THE PRESENT MAORI WAR.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 127, 26 June 1863, Page 2

THE PRESENT MAORI WAR.

(From the New Zealand Advertiser, June 13.) We join with the Taranaki Herald and the Nelson Examiner in the expression of the hope that the present Maori war may be the last in New Zealand, and we hold views similar to those journals as to the best way a consummation so devoutly to be wished may be accomplished. The Examiner says : “ Our Taranaki contemporary, the Herald, declares, what we believe to be the determination of a vast majority of the colony, as far as they can determine in the matter, that the present outbreak shall he dealt with in such a way as to preclude any repetition. This must' be the lust Maori wav ; and there is but one way that we can see of compassing the result. The action repudiated by the best natives in the country must be signally punished, and in such a way as not merely to terrify the offenders, but to leave the colony and the Government stronger. We have heard that the German immigration scheme has been abandoned, because there was found to be no suitable lami at Taranaki for carrying it out. We could not find footbold for the imperious necessity of self-de-fence 1 An extraordinary—anywhere but in New Zealand—an incredible conclusion, but one, we would hope, which late events have superseded. Mr. Domett should have been granted a million of money for such a scheme last session, even in face of a most doubtful condition of things, and now that the denouement has come, double that amount would be given to assure the future peace of the country. In the North Island we must double the population capable ,of hearing arms, and wo must have land capable of receiving and retaining the increase. This is not a necessity for the expansion <>f the colony, but for its imnuiemriice, and the confusions into wfuca we have been brought by squeamishly shirking this necessity,' are as great crimes against, the Mami race as if they had sprung from real ..more Won. The whole colony sh mid express it -olf on this matter. We. have been too anxious for good opinions and timid of misconstruction, and thus are accomplices ia the sin of mismanagement. It behoves us now to speak out —to declare what is the colony's view, although it may bear an evil colour to ignorant and one-sided people. Teferring to Mrs. Grundy has been the colonial sin which we ought to shake off. We would gladly see some public expression M opinion throughout the Southern Island at least, ami if we might venture to suggest the view fur discussion, it would be, ‘ That the present, crisis requires a very firm hand from the Government; that the first symptoms of yielding amonor the uatives ought not to be a signal for amnesty and pardon, but that provision for future peace ami punishment for past outrages, require the confiscation of the land of the offending tribes, and the occupation of those

lands by organised settlements; and that this policy, defined as exactly as possible, should be avowed and published to the native race.’ ”

We deeply tegret to learn that the Colonial Secretary has officially stated that his letter to the Superintendent of Otago was only to get his opinion on the feasibility of the scheme of locating settlers on the native lands lying between Omata and Tataraimaka, because, as our readers are aware, we looked upon the scheme as the best which had ever been promulgated to obtain the final solution of the native difficulty. If the Government intend to abandon this scheme after its official announcement, the settlers can have no more confidence in them than the Maories have. If they intend to carry it out, why not say so, that the natives north and south may know how they will be dealt with if they join in the present war. It is true, as the Herald intimates, they will not believe it if it is told them, if possession is not at once taken of the confiscated territory, but there is every reason to believe that this might have been done even by this time if the Government bad been in earnest on the subject. The Waikatos have been told that “ if they help the murderers, they will be treated as murderers but that information, though intelligible enough to Englishmen, the natives will not be able to understand. It is not clear to them, it is not even made clear to us, how those murderers will be treated. The Herald says, “ The Waikatos know how one party of rebels and murderers are to be dealt with, who are to receive what they fought for, and not only pardon, but favor—by what law of thought or evidence are they to conclude that the fate of a murderer is in itself undesirable ? We are in duty bound to tell them fully and plainly what the consequences of their madness will he—that if they make war they must pay for it; and that the only way they can pay for it is by forfeiting their land. This is no time iox finesse or jugglery of any kind, but for saying what we mean, and then showing that we mean it.

There are only two courses which can make the present Maori war the last we shall witness, and at the same time prevent it from becoming a war of races. The first is to convince the natives that they are no match for British troops ; the second is to authoritatively announce to them that if they join the Taranakis and Ngatiruauuis their lands will be confiscated, and they themselves reduced to slavery. They would then understand what they had to expect; as the course here recommended is precisely the course they would adopt if placed in similar circumstances. Whether either of these courses will be adopted by his Excellency and his present advisers is, to say the least, extremely doubtful; and perhaps therefore the best course which can be taken by the settlers is to urge upon His Excellency the necessity for the immediate convention of the General assembly. “We have begun a war,” says the Taranaki Herald, “ that will prove in all probability to be by far the most extensive and momentous that has ever occured here ; and we are probably on the eve of an important change in our relations with England. Are we to trust to fortune and'our present rulers to settle these things for us, or is it not quite time that the General Assembly should re-consider the position and state of the Colony ? ”