ARE WE TO LOSE NEW ZEALAND?

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 238, 13 March 1865, Page 3

ARE WE TO LOSE NEW ZEALAND?

(From the Economist, December 24, 1864.) Mr Chichester Fortescue, in his admirable speech the other day. at Malden, did nothing more than justice to the unfortunate colonists of New Zealand, but he would have spoken with somewhat less hopefullness if he had received the news of the state of that Colony which- the mail just arrived has brought us. Not that the military news is threatening. It is far worse than that. As we have always predicted, the hesitating policy of the Government at home in first granting full power to the Parliament of New Zealand over all its affairs, and then at the critical moment withdrawing it again,—operating, as it has done, on the mind of a feeble Governor, anxious to justify, by acting heartily with the Home Government, a false reputation which accident, rather than ability, had., gained for him here, —has reduced the people of New Zealand to the necessity of considering gravely whether it would not be far better for them to lose the protection of England rather than submit to that hesitating and paralysing interference, the injurious effect of which is greatly enhanced by the long period necessary for a despatch and an answer. When the last mail left the Colony was, in fact, without any Government, except that of Sir Geo. Grey, who had just achieved the resignation of the Ministry, but not appointed new Ministers. The war was smouldering, and the Governor anxious to coax the Maoris into peace. The effect of this relaxation of our energy was to encourage the Natives to further resistance. At Tauranga, the Natives, who so recently submitted, finding the army passive, have built a new pa, and have resisted the survey of the land they had themselves surrendered. North of Auckland, the escaped Maoris have fortified themselves in an impregnable position, and, according to the scandal of the place,—which of course we do not believe, and only repeat to show the estimate formed by the settlers of Sir George Grey’s policy, —were supplied with food in their hostile position from the private resources of the Government. Near Taranaki, the forces of W. King are not only in a hostile attitude, but overawing other Native tribes anxious to submit. And, pending all this trouble, the Governor has, it is believed, refused to carry out the policy of the Land Settlements Act, which was his own measure, though 6,000 military settlers have arrived in New Zealand on the faith of that Act, not one of whom has yet been settled on an aero of his own; and in the meantime, of course, they are paid by the Colony at an unexpected cost to its burdened finance of some £BO per annum per man, or half a million sterling annually. In a word, as the New Zealand settlers complain, they are now assisted by England at the expense of a quadruple mis-govern-ment. They have a popular Ministry, who try to govern but are not allowed ; a Governor not of the Colony, who succeeds in thwarting them, but docs not and cannot succeed in forcing upon them a policy of his own ; a department at home which constantly changes its mind, and now throws its weight into the one scale, now into the other; finally, a military force which thinks it “ a condescension to be amongst us,” and has views of its own, different from both that of the Governor and that of the Ministry, of the true mode of conducting the war. How can we wonder if in all this chaos the settlers are crying out that it would be far cheaper and better for them to organise amongst themselves a smaller and less disciplined force, of which they will have to bear the toltole expense themselves, than to be assisted by England with an army which never carries out their policy, and seems never likely under the present Governor to bring the war to an end. “ We lopk on it,” says the Nelson Examiner , “ that the arrangement of £SO per man for the troops left in the Colony is not one that can have any practical permanence. The Colony cannot, voluntarily pay a quarter of a million annually for an army to be placed at the control of the agent of a distant irresponsible authority. It would be cheaper to pay twice the sum for a force only half as well* disciplined, but which could be reckoned on to obey the orders of those who employed it.” These are the views of the colonists in general. They demand the vigorous prosecution of' the war, by their own forces if the English troops are not to be had to carry out their own policy, till the Maoris submit unconditionally without being coaxed into surrender. They demand, also, the bona fide carrying out of the measure for the military settlement of their land ; and to neither demand will Sir George Grey, after receipt of nis last despatches from Mr Cardwell, assent. He told his Government, it is said, that they are the only obstacles to the conclusion of peace, and on the 30th of September they resigned. He had not, however, on the 11th of October appointed any successors, and the reason is obvious, —that he could find none anywhere who would have a chance of remaining in office more days, after meeting the Assembly, than would be necessary to prepare and carry a vote of want of confidence. The colonists know that if the islands are ever to be free of war, they must be firm now, and carry it out to a decisive end. They know that the military settlements will, even then, be the only final protection against a new rebellion, —and of course they are united, so far as they are united at all, for this end. The only alternative ever thought of is the disgraceful expedient of separation, —in other words, a few of the Southern Island colonists, themselves in no danger of the Maoris, and taught by English precept and at least the threat of English example, to think that non-in-tervention in the difficulties of their fellow-sub-jects is the true policy,—are talking of the terrible burden which the Northern Island is gradally bringing upon them, and hinting that if England, as Parliament and the Times threatened, abandon New Zealand, they could not do better than imitate the policy, by abandoning the unfortunate member of the New Zealand family and setting up for themselves. We do not attach much importance to this sort of discontented talk, which we mention only to show the result in New Zealand itself of the cynical and false tone adopted on colonial affairs by the English Parliament last session and its public instructors among the English press. If there are any hot secessionists in New Zealand, they

have been made by the selfish talk of the mother country, and the discreditable slanders on our New Zealand colonists, which have mads them feel, more than any despatches, that there is little moral tie between England and that Colony. But of course the secessionists there are of oo real account as yet. The Colony will not bo disunited. All who are for union at all insist, wisely enough, on a vigorous prosecution of the war, and the complete execution of the only scheme that can prevent all danger of further war. To this policy Sir George Grey is the great obstruction. And we do not see how a real break with the Colony is to be averted, unless he is recalled, and some able man—perhaos a soldier would be best—whom the colonists can trust, be commissioned to carry out the policy of the Assembly. Of course, our own Government will be reluctant to withdraw the man who has striven so hard to gain their good opinion at the expense of the Colony,—and we fear the false and mischievous language so popular last session concerning New Zealand will tend to support them in that attitude. As the Colonial Under-Secretary, Mr Chichester Fortescue, admirably showed, the falsehoods that have been circulated concerning the selfishness and cruelty of the English settlers in relation to the Maoris have no foundation whatever in fact. But though Mr Fortescue knows this, the prevalence of these ideas will, we fear, do much to influence the Foreign Office against the only course that can now secure the good will and loyalty of the Colony. The simple truth is that the policy advocated by the settlers has always been more truly humane to the Maoris than the policy forced upon Sir George Grey from home. To reduce them to real submission is the only chance for preserving the race. Every war greatly diminishes their numbers, and every war more than the last, as the feud grows fiercer and fiercer. The really pacific Maoris have always been kindly treated by the colonists. The justice administered to them has always been equal justice. There is little or none of the “ nigger ” feeling which prevails so much in India. But this cannot last long if the present military system is to continue. Our Colonial Office must halt no longer between two totally incompatible courses. If it will act with common sense, it should either withdraw altogether from New Zealand, and leave the colonists free to defend themselves as they will and can, —-or appoint a Governor who will co-oporate with the Assembly and not thwart it, —or re-establish absolute government there, if it dare, by a coup d'etat , and of course pay the whole expense of the government ; in which case, we suspect, it would not be long in finding out that a vigorous prosecution of the war was essential. Of course this last alternative is only an imaginary one. And even of the two former, the latter and most honorable course will not be long within our power ; if we do not take it soon, we shall be driven to take the first expedient of really abandoning our own follow-countrymen at their direst need, and of finding that that desertion is rather a relief to them after so long a course of wavering and helpless interference, than a calamity.