Hawke's Bay times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1870.,

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 757, 31 January 1870, Page 2

Hawke's Bay times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1870.,

We recognize an old friend in the leading article of our contemporary of the 28th. Those extracts —clipped and garbled to produce a certain effect—the Government published in the Wellington Independent three days before their appearance in a Parliamentary Paper. Government supporters of extreme views were ashamed of the proceeding—it had a nasty look ; but the present Government is not very thin-skinned, and as a false impression could be created by suppressing the context, of confidential telegrams not intended for publication, it deemed that the end justified the means. Each of the precious extracts now republished shows why it is selected. Honorable men would scorn to take such a course; for no public advantage Ciin arise from misleading public opinion. The Government has held office, and had control of a fine force, large funds, and half the native population for seven months. No intrigues have impeded it—no Government agencies devoted to the interests of their opponents have published false rumors to the country, has tampered with their natives, and the criticism I of those whom they displaced has been temperate and moderate in tone. Yet seven months have passed, and things are no better than they were. Te Kooti, the only rebel in arms when they took office, is (we hope we may soon say was) as powerful as they found him Comparisons are odious, but they invite them. In seren months Mr Stafford had to meet a great difficulty—an. outbreak on both coasts for which the country was wholly unprepared. Facing this state of things boldly, between November 1868 and February 1869 he raised a force which restored the prestige of our arms. Within those seven months he subjugated the West Coast, he struck a heavy blow at, Ngatapa, anil, perhaps the present Go \ eminent would say, another at Makaretu, He ravaged the Uriwera mountains, and compelled Te Kooti to leave his refuge in order to obtain food upon the plains. The Government admitted on the 25th in their official bulletin—and we believe it cannot be denied • -that when this occurred Te Kooti was in a worse position than he has been before .or since. We are i'ree to do so oucsel ves, and to waive the minute and frivolous point of the exact date of the occurrence, whether this was a day or two before or after Mr Fox took office, which is. of no moment. On the eve of resignation, all cabinet action was necessarily suspended. Fortunate it is that Mr Stafford did not act at once, for had he not detained the St. Kilda, Colonel Whitmore, like Colonel Herrick and Colonel Lyon, have received orders to turn back at the moment when he was about to attack Te Kooti's favorable position. Thus his retreat would have been made, had he obeyed his orders, actually in presence of the enemy. Our contemporary, and the party whose interests he advocates, forge's that the country has had by this time a pretty good dose of their criticism upon their opponents. Every dog has its day, and they have had seven months, beginning with Te Kooti in the easy position abovemeutione'l, (o show whether they were able to do better than their predecessors. They have had no force to raise, to waste one half their time. They have had no double difficulty of two coasts in flames. They have had no triumphant enemy to repel from the very threshold of their towns. Theirs has been an easy task, and they have not performed it. We hope they may yet do better, and show some vigor at last. But the Government or their commanders, whoever they may be- -for there are many fingers in the pie—can point to nothing ac-

compliifhed in the last «e x en month? whatever. Negotiation has Dot been, more successful than demilitarization.' We utterly repudiate the release of Te Hura, and if the late Government (as is pretended) promised to take this step after peace was re-estab-lished—which it is not yet, by-the-bye—it if* possible that they might have been impeached. At all events, two wrongs do not make one right. It is the present, not the late Government that is on its trial, and the enlargement of a cannibal murderer and conveyance of she ruffian in a coach and four to the Waikato is an error of policy for which e\ery Englishman in New Zealand must blush. We do not wish to deprive the Government of any pleasure they may find in what they call " exposing the fallacies" of the comparatively tender criticism they suffer; but hope ohey will cease this attempt to shelter themselves behind the acts of their political opponents. We wish they would stand on their own bottom, and defend themselves by deeds rather than newspaper articles. Their own adherents waver. The Wellington "Post" has published several unanswerable articles. We want no red herring drawn across the scent. We know why the silly retreat from Waikarimoana was ordered : we have now an admission of what was lost by that from Galatea. Had the Government at once brought the war to an end, it would have appeared too palpable how little was left to do. This is the most charitable construction to pu'. on the matter. The alternative wouM be to suppose they have done their best. If the latter is the case, then they think that incessant telegrams published all over the Colony declaring Te Kooti to be hemmed in, or to be attacked next day, or hotly pursued by countless troops, or, more naively than all, ignorant that 1,500 men were hunting him, constitutes the whole duty of the Cabinet. We do not take this view, and would prefer to see these things done before they are boasted about, and, meanwhile, we would like to know wliy all these intended successes miscarried. We have one word for the peculiarly shabby quotation and shabbier production of a portion of a telegram from Colonel Herrick. Wisely the Government has not published the wnole of this and similar communications. Wiser perhaps had they avoided what they have done, because this extract conveys a lesson Colonel Herrick is a modest as well as a resolute man, ailu " disliked to report his victories or to count his scalps before he gained them. He raised none of the sanguine expectations of the past seven months' Government telegraphy. But he was not less a dangerous man for vhe Uriweras if he had been allowed to attack them, and he would assuredly have taken their pa if he had not been prevented. A primary object of the expedition was to show that no physical obstacles, no difficulties of the season, could prevent the Pakeha from carrying out his purpose, and that lesson would have been taught for all time to the wild Uriweras by the charred relics pf their fortifications, had not the Government prevented his success, and so rendered that costly expedition abortive. No true desire for economy prompted this litile-minded measure, for within a few days natives were once more pur on pay more lavishly than before. What 300 of the men at Galatea would have done easily and gladly in a week, some 1,000 to 1,200 persons scattered from Napier to'Taupo failed to achieve in seven months. We hope to see no more such economy. If the chances of wai favor Te Kooti's escape, (and in spite of telegraphic certainties, it is only fair to the troops to' consider such a contingency possible) ho will perhaps return to Ruatahuna, vhere the crops are nearly ripe. If he does, the " Donald "M'Lean" and the " New Ministry " will require to be raised where they were sorrowfully sunk by the troops in ten-fathom water at Waikarimoana. If they prove unfit for use, all the expense and delay must be repeated, for that is the gate of the mountains from, the East. We are fain to hope better things however of the Patetere'

