IMPERIAL CASH FOR IMPERIAL QUARRELS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 2, 11 July 1861, Page 4

IMPERIAL CASH FOR IMPERIAL QUARRELS.

(From tho Australian UTml, April 15.)

"Wo fear lest some "words vouchsafed to ft nnc*tioTi of Mr. Addcvley’s in the House of Commons may have escaped Hie ears which ought to receive them as a note of warning, and (lie key to a subject which calls for grave consideration, if not lor

remonstrance. When asked how much of the expenses of tho miserable New Zealand “war” was to fall upon the colonists, Mr. Forleseuc replied, virtually, though, perhaps, not verbally, that the reinforcements had been sent out without any

due allotment of the expense being agreed upon ; but that the Duke of Newcastle repudiated (he idea that the whole of the expenses of the war were to fall upon the Imperial Government. Why shonld they not ? Repudiation is an ugly word ; it was made use of by Pennsylvania once to "ct rid of just obligations ; and Spain has “ repudiated the idea” of paying its lawful debts. It would bo sad to see an English Government following such examples. The war, as it is called, was of their own making ; through and by the acts of their servants. The non-success of it up till the present mail (for we have, till to-day, only a miserable account of profitless and exaggerated victories), is the result of vacillation, hesitation, and countercounsels, in which the colonists have had no voice. Why, had it been left to them, the causes of irritation would never hare existed—if it had been left to them, even when those causes had ripened into fruit which is so unpalatable in Downing street, and, perhaps, not very digestible at the Horse Guards, the wretched “ rising” would have been suppressed by the willing arms of the volunteers. And so it comes to be declared that for the mistakes in which they had no part, but which have brought to those nearest to the scene, ruin and desolation, and to those far away, stagnation, anxiety, and loss, the settlers arc to be made to pay their quota. It is a question which stretches beyond the mere occasion, and may be made a precedent in the prejudice of other colonies, to which, although the circumstances will never be the same, the argument will still apply. The same specious view of the question—that the steps were taken for the protection of colonial property against an internal commotion, might be used for saddling the colonists with charges for “ protection” against imaginary external foes ; and without a word of warning, some pretexts founded on the aspect of affairs abroad, “ or the uncertain footing of our foreign relations,” might servo as the excuse for billctting a fleet or an army upon the colonics, at an expense which might ease the estimates submitted to Parliament, but half ruin the colonists. For the quarrel in New Zealand, which has resulted in such dilatory and expensive proceedings, was, we repeat, none of their seeking ; loyally and bravely they risked their lives in meeting it, when the Imperial arrangements were found at fault and totally inadequate to the occasion ; and, as is usual in all such cases, right imperially have they 7 been “ snubbed” for it. If the colonies arc to protect themselves against internal or external foes, let them understand it—they are ready and willing ; but when Imperial servants have brought troubles upon them, which they well know they would never have incurred but for Imperial errors, it seems rather hard that they 7 should be made to pay for tardy help, which they would never have needed if common wisdom and experience had whispered in Downing-strcet that it were better to listen to the teachings of practical sense than the whim of maudlin sentiment; or, still bettor, that Downing-strcet should, in all eases, trust more to the good faith and loyalty, the knowledge and information, the honesty and truthfulness of Auckland, than to carwiggings from this man and from t’other, trimming its sails by turns to catch the breath of religions fanaticism or legal quackery, which have led it into an cmbroglio, for flic extrication from which it now seeks to make men, who have already served and suffered, pay the fine. A pretty story i’faith ! Compensation' —and good and substantial compensation—wo might have expected to hear something of, but, in its place, wo are threatened with a taxation of the colonial resources of a young and struggling people ! We suspect the successor of the Duke of Newcastle, urged by the force of English opinion, when the question comes to be thoroughly understood in England, will have to make yet another repudiation—a repudiation of the idea of levying an:/ part of the expenses of the war upon the New Zealand colonists. John Bull don’t like to part with his money wc all know and feel; but when he sees that the servants in whom he, for a time, put faith have run him into wilful loss and expense, ho is to generous to allow it to be saddled on the wrong shoulders. “ Let those who make the quarrels be Tlie only 7 ones to — pay."