New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, August 23, 1845.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 46, 23 August 1845, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, August 23, 1845.

It cannot be too constantly borne in mind, nor too often repeated, tbat the war in which Captain Fitzroyhas plunged this colony, has not originated in any of the grievances the colonists have had to complain of, nor in any question of importance to their interests ; but on the contrary, is in a very great degree traceable to his disregard of those veryinterests.and the consequent impunity he has encouraged' the natives to' expect. At the time Captain : Fitzroy landed in New Zealand, it was generally anticipated both by whites and maories, that his first act would be, the punishmentof the Wairau murderers. Such an act was not only necessary to preserve the prestige of British authority — which at that time had not wholly been lost — but was actually expected by the natives themselves, and to the greater part of them would have ,been positively acceptable. The force which was at his command when he went to Waiikanai to exchange compliments with the murderers, was amply sufficient, in the existing state of Maori feeling, to vindicate the authority of the law, and to make a lasting impression on their minds. This opportunity was neglected — worse than neglected — converted into a lasting degradation of the British authority! To the untutored minds of the natives it must have appeared, that the conduct of the Governor on that occasion, arose, either from an inability to punish them, or a confusion of the first principles of right and wrong — either of which notions must have been equally injurious. From this first fatal error aud his subsequent acts, every rational person in the colony foretold the moat disastrous results. Again — If peace was not to have been preserved at any price— if every degradation, every injury was not to have been endured for this obtect — the aggressions of the intruding natives on the Hutt settlers would have served as a justifiable and intelligible pretext for war. We need not be told how the impunity extended by the authorities to their proceedings, have encouraged the natives to still greater outrages ; until at length, the two races have assumed the aspect of two hostile armies on the watch for an attack on each other, rather than the qxiet and friendly relationship that formerly subsisted between them. It is not necessary for our present purpose to detail all the successive acts of Captain Fitzroy, to shew that his object was, the emancipation of the natives from all law or authority whatever. It was apparent to all acquainted with the Maori character, that such an Ordinance as the " Native Exemption- Bill" must be followed by acts as degrading as the " Customs Abolition." However much we might lament it, the course of policy adopted by his Excellency was, up to this point, intelligible enough —in a disciple of the school in which he has been educated. But when offences and crimes of such magnitude as we have adverted to, had been slurred over and excused, — and it must be remembered that these were offences according to the natives' own customs, and of the culpability of which, no doubt existed in their minds anymore than in our own — that Captain Fitzroy after all, should precipitate the colony into a war, that can only end in the extermination of the natives, or the destruction of the colonists — and should select as the grounds for such a war, an abstract question of international law that the whole tenour of his conduct has gone to disprove — is such inconceivable absurdity,

that we can only account for it on the supposition that he is literally insane. We shall not now indulge in the reflections naturally suggested at the disgraceful spectacle of a British Colony owing its safety to the contentions of rival tribes of savages — and its government not only not repressing — but compelled for its own preservation, to encourage and incite by every means in its power, the mutual slaughter and destruction of its subjects. Was it for this object, that Captain Fitzroy was surrounded with a host of " Protectors," " Missionaries," and all the other paraphernalia of a paternal Government ? Was it to result in this, that Capt. Fitzroy not six months ago declared in Council that sooner than any force should be used against the maortes, he would tender his resignation ? And these events have occurred — not in Wellington, the inhabitants of which were stigmatized by Captain, Fitzroy, three days after he set foot in New Zealand, as oppressors of the natives — not in Nelson, where, Heaven knows, sufficient provocation has been suffered to justify such proceedings — but in the very head-quarters itself of Aboriginal philanthrophy and missionaryism! In our consideration of these circumstances, we must not overlook the fact, that Captain Fitzroy has abandoned the moral force that would have attended his proceedings, had he chosen his battle-field on any other ground than the present. Even to the minds of Europeans John Heki appears (and when due allowauce is made for the efficacy of his Excellency's instructions on this point, naturally appears) as a patriot, rather than a rebel. Their indignation is excited, not by his original offence, but by the accessories of his warfare — his killing and eating his prisoners. No sympathy is, or can be felt for the cause in which the Government has engaged — and in the midst of a struggle, on the event of which depends their very existence, the majority of the English population in New Zealand look on with a sullen indifference, only tq be stimulated into ardour, by an attack on their own hearths ! Such are the fruits of Captain Fitzroy's policy !

We have published in to-daj's Spectator a full report of the meeting of Wednesday last, to consider the draft of the petition (o be sent to Parliament by the settlers in Cook's Straits, We understand that the Committee will meet every day at Mr. R. Davis's, from 12 to 1 o'clock, to consider the draft, and make any alterations or suggestions that may be deemed advisable, and that it will be an open Committee, at which any settler who wishes to hear the petition read, may attend.

From a gentleman recently arrived from Auckland, we learn that the re-emigration from the capital is still proceeding. His Excellency is described as being almost paralyzed at the state to which his conduct has reduced the colony — and himself. He retires to sleep in the Barracks every night ! A fine example of intrepidity to the unfortunate citizens !—! — Our informant states, that Mrs. Fitzroy and family, and General O'Brien, the Governor's father-in-la-v, took their depai'turefor Sydney about ten weeks ago, by the Tryphcena ; but this appears so strange, we are almost inclined to suppose there'must be some mistake.

A barque and a brig were signalled, from the northward, yesterday, at sundown.