Wellington Independent SATURDAY, JANUARY, 9, 1869!

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2782, 9 January 1869, Page 4

Wellington Independent

SATURDAY, JANUARY, 9, 1869!

"NOTHING EXTKNtJATE; NOB BBT DOWN AUOHT IN MALIOB."

"Of two evils choose the least." If two opposite and extreme courses are alone open for adoption, common prudence suggests that the one most objectionable should be rejected. It is now universally admitted that it is better to over-estimate than under-estiinate the enemy's strength ; but if strict accuracy were attainable, a true estimate of that strength would guard us from the evils which are inseparable from the adoption of either of the courses here indicated. A few months ago, Ministers would persist in under-estimating the strength of the enemy, and, consequently, the extent of the danger with which the colony was threatened. As a matter of course, the Opposition fell into the opposite extreme, ond the temporary successes achieved by the rebels stamped with the force of truth their wild predictions of disaster and ruin, and gave, at the same time, too much reason to fear that the gloomiest of their forebodings would be realised. lime has now moderated the views of both. • Ministers, wise after the event, now see that there was greater danger than they anticipated, and that the state of un preparedness in which it found them rendered it more formidable than it could have become had an opposite course been taken. The mea-

sures they have now adopted would, had they been taken earlier, have prevented j many of the evils which the outsettlers j have suffered, and which the colony at large will have for years to endure from their incapacity and want of foresight. The adoption of these measures at an earlier date would also have had the effect of taking the wind out of the sails of the Opposition, and have prevented those highly wrought statements of impending ruin from gaining the currency which they secured by the fact of their being endorsed by names of the highest reputation and authority. The Ministry's blind, silly, and obstinate persistence in underestimating the dangers which men best qualified to judge knew to be imminent, has been the cause of many of the evils we have lately had to deplore; and a plea of infatuation or imbecility is the only way by which they can righteously escape from being convicted on the charge of culpable negligence. The mischief which has been done is of a more intense character, and has a wider bearing, than would be at first imagined. In a political sense, the consequences are likely to prove most serious. Owing to the want of foresight in Ministers, and to the just grounds of apprehension on the part of the colonists which was the natural result, the strength of the enemy, the difficulties of the situation, the dangers to be encountered, the extent of the disaffection, the duration of the war, and the financial evils which will be occasioned, have all been greatly exaggerated ; and hence measures of such a violent character have been recommended, that under other circumstances would have been instantly scouted, while the faculty j itself has set about prescribing remedies of such an extreme character as could not fail, were they to be applied, to prove in their effects infinitely worse than the disease. "We think we shall be able to show that the dangers which beset the North Island have never been so great as [ the advocates for Imperial troops have represented, which Middle Island Separationists would like their dupes to believe, and which there was at one time reason to apprehend from the temporary successes of the rebels in arms. If we can do this we shall prove that the remedies which have been recommended are • unnecessary, and this will save us the trouble of entering into a discussion of their merits, or of pointing out the evils their application would be too likely to . engender. Even while we are writing and while the telegraphic news received from Napier of our successes in Poverty Bay is being set up, we are inserting in another part of the paper a letter from a Middle • Island, correspondent, predicting a suspension of the Constitution ; while the press at Auckland and Dunedin are cry- ' ing out for Imperial troops to put down ' a rebellion which either the commonest prudence might have averted, or which a small local force properly disciplined and led, could at the outset have suppressed. . Our Middle Island correspondent sup- , poses, that when the news of the Poverty Bay massacre reaches the English Gro- : vernment, that Parliament, which will then be sitting, will not only suspend the , Constitution Act, but send out a sufficient force to subdue the natives. We ; have no such anticipations, because the information which has already been laid before Parliament proves to demonstration that, if the colonists are only true to themselves, Imperial interference will not be required. In a despatch received at fche Colonial Office from Sir George Bowen, his Excellency states that, in the single province of Hawke's Bay, yearly ■ rentals, exceeding in the aggregate £26,000, paid by pastoral settlers, are divided annually amongst the Maoris. In the Wairarapa, a very large amount of money is paid annually as rent to the natives. At Turakina alone, on the West Coast, £4000 annually is paid to 1 Maori landlords. A considerable revenue from the fees paid by the miners on the northern goldfields is received by the natives in that locality. These facts are i well known to Parliament, perhaps better than they are to the Middle Island ; and Sir George Bowen informs the Colonial Minister that the friendly natives number some 10,000, while the actually hostile he sets down at 900 only. A paper, containing the following list of the aboriginal tribes, their number, and also their disposition towards the Europeans, has been laid before Parliament : — Rarawas (friendly) 2761 Ngapuhi (friendly) ... 5840 Ngafiwhatua (friendly) 709 Ngatimaru (parljyfrieridly, partly hostile . 3670 Ngaiterangi (partly friendly, partly hostile 1198 Waikato, partly friendly, partly hostile 2279 Ngatimaniapoto (all hostile) 2000 Ngatiawa (mostly friendly) 1293Taranaki (partly friendly) ... ... 400 Ngatiruanui (partly friendly) ... ... 750 Ngarauru (moatly returned rebels) ... 400 Wanganui (friendly) 1427 Ngatiapa (friendly) 325 Rangitana (friendly) ... ... ... 250 Muaupoko (friendly) ... ... ... 125 Ngatikahungunu (friondly) 2952 Te Arawa (friendly) 1951 Ngatiawa (most friendly at present) ... 659 Wakatohea (partly friendly, partly hostile) 573 Ngaitai — Whauau o Apanui ... ... ... — Te Urewera (in active rebellion) . . . 500 Ngatitiwharetoa (friendly) 500 Ngatiraukawa (partly friendly, partly hostile) 1071 Ngaifcawarero ... ... ... ... 3QO Rongowhakaata (partly friendly, partly hostile) 1000 Ngatiporou (partly friendly, partly hostile) 4500 37,307 | Southern Island — Ngaitahu and NgatiI mamoo 1500 38,897 There was too much reason at one time to anticipate that the Manawatu l land dispute would create a disturbance amongst the tribes in that locality which ■ would involve the settlers in the strife, i but apprehensions on this account have : now been to a great extent allayed, i while it should be borne in mind that the <

native chief who captured the Maori murderer at Otaki and surendered him to the constituted colonial authorities, is himself an avowed Hauhau, showing that even amongst natives who have been innoculated with that fanaticism, and at a time when a native insurrection is raging, a contempt for the sordid, cold-blooded murderer, is felt with some appreciation of the power and majesty of the law. There is no reason to believe that the number of hostile natives is greater than that given in the above list ; and, consequently, we have every right to assume that we can suppress the present rebellidn without the aid of Imperial troops, and that if we suppress it ourselves we shall convince the natives, friendly and hostile, that successful armed opposition to British authority is altogether hopeless. It is only the unhesitating and determined assertion of that authority which is required to put down and keep down native disturbances.