NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 47, 30 August 1845, Page 3

NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner.]

Who is to bear the expense of the War in the North ? —The cost of the regular forces it is presumed will be paid by the British Commissariat; but the Governor is said to be building barracks at Auckland which are to cost £7,000, is hiring large transports for months together, and maintaining a large militia force, besides incurring various other expenses connected with the war. Now who is to pay all this ? The Cook's Straits settlers, is it, who have always protested against the location of the seat of Government in a district so thickly peopled by natives that peace could scarcely be hoped lor except when secured by the bayonet ? Our coffers have been drained to build Auckland up; are they to be further drained to prevent the maories from pulling it down ? We wish the Auckland settlers well as individuals ; but if they are for ever as a body to lean on Cook's Straits for support, we fear our affection for them will grow cold. If this military outpost must be maintained, it were fitting for those for whom it is maintained should bear the cost. Does Cook's Straits receive any advantage from it? Literally not one whit. It were as easy for us to look to Sydney for military protection as to Auckland. That settlement can only be kept in existence, after this, by an overwhelming military force, hedged in as it is by 30,000 Waikatos ; and we do now protest against our being burdened with the extraordinary expenses which are being incurred and must long be incurred for its protecion. If a standing army li.ust be kept up in New Zealand, what is the use of its being pitched in the very midst of the maori race ? It never can secure tranquillity to the scattered agriculturists, whose pursuits lie necessarily beyond the garrison walls. Never will the strong hordes of the North be kept from aggression when aggression is their cue. It would be a much better plan to draw aline of demarcation between the races, somewhere to the north of Cook's Straits ; nine-tenths of each race now inhabit opposite sides of such a line : and the army might be employed in maintaining it. This would give to each race the species of country most adapted to it and already in its possession ; the forests of the northern island to the maori, the sheep pastures and arable land of the Wairarapa, the Wairau, Port Cooper, Otago, and the rest of this island to the Europeans. Let fifty years so elapse, and the work of civilization would be far advanced, the line might be abolished for ever, or kept up to look at on holidays, if it were thought worth the expense.

Nelson Militia. — After a delay of upwards of ten weeks from the lime the Police Magistrate first received instructions to erabody a portion of the Nelson Militia, debentures have been received sufficient in amount (if they could in any way be made to realize their nominal value) to pay 100 men for a period of about three weeks. Notices were in consequence served on the men, requiring them to assemble on the 26th instant ; but a difficulty has since arisen which is likely to cause a still further delay. The majority of the merchants and storekeepers having become alarmed at the prospect of the settlement being deluged with the Government incontrovertible paper trash, have at length wisely resolved to resist its^further introduction here, and have come to' the determination to part with their goods for cash only. We were yesterday shown a document to this effect, intended to be sent to the Police Magistrate, which there is every probability will be numerously signed ; and we have since heard that it is the intention ol the Police Magistrate to defer calling out the militia until he has again communicated with the Superintendent. We have been favoured with some particulars of the late conflicts between tho troops and the rebel natives in the north, which have not before appeared in print. The letter which contains this information was written at Waimate, at the time Heki's pa was attacked by Colonel Despard. The statements of the writer, of which the following is a substance, may be relied on. After the destruction of Kororarika, the Governor offered Heki peace on these conditions : — that' spars, to the number of the flag-staffs destroyed be supplied; that all the property taken from Kororarika be returned ; that a quantity of land in the neighbourhood

of the Bay of Islands be ceded to Government ; and that Held should retire to Wangiri, or some other remote spot, for two years, at the expiration of which, if his conduct during the interim proved satisfactory, he would be presented to the Governor, and, we suppose, restored to his favour. Heki wrote a long letter in reply to his Excellency, the contents of whioh has not been published. The pa in which Heki sustained the attack of the troops under Colonel Hulme, on the Bth of May, was not the same which he defended against Colonel Despard, on the Ist of July, The former, named Mawe, he abandoned immediately alter the troops had retired, and proceeded with his followers to another pa, named Ohaeawae, which was a stronger position. In the action of the Bth of May, 20 natives fell in the engagement, and a large number wounded, of whom many have since died. The number of Europeans who fell on that occasion amounted to 13, and 39 wounded. A great number of engagements and skirmishes have been fought between Nene and Heki, in which the latter was always worsted. In the latter end of June, Heki attacked Nene's pa with 400 men, but was repulsed with great loss, though Nene at the time had only about 160 followers. Kowaiti's people (Heki's principal allies) were so terribly cut up, that they found it difficult to carry off their wounded. In this engagement Heki was wounded in the thigh. Pomare, the chief who was taken prisoner by Sir E. Home, and conveyed to Auckland in the North Star, on a charge of treachery, was pardoned by the Governor. He returned to the Bay of Islands, and took up arms against Heki. Previous to the engagement on the Ist of July, Heki was much harassed by Nene and his allies ; and had threatened to make reprisals on the scattered European settlers, but up to that period he had forborne to put his threat into execution. It is to be hoped that if he hereafter has the will, he may not have the power, to execute so dreadful a vengeance.