A SOUTHERN VIEW OF NATIVE DIFFICULTIES.

West Coast Times, Issue 1009, 16 December 1868, Page 3

A SOUTHERN VIEW OF NATIVE DIFFICULTIES.

(From the Olago Witness.)

The time is fast approaching when the people of Otago must prepare for action with reference to the war now carried on in the North. "We cannot look on with the indifference of spectators while our fellowcolonists are subjected to the bitterest extremities. It is of no use to protest any longer against the policy of the General Government, or against our financial connection with the other Island. We are now committed to a war, the burdens and anxieties of which we cannot hope to escape. Duty requires of us that we should at once proceed to consider our responsibilities in the matter. The conviction is ilniVersal throughout the colony that at no time in its history has greater danger been imminent. The colonists are" left to themselves, and they have suddenly discovered jhat they are unable to protect themselves. The only aid that could be promptly effectual. is far away, and promises to remain so. The Imperial Government will not be readily induced to alter its declared policy with regard to New Zealand, and therefore it wouid be rash to rety upon any expectations of immediate assistance from it. Our reliance must be placed upon our own Government. With them the responsibisibility lests, and to their guidance we must trust, whatever may be the result. The people of Nelson expressed the feelings of right-minded men whin they declared that they earnestly and unanimously desired to afford moral and material support to the Government during the pre?ent emergency. The Government has a right to expect that support at the present tiir.c from all the colonist*, without regard to political opinion. Unless they receive it they alone cannot be held responsible for failure, for their power to suppress rebellion must depend entirely upon the means placed at their command. It is painful to observe | that a scurrilous section of the press ! should persist in vulgar denunciations of ■ the Ministry at such a time, as if nothing I more wa< at stake than the interests of a political party, j-lnough has bqen said and I done in the interests of. party during the i late session, and the public have no desire ' to listen to any repetition of hackneyed j phillippics. No one is likely to forget j that much of our recent misforj tune is owing to the impolicy of our rulers ; but set ing that they are our rulers, it is our duty to support them to the utmost in the present crisis. It ought not to be forgotten that the settlers in Hawke's Bay and Taranaki aie now lookj ing to their fellow-colonists for aid ; that \ among those settlers arc many who have been drive:i from their homes and reduced to acute distress ; that many have been wounded in battle, and many mere are likely to be so. The Government is not in a position to afford relief, except to a very limited extent. The people of the Southern provinces must come forward, j following the example set at Nelson, and I contribute according to their means. If ! we cannot send more than a ha'.dful of ! volunteers to the field of war, we can at j least as-ist in the relief of suffering and ; the mitigation of calamity. We can give the Government some assurance of our desire to afford fucli moral and material support as may be in our power to afford. And we may thus escape the reproach — which otherwise must be incurred — of heartless indifference to the troubles of our fellow-colonists.

The position of His Excellency the Governor must be painful. A stranger to the Colony over which he has been called to govern, inexperienced in tlie management of savage tribes and unskilled in the art of war, he has a heavy burden of responsibility to bear. Perhaps it is well for him that he is thus compelled to rely entirely upon his responsible advisers, instead of being compelled to follow in

the thorny footsteps of his predecessor. The experience of Sir George Grey can be no encouragement to Sir George Bowen: yet no Governor of the day could be pronounced more highly qualified for his position than the former. The greatest service which Sir George Bowen can render the Colony in its present troubles .will be the transmission home of such despatches as may lead the Imperial Government to re- consider its policy towards this Colony. Lite representations of the real state of affairs— of the threatening progress of the rebellion —the inefficiency of the colonial forces— the general depression throughout all classes — and the successive disasters nlready endured, can hardly fail to lead to a reconsideration of <he case. Such despatches, accompanied as they should be by an address of both Houses of the Legislature, would dispel the delusion under which tlie people, the Press; aftd the Parliament of the mother country are apparently laboring. The Council, in preparing the address to Her Majesty which appeared in this journal on Tuesday last, did good service. The statement of facts, and the arguments founded upon them are equally clear and cogent. It would be difficult to dispute the facts, and not easy to refute tlie argument. So long as Her Majesty's advisers believe that the colonists of New Zealand rush into theso wars heedlessly, and that they are fully capable of settling them without assistance, so long will they continue to disregard our petitions. Should the Imperial Government undertake to suppress the present rebellion, the experience of the last war will no doubt determine it to adopt a different means of suppression. That Her Majesty's regiments, trained to meet armies, in the open field, are placed at a disadvantage in dealing with Maori rebels, is obvious enough. That this disadvantage is so great as to lead to most unsatisfactory results, has been amply proved. The troops required to bring a New Zealand war to a successful issue must be specially adapted for the work. Such troops it is in the power of the Imperial. Government to obtain. Until they are obtained, and brought to bear upon the Maori. 1 ?, we must expect a state of chronic hostility endingonly with the race itself.