Colonial.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 573, 1 May 1858, Page 4

Colonial.

TARANAKI. We find in the Auckland papers some comments by the press of Taranaki which further illustrate .the position of the native affairs of that province at the time of the latest advices. The next arrival we expert, to bring news of the most interesting- character. ..(From the 'Taranaki Herald.') A short time since, when Maori aggressions were becoming intolerable, the Provincial Coun-cil-of New Plymouth memorialised His Excellency Governor Browne for relief. Asa proof of their earnestness, and, we may add, responsibility in the matter, they unanimously resolved in favour of the New Plymouth Battalion of New Zealand Militia being at once drawn out for service. His Excellency in Council adopted prompt and energetic measures to meet the crisis. Armed assemblies within English territory were strictly forbidden, and, in reference to the Militia, an officer was despatched to Taranaki in all haste to use every exertion to organise and ren-der-it a serviceable force. Nor were the settlers themselves less careful for the public safety. Aware of the magnitude of the evil to be repressed, they recognised the prudence cf the measure taken by theTrovincial Council, flocked from all parts of the country in answer to his i Excellency's appeal to them that they would | place themselves in such a state of readiness as j to ensure that, in the event of active measures becoming necessary, every possible aid would be afforded by them in of her Majesty's authority; and three hundredmen were drawn for immediate organisation from more than twice that number assembled for the purpose. This is the simplest and plainest language in which we can give an outline of the case. Our readers have before them the official documents, from which it will be seen that the province urged two distinct grounds of complaint against the Maories, one for fighting within onr terri - tory, the other for carrying weapons which enabled them to do so. His Excellency's proclamation upon the subject, and the accompanying despatches, are equally clear and conclusive as to the grievances complained of on the one hand and the remedies to be applied on the other. Yet, strange to say, all has miserably miscarried. The settlers are still exposed to the dangerous nuisance of armed savages hovering in every direction, and the neutrality of the soil, which ■constituted the gravamen of the Council's appeal,"is hourly violated by them.

It was not to be expected that Natives pampered and unchecked from the time of Mr. Willoughby Shortiaad.—Natives who have insulted every Governor who has set foot in Taranaki, would respect a Governor's proclamation ■at once; and we can gather nothing from the official documents to lead to so improbable an inference. The proclamation depended for its pacific solution entirely upon the energy and firmness with which the terms were insisted upon by the local authority to whose care and management the important document was committed.

Several informations have from time to time been preferred by the settlers against natives for infringing the proclamation, and the Resident Magistrate succeeded for a time in misleading the public as to his real intentions. Our present observations, however, more immediately refer to the information laid on Tuesday last by the native chief and Assessor Poharama of. Moturoa, who, it should be stated, has stood; alone amongst the assessors in the cause of law -and order throughout the native disturbances. Poharama, viewing the extreme danger of allowing natives to enter the settlement with arms, placed himself in communication with the Sergeant of the armed police, and subsequently attended at the Resident Magistrate's Court, accompanied by the Provincial Secretary, to •charge some town natives, including Waka the native Assessor, with arriving from Waitara and returning thither with arms, against the tenor of the proclamation. And if we consider that the town natives habitually bring their arms to the Kawau pa close to the Resident Magistrate's Court, within sight of the garrison, jind in the heart of the town, it will be agreed' that the case was one Gf considerable airgravartion and defiance. The Resident Magistrate, however, refused to admit Poharama to be sworn, but stated that he would forward the: ■statement to Auckland J How refreshing to turn from this official manoeuvring to the rejimrks of one-of the sitting magistrates who "considered the information, as coming within -the instructions, which accompanied the proclamation.—that many of the bench differed in .opinion from'the Resident Magistrate, and that ibr ins own part lie had no doubt that the collection of natives in the pas within the boundaries prescribed for the purpose of war, was such a

