THE Evening Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1908, 17 June 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1869.

Whether Mr Pox’s no-confidence motion is carried or not, one great point will have been gained by it, —Mr Stafford’s w r ar policy has been in some degree enunciated. It would be unfair to both gentlemen to comment too fully upon their speeches upon the short telegraphic reports to hand. It is impossible, in the present expensive state of telegraphic communication, to do more than record the conclusions at which they have arrived. But without committing ourselves to anything unwarrantable, two points are self-evident: the Stafford Ministry are determined to prosecute the war, and also to retain office, at least until driven from it by the voice of the country. Perhaps the course of argument followed by Mr Stafford is only what might have been expected. He bad two difficult tasks, that of defending his Ministerial policy, and that of cajoling the South Island into supporting it. Accordingly, after smoothing over what required apology, he proceeded to hold a rod in terrorem over the discontented South, to prove to the Southern members that they had better continue to pay for wax’, for if they do not, they will have to bear the whole burden of the debt; that unless they pay, Hew Zealand will become bankrupt; that they are bound by the “ compact of 1856” \ and, lastly, that he was prepared with a scheme by which the North Island should repay the money when peace is permanently established, and when that island becomes rich. Truly, a very pleasant prospect for ns in Dunedin to look upon. There is in all this ample food for the consideration of the members of the Political Association, and it is just as well that this bare outline of future policy is disclosed, in order that speakers may see their way clearly in their addresses at the forthcoming public meeting. Without doubt, the crisis is sufficiently alarming; but when Mr Stafford’s past policy is considered, in the tortuous ways he has not hesitated adopt to secure bis purposes, much allowance must be made for the extravagar J assumptions involved in these propositions. It is, however, the first time that even a hint has been given as to the liability of the North Island to repay the war expenditure. Very probably Mr Stafford may have caught a glimmering of the justice of such an arrangement, through the resolutions arrived at by the Political Association of Otago; and it would be stopping short of exerting a very salutary influence on public affairs were not a most decided public expression given of unalterable determination that the North must pay its own special expenses, What Mr Stafford’s scheme may be, we, of course, cannot tell; but on the face of it there seems to be one objection: the South is expected to bear the liability on the faith of repayment at that indefinite period when permanent peace is secured—in other words, when the Maori race is nearly extinct. It would have been much more likely to meet Southern support, were it proposed to lay some special tax upon the North Island to meet the expenses of its own defence. There seems to be no good reason why this should not be done. Hitherto they have reaped the benefit of our expenditure. The merchants and tradesmen have in very rare instances been sufferers by hostilities. While the pastoral districts have been ravaged, and the outlying settlers exposed to outrage, the towns have invariably been either protected, or have been able to protect themselves. The consequence has been that the war has been more a source of profit to them than of loss or inconvenience. The withdrawal of the troops has in fact been followed by deadness of trade, and a languishing of those interests that had sprung up through their presence. Thus the larger portion of the European population are more interested in the continuance of war than in the maintenance of peace. War renders large contracts necessary. It employs numbers of artizans in the construction and repair of the material required for conducting it. The cost of the soldiery is nothing compared with that of camp followers and commissariat. Supplies of clothing, shoes, arias, ammunition, tents, food, means of transport, &c., are all sources of employment to thousands, who would otherwise he dependent upon the ordinary means of support for a livelihood. These with ordinary care incur little danger, and they are employed in the work of destruction —not of reproduction. All that they consume in waiting upon and supplying the soldiery is utterly wasted. It needs no argument to shew, that on the return of peace, when they and a large portion of the army are expected to settle down to useful employment, they will experience some difficulty in finding the particular groove fitted for their particular avocations. Hence the

improbability that there will be speedy cessation of hostilities; especially when added to this vast number of families living upon war expenditure, are the thousands of officials scattered over the country interested in the continuance of the Native difficulty. In courts of law, quarrelsome people are bound under a heavy penalty to keep the peace; and usually the liability to be mulcted for a breach of their bond has the desired effect. The experiment of - saddling tKe North. witlx tlift present expense of the war, would in all likelihood be followed by a like consequence. The scheme of punishing the natives by confiscating their lands has rendered war chronic, instead of putting an end to it. It was founded upon the idea that they were the chief offenders. But as there must always be two parties to a quarrel, and as in the instance under consideration there is a difficulty in determining who was the first to begin, it is scarcely fair that only one side should suffer. Mr Stafford states that the Middle Island is more interested than the North in the matter. We are curious to learn how. The discovery has the merit of novelty, and we should think must be on a par with King Charles’s theory, that fish placed in a bucket of water do not add to the weight. Like the member of the Royal Society, who answered His Majesty, “We take leave to doubt the truth of “ the proposition.”