The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 439, 28 June 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1879.

“ Forewarned is forearmed” is a proverb not likely to be falsified here. Cavalry corps, defence forces, parades, drills, and reinforcement of Armed Constabulary, are all the result of the warning given some time ago by Native aggression. There is even a disposition to double the sentries; to have.not only powerful garrisons,'but also citadels; not only officers of our forces, but also Defence Committees. Except that there is the proverbial danger of some little mischief arising from the employment of too many professors of the cuisine art, wo have nothing to say against the latter precaution—the Committee. Its functions are not very clearly defined. It is to be hoped, however, that the Carlyle Debating Society, now apparently frightened to death by Tc Wliiti, will not renew its life in that august body. We have a dim recollection of some remarks of Macaulay’s about the certainty of the destruction of armies commanded by Debating Clubs. But perhaps our Committee will not command our commanders, nor they it. It may bo that only a vigilance committee is intended, whose chief function will be simply to govern the Government, and to assist it to monopolise the telegraph wires, in which case Macaulay is not in point, and wo begins pardon—and the Committee’s. Our readers know that we have constantly advocated the arming of the settlers for local defence, together with the augmentation of the forces in Government pay and intended for active service; but, at the same time, we have on several occasions deplored unnecessary precautions, which, though intended to increase the feeling of security, have the effect of creating panic. We would rather be exposed to a very remote danger without knowing it, than be frightened to death by assurances that we are safe. Now it is quite certain that the danger of a Maori attack upon the town of Carlyle is very re note indeed. Yet for the sake of somewhat diminishing this almost non-existant danger, the weak, and the timid among us are made to live in contifca.tvt foo.i’_o£ K<vvin(s ~t.r> f!y,]_miQnorl Ljr yelling demons, to seek refuge behind a pile of sand bags, while the mid-night sky is illuminated by their burning homos. The great Pitt once read Palcy’s ‘ Evidences,’ in which that worthy divine is supposed to have slaughtered the objectors after the manner of Samson. Having finished, Pitt closed the book,' and remarked, “ Dear me 1 I never thought there were so many objections to Christianity.” So, witnessing elaborate preparations for safety, many will cry, “ Dear mo ! I never thought there was so much danger.” The weak and the timid would never have thought of this fear, had not the strong and the brave first thought that sand-bags would render it unnecessary. If this were all, it would be serious enough in the judgment of those most concerned ; but it is not all. The fear and panic excited here may neither kill nor ruin us; but we have no such certainty with respect to the fear excited elsewhere. “ You take my life, when you do take the means whereby I live,” says Shyloclc. Are there not many persons in this district who live directly, and many more who live indirectly, on the confidence which men outside of the district have in its con T tinned prosperity? We mean no slight to our business men when we say that we suppose that there is not one of them who could keep going if this confidence were destroyed. Now it is quite a stereoytped saying among us that the excitement in distant parts of the colony is greater than it is here. Correspondents naturally color np their telegrams, and make them as sensational as possible, in order to warrant their being sent. The public opinion in Dunedin, Wellington, and Auckland is based upon these sensational scraps, and, of course, colored by them. When d.be Wellington merchant read at the breakfast table, or in his office that the settlers were armed, he would probably make a mental meno —“ Carlyle and Hawera well defended, quite safe.” In a week or two he reads that a redoubt with a parapet of sand-bags is to be erected at Carlyle, to put the women and children in whenever an attack takes place. “ Not safe after all!” he exclaimed. “ There is even danger that the town may be burned, and I have accepted Brown’s three month’s bill ! All those goods may be burned, and Brown with them ; in any case he’s sure to break, for all his customers will 'be murdured, and dead men pay no bills. Well, I’ll put the screw on and not let him run a day longer!” His imagination kindles as he ‘ thinks of Eorke’s Drift, with its parapet of meal bags and biscuit boxes. The more he hears and thinks, the more convinced does he become that his goods have got into the port for which the Irish shipowner searched the map in vain—jeopardy. So he pnts the screw on Jones, who is taken by surprise, and asks a little time. Others hear that Jones is shakey, and make a rush for some scraps, and alas poor Jones. Some lines from Longfellow describe his case — .. Never stoops the soaring vulture On his quarry in the desert, But another vulture, watching Sees the downward plunge, and follow

And a third pursues the second, Coining from the invisible ether, First a speck, and then a vulture, Till the air is dark with pinions. So disasters come not singly; But as if they watched and waited, Scanning one another’s motions, When the first descends, the others Follow, follow, gathering flock-wise ■. - Round their victim, sick and wounded. What we rnnntain, is, that by combating imaginary dangers at home, we are bringing real dangers from abroad; that what may frighten the Maoris, will frighten the merchants ; and that the certain alarm of onr friends is more earnestly to be depx-Gcatcd than the possible alarm of onr enemies is to bo desired. For once the Government, if report speaks truly, has been wiser than the settlers. While ‘ war meetings ’ were wasting paper with resolutions about ‘ Defence Committees’ and ‘ Redoubts,’ the very atones wore crying out—the Government resolved to push on the railway between Stratford and Normanby. This we hail as something pratical and statesraan-1ik0..;-. Wh wish that Patea had maintained its lead of the Government by demanding this,or some such work: but as the Grey mare has proved the bettor horse, we do ■not stint onr praise. The Maoris rcseriri-1: hie the' Highlanders in this,: that they will be checked by roads, rather than by redoubts, and vanquished by the pick, and shovel sooner than the Enfield and the sandbag. The railway and some bush roads will furnish a final solution ot the native difficulty, and will' 1 at the same time keep men in the neighbourhood, and prevent business from complete stagnation. Even when hostilities break' out, we see no reason why the enemy should not speedly be so confined, that armed workmen could proceed with the work. This work when completed would bring Parihaka within the pale of the law, even if it were not destroyed by our arms. And the roads would remain everlasting monuments, becoming more and more useful as years rolled on. But of what use will the sandbags be? Wo can conceive of none, except that .they would be suitable receptacles for the heads of certain alarmists.