expedition, though perhaps not all that U promised by telegraph. We are only too thankful to see any effort being made, and we have great confidence in Kemp, \vho did all that has been done as yet during the past seven months. We dare not con? template a failure, for Te Kooti's escape would be a national misfortune now, the state of the country is so critical. The 18th have gone. The Ministry warned us that this would powerfully excite the native mind. This is of less importance than our own force, but even that is disappearing, and our trained men daily demanding their discharge; while Government is training and arming half the Maoris in the Island. And now for the so called "mutiny " of eight days at Forb Galatea, about which we learn in the article before us a few interesting details for the first time, The insubordination of the men at Galatea was not against military service, and it is shameful to attempt to insinuate that because they committed themselves in one way they would have misbehaved in another way which every one would consider disgraceful, The spade is hateful to a soldier. Tn Jones' sieges it may be seen that what the men did at Galatea was only on a par with what every corps in the army did at Badajos save the Guards. Want of sufficient food made the British army disband under the very eyes of "*Lord Wellington during the retreat from Burgos, in spite ot the most strenuous exertions. Is it wonderful that men should seize upon the least excuse to get off hard road work, or that one so ready as insufficiency of food should make the colonial recruits act as did their forefathers at Badajos 1 But to say they would not have fought as well as those heroes did in the fatal breach is a cowardly and unmerited slander upon brave men. Accident prevented the authority for an increased ration reach in g .Galatea —the orderly carrying the despatch was Mhot. Eight days were thus lost in reference after the men refused to work. The day the reply arrived, repeating the grant of extra rations for extra work, and promising that their misconduct should be overlooked if the men at onc3 lesumecl their toil, they cheered and went at it with a will. In giant cuttings in the Pangataiki gorge may be «een hov\ those gallant fellows acquitted 'themselves of their distasteful One of the telegrams produced is front an emissary of the late opposition, a carpet knight whose experience has not been' gained in active service. Presumably his horror at the rusty look of their carbines and want of barrack-square steadiness on parade is telied upon to show that colonial troops would not have fought Te Kooti in the open plain. Col. Whitmore knew them better, and was on the eve of departure to share their fortunes in the enterprise, so we think that in spite of the rusty carbines or deficient drill Mr Fox should have pushed on. But we do.not wish to prolong this argument. The retreat from Galatea was a disgraceful sacrifice of the interests of the country and a foregone conclusion. The "mutiny" was a fortunate excuse, and every effort was made to exaggerate its character and duration. It is a bad topic for political discussion, because military discipline is too delicate and too important an element of efficiency to be imperilled, and such a course tends to render such difficulties chronic. The present Government has had its own troubles of the same kind, and their successors will find some curious details in Mr Ormond's confidential telegraph correspondence, unless, unlike the late Goverinent, they make away with it. Poor countries cannot afford to carry on war with all the accessories employed by wealthy states, and cannot always prevent these hitches. We cannot, for instance, spare funds for huge depots and magazines, guarded by inactive troops in every direction where by possibility they might, under some circumstances, facilitate operations; nor can we afford large commissariat or transport establishments. We must make our means provide the most efficient fighting men we can, and do our best to keep them supplied. In the na-

ture of things they ranst undergo great hardship, and their officers can appeal to no patriotism, no esprit de corps, no sympathy of their fellowsettlers in urging + hern to bear and suffer. "We have banished soldierly feeling from the ranks, —the country does- not *how felloAV feeling for the men. The best men are daily leaving, and the officers' task is hard and ungrateful. Do not let us bandy words on this point; to win would be to establish a national misfortune. Whatever else we differ about let us unite to preserve discipline.