SELECTED ArTICLES.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1854, 11 April 1863, Page 7

SELECTED ArTICLES.

The Canterbury Press has now become a daily. Always noted for the talent of its leading articles, it has had many during the past month of more than ordinary ability. We reprint two or three of them.

TARANAKI.-GOVERNMENT BY POTTERING.

IFrom the Canterbury Press, Uth March,] We venture to assert that in the whole annals ofthe British Empire there cannot be found another instance of such, pitiful imbecility as that which the history of Taranaki affords. Is it credible that in a British Colony with a population of 100,000 souls, a militia incorporated under local acts of Parliament, volunteers who will fill the newspapers with their achievements, a standing army of 6000 or 7000 men, and ships of war hanging about the coasts,— in a colony not impoverished or languishing under an exhausted exchequer, but with a treasury absolutely bursting its bonds with wealth paid ungrudgingly by a prosperous community— is it conceivable that in submission to the will of a few half civilised, half fed, ill fed, ill armed tribes, of whom the whole race is not half as numerous as the settlers, and the whole of those in any way concerned in the affair, men, women, and children, do not Wonder more than 15,000!!!— is it possible that we have submitted now for neariy three years to see a large country conquered from the dominion of British law, its farms demolished, its settlers turned out and kept out, and the country held by a force in open hostility to British law? Is all thisjpossible ? It is absolutely incredible—yet it is true. The population of the Middle Island has no conception of trie cruelty practised on the Taranaki settlers. When the war commenced the men were enrolled in the Militia or Volunteers. They were then brought under martial law and placed at the disposal of the military authorities. This step was practically equivalent to unmanning and disarming them. Will our readers believe that numbers of those gallant men were compelled to witness ihe burning of treir own farms, night after night, the destruction of their crops, the slaughter of their flocks and herds by small bodies of Maoris whom a dozen or two of resolute men could have instantly driven away? and that they were compelled to witness these things in silent inaction, because, being under military discipline, the military authorities would not let them fight? We know onecrsein whic!« a volunteer saw, from the top of the block house where he was posted, 300 head of his own splendid sheep driven off by an old- woiran and a little boy (the boy within a few months was employed as a baker's boy in New Plymouth, and we believe is there still), and was prevented from going out to save his property by the military rule to which he was subjected. There are' numbers of similar instances. The military authorities would not fight. They were cooped j up like market fowls in the lines of New Plymouth for more than a year, and the countrywas ravaged and destroyed at will. The Tataraimaka block was not occupied by troops, and was occupied by the Maoris at the time hostilities came to an end. It has been so occupied ever since, and the settlers are still forbidden by martial law to go on their farms. Governor Gore Browne put an end to the war just when, if he had been originally right, he ought to have pursued it with the greatest vigor. When Sir George Grey came, he found Tataraimaka in the hands of the natives, and hostilities suspended, the Governor paralised and whimpering for more troops, ignorant that ii was not troops that were wanted, but the <*enius to use them. The new Governor naturally rented on his oars till he had mastered his position. But there is a limit to the period of contemplation, and there is a limit too to. human endurance. Sir G. Grey came tothe colony in September 1861 ; in June 1862 the Assembly met. In the next two months the uegradation of the colony had culminated. Fox, who was puvsuiug a distinct policy of reconciliation, was turned out of office before his policy could have i had time to work. The leaders on the other side refused to accept the Government, aud a Government of mediocrities was installed. Without the courage to proclaim the dominance of law at the cost of war, or the skill to induce its acceptance by conciliation, they drag on a paralised existence, filling up a space in the history of the governnient which will ever be recorded as the ne plus u'tra of governmental inertness. m But let us not be angry with them poor men. We live under a representative Government, and if tbat means anything, it means that those in power should represent the majority. And Domett and Bell aie the representatives of an

