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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 763, 21 February 1870, Page 4

THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY. ["From the Evening Post, 14th February.] "We have at time* been accused of publishing sensational accounts ol the state of nati\ e matters, and mag nifying the dangers to be apprehended from them ; but everv candid man in the habit of reading the reports constantly arriving from the ISToi-th, must admit that the present state of affairs is as gloomy as can well be. and the prospects of peace as remote as they were a year ago. Kooti is still in vigor and vitality; his prestige restored; the source vhence be drives his supplies no longer a mvs tery boat loads of arms and ammunition procured in Auckland are actually seen going up the rivers into the interior. Tin king natives, on whom so much diplomacy has been expended, and whom we were all led a few weeks ago, to believe had given in their adhesion to the of law and order, are now arming, and, according to numerous authorities, preparing for movement against us when they see their way clear. At Tauranga our forces have been attacked by a party supposed not to be Te Kooti's men. At Ohinemuri, an attempt, to survey a block of purchased land has been met by forcible resistance. In fact among all the strong tribes in the Waikato and its neighborhood a general feeling of disaffection is growing up, which threatens to break out before long into open insurrectiou ; and now it only wants Titokowaru to emerge fioin his fastnesses in the "Waitara, (where he also may have'been preparing for all we know), to set the country in a blaze. This is the result of the policy of the present Ministry so far, and in which the country is evidently losingeontidence. Even in Auckland this feeling is spreading; the papers are beginning to advocate the necessity of a change of measures. The Advertiser says : —"The public of Auckland have contracted a habit of not expressing the slightest astonishment when they read of a morning in some apocryphal print, that M'Donnell, Kemp, Topia, Eraser, and Branigan have surround ed the savage chief, and are on the point of taking him. It cannot excite wonder, however, if they should contrast the great ptomises made by this same present administration with the absolute performance which has ensued." The Herald speaks in the same strain, and asserts that there are only two courses open to the Ministry; either to let Kooti alone altogether, " or stake all upon *i final struggle, and enter upon a war of races " This is the natural result to which all the bungling and ridiculous measures we have keen the victims of for so many years are tending. We are exhausting in detail the strength we should reserve for the final and inevitable struggle, and perhaps the sooner that Sgaies the better. Our affairs have

arrived at a crisis. We can no longer afford to have them interfered with and mismanaged, either by crack-brained enthusiasms, maudlin philanthropist?, or even JEnglish Secretaries of State. We must tell these dubious savages, whom we have so long been endeavoring to cajole out of their sulks, That they must either submit without a murmur to the restraints of our laws, or else they will suffer annihilation; and that we have the power to do so, if we use our resources aright, no one doubts. Race to race, we could crush them at once. Grear, as the cost of such a measure might be, it would be cheaper in the end than draining, as we are now doing, our life blood out in driblets. Every effort as yet made to subjugate the Maori has been only half-hearted; there has been a feeling among our troops, whether Imperial or Colonial, that they were held back, that they were intended more to frighten than to punish ; that, should they gain a success, it would be rendered fruit less by the action of some civil commissioner, paid apparently to en do what the troops had done; and the same feeling which disheartened our men and destroyed half their efficiency, encouraged the enemy. Once let our men know that they were no longer to be held back, and the Maoris that they had no more favor to expect, and a great point would be gained We have made these remarks in no spirit of hostility to the Government; on the contrary we have sup ported them at a time when their friends were few, and arc still inclined to support them, when their policy is such as we believe to be conducive to the interests of the country. While their measure-* were experimental, we endeavored to strengthen the hands of the Government, and allow them a fair trial; they have had it, and under most favorable circumstances, but even they themselves cannot say that their success has been such as they professed to anticipate. It is wiser far to confess a failure and endeavor to amend it than to evoke opposition in quarters, where they might command support.