Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 133, 31 July 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, J U LY 3 1, 1863.

To suppose that the Provincial Council of this Province, composed as it is of the most childish and witless—the most selfish and self-seeking elements it is possible to find amongst us, can be called the representatives of the people is tantamount to saying that the Herald is the organ of public opinion and that Mr. McLean is a popular Superintendent ; all three of which suppositions we declare to be false.

We cannot, then, accept the fact of a majority of the Provincial Council having passed certain new Land [Regulations or authorising the raising of certain sums of money as any indication of the public mind upon these important matters. That such an anomalous and contradictory state of things as this should be in existence at all is a bad sign, but that it is in existence is a most undoubted and indisputable fact.

The proposed Land Regulations are by no means unanimously accepted. There is a very considerable section amongst the runholders which ignores innovations on the old and most abominably bad regulations, and they do so upon the ground that the nature of the country which they hold is such as to render it very questionable whether they would be any gainers by accepting the leases offered to them. It so happens that all the choice and best lauds in the Province have been swallowed up at 5 s. sales, and that all the worst and most worthless lands, which were not easily to be got rid of even at that low figure, remain on our hands. The Government, therefore, finding that to raise money on these lands by actual sale is quite hopeless, determined to do so by borrowing. In short, it is the old story of shutting the

stable door, & c., and as such we look upon it as leading to no good or lasting purpose. But the ostensible object of these new regulations is to secure the lands for a certain term of years, in the hands of the lessees, and from the nature of the priced fixed upon them, at the termination of that term, it is tantamount to giving the holder of the lease a life-long interest in a holding of the land. Moreover the measure does not stop here, but takes being a preliminary step to raising money.

If money was to be raised for any definite and useful purpose, such as buying lands from the natives, or doing good substantial Public works, and for either or both of these money should be judiciously spent, then we shoukDook upon it as a very desirable and most expedient proceeding ; but as matters stand at present, it is pretty certain that once let Mr. M'Lean and his satellites begin to finger a respectable sum of hard cash, so completely is the mas-ter-mind an adept at spending Public money so as to suit his purposes, that we should speedily see the coins flying about in all directions. Bands of toadies and sinecures would pervade the streets, and large flights of carrion birds of prey would settle down upon the treasury, and in an inconceivably short space of time the whole .£OO,OOO would have vanished into thin air, and like the baseless fabric of a vision, have left not a wreck behind.

We warn the people of Hawke’s Bay that if money be raised on our lands we are a lost people, because not only shall we be burdened with an additional load of debt, but we shall have the misfortune to know that the money has been wasted and squandered in a manner which would put to the blush Fitzgerald of most extravagant and remorseless memory. We deny altogether the fact of the Provincial Council passing a measure proving anything beyond their subserviency to Mr. McLean, and their total ignorance of the value of their privileges or their duty to their constituency. We do not believe that, during a sitting of that Council, there are any three men who know what they are about. That Council, during its last session, presented the most melancholy picture of imbecility which it is possible for the mind of man to conceive. McLean held up his little finger, and the majority did ditto. McLean smiled a smile of portentous meaning, and the majority smiled a smile of no meaning at all; and in short, from the beginning of the sitting to its ending, the whole affair was one continued comedy, during which that great actor McLean came out strong in his particular part. Here, then, in this matter, as in all else affecting the interests of this Province, the Herald is a false prophet ; and it is most fortunate that that obsequious and timeserving paper is kept in check by this one, notwithstanding that in doing so we have to struggle against the most tremendous underhanded and dark opposition it is possible to conceive. Borne up by the feeling that the mass of the people look with distrust on the present state of things, and are only too glad to find that they have in us some exponent of their views, we are enabled to stand against all the blows aimed at us behind our back, and by the aid of the liberal support we receive to fight manfully for a fair and honest administration of public affairs and proper representation of the public interest.

In another column will be found the latest intelligence received from Auckland, and which goes to show that the daring impudence and confidence of the Maoris in those parts has reached a point which it is almost impossible to conceive. It is hardly possible to credit the fact of a mere handful of ill-armed rabble such as the Maori forces unquestionably are, marching upon a large and thickly-populated town, the inhabitants of which are offshoots from.

the bravest nation on the face of the earth, and who are possessed of every means and appliance which the art of war is able to place at our disposal, and supported by a powerful force of veteran and highly-trained regular troops, under the command of an able and skilful General. But such is the fact, and there can be no question about it, and it most painfully illustrates the consequences of those weak and ill-devised plans by which we had hoped to have overawed or cowed the natives into submission and respect. That the great crisis is drawing rapidly towards developement, if it is not now developed, is plain enough, and that that crisis is the consequence of the acts of a succession of most miserably weak and imbecile Governments, with which we have been for years favored is most sorrowfully certain. If in our struggle with this pampered, petted, and overfed and flattered people, the Maories, we felt that bad as it was to have to fight them at all, still we might look forward to and hope for such a skilful and determined management of the war as would secure its ultimate and complete success. Then we should feel comparatively at ease. But it unfortunately happens that the people, judging from past and bitter experience, have little hope of other than a patched and broken settlement of the question of who is to be master here, and which question has brought us to our present pass. If the unfortunate sufferer from the blight of war, looking at the smouldering and blackened ruins of his once cheerful and happy home, and gazum in an agony of heart-breaking sorrow on the bleeding and yet warm corpse of some dear and deeply loved object of his affections, could look upon the terrible sacrifice which he had been compelled to make and to suffer, as an offering on the altar of his adopted country, forced from him as a natural consequence of emigrating to a land peopled by a savage and a warlike race, and not as the consequence of too much bad Government, then he could find comfort in the fact that as thousands of his countrymen had suffered and wei e suffering in a good cause, so was he. But no such small satisfaction as this is to be derived from the contemplation of the ruin and devastation wrought by these infatuated natives. This war and the terrible accompaniments which come with war is to be traced to the fearful rais-government under which the colony has groaned for five-aud-t'wenty years. And every stone that is displaced, and every life that is lost, and every insignificant piece of living or lifeless property which is destroyed, does but add to the already tremendous heap of ruin which has been piled up and accumulated as a costly monument to a wretched system of bad government.

It is to be hoped that the governor is now fully awake and alive to the terrible climax which his short-sighted and foolish conciliatory measures have brought about, and has determined, as the only way of bringing the nati\e race to their proper senses, to confiscate and hold the lands of all those tribes who either take up arms, or aid or abet in any way whatever those who do take up arms against the Queen. If such a course as this were adopted, and acted upon, there can be no doubt that we should then have some more substantial signs of amity and good faith given us, than is to be derived from the killing of the fatted pig for our hospitable and friendly entertainment with one hand, while with the other small samples of ammunition are handed over to the enemy.