THE Wellington Independent. Tuesday, April 16, 1861. THE PROPOSALS FOR PEACE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1514, 16 April 1861, Page 2

THE Wellington Independent. Tuesday, April 16, 1861. THE PROPOSALS FOR PEACE.

The intelligence from Taranaki published in our Friday's issue must have greatly surprised our readers. Previously aware that a cessation of hostilities had taken place with a view to peace, the public here generally supposed that ( this hopeful state of things had been consequent on our gaining possession of | the Te Arei pa, either at the point of the bayonet or without resistance. : Peace usually takes places after a severe engagement has determined the relative superiority of the forces engaged, or after some key, some important position, has been abandoned, giving the one ,an advantage against which the:othei; s;ee^ it almost hopeless to contend. -We ;had : long known how closely the had worked up to the pa and, were prepared to hear that Te Arei had been gallantly taken a la Mahoetahi, or that it had been evacuated by the Natives at the last moment, as so many had been before. The year's fighting hais left us so little of advantage, if indeed it has left us any, tliat the impression had not unreasonably taken possession of the public mind that we now stood in a far worse position in the Natives estimation than we did at the commencement, and that until this lost prestige was regained by repeated victories, no peace could possibly be proposed or at any rate nothing but a hollow one. Our surprise was therefore naturally great, when we heard that no engagement had taken place at Te Arei — ' that it was still in the enemys hands, — yet that peace was virtually restored. Peace is, however, such an invaluable blessing, that we cannot do otherwise than feel heartily rejoiced and thank God at there being a prospect of its being restored to us, which, though by a means different to the one we had expected, is held to be a strictly honorable one amongst civilized nations — the mediation of a third party. Whatever want of success may have fallen to our arms at Waitara, it seems certain that the prevalent feeling among the Natives is that they have had enough of it. Their food is still plentiful, and their supplies of ammunition is still large; but while they see their numbers lessening and ours increasing, they feel something of the hopelessness of the struggle and wish it at an end. Under these circumstances Thompson of Waikato, proceeds to Waitara, and proposes terms bf peace. This Thompson is a man of great influence in Waikato. He was the originator of the King Movement, and, his mediation ought we think to be ' looked upon as one of the most hopeful signs of the earnest desire of the Natives to live in honourable peace — we say honourable peace, because the war is in the estimation of Natives as much a war of Rights to them, as in our estimation it ever was to us. They withstood the Governor rather than land should be taken from them, which they affirmed they had not sold; the ' Governor attached them because he would not abandon land which he then honestly believed he had fairly purchased — thus Thompson declares, while in the act of mediating, that he will ever be ready to take up' arms when necessary to prevent the seizure of Native land. What terms Thompson proposed we do not know; theywerehowevcrinadmissable. Through

Mr. McLean, tlio Governor (then at Auckland) made counter proposals. What these were we do not know. ; but they had the effect of causing the Waikato allies of WiJKingi to. wend their wi*y horaewarjls'the next morning, and tne Southern .tribes to retreat to Kaihihi. A few days afterwards the Governor, accompanied b&hadvisers of -both races, arrived to ratjfy -the cabalistic intimations of Mr. McLean, and conferred with I representatives from the two tribes who I had opposed us at Waitara — the exclusion of the Southern tribes leading I to the inference that they were to have no voice in the matter. The result of I this conference is the " terras offered by | the Governor to the Waitar a Insurgents," which we published in our last. As we are in perfect ignorance of the intentions of His Excellency as a whole; utterly in the dark as tb the conditions under which the enemy dispersed ; we are in no position to understand the v Terms to the Ngatiawa," which have been made public. Professor Owen coiild developer the structure of the Moa from an examination of a thigh bone; but a much cleverer professor would fail in unfolding the conditions' intended to form the basis of peace from the i Terms' before us. We do hoioever know from them, that the justice of the stand taken by the Martin■Featherston School is nolo admitted by the Governor. His Excellency now shows himself fully alive to the defective title he possesses to the land in dispute, and makes, in the very first condition, a stipidation that the title shall be investigated. It. is said that some favorable terms will be made with Waikato in reference -fco the King Movement, and that war"'* will be continued with the Southern rebels unless they are content to give up the murderers to jnstice — but of this we have no official information. Taking them only as a part of a whole, the " terms " of peace may be supposed to present a different aspect to what they would do if they merely stood alone ; 1 but in neither aspect do they come., up to the expectations in which we had been led to indulge. Thia is generally the case everywhere, and as in all our New Zealand wars our terms of peace have ever been of the mildest character, wo I can scarcely feel surprised that Hi 3 Excellency, with a rotten foundation, should show himself glad to get out of the war the best way he can. While we take as favorable a view of the proposals for peace as we possibly can, we distinctly guard ourselves from, being deemed their advocate. In „iact we have at present so little linfprfiaition, that we can arrive at tao;' .satisfactory opinion on so important^ matter until further particulars r each us.