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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 752, 13 January 1870, Page 3

. IS FLAX A DANGEROUS CARGO? With reference to the statement that two missing ships have been burnt through the flax which formed part of their cargo igniting, we (Wairarapa Mercury) publish the following letter, with which we thoroughly agree :—" The suspicion that a ship which is missing has been burnt through having flax on board, has led to an advance in freight and insurance, wh.ch it maintained, will be quite destructive to the most rising and promising of New Zealand industries ; whilst in the meantime it is suffering a severe discouragement, at a period when hope in a better future was decidedly on the revival. Some learned body, many years ago had a proposition submitted to them, to the effect, 'Why a fish weighed heavier in water than it did when out? After the subject had experienced a somewhat lengthy consideration, an old Scotchman is reported to have said somewhat suddenly, 'I doot the fact.' This.led to enquiry, and there was no fact upon which to base the assertion. Have we any evidence of a ship ever having been set on fire by New Zealand flax? I have not, but should like to have the evidence furnished, if there be such. Now have we not abundant proof of ships having been burnt by wool cargo, and was not the last, 1868-69 a very wet shearing season ? Is it not therefore, probable that a considerable quantity of wet wool was shipped? Is there not suspicion, if not proof that woolin the grease has fired ships? Is not the present a very wet shearing season? Can anyone doubt that a good deal of wet wool will be shipped—is shipping now ? Had one or more ships, laden solely with flax, been burnt, or had flax on board ships' having also wool been seen on fire, undoubted proof would exist that flax had taken ffre on board ship; but even not then that it was a more dangerous cargo to carry than wool. To me nothing can be more illogical than thi* assumption, so mischievous to the Colony's prospects, for it is only an assumption, of the danger of flax ,in a cargo. State the case thus : ' Wool is known to have burnt ships —flax is not known to have burnt . ships—fiax and wool have beer i shipped in the same vessel, therefore ' flax was the cause of the burning, 1 When fiax is seen burning on boarc [ a vessel or one or more ships, flas • laden have been burnt, then there may arise justification for flax bein£ 1 charged a higher insurance thai: wool. To me it appears that pooi ' fiax got into bad company in travel : ling with the shoddy aristocracy, anc is a sufferer in consequence. But h< > is young, and 1 am satisfied will yet and soon take a high (his proper ! position in the manufacturing inter • est of the world. The subject is sc important to the flax-dressers of tin [ district that I hope you will do you.] ) best to destroy what appears at pre > sent a mere populai delusion."

THE ENGLISH PRESS ON NEW ZEALAND. AFFAIRS. The Saturday Review thinks that however weighty Lord Granville's arguments rpay be, they would not amount to a feather in the scale, after news had arrived of calamities such as those which stirred the blood of England at the tidings of 'the Indian Mutiny; and if Lord Granville's hard reasoning would break down in the crisis, it cannot be justified unless such a catastrophe is beyond all reasonable anticipation. It is not the time now to discuss the wisdom or leniency of past dealings with the so-called rebellious natives, whether by the authority of this country, or more recently of the colonists themselves. It is enough to say that concessions won by assassination are not likely to make the Maoris better subjects or sater neighbors, in whichever light we may choose to regard them. If the white settlement is to survive, it must, 7 either with its own resources or ours, show itself strong enough to punish such barbarians as Te Kooti and his associates. If the local forces should prove unequal to the conflict, as Lord Granville considers them to be, the Colony will have to choose between annihilation and some other allegiance. In either event it would be possible for Lord Granville or his successor to repeat that the colonists have themselves to blame for their misfortunes, and they have no right to expect from the mother country anything more than ill-timed and ungenerous criticism of their past follies. If the tone of Lord Granville's last despatch truly represents the feelings of this country, the duration of our colonial empire would be easily reckoned. A lew years of persistency in this disposition would cover half the earth with independent communities hating us with a bitterness beyond even the bitterness of the United States. And then, perhaps, the "anti-colonial" party would glory in the fulfilment of their ill-omened prophecies. , The Broad Arrow says :-—We do no . believe, as a matter of right, that any Ministry is justified in seeking to contract the limits of the empire. Yet this is piecisely what the Liberal Ministry is doing under the " pretence that the colonies would be worth more a;< markets if they were independent. The time has been when intrigue of this kind (for it is nothing less) would have been regarded as an act of high treason against the Crown. The only question now is —we have become so mild and toler- , ant—whether Parliament will lend its sanction to the conspiracy; or, , whether without waiting for. the •opinion of Parliament, my Lord i Granville will refuse to make any , arrangement with the New Zealand . Commissioners, and refuse the em- ? ployment of the troops under any . conditions whatever. We wait to , see. The Times observes: —Lord Gran- ; ville does not disguise his suspicions 1 that the colonists have been impolitic 1 —not to say ungenerous, and even : unjust in their dealings with Maori * rights.' He deems apparently, the ) Maoris entitled to have had their i native jurisdiction, within its proper ) limits, more fully recognised. His r remarks are open, also, to the con- : struction that lie considers them to - have been unfairly deprived of cer--5 tain of their proper domains. • All t this, indeed, may be fair matter of i question; but it is undeniable that 2 the Maoris are convinced they have . been thus defrauded of their rig]its, 3 that on these giounds they engaged c in the present war, and that the 3 colonists led straight to a new I Maori war, neglected utterly to prei pare for it. The truthfulness of r Lord Granville's argument on the - actual position and on the course the I colony should take to escape out of 3 it is quite independent of any possi- -, bly controvertible questions how the ) colony has glided into it. The '- colony has chosen self government 3 and responsibility with it, We cone car fully, moreover, in the proposir tion that the first duty of a community which claims self-government is 'deliberately to measure its re| sources, and, at whatever immediate 10 sacrifice, to adjust its policy to e them." It is as unreasonable and

for New Zealand in itsj ioiitical '.capacity to J?eg help in a; ||omestio v from Great •jpitjiiii as it V0u1,4 ??<? for Berkshire; fa importune Oxfordshire to assist it In paying its rates. For Great Britain to grant help is to retard She growth of the manly spirit of ielf reliance without which colonial is a mockery. The Spectator has the following:— ♦We have observed elsewhere on Lord Granville's remarkable despatch to the Governor of New Zealand, wherein he peremptorily declines to allow the retention of the 1 8th Regiment, and confesses that nis object in weakening the colony is to compel it to make peace with the Maoris, acknowledge their independence, and restore the confiscated land. As Lord Granyille is bold enough to assert that the policy which he wishes to see reversed is one " which the Home Government have always regarded as pregnant with danger:' we quote the following passages in a despatch from the Duke of Newcastle to Sir George Grey, <lated November 26, 1863, in which, after reciting the plan of the Governor of New Zealand for the confiscation of some rebels' land in the Waikato, and its distribution to settlers on a sort of military tenure, he goes on —"I do riot disapprove of this measure. I think that any body of natives that takes up arms against Her Majesty on such quarrels as alleged by the Waikatos, may properly be punished by a confiscation of a large part of their common property. I think that the lands thus acquired may properly be employed in meeting the expenses of carrying on the war, nor do I see any objection to using them as sites for military settlements." In another despatch the I)uke especially warned the Governor against making peace too soon, till the natives have been fully convinced that they were worsted. The Home Government have regarded the policy which they now wish to reverse, as pregnant with danger, not precisely always, but only since it jbecame expedient to pick a quarrel \vith the colony.