The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1869.

Dunstan Times, Issue 363, 9 April 1869, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1869.

Beneath the Buie of lion estirelv just the PEN is mightier than thcswor.n

The series of disasters which are continually reaching us from the North is satisfactory evidence that the policy of self-reliance may he very good, so far as theory is concerned, but correspondingly bad when reduced to practice. It is impossible that the Colony can suppress the Maori rebellion unless aided by the Imperial Government. We only number '250,000 colonists in New Zealand, and it is not only a physical but pecuniary impassibility for so small a community ol people to carry on a war of such magnitude as the present, and which may possibly extend over a series of years, or till one party or the other is exterminated. We have a cruel and cunning enemy to deal with, one who looks upon war as the chief duty of his life and with whom it is a profession. The Maori in his mountain fastnesses is a dangerous and difficult foe, he is inured to hardships, and requircs no expensive and cumbrous commissariat to sustain himself in the held ; with a few baskets if potatoes he is fully provisioned, and ho can even dispense with them upon an emergency, while he fights with the enthusiasm of a fanatic, which in every sense of the word he is. His knowledge of the country sets all recognised military tactics at defiance, and to attack him successfully in his lair requires that onr soldiers should have a special training for the purpose, so far, the Colonial forces employed against the enemy have done well, but, unfortunately every victory or success we gain, ousts us so dearly that ere we exterminate the Maori, we shall be well nigh exterminated

ourselves, or at least so far, as the People of the North Island is concerned. There is every probability ere long, of tribes now friendly to us, becoming our enemies, we cannot cal" dilate upon loyalty from savages; all our experience of the Maori character only leads to the conclusion that those who are, or profess to be our friends, are only so as a matter of mere convenience, they may then turn round any time and sting the hand that succours them, they are quite as likely to “ tomahawk ” us on the morrow as fight upon our side, and any dependence placed upon friendly tribes is extremely precarious.

Great Britain with its immense wealth, its large standing army, immense navy, and wbokeepsher cruisers continually roaming the seas to protect the trade of her merchant princes is, failing in her duty when she abandons a small section of her subjects to the murderous knife of the savage. It is Imperial policy to protect life and property everywhere else save in New Zealand ; had the same atrocities been perpetrated elsewhere, even in the most remote corner of the earth, ample reparation would have been demanded, or the strength of the nation put forth to avenge the lives of its subjects The French seem to manage these things better than we do ; there is no :■liilly-shallying about them, or mock sympathy either, when they inflict punishment upon savages, they do so promptly and decisively. The New Caledonian Moniteur of the 24th January last, after giving an account of the murder of four Europeans and a loyal native, who it, appears were all treated in a similar manner to many of our countrymen, who fell by the tomahawk of the Hauhaus, namely, cooked and eaten, say-s fifteen natives belonging to the village where the murders were perpetrated, wei’e instantly seized and decapitated in the presence of the entire population, and further murders being committed, ten more natives wore executed.

"Without approving of extreme

measures, there seems however no al

tentative, but that we must deal with the savage, after the manner of a

savage, a lenient punishment is of no avail, it is useless to show morev

where mercy is not appreciated, and there is no hope of our ever being at

pence with the turbulent abovigits.il race of Now Zealand, until they are practically stamped out of existence. The murders of our countrymen in the North Island cry aloud for vengeance. The war must bo prosecuted with re newed vigor, and Imperial aid must come to the rescue of its subjects, as well as remove the stain the national ho or lias suffered, by the mivbt of the natio being set at nought and defied by a mere handful of naked savages. The Government of the United States of America keep compa ies of soldiers trained to a guerilla system of warfare purposely for the protection of its subjects, against the aggressions of the tribes of Indians infesting the Far West, and a similar course must bo adopted by England in our ease. We are an integral part of the British Empire, and our lives

and the lives of our little ones should find equrl protection in New Zealand as in any other portion of Tier Majesty's dominions.