THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 187O.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 647, 12 March 1870, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1870.

There have been many flagrant failures in the administration of Native affairs in New Zealand, particularly with regard to the military operations necessary' for coping with the insurgents, But never in the history of this Colony has there been such a fiasco as that which has been accomplished by the pres< nt Ministry, Even supposing that Mr Fpx an 1 his colleagues had assumed the control of affairs entirely unfettered by pledges with regard to the policy they intended to pursue, and that they had been entrusted with power on no greater defined conditions than that they were to. do their best to quell the rebellion and capture its ringleaders, the results of the.ir operations would be sufficient to call forth a public verdict of their incompetency. But when it must be remembered that the Fox-Yogel-M'L.ean Ministry received the support of the majority of the House which placed them in power, on specific grounds, and on the strength of express promises, a very much more strict criticism must bo applied to their actions than would have been necessary under other circumstances. The Fox Ministry obtained office on their declared Native policy alone. No great question affecting purely domestic interests had any influence in gaining the majority which turned out Mr Stafford. Indeed it is a notorious fact — which can be gathered from the extremely heterogeneous elements of which this majority was composed that all questions of domestic policy were sunk before the paramount question of settling the Native difficulty. Members were found voting with Mr Fox iia respect of his Native policy, whose opinions were strongly opposed to ihe financial policy of his Government, and to his ideas regarding the question of Provincialism. The facts were that the condition of our relations to the Natives was unsatisfactory ; that twelve months operations by the Stafford Government had produced little more than the expectation of prospective results ; that a fearful amount of expenditure had been, and was being incurred ; and that the Middle Island members— =■ especially those of Otago and Canterbury — were more or less pledged to lend their support to any party that could show any probability or hold out any promise of bringing about a better state of things, Very little consideration was given to the real condition of affairs. It was useless to point out to those peace-at«any- price members, that peace was impossible unless enforced by military success. JThey would not listen to the opinions of the then Government that the difficulties which had been unavoidable were almos.t surmounted, and that the time had arrived when a vigorous course of action was not only possible, but offered reasonable probabilities of success. They listened only to the declarations of Mr Fox and his colleagues, that the past policy of the previous Government had been a . mistake, and that they could settle the war at a trifling cost, and pacify the disturbed elements with only an efiort. Shutting out from their vision the fact which all previous experience had shown-^-that the Native antagonism was chronic, and was due to causes which no possible description of policy could remove, the majority of members charmed with Mr Fox's econo ■ mical theory, consented to turn out the Ministry that- had borne the burden and heat of a day of sudden trial, and place i 1 power an Executive which proposed a rjtrograde policy— a policy that was to be purely, defensive ; a policy that was to depend upon Imperial assistance ; a policy that waa to be the cheapest. About nine months have elapsed since Mr Fox took the reins of office. Ho had the advantages of all the successes which had just previously attended the operations of the Colonial forces. Tito Kowaru was anni* hilaited. Te Kooti was a fugitive, No more favorable conditions could possibly havo existed for carrying out the purely defensive policy of the Government, had such a policy been ever possible. But no sooner had tho Assembly prorogued, than the Government found themselves driven to adopt the only policy that was possible^ if the safety of the North Island waa to be secured — the policy of their predecessors, But the conditions under which a vigorous policy could hold ou.t any prospect of success, h«d materially changed, All the advantages which the previous Ministry had gained had been thrown away. Costly expeditions, on the very eve of their success, had been withdrawn, Tc Kooti, who hud been 'hemmed in by

tho forces under the direction of the previous Ministry, was allowed to escape unmolested, and to gain fresh breath and fvesh adherents. A.ncl so matters went on, until tho Government realised how futile had been their previous hopes, and all they liavo been able to do has been iv some degree to retrace the steps they had lost by abandoning the tactics of the pre.vious Ministiy. They havo not yet recovered the groin. d lost since July last, Te Kooti is still at large ; he is again iv his old fastness, the Uriwera Hills, but he h not in the straits he was in nine months •ago, He has gained additional prestige ; . he has gained followers, and has sucessfully evaded the combinations arranged for his capture. So far, matters are, in a merely military sense, worse than they were, But now for the economical part of the policy of tho j>resent Government. Mr Fox promised that he would keep the war expenditure within ,£150,000 a year —^to such an amount in short as would not entail the necessity of further taxation or further borrowing. How this promise has been fulfilled may be gathered from the fact that the existing military, or " demilitarised," force 3of the Colony cost about £45,000 per month, or at the rate of £540,000 per annum ! The number of men, Native and European, now in the employ of the ! Government is not much less than 3700, of which number only 1000 are Europeans, Of the effectiveness of this force we can say no more than that since ihe present Ministry came into office it has done nothing, but allow Te Kooti to slip through its fingers at every point. The Fox Government has failed thoroughly and completely, and the penalty of those who obtain office under false pretences awaits it. Already murmurs are arising throughout the Colony, and it is a significant fact that those journals that have hitherto loyally supported the Ministry are the strongest in denouncing its failure. But what a sad thing it is that the fortunes of the Colony jir-e.. thus sacrificed to the intrigues and exigencies of political party warfare. The Stafford Ministry were sincere in their intentions to subdue the Native insurrection, and experience has proved that they adopted the only possible policy. Most probably they would long ago have settled Te Kooti and checked any further spread of rebellion, but the Assembly was unpatriotic enough to withdraw its support and give it to a Ministry whose actions were influenced by the only motive of getting into office. But the day of reckoning is at hand, and we venture to predict that it will also be a day of retribution.