DOUBLE GOVERNMENT.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2782, 9 January 1869, Page 6

DOUBLE GOVERNMENT.

[From, tho Canterbury Piiess.] One most weighty objection to tho employment of regular troops in New Zealand was stated by Mr FitzGerald iv his letter to the Wellington Independent, thafc it would lead to a total separation between the civil and military power. The colony would have to pay for the soldiers, but it is much mistaken if it expects to be able to exercise any control over them. The General iv command, whoever he might bo, would refuse as positively as General Cameron did to be subject to instructions from the colonial authorities. After tho usual fashion of military men in all

/ parts of the world, he would regard himself las responsible to none else than his own I ultimate headquarters, the War Office at home, and would take orders from no other qu irter. He would be no subordinate officer, executing the will of the colony, as expressed by the General Assembly, under directions from the Colonial Government ; bufc an independent ally, acting under obedience to his own official superiors, looking to them only for praise or blame of his conduct, irresponsible to any local authority, and probably — which is not likely to make his relations with, the colony any smoother — entertaining a profound contempt, and taking little pains to disguise it, for those he was sent to aid. From such helpers no good can come. We in New Zealand know only too well what has been the result before, and we may be quite sure that similar causes will produce a repetition of similar effects The Commander of the British troops would persist in carrying on operations in his own way, which from his entire ignorance of the natives would in all probability be a course the least in the world calculated to bring about what the colony desires — the pacification of the country. He would listen to no suggestions from his excellency's advisers. He would harry the lauds of friend and foe alike, as General Chute did on his march to Taranaki, sublimely indiffierent to the lo».d of future difficulties he was thereby entailing on the Colonial Government. The colony bearing all tho cost of the war, would yet have no control over it, no matter how tardily, how expensively, or how ineffectively it was being conducted. Remonstrances and protests would lead, only to a renewal of the | old quarrels, ending very likely in the troops being reduced, as they were in 1865. to a I state of sulky inaction, and to a copious outporing in despatches and private letters of the sneers, inuendos, and scandalous charges against; the colonists in which the officers of her Majesty's forces, from General Cameron downwards, indulged so freely when they were last serving in New Zealand. Nor must itbe forgotten thafc this assumption of independence by- the commander of the troops would be supported, not directly perhaps but virtually, by the English Government. If England consents to send her soldiers to fight the battles, of the New Zealand colonists it will be only- on her own terms. If she undertakes their defence, she will defend them not as they wish, but as she chooses. She will take ft as a matter of course that military operations shall be carried on, not at the discretion of the Colonial Government, but at thafc of her own representative ; and her representative for such a purpose will be, not the Governor of the colon} 7 , but the officer sent out in command of the troops. Nor will the matter end there. Not only will England interfere in military affairs, bufc in the whole policy of the colony towards the natives. That English soldiers are engaged will be to the Secretary for the Colonies quite sufficient to justify him in claiming a right to express an authoritative opinion on all native questions. Wherever, he will argue, a quarrel is settled by the intervention of British bayonets, the Imperial Government must take on itself to decide how the troops are to be employed, and must be referred to on all questions that have led, or may hereafter lead, to their services being required. And thus will be reintroduced the p.rnicious system of double trovernment, under the evils of which New Zealand has suffered so grievously.