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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 152, 11 December 1863, Page 2

What a providential circumstance that just at this critical juncture, when the minds of men are in a state of doubt and uncertainty as to what will become of the prisoners captured during the war now r going on in the Island, there should he one cool, calculating, calm, and composed head quietly speculating on the great question of “ What shall we do with them ?” Our superfine friend the Herald has, in one of those spicy little leaders which occasionally flash up and illuminate that “ local” celebrity, just corrected us for the presumption of suggesting the hanging system as applicable to the present emergency, failing a quiet compliance with the compulsory labour system. And, as an improvement upon that too expensive arrangement, our most respectable contemporary suggests that the captured enemy should not be hung, but should he deported ! ! Ha ! that’s a right notion, too, particularly as there does not appear a spot on the uninhabited face of the known earth where the suppositionary two thousand, nor two hundred either, could find a footing with any chance of a subsistence ; and it is equally certain that those unfortunates would not get taken in and done for by any at present known inhabitants of any at present known spot of earth on this side the moon.