THE MURDER OF MR VOLKNER

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 314, 12 October 1865, Page 1

THE MURDER OF MR VOLKNER

|T?rora tlio Army and Navy Gazette, July B.] The murder and mastication of a missionary in New Zealand lias again called attention to the state of military affairs in the colony. Will the five regiments come back ? What are General Cameron and his 10,000 men doing in the North Island? What they have been doing is plain enough. They have been holding redoubts, and guarding lines of communication, and doing garrison duty in various parts of the colony, between the Waipa and the Harotui, in Auckland, in Tauranga, on the west coast and on the cast coast, in the interior, and under the shadow of Mount Egmont. The General himself, with perhaps, a fifth of the force, was in the field, or rather in his house, at Wairaate, a place between Taranaki and Wanganui. He had fought one little action, as our readers know, and since then he had “flanked” two pas, skirmished a bit, and baited at Waimate, where Tie was to winter. The Maories had not given up the game. They had got a new religion, with human sacrifice as its corner-stone. The missionary who was hanged and eaten was a sacrifice. They carried the dried beads of British soldiers about with them on pikes, and lead others,

captives in war, in their train, to “ fire” the Maori heart. They mustered in strength on our military frontier, and were only restained the otner day by “ prudence”—an excellent virtue—from sweeping down upon the redoubts which cover Auckland. The truculent but gallant Eewi, the coarse and obstinate Wiremu Kiugi, the “ double-hear-ted William Thompson, Potatau 11. himself but he is of little account —were at large. The 10,000 men, the General, and the militia, were in great measure eating their heads off in the irksome quietude of the intrenched camp and the bivouac. All this gave great dissatisfaction. Auckland wants to secede. The Middle Island wants to secede. Governor Grey really seems to favor secession. The Maoris have done their best to secede; and now this new and bloody faith has given a fresh stimulus to their animosity. In short the whole state of affairs is out of joint. It is questioned whether Governor Grey agrees with General Cameron, whether the Colonial Ministers agree with either, and whether the colonists agree with the Ministers. What military work had been done was done by civilians and a corps of native bushrangers. Neither ministers nor colonists relish the idea of paying the Imperial troops. “ So throughly,” says the Wellington correspondent of the Times, “ are the settlers tired of this present system of warfare, which keeps the troops in the greatest idleness, neither road making nor fighting, hut only encouraging the natives to believe in our weakness, that it is understood the ministry will insist on the withthe Imperial troops as a cardinal point in their policy, when the Assembly meets next June.” Here, then, lies the chance of the early embarkation, for the more civilised parts of the world, of the five regiments and their brethren. If the ministers really insist on the withdrawal of the Imperial troops, one does not see how they can bo kept there. On the other hand, if the new superstition, with its manifest affection for the raw eyes and cooked brains of the clergy of ail denominations gains head, and blossoms into attacks upon the whole of our posts puts us, in short, on the defensive one docs not see how any soldiers whatever can get away. There lies the chance against the withdrawal of the five regiments. One thing is quite plain, that whether with or without the aid of Imperial troops, tho colonists are in for considerable fighting, eitncr in the shape of regular attacks or capricious onslaughts, or murderous expeditious against bishops, priests and ministers. Lawlessness is gaining ground. Friendly tribes even have not proved altogether impervious to the new faith—a horrid mixture of Paganism and Judaism. To our minds, Sir George Grey is not the man to deal with such a complicated mess. He wants frankness, firmness, and tact. Meanwhile every isolated settler must dubiously feel for his head every morning, look narrowly to his arms, and calculate to a nicety in how short a time he can do the distance to the nearest redoubt. After all, the best chance for the colonists seems to lie in the employment of native troops, and in the letting loose one tribe against another. Whatever sympathy may be felt for the Maori, none, we are sure, will be felt for the cannibal professors of an abominable religion, and all would willingly sec them removed off creation.