale of Puketakaure. They confirmed the conjecture that every one must have made, distinctly stating that at least several of the poor fellows who were left on the field survived the retreat of their comrades for hours and even days, and finally were killed in cold blood. Mr Wilson endeavoured at once to shew the truth of the distinction which civilised peo,ple make between slaughter in and after & fe9.4tl«»^JElsusitcce£d.edin °JP? n iSK.J ; he eyes of Wetini Taiporutu, who has~smce falleh"at~ Mahoetahi. That chief, whom he describes as an enthusiastic and straightforward man, promised his help in reforming the savage custom of his race. Mr Wilson has come down to Taranaki and sought out the hostile camp, at no little risk to himself, in furtherance of the same idea. He has the sympathy of the Government, if not their distinct sanction ; and if, as we have great confidence, he has labored with straightforward simplicity for this end and this only, we are constrained to give him our cordial good wishes for the result, although our fear is greater than our hope. Such reforms are not generally extemporised, but are part of " the long result of time." The Waikato chiefs, with one exception, have, however, agreed to promote a more humane practice : — instead of tomahawking the wounded, they agree to take prisoners, and to treat them kindly or exchange them. The men of the South, . true to their old character, refuse to do otherwise than their fathers have done before them. They come out to kill, and everyone with white blood who falls into their hands they promise to kill without distinction. It is said by persons whose judgment weighs much with us, that Mr Wilson's attempt is in advance of the people he has to deal with. That, in reference to our own settlers and troops, it is an idle expectation that they will fall in with such benevolent purposes ; that, on the contrary, they will be irritated at the appearance of sympathy with the enemy, and rather stimulated to violence than mollfied by the example. The giving back of the Waikato prisoner, which was intended as a pledge and evidence of our humane disposition, it is said is resented as a wrong by the brave men who captured him, and, as a wrong, will be visited on future unfortunates. A few fretful persons may threaten this, but most brave men are neither vindictive nor unjust. If the policy of the act in question was bad, clearly the fault is not with the insurgents, but with our commander who sanctioned, and Mr Wilson who probably recommended it. It would be monstrous to retaliate it on the enemy. It would, indeed, be greatly to be regretted if our men were seriously capable of such violent views, and surely those who think them so, put our civilisation too low. What the men of Waikato are able to reach

cannot be an idea too refined and noble for men of the nation foremost in sobriety and humanity. Without indulging in any cant there is enough that is respectable in the* Waikatos' desire for national independence to find forbearance, if not respect, from every British subject. Mr Wilson doesnot defend the present insurrection ; he does not, as some of his profession have done, shut his eyes to the substantial jus* tice which every one of the race has hadfrom us and our Government. But neither he nor any of us desire to see a war of extermination : and those even who may think Mr Wilson's course injudicious, will not allow his error to drive them into a reaction, mischievous to our own race, and fatal to that with which, under God's Providence, we have been placed in contact.