THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “Véritè sans peur.” Wanganui, October 18, 1860.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 213, 18 October 1860, Page 2

THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “ Véritè sans peur.” Wanganui, October 18, 1860.

Another humiliation has keen experienced by our troops at Taranaki. Major Hutchins, in «ight of the enemy at Tataraimaka, was re«

vailed by General Pratt. On the 2Jtli lilt., 500 men under Colonel Leslie went, north, and were engaged in filling Up 'the rifle pits near the deserted pas destroyed in General Pratt’s last expedition, when they were attacked by about T©o natives, and retreated two miles before them in double quick time. At last, when the Maories were within 50 yards vif out men, Major Nelson, who commanded in the rear, is reported to have said, “ I am sorry for you, but I cannot order you to fire on which the men in the rear faced round and poured a volley into the enemy. Their grog was stopped for this act of disobedience, but°an officer gave them their regular allowance. Five of our men were wounded—two

of them severely. 7s there a lower deep? An expedition was organised against the Ngatiruanui—l2oo men were to start south on the 9 ;li ipst. The latest intelligence from Auckland is to the 3rdinst. There had been carried in the house of -by-a-large majority, a series of resolutions moved by Mr. Fox, condemning the provisions of the bill that hail been introduced into Parliament for the government of the Natives by a Council ap-. pointed by the Home government. A meeting was held at Wellington last Thursday, at which a memorial to the Governor, urging a vigorous prosecution of the war, was proposed. There seems to have been great difference of opinion and at the conclusion of a long discussion, the confusion was so great, that the chairman could not put the resolution to the meeting.

In another column will be found the Despatch of Sir G. C. Lewis to which we adverted in last number, The refusal to grant the aid the Governor thought necessary in the pre-ent crisis lias caused general and great regret. The despatch is no doubt the deliberate deliverance of the Cabinet on his Excellency’s representations, and we fear that there is no great hope of such a missive being qualified by a second, thought, and the request being complied with which it refuses to grant. If anything can induce a change in the resolution come to, it will be the debate in the Assembly on the war question. From it the Home Government will see that his Excellency has brought on, and is alone responsible for the war and its continuance. Tnis they do not seem to have been aware of. For a curious discovery has been ma.de by Mr. Fox. He happened to. notice,, in the report of ■ the pro-, ceedings of the house of Ziprds, a speech by Earl Granville, iu which that nobleman states that his Excellency had reported, ‘ 4 that the difficulty of effecting a complete re-establish-ment of peace had been considerably increased by the hostility of the colonists towaids the natives, and their demand of blood for blood.” On information being asked on this point, Mr. Stafford denied, that any such despatch had been written;. but it was soon discovered that Lord Granville had not spoken without reason, and that a despatch of a most extraordinary character had been forwarded, covering extracts from newspapers, speeches, &c., in order to show that the desire of the colonists for war, for the purpose of seizing on the natives’ lands, was the cause of the Governor’s difficulties. This despatch had been produced, but not published, at the latest dates from Auckland. Its contents are said to be of a most startling character. It describes the colonists as actuated by the most sordid and sanguinary motives, and as violently inimical to the Maories. The settlers may well feel indignant at such a misrepresentation of their feelings and motives—“ Et tu Brute l ” And the Wanganui electors may be thankful that their representative refused to bind himself, in May last, to an approval of the Governor’s policy, which has turned out to be so tortuous, vacillating, and ruinous. Let us hope that when the Home Government is undeceived it may change its resolution, and give us the physical and mental aid that may be ( needed to terminate this unhappy war speedily and honorably.

So far as we can learn, the chief complaint made against our Superintendent and representative, Dr. Featherston and Mr. Fox, is, that in the General Assembly both have called in question the expediency, and one of them the justness of the present war at Taranaki. Neither has said, what some of their opponents are desirous they should be understood to have said, that the war should not be prosecuted to an honorable' termination. On the contrary, Mr. Fox declared, in his place in the house on the 16th August, that “ he disapproved of the grounds on which the Governor had plunged the colony into war but the war was a fact, and it was now virtually a war of self-defence; we had no prospect of safety but in its prosecution till King should lay down his arms and again, “ he felt bound to suppoitliis Excellency in maintaining British authority against King while in arms.” Dr. Featherston has also denied the inference which had been unreasonably drawn from his speech of the 7th August, that King should he allowed to have his own way. But it is said, —why discuss tbe question at all, wlien such a discussion must be mischievous ? The mischief that has as yet resulted from it requires to be proved. The natives (m this neighbourhood, at auy rate) were, at the commencement of the war and of the volunteer movement, more alarmed.;- than the Europeans. Senseless threats had been made that they were to be ,exterminated ; and had it not been, for- the assurances of Mr. Turton, who was then here, of the missionaries on the river, and of' other European residents on whom they could rely, they might have been driven to arms by sheer desperation. But the discussion in the house must have confirmed the assurance that all such, alarms were

groundless. If disaffection has since increased, it lias been caused, not by the debates in the General Assembly, but by the miserable ineffectiveness of the troops at Taranaki, /fnd it would appear, from the instructions to Colonel Gold laid on the table of the house, on the motion of Mr. Fox, that this ineffectiveness has beon owing in a great measure to the restrictions laid on the commander by the Governor—-who, while ostensibly determined to put down Amg by force, had, a few days before the memorial from this place expressive of approval of his policy was signed, actually instructed Mr. McLean to endeavour to “ make peace on definite terms.” It will be observed that this was within a few days after the engagement at Waireka, when, if the commander of the troops had been allowed to follow up. the success, the enemy, dispirited by the loss of so many of their chiefs, might have been effectually crushed. And it was not till the sth July, after the affa> .at /Faitara, that Colonel Gold was allowed to act on his own responsibility; not that he achieved anything brilliant when he had the power, but he might, if not fettered, have prevented the enormous destruction of property occasioned by the vacillation of the Governor—the humiliations to which the troops have been subjected—all those reverses which our arms have met-—and the probability of the increase of disaffection,. Indeed, it has only been since the Assembly met, and unanimously affirmed the necessity of vigorously prosecuting, the war (and none did so more explicitly than Mr. Fox)j that the Government has changed its do-nothing policy, and given full powers to the present commander to act against the enemy.