Assembly which formerly abandoned its functions, and relused to save the colony. Now during all this time the Taranaki settlers have received — now during two years — not one word of S3 m pathy or consolation or encouragement, they begin to despair. The Governor retains a reticence worthy of Louts Napoleon, Tbey write to Mr Domett, and he answered in such a strain as our readers may read in another column. The letter of the 6th December is a model of ihe circumlocutary how-not-to-do-it style. Mr Domett tells" the miserable settlers that he cannot answer their questions, because it is the Governor's business and not his. Is this serious or a farce ? Is there a Government at all ? If the Taranaki men have written to the wrong office why was not their letter sent to the Governor^, and why did not Mr Domett— who pi'ociired a vote of the Assembly which degraded him from being a Minister of the Crown to the position of a clerk to the Governor—why did he not write in the old style — " Sir, I am commanded by his Excellency the Governor to acquaint you," &c., &c. That would have been humiliating though business like ; tke business he has taken is equally humiliating, though business like. Then there is to be a body of settlers introduced. In the name of common sense why are settlers to be sent to a place when the settlers already there are kept as pensioners on Government bounty in the town. These Taranaki men say "we can't get on our farms, our population is kept idly in the town, our substance being wasted, we want simply to know if you are going to settle this Native question. If you can't, say so ; and we will go elsewhere. If you can, we will get to work again, only tell us how soon." And the answer they get is, v We cannot tell you when the Native difficulty will be got over, but we are going to send more colonists to you." The intimation is plain enough. The old fully of the pensioner villages is to be Jreenacted ; and men are to be sent out at the cost of £130 a man to colonise Taranaki, when we are importing immigrants at Canterbury at the rate of £o.

Restore confidence in the Natives and settlers will flock to Taranaki. Send pensioners without confidence, and you will ouly have a large military settlement, an enormous incubus on the resources ofthe Colony for mmy years to come.

It may be said the minister could not help himself. The Assembly put him into that position, and his hands are tied— yes, but who helped to lie them? Himself! He spokeand he voted for placing the minister in a position in which he could not act, and then he accepted the office which himself had made it a degradation lo hold. The opposition are amply avenged. He has brought the Government into utter contempt. Stafford fought— a miserable mistake— but at all events he had a policy and fought for it. Fox energetically negociated ; his conciliation was real and active. Domett neither fights nor negociates. Of all the adherents of the Stafford Ministry none was more violent. His was the loudest rattle iv the tail. He comes into office and the Government machine seems to stand still. To use the language of Grattan " In debate he is a hero, every sentence is a challenge. In tbe field he is a diplomatist." It may be said what has the Government done to call for this strong language ? % Simply nothing. That is the very charge. Six months have passed away einoo tlm * ccptv>v.ljt i-n...i.~»«r» and not one step, that we can see, has-been taken towards the solution of the difficulty. And yet, during all this time, a mountain of debt is accumulating, and a drain on the resources of the Colony is going on which is is fast creating revolution ; for the dismemberment of the Colony is revolution, and the disorganization fchich used to exist amongst the Maoris is spreading to the European population. Taranaki will endure reticence and the South will endure robbery no longer. There can be uo use in concealing the truth. The truth is Domett had a great work before him. He was called to the Governor's counsels to beal party feuds which were etnperilling the safety of the Colony. He had it in his power to do this great woik by uniting with Fox, and he would not do it. He preferred to stand alone. And the result is what every one expected. For some years Mr Domett was what used to be termed* the Government hack under Sir George Grey's old Government. On him fell a good deai of the unpopularity which the loug continued refusal to introduce a civilized form of Government brought on the Governor in those days. On the introduction of a constitution, Domett retreated into his shell. It is a remarkable fact that his ascent to power again was coincident with a great retreat towards the old irresponsible form of administration. When the Assembly virtually restored to tbe Governor arbitary power over tbree-fonrths of the Northern Island, the old official crawls out of his retreat, and basks again in the sunshine of Government House.

It may be pleaded '.that the present Government ought to be spared, because it is only a stop-gap Government. But unfortunately it is not the gap it stops, but the whole highway. We had a Government by force, then a Government by conciliation, now we have a Government by pottering.