THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 640, 31 August 1869, Page 2

THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

(From the Argus.)

Ifc is now evident- that the Maori auxiliaries are not to be trusted, unless fortune favors the arms of the colonists, and it is equally evident that the colonial levies, however brave the men may be, are not sufficiently well trained and expert to be, unaided, a match for the enemy. "When a few paltry bands have given so much trouble, how will it be if their strength is swelled twenty-fold by a general insurrection ? Every Maori is a skilled warrior, but the colonists can only augument their present half disciplined forces by recruits pei-fectly new to the work. Quite true is it that the Royal regiments have not been organised for guerilla operations ; and it is an astonishing circumstance that the Horse Guards have not provided battalions in the British army suitable for such a purpose, like those which exist in the military system, of France. But

nevertheless the regiments of the line are disciplined soldiers and therefore to be depended on.. The can effectively punish; the XMaoriwhen he ventures outside" his forests; they can be employed without the help of native auxiliaries in the trying service of storming his formidable pas ; and in spite of their.-want of training as guerillas^ they have in former New Zealand campaigns rendered invaluable service in that way also. Not one of those former wars was, or could have been, brought to a close without them. It is no disparagenient to the local forces to say- so. The militia and volunteers co-operated admirably, but it was in their proper place, as a supplement to the men of the line. In the present struggle, the constabulary and volunteers have done; well also, but not well enough to insure success. The regular army is simply indispensible in New Zealand now, and if the serious character of this last. news he corroborated :by further advices, there is not a company in any of these colonies which ought not to be shipped forthwith to the seat of war. "We may reeollect that it required 10,000 British soldiers to put down the Maori insurrection of 1864,