THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 204, 4 August 1862, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam."

DUNEDIN. MONDAY, AUGUST i, ISC2.

If any further argument were required to prove the impolicy of leaving the dealing with Native matters in the hands ofthe colonial authorities fhe Parliamentary papers before us supply it. We do not hesitate to s:iy that particulars are published therein, which it is most disastrous should have seen the light, whilst the complications to which they refer remain undecided. How Sir George Grey could have consented to their publication, and how the Fox Ministry should have had the unparalleled lolly to ask it, are more thau we comprehend. These papers, which must inevitably meet the eyes id'the Natives to whom they refer, confess the weakness not only ofthe IlritMi cause, but of tlie Hritish arms. They tell to insurgents, who yet maintain an attitude of sullen resistance, that the Hritish Government are conscious that its arms were unsuccessful in the late war, they tell them that it is considered wiser not to attempt to retrace the lost ground; they tell, moreover, that tlie Europeans fear the cilects of a second war, and point out to the natives how to make that war a deadly one to the European settlers. Everyone u f these l,;cts the papers clearly point out, and when it is considered that they were nu rely published to propitiate Parliamentary support, it mu-t be evident that it is a suicidal course to permit any control of the kind in (Sealing with interests, tlie magnitude of which is not to be exaggerated. It has been said that the Pre-s of New Zealand, forgetting that it is treating a matter of life or death—of extermination or txi-tcnoe— deals with Native all'iirs in the narrow spirit of party hostility. This accusation has found its chief supporter in the present M.nistrv; and yet that Ministry, for party pur-po-e*, with the mere liojk? of bolstering ti ■ an existence, inevitably waning to its clo-e, publishes particulars which the Press would have shrunk from disclosing. The future wiil alone show the re-nit of tlie ra»h cour-e. it remains to bj s CCM }. on - the •' sullen resistance" of the Natives uiJl he stimulated by the confessions of weakness they have found recorded. It remains to he seen how the Home Government approves, as one of the results of Colonial interference in Native matters, the publication of particulars, which whether in a strategical or political point of view, should have been hidden with scrupuloii- can- from those whose csiisfi they must inevitably serve. Hut the documents are before ti-, and it would be idle to attempt to limit the publicity, from whicli it is impossible now- to save them. , No one who reals the papers but citi fed \ deep sympathy with Sir George Grcv in the ! onerous task he has undertaken. No one. ! moreover, can reflect ou them without the j consideration that, in the arguments whicli ; | they involve, and the events that may spring i ! from them, the interests—almost the fates—of I two races are bound up. Sir George Grey's j | position i s truly one of intense dillicuity. Jle has been sent to a British colony to deal with \ an insurgent race, but without being allowed ! the necessary assistance to mete out to them the justice which he himself does not deny they deserve. In almost the first despatch he wrote after his arrival, may hg found the key of his subsequent conduct,—may he found also some of those particulars which should have been most scrupulously concealed from the disaffected Mamies. l n his despatch of October the Jfith, l8(il, Sir George Grey estimates that the expense of military operations iv the held, with only the present force, would amount to the sum of £920,000 per year. To this would have to be added the expense of block-houses, and points of defence to protect the towns and centres of population of the disaffected districts; the cost of removin" and maintaining tlie women and children, csti mated at £3! 2,000; whilst tliere is also the addition of injury to property, which is reckoned for that which would be liable to destruction in the event of a general rising of the natives as £1,000,000. Elaborate calculations by General Cameron are added to support the correctness of the figures given. Yet with all these expenses Sir George Grey writes, "my '• impression is that at the end of two years it "might be found that little had been done to 41 reduce the Natives, whilst it is believed that 44 many settlers who are now in comparative 41 wealth would be reduced to extreme poverty. 44 At the end of thirteen month's war at "Taranaki, the Natives actually occupy part 44 of our territory as they allege in right of con--44 quest, whilst the European farms lie utterly 44 wasted and desolate, and a force of 74G hold 44 the town." Fancy such a confession, with peace yet unconcluded,—the non success of the last war, the probable non-success of a renewal of hostilities. Again in a despatch of November SOth, occur the following passages :— Careful enquiries, and repeated conversations with those Natives most attache 1 to us, have convince,! me that the Waikato Natives will mt submit to those terms at present, and that any attempt at thus time to enforce them by troops will instantly lead to that " general war" which my predecessor anticipated.

