THE COST OF WAR.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 3, 18 July 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE COST OF WAR.

(From the JSfeio Zealander , July 3.) Haying received from the House of Representatives a reiterat ed assurance .of flip ■ 6f the people of the Colony to “ second” (in so fains the Militia law allows, and the resources of; the i Colony will permit,)with men and money tliomea-: sures taken by the Imperial Government for the Suppression of disturbance in New Zealand, and for establishing the supremacy of the Queen and of the law, we hope that the Governor feels no lonccv —if be ever did feel —any lingering doubt as- to the fullness and perfect cordiality of the co-opera-tion which will be afforded in ease it slioulcl be un-

happily be necessary to resort to force to restore order-in Waikato. •

In making this assurance, however, the responsibility incurred by the divisions of the Colony is necessarily unequal.. To, the Southern ■lsland, 'co-operation means the future'payment of a few thousand pounds annually as a war debt; in the N orl h Island, corporation means, in addition the sacrifice of life, the desolation of the home,, the ruin or dispersion of the family, the destruction of property,' the annihilation of credit, and very gene--tal and wide spread ruin; it involves, in fact — however triumphant.the military result may. finally prove,—a rehearsal, upon'a wider theatre, of the ■ tragedy'of sorrow'aml'dcstruction of which Taranaki lias been lately the Scene, and is now the melancholy example. 1 To the people of England, war with a foreign nation means an additional penny on the income tax, arid; perhaps, an increase in the duty on tew and sugar ; to the Colonists of the North- Island of New Zealand, it means personal danger and pro- __ bable ruin; 'and, in estimating the value-of such a ' pledge as has just been given unanimously by tbe ‘House of Representatives,—with, as we also believe the frank'aceprd of the whole body of the people —these' circumstances' should be always borne in* mind. The cost has been counted, and in the hist resort the sacrifice will be made, J But we are not willing to admit that tlie hour 9 when the scabbard should be thrown away has yet arrived ; nor are we willing to admit that there is : no longer hope of a favorable issue to negotiations. AVe have no evidence that negotiations of the best kind have yet been set oh foot, or that*if so set on foot, negotiators of the right stamp have been employed to conduct them. Unhappy differences of opinion which we have deplored, but for which we do not think that either the Governor or his Advisers are blameable, have prevented the active aidol. some of those whose influence with the native people is great and widely spread; personal feeling has of lute, we fear, somewhat complicated the difficulty, and, at a crisis when tlie hearty co-operation of all influences for one great object is of the last necessity, there are -found to be impertinent obstacles to "its attainment ; .

In this view we are disposed to regard with satisfaction the prospept of change in the Ministerial Advisers of his Excellency which the motion!to bo debated this evening in the House of Representatives affords. There can be no doubt that the present Ministers must be, to the native people, representatives of a , policy which they have been taught to regal'd as hostile, aggressive, and unjust; there is therefore perhaps some room to hope that the fact of such change having taken place, may of itself dispose the Maories to listen more favorably to exhortations or to take greater heed to warnings such as have heretofore been addressed to .them in Vain, and that, at least, a final and general effort to arrive at a peaceful settlement of,the question may be rendered possible, and may be also enlivened by .some hopes of success. W e sec.that flic Jial has been pronouned by the Imperial as well as by the Colonial authorities; the Crown and of the Law must be maintained ; whatever is needed in men or money to accomplish that end both have bound themselves to provide. The work which is before them cannot be better described than in tlie words of a correspondent, whoso letter will be found elsewhere.

“ Should hostilities be actually resumed, from the known obstinacy of the Maori character, and from their reiterated declarations, we may be regarded as making a-very moderate calcidation when wc venture to predict that not until the flower of the Maori tribes shall have been laid low in death may we hope for submission on the part of the •miserable remnant. What hope of Maori civilization then ? As a people their fate will have been sealed, and some of you may live long enough to see the last of the Aborigines of -New Zealand.” '. . Surely in view of siich a catastrophe, “ vigorous i prqsecutio.n itself will; for;an hour at least, stay its | hand. If “ Kulo Britannia” mustube 'the dead ; of Maori, lotus at least exhaust diploj Umtic, skill ancVpatient. kipdness im cudeavox-s - to ; save the patient before we pi’onouncc his case to :be hopeless. ■ • • •