The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 67, 21 March 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1870.

We chanced the other day to take up a copy of the Times of October last containing a letter from the Wellington correspondent of that journal in which there occurred a passage that appears to us to furnish as severe' a comment as could possibly be passed upon the manner in which the affairs of this country tire administered. The writer, first of all, alludes to the chauge of Ministry that had taken place consequent upon the defeat of Mr. Stafford, and then proceeds to touch upon the native war, and, in the course of his remarks he refers to the services of Colonel Whitmore who, he is glad to fiud, is to receive a reward from the Home Government for those services in tiie shape of the order of St. Michael and St. George, an honor- to which he considers Colonel Whitmore is fully entitled by the skill and judgment he has displayed in his position of commander of the colouial forces. This is as it should be, for we believe that there are few to be found who would deny that Colonel Whitmore had rendered services of a most valuable description to the colony, but then we find a paragraph which seems to point out in the most marked manner one of the most prominent evils attendant upon our present system of Government. The words to which we refer run as follows. — "This most deserving officer, who unfortunately has been shelved through political necessity," &c, &c. Kow, in order to fully comprehend the importance of a sentence so pregnaufc with matter for grave consideration as that which we have* quoted, we must call to mind the nature of the services rendered by the officer who has been "shelved from political necessity," and, to give full weight to the commendation bestowed upon Col. Whitmore by the writer of the letter, we must remember which side the latter has invariably taken in New Zealand politics. With reference theu to the correspondent — who, from the ability he has displayed in his monthly letters, has frequently been alluded to in complimentary terms by the journal for which he writes — we do not think we shall be intruding upon the incognito that is, and should be, generally preserved by this class of newspaper writers, when we say that he h wellkuown throughout New Zealand as one of the staunchest supporters of the present Ministry. Theu, as to the advantages that have accrued to the colony from the appointment of Colonel Whitmore to the command of our little army. It is matter of history that when he accepted that command, the material upon which he had to work was of tho roughest and most disorderly description. Men were of necessity picked up from all parts of the country, and, at a moment's notice, pushed forward to the front in a thorough state of inexperience and ignorance of the duties required of them. Accustomed, as they had been, to the wild independent life of the colonist, and utterly unused to anything in tho shape of discipline, they had, first of all, and with the greatest difficulty, to be taught the prime duty of the soldier, namely, to obey; they had to be drilled to act in concert, and to have a certain amount of dependence upon one another — and all this within the space of a fewweeks. Tlie sequel we all know, how at first they, as might have been expected, were utterly useless, and sustained defeat at the hand of the enemy, how gradually, and by slow degrees, they became converted from a rough incoherent rabble into an orderly and well-disciplined body of men, and how they ultimately, under the leadership of their gallant colonel, achieved the greatest military triumph that has marked the annals of the native war— the taking of Ngatapa. Such are some of the services rendered by Colonel Wliitraore, and wo would ask,

does not that system seem a most pernicious one which demands that a military officer who has distinguished himself in the field, and whose actions are highly praised by the political opponents of that Ministry which placed him in command of the troops, should be dismissed- from his post, merely because a change has taken place in the Executive. We would have it understood that we are actuated by no party feeliug in these remarks, indeed we are not prepared to say that, had their positions been reversed, the Stafford Government would not, under similar circumstances, have acted just, as Mr. Fox has done, but we cannot shut our eyes to the evils that are likely to arise to the country if it is to be an understood thing that a change of Ministry is of necessity to involve the dismissal of such officers as havo been appointed by the outgoing Government. Heaven knows we have in New Zealand few enough men of military capacity sufficient to justify the Government in placing them in command of our troops, and we may depend upon it that even these few will bo driven from the service if they have reason to believe that, whatever their men is nr.xy be, their tenure of office is to be co-existent only with the Ministry from which they derived their appointments.