The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 28, 3 February 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1870.

The slippery Te Kooti has once more evaded our grasp, and, according to the latest intelligence from the front, our wily foe has, although a few days ago he was near enough to the forces under Colonel M'Donnell to take them by surprise, and to make a wholly unexpected attack upon them, been sufficiently wideawake to throw so much dust in the eyes of his pursuers as to render them quite at a loss to discover his whereabouts. This cunning savage has, to our cost, established his reputation as a shrewd and a clever general, and if we are to meet him on equal terms, it is absolutely necessary that we should place our men under the command of one just as far sighted, acd possessed of as great strategical abilities aj the intelligent Maori whom he has to oppose. Colonel Whitmore was, on the accession to office of the present Ministry, deemed wanting iu the necessary qualifications of an officer who was to be pitted against so sharpwitted an antagonist, and great things were expected of Col. M'Donnell who was at that time reinstated in the command of our forces ; it will therefore create some surprise among those who had such implicit confidence in this last-named officer to find that the following telegram, dated Auckland, 29th January, has been received in Wellington : — M'Donnell sends word to the Government that he does not know where Te Koo'i has gone. He does not know what to do." There is something piteous about this — something that is strongly suggestive of the child's play which is characterising all our present dealings with the Maoris, and it brings to mind the thrilling narrative, which is poetically conveyed to childhood's innocent mind, of how a certain little lady, well known by repute to the .inhabitants of every well-regulated nursery, was once upon a time placed in a similar predicament to that iu which Colonel M'Donnell now finds himself. If our memory serves us aright the opening line of this charmiug little anecdote runs thus : — " Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can't tell where to find them.'' Words could not more graphically depict the position in which, as the Colonel " sends word to the Government," he is placed, aud it is even probable that he is now doing as did the minute shepherdess when she found herself in so awkward a fix. If any credit is to be attached to the poem referred to, the little lady at once " fell fast asleep and dreamt she saw them coming," and upon awaking from her nap she proceeded to the spot where in her dreams she had seen the objects of her search and there, to her great delight, she found them. As Colonel M'Donnell " does not know what to do v he may possibly have recourse to the same expedient, and within a few hours, the wires may flash across to us the welcome intelligence that his adoption of such a course has been attended ■with a similar

result, and that Te Koofci, whom he is unable to cope with in his waking moments, may have been delivered into his hands through information supernaturally conveyed to him in a dream. But even should this forlorn hope prove futile there is yet another chance for Col. Whitmore's successor — he has a detective with him ! The same telegram which informs us that Col. M'Donnell is in a state of iguoranee as to what he shall do next, conveys the gratifying intelligence that Mr. Policeman Branigau is at the Front. True, it goes on to say that his presence there "is said to be doing harm," and that " the officers do not like to serve under him," but this it is difficult to believe. It seems almost impossible that the presence of a domineering detective can do otherwise than tend to the success of a military expedition, or that any military officer can object to serving uuder a policeman. Besides, if any of our officers entertained any such absurd notions, it is high time that they were driven out of their heads, for have we not made up our minds that it is for the benefit of the colony that we should at once " demilitarise " our little army, — that the blunt soldierlike manner into which the men had been trained by previous Commanders should as speedily as possible be exchanged for that of the town-perambulat-ing policeman, and that the rough and ready bushman should be transformed into the oily, smooth-tongued detective ? Aud, having determined upon this, who so capable of carrying out our ideas as Mr Commissioner Branigan, a man who has seived iu the ranks of the police force, is well acquainted with all the duties required of that very useful body of men, and therefore must of necessity be the very man to undertake the management of a campaign in wild bush country against an enemy well armed aud well versed in the tactics of guerilla warfare. Are there any good grounds for the uneasy feeliDg that is now abroad with regard to native matters ? The state of affairs seems to be something as follows ; — We have a Native Minister busily engaged in temporising and coquetting with the Maoris, who, as we are assured, are in their turn " humbugging " him ; we have a commanding officer who suffers himself to be surprised by the very man he is pursuing, and of whom, when the fight is over, he loses all traces : and, above all, we have a promoted policeman busily engaged in undoing all that was taught our men by the warlike Whitmore, creating dissension and discontent among the officers by his supercilious, dictatorial manner, and, in short, rendering the whole force to which we have to look for the internal defence of the country as unmilitary, and as useless as could possibly be hoped for, even by Te Kooti himself. This is the way in which we are preparing to defend ourselves in the absence of all assistance from England.