"REPRESENTATIVE MEN."

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 790, 26 May 1870, Page 4

"REPRESENTATIVE MEN."

fFrona the Eyetrie? Post, 13th May. J f7s quoted yesterday a paragraph from the Melbourne Leader, which iurew a parallel between Te Kooti #nd Power,, the Victorian bush ganger, describing them as *'repve tentative men." We scarcely think, however, that the analogy holds. A far better parallel could be instituted between Kooti and Dr. Livingstone. No two inviduals mentioned jn the fiMory of any country ha\e ever survived n> many perils J)w atone has perished in the deserts of Africa from hunger and thirst on several occasions; helms been robbed and killed by hostile saxages, who have oven gone so far as to burn him, and yet he is still alive, and .shortly expected to emerge from the '" antres A'ast and deserts idle," where he has been so long a sojourner, and, rich in gathered lore, again seek the haunts of civilised men. Te Kooti ]bas been repeatedly Vanquished on the buttle plain, His followers slaughtered, fled, or taV.u. He has been surrounded scores of and his escape rendered impossible ; he has been wounded repeated lv, and lost lingers and toes beyond* the power of arithmetic to reckon; he has been killed and buried, and actually anchored out at sen, where it was supposed that his unquiet body would be at rest for ever; but the "sea gave up its dead, the ocean refused to hide the crimes pf the arch-cannibal, or to receive the filtli of the land, and washed the biscuit case up high ami dry on the lonely bench by Tauranga. Kooti burst the flax ropes which bound him, and again rook the fiekMn pristine stiength and audacity. Yes, Livingstone and Kooti are " repre sentative men;' and worthy of being added to the roll of those immortalfeed by Emerson. Livingstone, who Of the mountain and the flood, And 'ini-ist lha silent wilderness A. conqueror has stood, U the representative of the calm, persevering courage —rhe skill and capacity for overcoming obstacles, and, with the slightest possible means achieving the greatest results, Which have ever been the distinguishin"' characteristics of our race, and have placed it in the van of nations. Kooti is the representative of the class formed by .weak vacillation and gross mis government in New Zea Enid— a class which, from a pardal civilization, has relapsed into its ancient savagery, intensified by the perverted knowledge it has received from European sources, and possess ing all the vices of the Maori in the state in which we found him with out one of his rude virtues Kooti and his compeers are the monsters pur Legislative Frankensteins have preated, and they may well be proud of their handiwork. For years past they have, been to us an incubus—a nigh:mare —an old man of the sea—whLh we ha\e vainly tried to shake pff, and which has retarded our growth and crippled our energies We have submittal with scarcely a jnunnur to fresh taxation year by year, until we are now staggering under the load, lured on by the hope that the end was near, and that in a short time longer we should breathe more freely ; but all our hopes have proved delusive, and we are now ex periencing the. bitterness of their deferment. Lately we have had prospects —perhaps brighter than have shown themselves to us for years. We knew that great bungling had been going on as usual in the conduct of the " war" as we call it, and that the results* achieved were very Inadequate to the means employed; still, after all, webelie\ed that the] insurrection had received a crushing blow, and was confined to small limits. Kooti was said to be a fugitive, and with a small following; later we heard that his followers were deserting him and coming in to sue for peace ; we thought it pos-dblej that the rebellion might wear itself put, and be heard of no more; but pur latest news from Auckland throws doubt upci this. Papers in the interest of the Government assert that Kooti's capture is imminent, he being in no position to resist; font others say that these assertions fire false, and that he is. again in the isifJL able to move as pf old.

What tlie tp\t>k may be is known only to those behind the scenes—if indeed even they know. Hews from " the front" bas bng been utterly unreliable, and all our notions of wavlike operations are exceedingly hazy. The prevent slate of affair* is unsatisfactory in the extreme. The Colony does not know whether it is at peace or at war. We hear of Ropata always going to do something, but he seems to be "marking time." We see the new constabulary armed and marched off--what becomes of thorn? Active operations are sus-j pendod, and we read in Auckland piper thai "Kooti is out again'' flow long is all this to last? j