The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 29TH MAY, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 5, Issue 271, 29 May 1865, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 29TH MAY, 1865.

Independence is at length the motto and the policy of the colony. It has been proposed by our Government, and we may say accepted by that of Her Majesty. Tru it is that the Home Government know little or nothing of what the word means to us, or to the Maori ; nevertheless, the policy of Mr Weld has reached their ears and has their approval. They do not, after all the years they have had the control of our affairs, know what those affairs are; but they have of late found the management rather costly, and now that they find we are tired of their misrule are thankful to give way, in order that they may be spared the cost. Perhaps no policy was ever so agreeable to all parties, as that of Mr Weld has proved at home. The economist party are well pleased to see a reduction in the estimates, and the removal of the most obnoxious penny on the income tax. The pseudo-philanthro-pic party are glad, as they think that their protogees will in future be undisturbed by the colonist, and allowed to follow their own sweet will; the coloftial party, seeing that the colony wish for it, are satisfied, and the Government accept it as a rare chance of pleasing all parties by one act. But all this satisfaction is founded upon misconception the most utter and complete as to what is and will be the true state of affairs with us. They seem to think that peace or war is a mere question of will and pleasure—the troops being withdrawn the war must cease—the colonist will cease fighting when he has the bill to pay. Mr Cardwell talks of both races cultivating their lands in a certain state of security—lands that the Maori would lay claim to and seize in toto as being where the , blood of some near or distant relation had been shed. No, the question of peace or war is unhappily not one of choice with us. In the presence of a band of fanatics bound to exterminate the pakeha, or even in that of law ibvwS, troops here or* troops away, there can be no question that the rebels

must be subdued, and whatever Mr Cardwell’s opinions to the contrary* may be, the sovereignty and universal obligation of British law must be asserted and maintained throughout the land, for the colony cannot hear the burden of continued outbreaks and acts of rebellion, which would be the necessary result of any compromising- measures—of any peace, in fact, founded upon anything short of such a defeat as may render further war on the part of the natives impossible, Our readers know that we were not deceived by the sham of colonial responsibility when that measure was forced upon the nnwilling colony. At that time and always we have denounced it as a mockery, meaning hot the power to rule, hut the responsibility to pay, and when the dispute on this point arose between the Governor and the Fox Ministry, we were not slow to show that the Governor was justified by his instructions in the course he took, and though the Ministry, in a moral sense, were right, their ground was untenable. From the first the colony has suffered at the hands of the Imperial Government, who brought us into the war, mismanaged it. threw the responsibility upon us, retained its control, and has kept us in it for five years, and at length leaves us to it in its very worst aspect; yet for this last step we may be thankful, for we are to be left in independence, and it is only through independence we can hope to overcome our troubles, and realise the bright picture that lies beyond.