The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, THURSDAY, 2nd NOVEMBER, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 320, 2 November 1865, Page 3

The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, THURSDAY, 2nd NOVEMBER, 1865.

Vastly clever are some of the conductors of the press in the Mother. Country. They can take in at a glance the whole state of colonial affairs, and pronounce their judgment accordingly ; and this without, in fact, more than the merest acquaintance with things as they are amongst us. We, had hoped that the efforts put forth by the Colonial press in the days of the Hadfield slanders, to enlighten the British public, had dispelled the intense darkness that prevailed at that time, and vindicated the colonists of New Zealand from the foul and scandalous charges that certain good people of a, pseudo-philanthropic school thought it their duty to make against their absent brethren, in justification of the brutal ontrages they were suffering at the hands of a semi-savage and barbarous race. But we find that it is not so that there are those who believe, or pretend to believe, that the colonists have denounced a simple* and unoffending people as rebels because they posisessed extensive and fertile lands, which were greedily coveted by the grasping and oppressive colonist. We have given our readers a specimen of the articles to which we allude from the Morning Star, in our last issue, which is, perhaps, as good a one

as we could find for the purpose, as not only does it show the grievous- misconceptions entertained by the British public on the pointmore, .particularly. alluded to : but it alsoi serves to show how little is known of the pre-. :S,ent state of affairs with us. It is, however,, not so much to be wondered at that such misconceptions prevail. In the early days of our struggle it is ewli known that the influence of certain traitors amongst the Church Missionary party . was. exerted, through the medium of IJxeter Hall, to produce this result; and now the testimony of General Cameron— who has been mysteriously influenced in some way to turn against the triumphantly referred to as testifying that, in ;.tbe greed for the native lands, manifested by the Colonial. Government, they made no object of the lives of her Majesty’s officers and men. So also it is not be wondered at if our present relations with the rebels are misunderstood or misapprehended. The precious piece of foolery enacted by Mr George Graham and the arch-rebel Thompson was telegraphed home by parties scarcely less; foolish than ; himself, as the submission of : the And in the very same article we, have given from the Star General Camrron is awarded credit for having “ beaten the foe in the end, after they had won his respect and the admiration (!) of the civilised world, and. after the greedy schemes of the colonists had been thwarted by the Home Government, backed by public opinion.” It is scarcely credible that views such as these could have out-lived the stern logic of facts, taught by the action of the rebels in the murder of the good Volkner, the news of which had reached home previous to the publication of the Star’s article ; but so it was. And even, among ourselves we had a Bishop who, in solemn convocation, could excuse the hellish deed, and find something like a justification for the cannibal murderers. Perhaps the strongest reason for the delusion prevalent at home that the rebels are conquered, is to be found in the action taken by the late Ministry, who choose to pretend that such was the case, and even to tell the armed rebels the same thing in that abominable proclamation that resulted in the murder of their messengers. What was the precise wording of despatches sent home about that time we may perhaps learn more of bye and by than we now know; but we know enough to judge that they were calculated to produce and foster such an expression as that which now prevails. This is not the first time that the home journals have been misled by a cry of peace ; and when they have afterwards learned their error have responded “ Another war!” We believe that this is how the later news to be received by them will be again interpreted, while we who live in the theatre of events have not known of any peace, nor of any other war but the, one provoked, by Wiremu Kingi, at Taranaki, at the commencement of the rebellion, and continued down to the present day,—and even while we write raging in our almost immediate neighbourhood,— nor any submission of the Natives, —for their cry is still that King Natives and Hau-haus have nothing to do with the Queen’s Magistrates or the Queen’s Laws.