breach of the law as the proclamation and instructions contemplated. Anything more perplexing to "the Government than the failure of the Assessor to compel the respect of-his own tribe to the proclamation could not happen; and we are glad to seethe case taken in hand by the Provincial Council. On Wednesday they suspended standing orders, appointed a special committee with power to call for persons and papers, and invested their speaker with full powers under the "Privileges Act, 1855," of the General Assembly. Some such prompt and energetic measure was called for to test whether these bowie-knife and revolver practices are to have a place in our system. Natives—so says our sapient resident magistrate in explaining the proclamation—must not fight on English territory, but they may arm to the teeth—a dangerous" neighbour must not be disarmed until his fury has been expended"on a victim, and as to the neu<&fcility of the soil we must not be too exacting on that head. The community are opposed to such impotent conclusions. The proclamation, say they, is not to cure evil but to prevent it, and the neutrality of the soil as a first necessary should, at all hazards, be inflexibly enforced. This is what the Provincial Council prayed for at the hands of Governor Browne, and it is what they still conceive the community are entitled to under the I proclamation of His Excellency. [ On the eve of going to press -we have received the important news that Ihaia, Nikorima, Tamati Euka, and sixteen other .natives in the Karaka pa have offered to surrender themselves unconditionally to the Government, and have applied for protection as British subjects until they can be put upon their trial for being implicated in the killing'of Katatore and Ms kinsman. The appeal is urgent, and let us hope, in the name of justice and humanity, that there will be no hesitation on the part of the military and civil authorities in the province to meet it at once. We need not say that a reference to Auckland under the most favourable circumstances would unavoidably involve a sad waste of human life in the meantime—and, moreover, that such an application as the present, coming even from the guiltiest of her Majesty's subjects, cannot legally be denied. The 'Southern Cross' makes the following remarks:— In the 'Taranaki News,' we read that "Ihaia, perceiving that the time was fast approaching when the Karaka and its dependencies would become untenable, had resolved, as a last resource to avoid the cruel fate that impends from his merciless .enemies, to request British protection, that he might be tried by British law and receive British justice." Subsequently, however, he " altered Ms mind, and preferred to die as a warrior, gun in hand, at the Waitera, to chancing the result of the alliance he had before contemplated." But Ih?.ia is not alone in the pa; there are others who may overbear his present resolution. It therefore becomes the duty of the Government to be prepared with a definite course of action in the event of the demand for protection being renewed, —either to accord it, without an hour's delay, or to refuse in terms so absolute as to leave not the slightest hope of it under any circumstances. We have not a shadow of doubt upon our own mind about the matter. The question is not of expediency, but of duty. This duty is plain and unmistakable; to give protection, whatever may be the result. All by-cousiderations have to be cast aside, all questions of future risk, where duty is involved. Man cannot foresee what is to come; but he cannot err in boldly meeting every immediate occasion with what he knows and feels to be right. Let him trust to an all-wise providence for the rest, hardening his mind against possible consequences by the consciousness of rectitude. We are aware of the ready answer to what we urge;—that it is easy for us, in Auckland, where no present' danger is incurred, to talk of putting risk at defiance; but all who know us -will admit | that we should hold the same language, even if placed in the very thick of the conflict. Isor do we believe that such an answer will be made; for the Taranaki settlers, if the memorial to the Governor may be taken as a faithful exponent of public opinion, appear to have cast all selfish considerations to the winds. They fully perceive the difficulties and the dangers; but they concur in praying his Excellency to rescue the beleaguered inhabitants of the Karaka pa j from the hands of the besiegers. There is little doubt that if the pa be taken, women and children will be subjected to indiscriminate massacre. We say that if such a crimabe perpetrated,after an appeal to the British Government for protection, all England would rise in just indignation against us, as unworthy any longer to exercise that self-government which we have so long contended for, and at last achieved. The main difficulty appears to be this:—that if Ihaia place himself in our power, we are bound to place him on his trial for murder. It is not impossible, that under the extenuating circumstances which would be urged, taken in conjunction with his having been only an accessory before the fact, a jury might decline to convict him of the capital offence. But were they to do so, the responsibility of the Government would become extreme. A more difficult and doubtful question, under the circumstances, can scarcely be conceived, —whether the clemency of the Crown,should be extended to him, or whether the law should be suffered to take its course. We have argued on the presumption of the appeal for protection being renewed. Let us go one step farther, and state our opinion that it is the duty of the British authorities to relieve the bssieged at once, whether formally "^requested by themselves, or not. Let us adduce one more argument, which, if urged by a native of Ihaia's party, would be unanswerable. He might fairly place the question in the following point of view. "Are the troops maintained in the colony solely to fight against the Maori; or are they maintained for the protection of all the subjects of the Queen alike? Ii" the former, it is time for us to unite in common bond against them: if the latter, let them fi( ibrd protection to us, our wives and children, now in danger of being slaughtered." The diIrmina is complete.