IMPERIAL AID IN THE NATIVE WAR.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 425, 10 December 1868, Page 2

IMPERIAL AID IN THE NATIVE WAR.

Sir David Monro, in a letter which appears in the Nelson papers, suggests that Imperial aid should be petitioned for in the present crisis. He shows that the policy of self-reliance was never adopted by the Colony, and he continues. :

My idea is to memorialise the Queen ; I would set before her the present ; position of the colour. I would point out to her the dangers that threaten us, and I would tell her of the awful atrocities that have been committed. I would tell her what we have done to endeavour to fulfil the task that was imposed upon us. I would represent to her that the difficulty is too great for us, unaided, to cope" with ; and I would ask her to extend to us'the assistance and protection which her subjects in every portion of the Empire have a right to claim. But I would on no account invite a repetition of the proceedings of three or four years bade, or a secon-l conflict between the Imperial and Colonial authorities. If we are to receive assistance from Imperial troops, it is unreasonable to suppose that these troops shall be under the orders of the colony. There' must be no division of responsibility a second time. Let one party take the undivided management; and as it can be none other but the Imperial Government, let the entire control be centred there. We, of course, must bear our share of 'the cost of the necessary operations. \V e cannot expect to receive the services of soldiers raised and paid by the British taxpayer without paying some reasonable contribution towards the expenses of the force. I would advise the colony to be liberal in its arrangements in this respect, and to be prepared to pay a good round sum. It will be the cheapest and best thing it can do: and if the colony pays liberally the British people who grumble at present, will become reconciled to the employment of their troops. But the colony should have nothing to do with the conduct of the military operations, or the policy to be pursued towards the natives. Its liability should be considered as fulfilled when it had paid a stipulated sum of money. New Zealand, at all events, under this system, would know the ultimatum of its liability. Under its own management, and with our existing form of government, the liability is utterly indefinite, with every probability of its involving us in national bankruptcy.

A rope-walk is obout to be established < at Wattle Flat, Castlemaine, Victoria, an which New Zealand flax will be the sole material employed.