Wellington Independent "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1869.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2896, 30 September 1869, Page 2

Wellington Independent "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1869.

" Demilitarize the forces" is a phrase which, during the last session of the Assembly, met with much harmless ridicule from a defeated Ministry. They professed an inability to understand the expression. The word demilitarize certainly is an uncommon one, and a somewhat complicated compound, but it may well be taken as the password of the present Ministry. It also suggests the strongest possible contrast to the defence policy of their predecessors. To " militarize" we take as meaning simply to aim at or to affect the status of a regular army, an effort which, in the case of New Zealand, forcibly reminds us of the frog in the fable. In both cases the attempt to emulate the superior dimensions of the envied model resulted in the same ignominious failure. By " demilitarizing the forces" we understand the reducing our pretensions to the level of our means, and the ceasing to assume a position which the present necessities of the colony do not allow us to " maintain. At the time the word we have taken as our text waa coined, nothing could have come nearer to theHoratian simile for complete incongruity than did the army of New Zealand. The magnificent forefront of staff officers, lieut.-colonels, et id genus omne, joined to a following which so notoriously failed to fulfil any of the conditions entitling it to rank as a permanent force, was not a less inharmonious conjunction than the bust of a Venus attached to the scaly continuation of a fish's tail. The late Ministry seemed well aware of the importance attaching to a name ; but, unfortunately, having secured the name, they neglected everything elso. Under the plea of " economy" they brought the colony to the verge of bankruptcy. " Self-reliance," interpreted by their acts, meant the entire abandonment of necessary self-protection And when it was proposed to take away from a force lacking both organization and permanency, a name which implies the highest perfection of both those qualities, the proposal was met with a sneer at those who ventured to break through the flimsy disguise of a high-sounding name and expose the rottenness which it covered. That the colony requires a permanent force for internal defence has been proved beyond dispute by the events of the last three years ; that the force employed should certainly not be a military one, is made evident by the following definition given by Colonel Whitmore : — " The great distinction between a constabulary and a military force ia this : that in the constabulary men are liable to be discharged for unfitness and inefficiency, whereas in a military force a man, no matter how indifferent he may be, if he comes up to the standard of height and has a limited amount of intelligence, must serve out his whole time, and the regiment cannot get rid of him unless he commits a very much more considerable offence than would be necessary to ensure his dismissal from a constabulary force." But although the present Ministers are fortified by every argument which common sense can urge, and by the very strong expression of the General Assembly in favor of reorganizing the Colonial Force on the model of the Irish Constabulary : although they have secured the services of as good a man as the Australian Colonies can produce to assist them in the work, the task before them is by no means easy. The present incongruous mass has to be disposed of by a process of careful selection. Such men as are not qualified for the new force will have to be discharged, as soon as their services can be safely dispensed with, and when thetimeofenlistinentexpires.The disaffection of such men as are conscious of their inability to come up to the new standard, must be expected, and may require to be met at a time when cordial cooperation may be essential to the success of some important movement against the enemy. The demilitarizing of the officers, by stripping them of their titles, is an unenviable task, and still more so the selection from the many of those few who will be required in the reduced force. In fact a change of the entire front has to be made in the face of the enemy without at any point weakening the position. But the greatest difficulty will arise from the want of confidence in the permanency of the new force. The wholesale system of enlistment, and the equally wholesale dismissal of men which has been going on for the last year, has created a feeling of distrust which is prevalent over the whole Australasian Colonies, and prevents many men of character from joining a New Zealand corps. The work which the Government has to perform is thus one of extreme difficulty, entailing also far more expense than the maintenance of the necessary permanent force. It will be interesting to inquire what steps the Government are taking to accomplish that which they have been bold enough to take iv hand, and how far the promise of economy in defence expenditure is likely to be realised. We find from Return (a.) furnished by the Defence Office that on the 15th June, 1869, (ten days before the House affirmed its want of confidence in the Stafford Ministry), the colonial troops on pay numbered 2827. Ou the 16th September, or twelve days after the close of the session, the numbers had been reduced to 1861, being a diminution of more than one-third. A most important financial change has also been effected by the Defence Minister, iu striking the majority of the native allies off consecutive pay, and subsidising the results of their operations instead. Whether the reduction of numbers and the large saving effected has been attended with any loss of efficiency we may confidently appeal to present events at the Front to shew. Up to this time no very

