THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 110, 27 April 1863, Page 2

THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND.

A eatheii ignorant and very hasty criticism has been passed upon the address, received this week from the New Zealand House of Representatives, in reply to the proposal of the Duke of Newcastle to put Native affairs under the authority of the Colonial Legislature, and then throw on the colonists the chief expense of the military system required to deal with the Maoris. The truth is, that no proposal could be more unjustly timed. The military conduct of the recent war in New Zealand was disgraceful beyond the disgrace of ordinary blundering. The campaign was in no way controlled or even influenced by any appointee of the Responsible Government, but was mismanaged by men appointed from home, and irremovable in the Islands. It has taxed the whole colony at A 5 a head —has demanded the services of all the grown-up males of the Province of Taranaki, and yet was so concluded as to leave the natives far more dicand tutorial presumptuous than ever. Taranaki is still in a state of siege, and the war threatens to break out again at any moment. In such circumstances, it is certainly not unreasonable for the settlers to decline to assume for the first time a military responsibility which is the net result of the absolute incompetence of the administration of Colonel Gold and his colleagues.— Spectator.