THE Evening Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2008, 12 October 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1869.

From the tone of the debates in the Houses of Parliament at Horae, we in New Zealand may apparently make up our minds that the Imperial Government will give no help in the Maori war. It seems quite a determined and settled purpose, that not only this, but every other Colony, shall bear its own burdens. It is idle now to indulge in vituperations against this course. The stand-point from which we view the circumstances, differs materially from that from which they look at us at Home, They appear to ask themselves the question, that they will not allow the Middle Island to ask, Why should we be taxed for the benefit of settlers, who for their own personal gain, have •chosen- to encounter the risk and danger of dwelling among savage and blood-

thirsty tribes'? Bat the Middle Island has much greater reason to deny the responsibility of defending those venturous settlers than Great Britain. Granted that in the first instance colonization took place without the aid and without the sanction of the Mother Country, when once it becahae apparent that advantage was likely to be derived from acknowledging New Zealand a British Colony, the meddling of the Colonial Office laid the foundation of those difficulties, in which, since that time we have been involved. There has been far too much romance mixed up with colonizing operations in these islands. Theories have been broached, humane, and philanthropic, which have had to succumb to the stern logic of facts. One of the pet ideas of a large section of English people was that of civilising and preserving the aboriginal race. They saw in them higher qualities than usually inhere in other untutored people, and formed the notion that they were capable of a cultus that would place them on an equality with Britons. No doubt it was “ dis- “ tance that lent enchantment to the « view.” At the very time that they were forming these benevolent theories for the benefit of distant tribes, a large mass of their own flesh and blood were living at their own very doors uneducated, half-fed, uncared for. But there was something novel in the idea of saving those ‘‘ noble savages ” from the contamination of civilized emigrants } and so instead of allowing colonization to take its course, and settlement to be worked out by the only natural process, the Home Government proceeded to throw impediments in the way of dealing with the Natives for their land, and conceived the notion of bringing them and their interests under their own laws and protection. Hinc illas lachrymae. All these line sentiments were reproduced in the course of the debate in the Houses of Lords and Commons, along with a number of other truths that pointed to transactions of a more sellish character connected with the Exeter Hall process of reclamation. But amongst them were other ideas, which, in their exaggeration, tend more to damage the Colony than any help that England can give us can do us good. What can be more detrimental to the interests of New Zealand than the over-colored statements of helplessness and disaster that were indulged in by some of the rhetoricians at Home? We have long been convinced and have always maintained that there is an absence of sturdy manliness in the North Island colonists in dealing with the Natives. It is not that they have not British courage. Whenever they are put to the test, they stand to the battle as all Britons do, and behave themselves like men, as their fathers have done before them. But the legacy (for such we must term it) left them by the British Government is the habit of looking to others for help in money or men rather than in trusting to themselves. The statements that have been sent Home, with the idea of inducing the Colonial Office to provide troops for New Zealand, have given anything rather than a true picture of the case. The Maoris have been made to appear as giants and ogres, and the colonists poor, weak, helpless beings, scared to death, unable to go about their usual avocations without danger of being killed and eaten. What wonder that under these ch’cu instances immigration has stopped ? Who will come to a land of poverty and distress ? Who will leave a country where, although to obtain a living is difficult, to go to one where one’s fate may be to be cooked in a Maori oven 1 And all this mighty fuss is made about a savage warrior, followed by two or three hundred of his fellows, each with sixty or seventy rounds of ball cartridge in his pouch, with a dozen or two more of gun-caps. We have no wish to underrate the danger, nor to close our eyes to the fact that, whatever the Maori troubles may be, great or small, as they are mainly due to British interference and British blundering, they ought to be suppressed by British arms or at British cost. But since this will not be, the question to be solved is what is the the course that ought to be followed 1 It is evident that for the present at least there is no disposition on the part of the Middle Island to press for separation from the North. The people appear to have made up their minds that the permanent relations of the two Isbmds have become so mixed up that they are indissolubly bound together in political unity. But if this be the case, in fact, whether or no, since it must be so for a time, the Middle Island has a right to insist upon a better defined mode of extending settlements than has hitherto prevailed. In the calm cold remarks made by some of the speakers on the Government side of the House at Horae, the plain common sense statement was made, that wo have long contended to be true, that no man has a right to place himself in danger for his private interest in the expectation that he will be protected or rescued by his

neighbors ; but that if he will reap the bene lit, if any, he must take the risk We have pointed out that no possible production of corn or cattle can compensate the Colony for the cost of such defence or rescue. Whatever is done then, in the extension of settlement, should be the result of a well considered, well defined plan. Were this principle adopted, the defence of the settlements around the various centres of population, would be trilling—the North would learn to take care of itself and pay for its own defence, and all this feeling about danger from two or thire hundred half-armed savages, would give place to a healthy tone that would make New Zealand attractive, and bring what we so much want —-a number.of immigrants.