The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 181, 31 July 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1879.

"He maintained that the life of a child of the humblest settler in New Zealand was of more consequence than that of a sick Marchioness.'' This is an extract from the report which reached us yesterday of the speech made by Sir George Grey on the previous evening on Mr Hislop's remarkable amendment to the address in reply. Whether or not it was in good taste so to speak is a matter with which we have nothing to do, but we do call in question the genuineness of this extreme solicitude for the children of the humblest settlers in New Zealand. It seems difficult to believe that the Premier who on Tuesday night made this assertion is the same individual who, when a few weeks ago he received an earnest appeal for counsel and for aid from a number of humble settlers in the Province of Taranaki whose patience wa9 tried beyond endurance by the outrages committed on their properties by the Maoris, and who knew not the day nor the hour when their own lives and those of their wives and children might be sacrificed, calmly wired back to them that "coldblooded" telegram which, as Sir W. Fox said in the House the other day, called forth " a howl of indignation from one end of New Zealaud to the other." " I trust you won't do anything rash " was the substance of the telegram, " I know your are being seriously injured, I don't know whether the evil is to cease with injury to property, or whether it may not extend to the taking of life, but never mind, be calm, remember that many years ago in Kent there was a great disturbance occasioned by a madman, but it didn't come to much," and so on. Where was this sympathizing care for the humble settler's child then? It did not exist, or, if it did, it wa9 carefully concealed, and that at a time when its exercise was loudly called for. But when the time arrived for trotting out the settler's child and the " sick Marchioness " together, and when an assertion that the former was far dearer to him than the latter was likely to catch a few votes, then we hear of the , value that the child's life possesses in the Premier's eyea. How those settlers to whom the "coldblooded, shameful" telegram was addressed will laugh when they read Sir George's speech of Wednesday night!