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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 195, 7 October 1864, Page 2

Judging from the tone of the English press, it is pretty certain that public opinion in that country has undergone a very great change as regards its sympathies with us in New Zealand, in our little war with the Maories. The Times, that great indicator of the popular feeling upon passing events. has suddenly turned round upon us, and gives us to understand that we must look elsewhere than to England for assistance in our wars. “ The British tax-payer,” says that journal in effect, “is already sufficiently bowed down with his burdens, without having to bear more on your account.” That is partly true. We have certainly no right to expect that the consequences of our own bad management are to be felt by people perfectly ignorant of the causes which have led to the disastrous results which, as a matter of course, follow from that bad management. It must be exceedingly galling to the nation to lose some of her finest troops, and to spend thousands of pounds annually in a cause the result to her either way being of little or no consequence. Again, what must be the feeling of those families deprived of their chief ornaments or supports by the bullet or tomahawk of a ruthless savage. Who can picture the despairing agony of a mother whose only son, her pride and her darling, has been untimely cut oft’? Who shall tell the heart-rending sorrow' of that father whose first-born has been sacrificed ? Who is there living who can depict in mortal language the anguish of that young w'ife wffiose brave husband has been slain? And for what, and in what quarrel ? In the noble struggle of a weak people against a strong ? In the gallant charge of gallant men against overwhelming numbers of murderous and cowardly enemies ? In the open field of fair and honorable fight, where every soldier expects to find his grave or earn his laurels ? No ! but in a beggarly quarrel between a handful of scheming, mo-ney-making colonists, and a few ungovernable and warlike savages ? Can we wonder at the outcry raised by the British public against the longer continuance of the war, and the longer participation in it or any other such war by the Mother Country. The finest feelings of some natures have been sorely wounded—the national pride has been sorely humiliated, and the national purse has been sorely pressed, all in behalf of people who at best, but indifferently help themselves, and in a cause the rights and w 7 rongs of which are not yet fully determined. We do not mean to imply that the Home Government is free from a share of blame in this matter. Having arrogated a right of interference in matters between the natives and wdiite settlers, it must be prepared to assist, and assist largely aud liberally in maintaining the Colony against the Maoris, and as a matter of course, also be prepared to find itself lugged into many costly difficulties in consequence.

The people in England are well aware that

this war is about the most profitable thing that has happened to this island since its foundation as a British Colony. Money is circulated amongst us at the rate of something like .£5,000 a day for mere military expenditure. Where, for instance, would be the trade of those great merchants on Napier Spit, whose voluminous advertisements weekly decorate the columns of our contemporary the Herald , but for the military expenditure of the 500 regular troops, and the 300 irregular ? Where would be the market for the wethers and fat beasts of our settlers, but for the mouths of these men and their brethren in arms in Auckland and elsewhere ? To the store-keepers and sheep-farmers this war is indeed a blessing, and we make no doubt that so long as it keeps at a respectful distance from their own doors they devoutly wish it may go on for ever. ♦-- - -