considerable effort has been made to enlist men for the new force. This seems : to be owing to several causes The prisoners on the hulk have occupied much of the time of the Defence Department. Information has had to be col- , lected and plans carefully matured. The Government has also been prevented from taking posession of the Mount Cook Barracks as a training dep6t for the recruits. Now that these several obstacles are removed, there will probably be no further delay. As far as we can ' gather, the great principle which the Go"j vernment seek now' to assert in their future enlistments is to make the quality [ of the force a substitute for larger num- \ bers. A high standard is expected to be attained by the selection of men of physical strength and high moral character ; [ by careful training for the peculiar work in which they are likely to be engaged ; and hj arming them with the most effective weapons that modern invention i can supply. To secure the power of selection sought to be exercised, it is , proposed to give an increased pay to all ranks, so that the ordinary rate of work- [ men's wages shall offer to the trained private no temptation to leave his corps. . As an incentive to every man to perfect I himself in the duties of his profession, it ' is proposed that all officers shall be ap- , pointed from the ranks. The intention is, we believe, to establish posts along the 'frontier of possible aggression and to organise a complete network of patrols I throughout the whole line of outposts ; an i " intelligence department," so to speak, by which reliable information of all that is going on affecting the peace of the colony will be at once communicated to head-quarters. The publication of the regulations of the new force will be looked for with great interest, especially by such men now in the Government service as are ' anxious to exchange their present uncertain position for permanent employment under the new regime. To our mind, the employment of exceptional men such as 1 the force will be composed of if the proposed standard of physical and moral fitness is able to be maintained, will have a most beneficial effect on the native mind. Hitherto, we fear the contact with i our levies during the past year has not tended to raise the Maori estimate of the European as a fighting man. But with a force, the average of which shall be \ physically superior to the best men \ among the natives, and the character of whose members will command respect, ' our prestige will be recovered. If, indeed, the present Government is allowed to carry out its expressed intentions in the matter of defence, to it will be accorded the merit of educating the colony up to the true principle of self-reliance which Mr Weld suggested ; but which neither he, nor his succesI sors in office, succeeded in putting into practice, though they largely made use of ' the terra a 9 a party cry. The self-reliance ? of the Stafford Ministry led us to the verge of bankruptcy and absolute dependence. The self-reliant policy which asserts itself ' in act though it does not offensively obtrude the name will yet effect the salvation of the colony. It is no abdication of a self-reliant policy to ask to be allowed to hire a ready made force from the ' mother country while we are engaged in organising our own. It is no disgrace \ for those who have always exclaimed against leaving the colony without a per- ? manent means of defence, to accept assistance if offered to enable us to overcome those difficulties in which New Zealand has been involved by the soi-disant ' advocates of self-reliance. \ (a) COLONIAL FORCES. 2* >> 2 g Jlii Is I -d ; 6 sg g § 5 On pay June 15, 1869 1342 767 757 2827 , „ Sept. 16, 1869 1006 413 478 1861 Decrease in Forces since 15th June last 336 354 279 966 [ Happily it is seldom that the journalist is called upon to record so terrible a series ' of tales of horror as it has fallen to our lot v to chronicle during the past few days. | The suicide of the criminal Wi Tamararo ( crowns the whole, aud adds an additional horror to the scenes of cruelty and crime . which have been brought out in evidence \ before the Supreme Court during the [ various Maori trials which have taken ? place. The determined suicide of the convict is characteristic of that supreme indifference to death which eminently distinguishes the Maori under certain cir- ? cuvnstances. This indifference is simply the carelessness of the fatalist, and \ the result of ignorance and that absence of any belief in a future beyond this life, on which fanaticism works, and excites to the commission of the most horrible crimes. Wi Tamararo is, we fear, the type of a very large class of Maoris, in Avhom there is no counter- ; balancinginfluence to overcome the savage [ propensities of the animal man when once his passions are fairly aroused. Wi Tamararo's death is an apt conclusion to his life of violence, and hopeless as we are of any sign of repentance for their crimes being shewn by such a brutal savage, we cannot pretend to any feeling of grief that this wholesale murderer of our fel-low-countrymen, and of helpless women and children, has seen fit to rid himself of a life which has been so terribly misused.