For such a war, as I have shewn in another despatch, n« adequate preparation has yet been made ; and it must, under the most favorable circumstances, bo attended with results moa'; disastrous to us. The uselessiu-53 of forcing the Native? here to accept certain terms of pence is shewn by what took place at the Waitara. Certain terms of peace were proposed by the Governor; some Natives refused to have anything to do with them, others accepted them on the s*h April, 18G1. They were warmly approved by Her Majesty's Gorernment. a Commissioner was appointed on Her Majesty's behalf to carry out on Her part a portion of them, and he proceeded to tlie Waitara to execute his mission ; when the veryChief who had borne the principal part In accepting the terms of peace, declared liis iuability to enforce them, saying '• It rests with the people;"and, finally the Commissioner, .amidst threat* of violence, was obliged to leave the place, being satisfied that they would resist by force of arms any attempt which might be'made to carry out the terms agreed on. ilerc we have the confession of tlie po^erlessness of tlie G6vernment to enforce the terms of peace, absolutely accepted by the .Natives ; and the fear of the Governor to un- ! dertake a renewal of the war. A memorandum from Mr. Rog-m sent up to carry out the terms accepted hy the Natives, shows the spirit in whicli he was met. He was told " You have come to inform us of the Gover- " nor's word, rega rdhi£ the Waitara. Hearken "to mine. Onukukaitara has been given to " the Governor for the wrong wliich has heen " done to the pakeha, and beyond that place '• the whole of the land you have described '• belongs to us. All the redoubts, excepting ' Puketakauere, together with entrenchment*, '• are ours, and we have no intention of giving 44 them up to the Governor in the way you 44 propose, not at all. AYe are satisfied with •' our own title to our lands, whicli are in- '• htrited from our fathers, and we shall have "• no interference with our property by the "Governor; and remember, if you should " come hereafter with your chain to measure, '• tliat is a path to death." Further 0:1 we have a truly touching plea in favor of suspending hostilit es. Enclosing an able memorandum of Colonel Mould's the Governor says of it. '• Your Grace " will see that Colonel Mould plainly states " tliat it is believed that if the initiative is •• taken by an armed European force advane- •• ing with a hostile attitude into the interior " ofthe country with the object of attacking " tiie Natives in their settlements, the whole •■ Native race, with the exception of the prin- " cipal part of tlie Ngapuhi tribe (living to the \ North of Auckland;, will immediately ri-e " in arms, will attack and probably murder j " the s.-ttiers, sweep away or destroy their •' slice]) and rattle, burn their homesteads, and ■• pauperize the h'-st half of the Colony ; and •-that no vigilance nor any reasonable force " tl.it could be sent with the view of protect- " ing the several out-^ettlemeuts, could by " any possibility save them from this fate. "Colonel Mould's great experience here •• renders him a most valuable authority ou " such 'points as he here ijieaks on ; your i " Grace will, therefore, in considering mv '■ remarks, I trust, full realize the anxiety I 1 " naturally l'cil to save Her Majesty"* Euro- ■• jM/un subjects from such great calamities. •• and how ve-v great is »he weight of respon- " tiibility under which I take every step." Who can fail to pity Sir George Grey for having to write thus of the dillicuity of subduing the Natives yet in resistance to his authority. Who can avoid execrating the conduct of the Ministry who hive thus made public a confession that should have been rigorously concealed ? Our present limits will not permit us to discuss the arguments wliich Sir George Grcv, employs in throwing a doubt over the justice of his predecessor's demand. Suffice it that he questions the disloyal character ofthe Kirn: movement, and doubts the j-isiice of the claim set up to the land at Waitara. Still it must not be MipposeJ that Sir George Grey's policy is one of absolute submission, Peepiii" out here and there through his dispatches are p.isvigcs v\huU lead to the assumption, that sooner or later he s^es there will be a res >rt to arms, and that in tlu' meanwhile he is preparing himself for the contingency. For instance referring to one of the Waikato tribes, in his despatch of the -2nd of November, Sir George thus defines it. " The Ngatimaniapoto under Kewi, who have lost very few men, did all the house burning business, and who possess lots of plunder which tlfey will not give up." It is no', to be supposed that Sir George Grey should consider this tribe ought to be exempted lrom the consequences of the outrage committed. Again, in the despatch of the December, he writes—" it is possible that the

•• adherents of the Native King, seeing that " their power is shaken, may attempt hy force "of arms to p-cvent some of their country- " nivii from acquiescing in the proposals of the •' Government, or may try to punish them " for having done m : in this case it will be " necessary for the Government to interfere to 'l prevent such acts of violence. I can only " hope that so trying a contingency as this ' wou.d he, may not arise." Again iv his despatch 7th of January, when he details the causes that led him to employ the 11oops in making the road to the Waikato river ; he clearly shows that he had at least as much in view the possibility of future hostile operations, as of providing for present defence. We deduce from these and other features of the despatches, that Sir George Grey is not unprovided for future hostilities, and therefore we the more bitterly complain of the conduct of tlie ministry. They are known to be memliersof the peace-at-any-price-party» anil in the publication of the despatches and papers they have done the best to serve their peculiar views. To make it more difficult for Sir George Grey in tlie face of these papers to take future proceedings against the Maories, aud to frighten the House of Representatives, seem the only objects their publication can attain. How Sir George Grey would sanction it we cannot understand. His doing so is a direct violation of his instructions from the Duke of New- j castle, who wrote him. " I shall not '' attempt to prescribe the conditions of peace " which I may think ought to be imposed or " accepted; hut I wish to impress upon you "my conviction that, in deciding upon those 14 conditions, it will he your duty, while avoid- T " ing all unnecessary severity towards men ' ** who can scarcely be looked upon as subjects !

" in rebellion, to take care that neither your " own mission, nor the cessation of hostilities " when it arrives, shall carry with it in the " eyes ofthe natives any appearance of weak-, l'- ness or alarm. It would be better even to " prolong the war, with all its evils, than to " end it without producing in the native mind " such a conviction of our strength as may " render peace not temporary or precarious, " hut well-grounded and lasting." A pretty way the Vox Ministry h^ve adopted of avoiding " any appearance of weakness " or alarm," or of " producing in the native " mind, a conviction of our strength."