Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 192, 16 September 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1864.

There appears to be a great number of screws loose in the arrangements made by the Government with the Military Settlers. What those arrangements are is best known to the authorities, but that there is a something radically wrong is very certain. An attempt has been made to put the men to work on the roads, but it would seem to have failed, owing to a notion entertui ed by them that they are to receive in addition to their pay of 2s. Gd. and rations per day, other Gs., in the event of their being called upon to work. How this idea came into the heads of our quondam defenders, doesn’t appear on the surface, but that there it is, is clear enough, for work they will not, and neither threats, cajolery, nor persuasion seem to have the slightest effect upon them. This state of things cannot last. Either the men must work, and thus do something for their pay, or else they must be disbanded altogether. In the present state of the public funds, with the thin end of the taxation wedge already inserted into the nation, it is clearly impossible to maintain a large number of men at enormous charges, doing nothing. A standing army is a national curse ; it is that which is the cause of the enormous load of taxes which bow down the people of the old countries. The necessity for being always ready to resist aggression, or to resent insults, and preserve the national independence obliges those nations to maintain a large army always ready, always on the alert, and always in the most efficient state of discipline. Our case, however, is by no means analagous to that of our Mother Country. To keep up a regular army, to drill, equip, and keep in constant pay and preparation, a body of men, is quite unnecessary, and even under the present aspect of Native affairs, quite uncalled for. To have a number of men at band ready on occasion to support the civil power, and defend the Province against the incursions of the enemy is all right enough. This object can be gained at all times by leaving about 25 per cent of the men in camp, drilling and attending to other matters of this .kind, while the remaining 75 should be peaceably employed in making roads and placing tne iu Liiai* .regard, upon a respectable footing. At present we are in an exceedingly backward state of roads, that is, we have no roads at all, but we have a Highways Act. If the Government Las entered into an agreement with our military settlers to keep

them for three years, we can hardly imagine that that arrangement was made without a reservation, to the effect that should it be found advisable, the men would be discharged. These Provinces resound from one end to the other with industry. Every man, woman, and child therein is directly or indirectly pushing along, striving with might and main, with care and labor, to do something for -themselves. It is therefore extremely unfair and unjust to the industrious to keep a company of drones in such a hive as this. Where all are working, all toiling, all accumulating, some more, some less, of honey, we repeat it is a standing disgrace to us that we permit idlers in the hive. "We see no reason why the Provincial Government should not pay these men something extra, so as to make the pay altogether equal to that of ordinary laborers, because so long as the men can and will do the work required of them, there appears to be no reason why they should not receive the same pay as other laborers in one vineyard. All our Provincial Government’s plans and enterprises are pretty sure to fail sooner or later, in consequence of some mismanagement arising from the incompetency of the agents employed, or from some other cause, over which the Government have a control, only they will not use it. Any man is good enough for anything in the public service, providing that he will hut admit that there is only one God, and that Donald is his Prophet, he may he sure that upon the first opportunity, he will get something out of the public treasury, without the slightest regard to fitness and such like stuff, or some empty title if money is scarce, or all the possible salary offices are for the present filled up. However, this state of things won’t last much longer, that is certain; people can stand a great deal, and do stand a great deal, but the upshot of it all will be that either his present Honor will have to do something real and substantial for the good of the Province, in place of always talking about it, —or else we shall begin to look out for somebody else to put in his little berth. A terrible humbug is Donald, we fear—a prodigious wind-bag and nothing else, which gets itself supported and kept full by bribery and cajolery, one or the other means being sure and certain to take effect. However, be that as it may, we demand that something be done to settle the outstanding misunderstandings between the Government and the military settlers. The present state of things is % ery disgraceful.