THE DUTIES OF BRITISH SOLDIERS

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 171, 17 April 1869, Page 6

THE DUTIES OF BRITISH SOLDIERS

The following paragraph has lately been going the rounds of the papers “ Since the attack on Turoturomokai we have had killed and wounded on the East and West Coasts 240 Europeans, including the families massacred in Poverty Bay. , About 180 stand of arms, in rifles, revolvers, and swords, have been captured by the Maoris. This calculation has been made by Sergeant Forsythe, of the 18th Royal Irish, who has kept a record of the actions.” There is a grim humour about such a statement as this that would create a smile were it not of such serious import. A British colony is in a blaze of rebellion, and . fearful attrocities are everywhere being committed ; in that colony is a British regiment, and the only evidence we have of its interesting itself at all in what is going on around it is, that one of its officers occasionally takes out his memorandum book and notes dostt- the number of those who have fallen victims to the Queen’s enemies. What a noble for a historical picture! Would that wo had the pencil of an- artist to depict it as it appears before our mind’s eye. In the foreground aro blazinghomesteads and the mangled corpses ot men, women, and children, dancing round which, in wild exultation at the ruin and murders they have committed, is an infuriated host of naked savages; in the distance —at a safe distance, quite out of the reach of any stray bullets—7oo men wearing the uniform of her Majesty’s 18th Royal Irish are quietly looking on at the deadly game which is being played between the settlers and their . savage foe, while one of their number is keeping the score! In no part of the civilised world, and at no period of its history, we suppose, was such a sight ever witnessed as that now to be seen in|New Zealand. Settlers and their families are everywhere being cruelly murdered, and their property representing years and years of hard labor, utterly destroyed, the law is completely set at defiance by a horde of savages who are fondly supposed to : he British subjects, and whilst all these fearful deeds are being perpetrated, some 700 British soldiers are quietly enjoying themselves in the town, and leaving the defence of tho country to a half-trained, ill-discip-lined body of colonial troops. Suppose for one instant that such a state of things had been allowed during the Indian Mutiny, . that the Cawnpore Massacre had simply ■been recognised by the English Government granting permission to the authorities to retain a certain number of British troops in India, on the express condition that they were not to be exposed to any danger—that no steps had been taken to crush the mutineers at Delhi —-no assistance rendered to . the defenders of .Lucknow —what would Europe have thought of such a spectacle ? How would England’s prestige have been affected on the Continent and in America? ‘}J I Jt remains for New Zealand to prove that it is not the lives and welfare of her subjects for which England cares, but the pounds, shillings, and pence that are to be derived from the colonies which she takes under her wing, and the kudos to be gained bye protecting them from their enemies. There is no. glory in fighting the Maoris, and no substantial reward to be obtained from the New Zealand colonists when their t enemies have • been overthrown, and therefore we are. left to ourselves, and the only ".consolation we receive from the Home . .'Country is a telegram to the effect that i; much sympathy has been expressed in England oh the arrival of the news of the - Poverty Bay massacres. If the friends we have left behind us in what we would fain call “/the ) Mother Country” really sympathise with us in our troubles, let them show it in a more substantial manner thau a mere form of words, and in some more ' effective way than the bare permission to retain in the colony a regiment, whose principal duties are to: consist of keeping count of the number of lives they might have saved, had they been allowed to pursue their legitimate occupation.—Nelson Evening Mail.