HOW TO GET UP A NORTHERN WAR.

Evening Star, Issue 2843, 30 March 1872, Page 2

HOW TO GET UP A NORTHERN WAR.

We have just come across an article in the Wanganui Herald which we can only desscribe as beiug a gross and shameful abue of the liberty of the press. We could not have believed, had we not seen this, that it was possible for any journal in New Zealand to so utterly cast aside the rules of conduct which those who understand the responsi* bility of the prees are accustomed to observe. The article in question appeared in the Herald of the loth iustant, and is headed “The Settlers of the Wairoa and the Government,” and from it we extract the following passages:— “ The attempt to restore the rebel natives to the districts they ravaged with fire and sword is met with the firm determination of the settlers of Wairoa to resist. Nor will resistance be vain. British colonists have banded themselves together to preserve their lives and property against probable destruction by murderous cannibals, who, a few short years ago, swept before them like an avalanche all traces of settlement from the Waingongoro to the Kai Iwi river. Donald M‘Lean and his Phuo-Maori myrmidons may i everse on paper the policy which was announced in the face of the colony by the Premier, that no Maori fire should be lit between the Okehu and the Waingongoro, but he cannot trample upon a hundred armed men, animated by a unanimous and fired determination to stand by the solemn compact upon the oath of which these men return* d to their farms The Dum din prisoners, the Pakakohe hapu, are to be restored, a telegram the other day anm onced. We advise the settlers to stand fast by their rifles, and the first cannibal that returns, to fone him l ack or lay him low. It only wants a spirit of unity—no one can doubt the courage of the settlers of Patea—and the indubitable rights of colonists will be maintained. A correspondent writing on this question says: “We are prepared, in case talking will not do, to use force. Of course we know quite well such a thing would bring war upon us, but we also know that allowing the natives to settle will have exactly the same effect. Therefore the only means of preventing war is to prevent the natives from coming. If the I’overument can do this, well and good. If not, and they are left to us to deal with, trouble is likely to follow,”