NEW ZEALAND AND GREECE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE STANDARD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 1005, 27 July 1870, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AND GREECE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STANDARD.

The Standard calls attention to some of the prominent facts of the New Zealand case, side by side with the recent deplorable massacre of our countrymen in Greece. In this last instance we have the Ministerial organ sternly insisting upon instant and complete reparation. "The brigands must be captured and brought to strict justice." The sentiment is unexceptionable. Bat what of the worse brigands in New Zealand, the wholesale murderers of our countrymen, the mutilators of children, the violators of women ? It is because Greece is near and New Zealand far off, that we feel it a duty to put down the .brigands in the one country and not in the other ? Why this extreme zeal for the victims of the Greek banditti, when far more atrocious deeds have been committed almost under the very eyes of British troops, who were restrained by positive orders not to interfere ? It cannot be said that the Greek Government is weaker in relation to its indigenous banditti than the New Zealand Government as regards the Maoris. It can hardly be pretended that the fate of Mr. Vyner and his hapless companions is worse than that of the victims of the Poverty Bay massacre. Why, then, if it is right to avenge the massacre in Greece, are we constrained not only to let the Maori insurgents escape us, but even to approve of their cause and to extend to them our sympathy ? What is the national principle which is violated by keeping British troops in New Zealand to help our countrymen in danger, which is not ten times more offended by despatching British troops to Athens in support of the authority of the Greek Government.

Sir, — The deplorable, cold-blooded murders which have been committed in Greece have stirred the hearts of the English people, and the Editor of the Times makes this recommendation on the subject : —

"The brigands must be captured and brought to strict justice. We hope to hear in the course of a few hours that they have been seized, and if there be any difficulty on the part of the Greek Ministry from the feebleness of the force at their command, we may tender help sufficient to insure the desired end, and insist upon its being accepted. In the punishment of the guilty with such promptitude and severity that brigandage shall be once for all repressed in Greece is to be found the noblest vengeance we can extract for the blood of our murdered «ountrymen."

The distance of Greece from England is so slight that the chord of sympathy vibrates after so terrible an event, with sufficient strength to move the heart of the Editor of the Times. New Zealand was so far off that the vibrations of the sympathetic chords however sad and great were the calamities that occurred, moved the same heart to no utterances of pity or compassion. Every Englishman must rejoice to see the nation moved with a righteous concern for the cruel fate of their countrymen in Greece. Bnt contrast this feeling with what took place in the case of New Zealand.

When the New Zealand village of Wairoa, in Poverty Bay, was threatened by a barbarous enemy, previously to the massacre of Major Briggs and the British subjects at that place, the British Governor was requested by his responsible minister to allow a company of troops to be sent to Wairoa to occupy the village, not ■even to operate against the enemy, but to set the male population free, to disperse an enemy known to be treacherous and mnrderous. The Governor replied that to assent to this would be as much as his office would be worth ; and the troops were not allowed to be moved. This statement I have received from the best authority.

Shortly afterwards, men, women, and children were massacred at the Wairoa, and British women were brutally violated and afterwards ripped open. No British soldiers were allowed to move either to try to save, or to secure those who had perpetrated such atrocities. I am even assured, on good authority, that one man was tied up whilst his wife was violated in his presence, and bis child's brains dashed out. This cold, cruel policy of non-interference was, in other instances, sternly and rigidly adhered to. British troops saw from Wanganui, British homesteads blazing, and were not allowed to interfere. After all this had taken place a British Colonial Minister wrote a despatch, which must disturb the minds of even the friendly amongst the native race in New Zealand, and must excite the worst of them against the European population, and this dispatch was published in an unusual manner and with indecent haste in the English papers, the statements in this despatch being also calculated in many respects to injure the colonists of New Zealand in the minds of their fellowcountrymen in England. The moment of the publication of that despatch in the Colony was the time chosen for withdrawing the last British soldier from New Zealand. — I have, &c.,.

A Chbious Case.— ln the Auckland Police Court, Mr. Robert Graham was charged, on the information of Mr. John Lundon, with a breach of the Marriage Act, by making a false declaration to the Registrar of Marriages, on the 2nd Jane last, for the purpose of procuring a certificate. The bench was occupied by seven Justices of the Peace, who, after hearing the evidence, decided, by a majority, to dismiss the case. It waa alleged that the lady — Miss Jane Horne — vras Mr. Graham's neice ; but the Court held the evidence did not establish the statement.

We frequently hear of generals capturing " pieces of artillery." " What's the use of capturing ' pieces ?' " says Mr*. Partingtou. " Why not capture whole one* ?"