The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2100, 28 January 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1870.

No sooner have the Imperial troops been withdrawn, than new troubles loom m the North Island. It is not Te Kooti who is to be feared nor the Natives whose doom seems to be now sealed, although the extinction will not be effected without suffering and bloodshed. The rising troubles are in a new quarter. The mining population of Auckland impatient of the restriction

placed by the Natives upon their operations are organising themselves for the purpose of breaking through the ula and have determined to work the ground the Maories in their folly and shortsightedness closed against them. We never expected any other results, and, in other journals, predicted it years ago. Had it not been for the presence of the Imperial troops, this defiance of the Colonial Legislature would have occurred before this time. The General Government by this movement are placed in a difficult position. The act of the Auckland diggers is a defiance of all authority, and it appears to have been adopted by such numbers as to render any attempt at reducing them to submission impossible. It was said long ago by General Cameron that the presence of the Imperial troops was more necessary to keep the colonists in order than to deal with the Natives. Many people took umbrage at this home-truth, and pretended to feel insulted by it; perhaps now it may dawn upon them. What course Sir George Bowen may take in the matter it is impossible to say. We do not think him equal to the occasion. The meeting has been held under his very nose. If the determination arrived at be carried out in the face of the tacitly-acknowledged right of the Maoris to close their lands against the miners, it is a clear case of filibustering. It was not likely that the colonists would long have submitted to Native exclusiveness. Sooner or later the end must have come, but it would have been better had it been reached by other means. If the diggers act upon the resolution passed at the meeting, either the Natives must submit and come to some arrangement, or the war will be renewed with a ferocity and to an extent not yet experienced. Yet it is one that the Government cannot adopt until forced to protect the lives of those who innocent of the quarrel are yet involved in its consequences. The misfortune of such a war as seems now looming is, that it partakes ot the character of a tribal feud of old days. Sir George Bowen is fond of reference to the past, and perhaps may imagine himself the position of a monarch of the middle ages, who, powerless to prevent a brawl between two hostile barons, was content to let them fight it out, convinced that his strength and security would be increased by their mutual slaughter. It must be by a very skilful use of means if the Government manage to tide over this danger. If the miners persist, and it appears very likely that they will, and if the Natives resist, as in all probability they will, the Government will be placed in the dilemma of either sanctioning a lawless aggression on the part of the Colonists, or of supporting the Maoris in traditional customs which override the laws of the country. Consistently they can do neither the one nor the other. In order to avoid this dilemma the only course to be followed is to ignore altogether the native customs, to shut their eyes to the existence of a Native King, and with a high hand to proclaim native lands subject to the same law as colonial land. It may be that if that wore done, the Natives might find their advantage in treating amicably with the miners, and thus save themselves from utter extermination. For, if a feud spring up between the two races, in which individual interests are uncontrolled by governmental authority, the consequence will be what has ever been the weak must give place to the strong; and, notwithstanding the unmanly pulings that have reached us for so many years about native prowess, no one can doubt the result. The Te KootTs and Tito Kowaru’s will soon be disposed of, and all the efforts of the Aboriginal Protection Society will prove powerless before the greed of gold. It was evident when the present Government took office that not one reason was removed that rendered Separation between the two islands desirable. There was no native difficulty got rid of, although through change of policy it was rendered less expensive, and there seemed a prospect, so long as the Fox Ministry remained in power, of the North Island being tolerably peaceful. When the question of Separation was mentioned, good old Colonists were horrified at the idea of leaving Britons to take care of themselves by fighting their own battles. Perhaps now, when it is just possible a war that may eventually prove more universal than any that has yet taken place, is in prospect, those who opposed Separation may discover their mistake. They will see greater reason than ever to determine that any future war expense shall be borne exclusively by the North Island. We do not know any good reason why we should be called upon to pay for the protection of one class more than another, who place themselves with their eyes open in dangerous circumstances. But those who take to themselves the title of “settlers” seem to think they have a special claim upon their neighbors’ blood and purses. It is not their class who make the quarrel this time, and we

have no doubt they will be willing for the diggers to light their own battles. Since the settlers arc in the position of independent lookers-on, instead of being identified as a class with those who may place themselves in danger, they may at length he brought to see that the Middle Island is altogether uninterested in the rpiarrcl, and ought not to contribute one farthing towards it. If the danger be so great as represented by the telegrams, we should think the Assembly must at once be called together.