Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 189, 26 August 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1864.

The Southern Cross, in a series of excellent articles, takes up the cause of those unfortunate settlers who have been driven from their homes by the rebels. Sir G. Grey is extremely solicitous for the welfare of the rebel Maories ; he is making use of every means in his power, and within his

reach, to remedy the evils, and make good to them the damage caused by this war of their own provoking and seeking; hut he does not attempt to offer succour and assistance to those of our settlers whose homes have/been desolated, and whose properties have been despoiled by those same rebels. It would seem that to be a ruined settler is a matter of course, and is one ot the consequences of war; but to be a ruined Maori is quite another thing, and whether that rain is the result of open rebellion and overt acts of treason or not, still the hand of friendship should he extended, and the Good Samaritan called in to bind up their wounds and pay the bill. We have, in the renewed with the Kaffirs at the Cape, a practical example, a most vivid picture of the consequences of Sir George Grey’s plan of pacifying refractory Aborigines. The peace, for the making of which with the Kaffirs, Sir George gained a world-wide renown, and for which he was almost canonized by the Missionaries, was made upon the “ seed potato principle,” which has been tried over and over again in New Zealand, which is being tried over again now, and which has so often failed. The Maories are now jin the same case as the Kaffirs were at the conclusion of the long-talked-ofandfervently-hoped-for peace brought about by Grey. Exhausted by a protracted struggle with a powerful foe—driven to desperation by a famine, produced partly by acts of fanaticism of their own —decimated by war pestilence, and famine—the tribes who had taken up arms against us were obliged at last to accept peace, particularly as the terms offered wore of an exceedingly comforting nature. Food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, seed to sow their land with, and> in short, all the honors of war and all the comforts of peace were bestowed upon those sanguinary Kaffirs. Grey got, as we said, a great, ovation, and the natives returned to ti.t.;.. tn pm fit. fiy ifis timely succours and satisfactory terras. No sooner, however, have they sufficiently recruited their strength and their numbers, by an interval of peace —no sooner do they find themselves again in a position to take the field—than out they come from the holes and corners of the earth where they had hidden, and commence a fresh series of hostilities against our settlers upon some frivolous pretext. It is the same with the Maories, they, too, are exhausted by a protracted war with us—they, too, are suffering from the effects of neglected husbandry and from a scarcity of powder—and willingly grasp at such offers of peace as Sir George Grey makes them—offers alike soothing- to their feelings and consoling to their afflictions, and highly advantageous. Before another five years have passed, these very Natives will be in arms again, if only to' force us into, some further concessions to avoid the dreadful losses which every outbreak of theirs causes to our unfortunate outsettlers. But, in the midst of all this, what is to become of those of our countrymen ruined by these very natives, and who came to this country to make themselves a home, and an independence, and whose industry and enterprise has gone far to render Auckland what it is—a thriving and busy place. Sir George Grey thinks as much of the Maories as Mr. M’Lean thinks of the sheep-farmer. Everything must be sacrificed to them —all, no must go to the wall for them. This is a bad sign, and bodes no good to New Zealand.