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Patea Mail, 28 December 1881, Page 3

Confiscation of sixty thousand acres at Parihakft is reported. The fact is doubtful. The Government cannot confiscate native land, but they can withhold land which had been promised, and this would be equivalent to confiscation by deducting sixty thousand acres from the reserves which had been allotted. A delicate question of policy is involved in this ; for while it is desirable to teach a lesson by showing that punishment must follow a wrongful resistance to the Queen’s authority, there is much to be said in favor of liberally fulfilling the offers previously made. Probably the considerations are far stronger in favor of some “ confiscation” at present, as a wholesome lesson to the native race, and as a substantial addition to the settled area of the Coast. The Harmonic Society’s quarterly concert on Friday will impart a musical flavor to the season's festivities. The programme is calculated to please the great majority of those whose enjoyment is not limited to one school of music. Mr Edmund O’Donovan, recently arrested in Constantinople for publicly slandering the Sultan, was on his way home from Merv to write a book of his experiences in that part of the world. Merv is an almost inaccessible but very fertile spot, surrounded by sandy deserts. It is commonly regarded as the key to Herat, and when Russia occupies Merv and Bokhara, she will be close to the gates of Afghanistan, from which quarter our Indian troubles may at any time be renewed. But before Russia can move, she must have more telegraph lines and railways, for troops cannot bo moved where the towns are 12 to 15 days’ march from each other, and everything but water has to be carried. Since writing the above, we note that Mr O’Donovan has been liberated ; and that the Turkoman chiefs who pitched their kibitkas (tents) near Merv, have abandoned that city and asked for Russian protection.