The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 24th JULY, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 291, 24 July 1865, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 24th JULY, 1865.

Again the hopes and expectations of the party who would grant almost any terms to the natives are doomed to disappointment; "“-again have the unbecoming solicitations, the humiliating negotiations, of the representatives of Great Britain with rebels in arms, terminated, as all such uncalled for negotiations must and will terminate, in the impossibility of our making peace with the rebels upon the terms they dictate ; and it cannot be otherwise. The terms upon which their submission will be accepted are well enough known to them already. If they were ready to accept those terms they would say so, and the war would be over. If we send an agent to them to sue for peace, it follows that we are the suppliants, and they the parties to state the terms to us upon which peace may be made. They are anxious for peace no doubt, but not as defeated rebels. They are anxious for peace as an independent nation, equal to us, as significantly shown by Thompson, when, on laying down his taiaha before General Carey, he Stuck two sticks of equal length in the earth one to represent the Maori King, the other Her Britannic Majesty, and a third stick over these to represent the law; —the meaning of which is so obvious that the King’s plenipotentiary, in afterwards alluding to Thompson’s surrender, said that General Carey

ought to have, at the same time, given up his sword to Thompson 111 That is the only kind of submission they are willing to make, either now or ever, so long as we are blind and foolish enough to ask them for peace,

Mr Graham has returned : but as he was not the Governor, their high mightinesses the King and Thompson could not condescend to grant him an interview, else they would not be equal to us; he was but a messenger of the Governor, and a messenger of theirs must see bim, and state the terms they were willing to grant as the basis of peace, He accordingly saw their messenger, and heard their terms ; and, doubtless, if he had only had the power, would have agreed to them too. He has returned without accomplishing any good, for the mere fact of bis mission to them removes the prospect of their submission further than before ; yet he has not lost faith in the ultimate success of his efforts, as he still declares his readiness to proceed again on the same errand after the meeting of the General Assembly. Amongst the many important matters that will engage the attention of that body this will without doubt be found, and if as we believe this mission of Mr Graham’s be condemned as uncalled for and pernicious, we shall hear no more of Thompson and the King proposing conditions for our acceptance, but shall find them acknowledging themselves defeated rebels, and trusting to the mercy of the Crown.

We have said this mission has done no good, but we do not yet fully see the evil it may have effected, the least part of which is probably another campaign during the approaching summer, for it is now quite evident that though they must have quickly submitted from sheer necessity hut for it, they had no wish to do more than gain time to replish their exhausted stores. This they have doae, and now are ready to take up arms again, and the end is as far off as before.