The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 20, 24 January 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1870.

The aspect of native affairs at the present moment is far from encouraging. For the last six months there has been a lull in the atmosphere which some amongst us fondly believed was to prove the precursor of permanent peace, but lately there has arisen a cloud, afc first no bigger than a man's hand, but which has, within the last few weeks, spread to such au extent that the air may now be said to be black with clouds, and to show every symptom of the approach of a violent storm. And, during the breathing time that we have had, and the calm weather with which we have been favored, what have our rulers been doing? Have they been preparing for storms, or have they been lulled into a false sense of security by the serene but deceitful appearance of the sky? We shall soon see, but we confess that it is with a feeling of dread that we look forward to what the next few months are to bring forth. It may be purely, accidental, but no one can deny that it is a strange coincidence that at the precise moment when intelligence is received in New Zealand tbat the last regiment of British troops is to be withdrawn, — at that very time Te Kooti arises, as it were from the dead, and with a formidable band of followers appears on the scene, spreading consternation through the settled districts in the neighborhood of Tauranga and the Waikato, and threatening us once more with war to the knife. Meantime Mr. M'Lean has been hard at work leading the natives to suppose that we have discarded the idea of using prompt action and hard blows, preferring to substitute for them the milk-and-water policy of temporising and soft words. Afc this the Maoris are delighted, — give them their choice, and they will any day prefer flour, sugar, and nice warm blankets to powder, lead, and cold steel, and consequently they have, with oily tongues and deceitful hearts, humbugged our clever diplomatist to their heart's conteut. What says the news from the North? " There is every reason to believe that the King natives have been playing Mr. M'Lean false." There is a world of meaning in this, aud, what is still worse, there is every reason to believe that it is true* These same King natives make every profession of peace, and are loud in stating their desire that Te Kooti may fall into our hands, — so anxious, indeed, are they that this result may be attained, that they are willing to do all in their power to assist us in defeating and capturing this arch rebel. Their specious promises are soon put to the test. Te Kooti and his band enter their territory, and in hot pursuit of them are Kemp and Topia with a large force. Now is the time for his dusky majesty to prove the sincerity of his friendly professions. What can be easier for him than to unite with our allies, and with the two forces combined to literally annihilate our dread enemy? Had he been in earnest when he was so profuse in his promises to Mr. M'Lean, surely this would have been the course he might naturally have been expected to pursue,* but instead of this, he aud his subjects suddenly discover that they are averse to all fighting, and that they cannot allow the avengers of blood to come within their borders for the purpose of attacking the murderer Te Kooti.

So far it would appear that the negotiations of our Native Minister with the Kingites have proved a failure, but still this would not be a matter of so great moment if we had a thoroughly disciplined force to fall back upon. But here, too, it would seem that the course we have been pursuing is scarcely a judicious one. One of the first acts of the Fox Ministry was to "demilitarise" our Armed Constabulary. Of the folly of such a proceeding they had received full warning from Colonel Whitmore, who might naturally be supposed to be an authority on such subjects, and who remarked from his place in the House that in older countries it had been deemed advisable of late years to militarise the police, but here at the antipodes we are about to reverse the order of things, and to demilitarise our armed force. And so it is. We had a well-disciplined, welltrained force, fit to cope with the natives i in their strongholds in the bush, but we have been busily engaged in rendering them as useless as possible, and now we are going, if necessary, to fight the Maoris with a band of detectives ! Poor New Zealand ! Deserted by the mother country; trusting to a temporising, coaxing policy to allay the Maori rebellion ; and, in the event of such a course ending, as it must inevitably do, in a miserable failure, having nothing to fall back upon but a small body of detective police. If ever any country was made the victim of experiments, surely such is tbe case with the land in which we live.