THE Evening Star. THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1932, 15 July 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1869.

So far as we can gathe ■ from the telcgniphic intimation of the reply of the Colonial Secretary to Mr Stafford, the Home Government is determined to drive a hard bargain if New Zealand is to have the assistance of English troops. It does not appear that the late premier urged the necessity of immediate assistance. He has only asked on what terms the aid of Imperial troops could be had, and were their presence absolutely essential to the protection of life and property in the North Island, before the haggling of the British and Colonial Governments had been brought to a conclusion there might he neither to protect. New Zealand evidently is considered able to take care of its own affairs. The people at home cannot be brought to see the true relation between the Maories in the North Island and the colonists. They talk as if all the people of New Zealand were gathered into one spot, and had nothing to do but to march out and meet a few hundred savages in the field and defeat them. But the richest portion of Earl Granville’s recommendation is that a peaceful solution of the difficulty is advisable. He seems to imagine these island savages a nation having a common object, and acting under the direction of a Government. He does not appear to look upon them as marauding bands seeking only plunder and murder. There must have been passing over his Lordship’s mind at the time visions of Hags of hhuce, messengers bearing terms of passing between hostile Governand lastly, an assembly of plesitting in conclave on prescribing conwhich both sides will cease and henceforth live in love with each other. He does to remember that in order peace by treaty, both sides something to lose by a of it. Between civilised nations dreadful calamity to each. It ■■ ruin upon hundreds of thouand mourning to most families. battle brings death to tens of

thousands, and maims and disables tens of thousands move. There is therefore some sort of guarantee that a treaty once entered into will at any rate be decently observed until the memory of suffering has faded away and fresh occasions of discord arise. Both sides, for a time at any rate feel it their interest to keep the peace. But in New Zealand all the loss is on one side. The savage is easily armed and needs no equipment. He moves his forces about from place to place with celerity. He needs no commissariat, for even in the worst circumstances he knows how to convert the indigenous products of the soil into food. He needs no force to keep open his line of communication with his rear, for should he be worsted in his raid, he has but to fall back, and finds tribes in the interior ready to feed, shelter, and support him. Defeated at one point, his forces are soon again gathered together, and before his opponents can make the detour necessary to protect a threatened district he can make his descent there. With such a foe, what treaty of peace can be binding! The savage ha.s aristocratic notions too —he does not like work. He had rather swagger about with arms in his hanos than settle down to peaceful industry. No doubt there are notable exceptions to this rule amongst the Maoris, but their primeval habits are not sufficiently changed to bind them to that persistent effort to secure a future good that characterises the industry of civilized man. Wherever this is absent, war is not felt to be a calamity but a gain ; for it is easier to take that which another possesses than to earn or create it. Herein is one great obstacle to a peaceful solution of the Maori difficulty. But there is another that more immediately concerns the Middle Island, V Whatever may be asserted to the contrary, the North Island settlers are not generally interested in the establishment of peace. Whenever and wherever the war has approached their dwellings, they have felt anxiety and alarm. But none of the larger towns are in reality in serious danger, so long as the people are true to themselves. Mr Stafford truly said the majority of the people in the North Island dwell as securely as those of the Middle Island. The real losers by the Avar are the inhabitants of the Middle Island. They are the most deeply interested in the “ peaceful so- “ lution of the difficulty." So long as they can be compelled to pay toAvards the prosecution of the Avar, so long Avill they be made to do so for the sake of the Military, Commissariat, Defence, and Native departments. ,We have before slioavu hoAV intimately all these departments are mixed up Avith the social arrangvments of the people of the North, and if a feAV roads can be opened up, asserted to be purely for defensive purposes, their interest Avill be still deeper. There are those Avho Avould term these views ungenerous, and be ready to condemn them as selfish. We honor their hearts, and sympathise Avith their feelings ; but Ave cannot applaud their judgment. In our mind those are selfish avlio, Avithout the slightest prospect of returning that Avhich is advanced, continue to draAv upon the earnings of those avlio labor hard and earnestly, in order to maintain themselves in a position into Avhich they need not have plunged, and by retiring from Avhich, they Avould better themselves, and relieve their benefactors.