The Evening Herald. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1869.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 510, 20 January 1869, Page 2

The Evening Herald. WEDNESDA Y, JANUARY 20, 1869.

The mildest form in which a militiaman can be treated does not render the pill of actual service less bitter. Militiamen have settled down in the conviction that the only glory they ■are likely to obtain is within the parapets of a redoubt. We can imagine' the martial spirit running /.so high that fighting would be preferred to selling tea and sugar, and the crack of the rifle be more pleasant to the ear than the rattle of the scales j hut we are unable to conceive an attraction or a pleasure in the mid-aay snore under canvas and within mud-walls, while trade is going to wreck and ruin, and families , have broken in upon the. last pound. The very officers consider it a drudgery and humiliating in the last degree to be penned up within the walls of a redoubt; but they do not object to training and exercise, and herein they differ from the men. One cause of this objection on the part of the latter is possibly the contemplation of what it is to end in ; hut more powerful causes still exist. We need not refer to the treatment '^he militia received at the outset, f^for the vulture has been turned into a scavenger, and that evil is at an end. The militia have a grievance so great that submission dare not be recommended by anyone who holds that the law should be paramount to expediency. All.autbority in matters pertaining to the militia in this district is..arbitrary and opposed to law. The Act-of 1858, including amendments of'6o and '62, is that under which the militia are said to be, and to which they have been held amenable, and this notwithstanding that the Act qflßfiswpeals all former militia ones. " But," says authority, " the old Act is in force until the new one is proclaimed." We remember when this startling proposition was once made in the Magistrate's court, a member of the legal profession looked exceedingly bewildered, and he has no doubt remained in the same state upon the subject ever sine If a case were taken to the Su vr/eme Court, arising out of some de ision under this act, the judges would go into the'question of constitutional law, and decide according to its dicta. Blackstone says, when a -act has received the royal assent, €>it is placed among the records of .the kingdom, there requiring no 'oibrmal* promulgation to give it the

force of a law ;" hence, if .such an act is law, that which it repeals cannot be law. It is true that an act need not be brought into force immediately it becomes law, for " the manner, time, and circumstances," says one of the commentators, "of putting those laws in execution, must frequently be left to the discretion of the executive magistrate." A militia act is not expected to be applied generally to New Zealand, and-hence the Governor has power to bring- it into operation in such parts as may require a militia force. The fact of the Act of 1865 not having- been proclaimed in Wano-anui, does not galvanise the old Act into life after it has received its quietus. "The Militia Act of 1858, the Militia Act Amendment 1860, and the Militia Act Amendment Act 1862, and all regulations- under the authority thereof respectively ' are hereby repealed ;" yet militiamen are occasionally , hunted -through their clauses. We have maintained that militiamen, as ; such, owe neither moral nor leg-al ; fealty to authority while the Act of 1865 remains a dead letter. It is necessary to know what the law is before a subject can render obedience; We siiggest to the militia authorities the advisability of re-questing-the Government to proclaim the new Act at once. We can assure them that militia matters will work twine as smoothly in consequence; for at present' there is a sense of wrong, which exhibits itself in evasion and resistance, that renders conciliation and leniency abortive. Whether we are right in our interpretation of the law or not, it should be a maxim, that the people have a right to the benefits of the most recent legislation. We shall on another occasion show wherein the new Act differs from the old.

Names op the Had-hatjs killed at MANUTAHr.— A Maori informs us that the names of the man and woman killed at Manutahi by the Wanganui Cavalry were Rota and Merinea. The man, our informant says, was a chief second in rank to Brown, and the woman was a relation ; not; as generally supposed, his ! wife. We commend these facts to the ' notice of Booth and all the white 3oris. I tISMOVAL OF WfSTMERB CaMP.—Col. Whitmore will move his quarters from Westmere to Kidd'sfarm to-morrow. His advanced post is on Moore's run. There cannot be any doubt but that Col. Whitmore has already formed the plan's of the campaign, which would be known only to himself and a few of his officersWe believe" that before a month the Maoris will he driven back from Nukumaru, with little loss of life on our side. At present we have a motley crew of 300 men, who have had very little drill, and have less discipline; and a great many more who want to see some fighting before they can be depended upon. The C ommanding Officer will have to bring these men against the enemy with the greatest caution at first, and the necessity of this must have forced itself upon Colonel Whitmore's attention, and' entered largely into his plans. We imagine the axe and spade will do some of the work.

Acclimatisation. — The Wellington Independent, in a recent issue, speaking of the English birds which arrived by the Wild Duck, says :—" The Provincial Government would not only be quite willing, but most happy to hand them over to an acclimatisation society, if Wellington could boast of having one ; or they would be willing to distribute them to settlers in different parts of the province if the applications they have received would render it possible for them to do so in a satisfactory manner, and without rendering themliable to a charge of favoritism. As neither of these courses are open to them, they have decided upon selling them by auction, with the stipulation that they are to be kept in the province by those who purchase them."—The Wellington Government, judging from the above, seem to have altogether ignored the Waniianui Acclimatisation Society,' and the efforts it has made for years pa6t

at a heavy expense and with much trouble, much in the same way that they have refused to hand over to the society the £250 voted two or three times for it by the Provincial Council. Failing to get any of the birds for the society any other way, Mr Harrison determined to buy them at auction for the society, which he did, no thanks to the Provincial Government. We understand the birds are all to be set free shortly, instead of being cooped in cages as the Wellington ones are, and -which -will cost the Government a good sum for the benefit of a few individuals. Too much praise cannot be accorded to our Acclimatisation Society for the prompt action taken by it. The Force engaged in the Siege op Ngatapa.—We take the following figures from a despatch of Col. Whitmore, showing the strength of the forces which triumphed over Te Kooti :— Officers. Men. No. 1 Armed Constabulary 3 64 £o. 3 „ 2 61 S 0- 6 » 2 55 g°- 7 ,i 3 62 No. 8 „ (Arawas) 1 60 Armed Constabulary, total 11 302 Ngatiporo . . 370 Plead-quarters, spies, scouts, Medical Department, &c. 5 6 Total .16 678