The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 364, 30 September 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1868.

IVany doubt had previously existed as to the Maori intentions, and as to the recent rising being merely preliminary to a general rebellion, the news to hand by telegraph, and published in another eWluiDTi, would effectuallyjset it at rest. The old vagabond, who assumes regal sway over the native race in the north island has, it appears, at length allowed Im subjects their own way, and having seen a vision, or in other words become a thorough convert to Hau-hau doctrines, bas announced . that next month he proposes driving all the Pakebas into the sea. It has taken his dusky majesty some time to make up his uihid in the matter. For many years he has been content to live coequal, in his own estimation, with Queen Victoria, and as long as he thought the English rule and the English power could reach him, he was at least civil, and professed friendship to the white man. Emboldened by recent victories over the hitherto comparatively invincible Pakeha, and flushed with the success of the rebel Maoris, the Maori regal representative has taken heart of grace, and now has ordered the extermination of our race. Friendly Maoris are, and always have been the white settlers' curse, and the late disastrous course of events has at least had the redeeming feature of discovering true friends and professed ones. There will not, and there must not be any more flour and sugar policy, but since the Maoris themselves have taken the initiative, let extermination be the order of the day, and let Exeter Hall tenets, for a time at least, be laid on the,shelf. Anything much more could scarcely be laid to the Maori account, but as far as p >ssible they appear anxious to render their total as heavy as possible. They have murdered our defenceless fellow countrymen in cold blood, they have killed unsuspecting men without warning, .and without provocation, they have eaten men of our race, they have vilely tortured the wounded, and have roasted them alive, whilst incapable of resistance, they have burnt our dwellings, ruined our settlers, been guilty of every breach of faith, and every atrocity that could be named, and surely, after all this, the measure of their iniquity is full. By way of a wind up, the King as he is termed, has had a vision, and has enjoined his people to expel us from the land. Truly the catalogue of Maori misdeeds is a long one, and surely the day of retribution ought to be at hand. Talk of pity or mercy in connection with such animals as these, it is just as well to speak of mercy in the tiger, or pity in the rattlesnake. As they have sowed, so should they, and so must they reap. Christianity has been flourished in their faces, good, but mistaken men have spent their lives in seeking their conversion, and the restilt has been temporarily partial succes, ending in murder, such men as poor Yolkner, sealing their own doom by trust in their so called converts. The only modes of influencing the native mind, are through fear, or cupidity. The latter has been tried and for a time was successful, the former has never been appealed to, save in such a manner as to leave an impression on the native mind that we were never in earnest. A native war of equal dimensions with that in which ten thousand troops were employed or unemployed rather is now forced on us, and with the warning of the past to guide us, we surely ought to be able to undertake it without difficulty and carry it out to the end. Shall it be said that the white race in this island has so far fallen as to be unable to hold their own with a scurvy lot of dark-skinned cannibals, that white men, oat-numbering them two to one, were murdered, and tortured, and plundered, and bore with their sufferings without retaliation. Such shame must never fall an New Zealand. Such reproach'

must never go forth to the older countries ; and now is the time if ever a time was, when [*■■ behoves the people of New Zealand to speak out on this subject, in such unmistakable language that their rulers can fully and clearly understand. There must be no half measures, no temporising, no mercy, no halting in the work, but a full determination to teach the rebel natives the power of the Pakeha, and till such a course is pursued, there will be no peace between the races, no real good feeling, and at any moment settlers' lives and properties must be in danger. We have offered the olive branch and have been met with derision and with scorn. If they knew that we were able and willing to punish crime, they would fear to provoke retribution, but all their past experience goes to show that, at any moment, whatever their offences may be, or may have been, they can procure easy absolution by professing repentance, giving up a rusty gun or two, and promising to behave better in the future. On the Government now devolves a very heavy responsibility, aud it is clearly their duty at whatever cost, to subjugate the native race once and for ever. The cost will be great, the task no easy one, but not a man in New Zealand who feels as a man should, but will willingly submit to sacrifices, in settling this great question for the last time. As things are, the colony has dribbled away thousands on thousands of pounds, have lost hundreds of valuable lives, with no result, and now we once more find ourselves fairly in for a serious Native war. Had prompt measures to punish been taken at first, this could have been avoided, now the only thing to be done, is to accept the difficulty, and carry it through without loss of time. As to the Maori potentate, his vision reminds us of a story, in which a Scotchman and a Yankee are said to have dreamt against each other, it being an understood thing, that they should fulfil each others dream as far as possible. A great deal of each other's property passed under this dreamy arrangement, but at last when the Scotchman dreamt that the Yankee made him a present of the clothes he stood up in, the latter gave in, admitting that the Caledonian dreamt too hard for him. Let us trust that the Government of New Zealand, may dream too hard for his Maori Majestay and his followers. We shall wait with no small impatience for the Executive to ventilate their Native policy.

Wo have been requested to draw attention to the sale to-day by Mr Munro, of some horses belonging to Messrs King and Cowley. An accident, which though at first sufficiently alarming, was fortunately unattended by any very serious results happened last night in Mr Sheahan's Hotel. The large chandelier ordinarily hanging in the centre of the dancing saloon, fell-with a great crash, and the floor was immediately all a-blaze with kerosine. By the prompt exertions of Mr Sheahan and others who assisted, an 1 a liberal use of wet blankets, the flames were quickly extinguished, and dancing was afterwards resumed as usual. Beyond the loss of the chandelier, which was a very valuable one, very little damage was done.