Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 99, 20 March 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1863.

We noticed, in our issue of the 9th instant, the arrival of the s.s. Queen, and we stated at the time that she was reported having spoken a vessel off the East Cape, flying French colors, having communication with he shore.

There is very little doubt but that this vessel with which the Queen spoke was iu the act of lauding contraband articles, and it is hardly necessary to say that those articles most probably consisted of a consignment of munitions of war.

That the Natives are able to obtain large quantities of ammunition and of muskets, &c., is an ascertained fact, proved beyond dispute by the vast quantities of powder which must have been expended by them during the Taranaki war, and also borne out by the circumstance of their having at this daylarge magazines carefully stowed away in convenient places all over the country. Yet, notwithstanding these incoutestible proofs of the failure of the scheme, wo still keep up the formula of restrictive laws upon the sale of arms and ammunition to those very people who are thus so readily supplied with these illegal articles by illegal means. It is hardly necessary to say that these fiscal regulations, however good in theory, like a great many other of our excellent theories, altogether fail in practice. Our seaboard is quite unprotected, and any vessel may come in shore, and run a cargo of contraband articles, while our active and able revenue officers are smoking their pipes within the prescribed limits of the lawful port of shipment. Hero again we see how extremely difficult, in fact how entirely impossible, it is to carry into practice our system of sublime and comprehensive theories touching the government and management of a people who have nearly the whole habitable face of the country in their hands, and possess equally powerful influence over the coast line, dividing those lauds from the surrounding seas.

If a quiet, orderly citizen is desirous of breaking through the monotony of his daily life by taking a little recreation in company with his dog and gun, befere he can profit by the agreeable company thus vouchsafed to him, he must first make a formal application on payment of one shilling, to our worthy and highly respected collector of customs for an order or £i permit” to purchase one pound weight of powder and ten pounds weight of shot, but no more. To the scientific sportsman such a magazine of ammunition as this would be looked upon as nearly sufficient to carry him through a prolonged and arduous campaign against the whole of the feathery tribes, but to our esteemed townsmen this little matter of powder and shot is just sufficient to secure, after great labour, half a dozen ducks and a few moorhens, and the next time he desires to take similar exercise he is compelled to go through the same observance:', and pay a further shilling into the revenue chest, before he can secure a second or tb.rd (as the case may be) supply of the wherewith..!, Lo carry on his peaceful and inoffensive pastime. Thus we find that these restrictions upon the sale of arms, &c., to the natives, while they entirely fail in securing the object most devoutly wished, yet succeed to a nicety in placing a wide and almost impossible barrier between the peace-loving and sportful citizen and the

attainment of that harmless object which to him is like the renewal of a lease of life.

Now, if any real advantage was to be gained by thus depriving the good folks of the means of enjoying a little harmless but damp recreation in the salt swamps round about Napier, then we, for one, would give up without a murmur this moist but stirring occupation. But it does not appear that any advantage is gained by the restriction put upon the sale of the articles to which we refer, for while we carefully guard the last places in the island to which contraband articles are likely to be brought, we yet leave the whole thousand miles of coast quite free for the operations of any speculative and adventurous parties who are desirous of profiting by the opportunity thus afforded of running a few tons of those articles which our Legislature in its wisdom has decreed shall not be brought into the country without special permission. We have good reason for believing that a brisk and flourishing trade is kept up with tho Natives upon our coasts, in those identical substances which we surround with so much formal and prohibitory fencing, and that in fact it is easier in some parts to obtain for a consideration a supply of powder from the Maories than from our own vendors of that dangerous combustible. Having thus drawn the attention of our readers to a state of things of the existence of which they were probably not aware, we have only to hope that the warning thus given will be taken in time, and that at the next meeting of the General Assembly some sufficiently disinterested member will move an amendment of the regulations affecting the sale of ammunition, &c., bearing in mind what we have already stated, that while we shut our markets to the sale of these articles we still leave open a very wide field for the disposal of them, over which field we cannot iu the present state of the country exercise the slightest control; and that, therefore, die best amendment of the laws in question which can be made will he to abolish them

altogether, tor they are irritating ami vexatious in their eii'ect, and fail entirely in accomplishing the object which was had in view in putting them into our statute book.