THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6498, 24 December 1881, Page 6

THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY.

Silt,—A great deal hoe been said by Minis, tors, and especially by Mr Bryce, and a great deal has been written by others, on the Native policy of tho present Government. We have been told by the above that the Native disturbance is at an end, but, Sir, I, for one, fail to see it. We are told by Mr Bryce that it was owing to his great precaution that war was avoided. He (Mr Bryce) says if a shot hod been fired no doubt it would hav - led to war. True! Would any number of mt-.» have been made targets of without retaliating, except the Maori##, for they never would have returned the fire ? la the first place, have we not Te Whitt’s word that no firearms should be used P Then, how were the Maories prepared for war ? Their only arm# were a few fowling-pico;*, generally used for pig-hunting purposes, and those were looked up in boxes when our army catered Parihaka. Ammunition they hod none, consequently it was an impossibility for the Maories to go to war. Then, with regard to the whole business being quietly settled as one of your contemporaries stated In the first place, the Maories hold their meetings on the 17th of each month now as before, pull up surveyor** pep now os before, and the Colony is keeping a larger force on the Plains now than ever there was before the famous sth of November. Sir, by aU this I fall to see how everything con bo quietly settled. One thing settled I can see, and that is we shall have to pay the large expenses, and for what? Ob,yes,true; it was election time.—l am, &c., FEED OOTBBLINQ. Dec. 83.