A UNITED COLONY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 188, 18 December 1868, Page 2

A UNITED COLONY.

fjfcThe New Zealand Herald (Auckland) of Efec. 9 contains the following :— There is' another great drawback to our successfully coping with the Natives. A great element of success in battle must ever be numbers. The population of the colony, it ia true, is very much larger than that of the natives. But we are divided by Cook's Straits into two islands, and, practically, while both islands have had to find money, the North Island only has had to find men. But the population of the I North Island is also much less than that of I the South, and this increases the hardship to I the North, whileagain, the Southis entirely free from the ravages and destruction caused by these Maori insurrections. The total number of male Europeans in the colony over twenty years of age, is 81,932. But 58,000 of these live in the South Island, and only 25,000 in the North. Thus, with considerably less than half the men capable of bearing arms in the North, it is from this population that our armed forces in the field are principally drawn, and it is this population entirely which has to supply volunteers and militia to keep the peace in their respective districts. Now, under these circumstances, it is clear that the burden is not fairly apportioned, and that our war material is not properly utilised. The country is one. — the enemy is a common one — the large adult population of the South ought to be called upon to take an active path in field operations. Volunteers and militia i — one, or both — ought to be removed from the South to the North Island. Some of those 58,000 men, above twenty years of age, should be utilised for a short and sharp summer campaign. Decided energy should be shown, and all maudlin sentimentality about injuring a Maori rebejtahpuld be cast on one side. The South ilLnot doing its part of a great national worO The North ought not to be punished so Tsjavily as it ia; and moving eight or ten regiments of volunteers or militia from the South Island would not only stir up a thorough interest in the war, check wrongdoing and incapacity, but would 'enable a crushing defeat to be obtained, I and show the Maoris throughout the colony | that the Poverty 'Bay nnd other massacres have aToused the vengeance of the colonists I from North to South, and that we are deteri mined, as a united people, to exert our whole force in punishing the rebels ; and that that 1 punishment, should be, not taking pri--1 soners alive", but clearly ascertaining that our enemies were slain. As to the money consideration, that must not be taken into aci count by the colony. The insurrection must be put down at any cost. An apparent tremendous severity will do good. Taking prisoners will not do good, but merely perpetuate~indeflhiteljr; the'"T?ar between the two races.