THE STANDARD. WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1873.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 52, 14 May 1873, Page 2

THE STANDARD.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 1873.

“We £iall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

The painful position of isolation in which the settlers of Poverty Bay are placed makes the items of intelligence which drop down upon its by fits and starts doubly valuable; while, at the departure of each steamer, we are left in the most exquisite doubt as to the probable amount of time that will elapse before any possible opportunity presents itself to put us in possession of the state of affairs in which, with the rest of the Island, we have the greatest concern. TMEurder, battle, and sudden death; plague, pestilence, and famine, may all devastate the land, and come stealing upon us ere we know aught of their approach. The mail by the Comerang, which arrived on Sunday, is the last we shall ■have,for a week hence, and if the overland mail from Napier be dhe only one then, we cannot hope to glean anueb of a later date from that source.; in the mieaniime .we,can.only console ourselves with the (negative-comfort to bedleaved from: a perusaLof the telegrams to‘hand. It is-the bounden duty of all to wsteh, with earnestness, the -course events are •once more taking. We say " ence more,” because it is extremely likely that a good many chapters in the past history of what are known as the New Zealand Wars, will be reproduced in .the immediate future; the chief cha-

Tactcristic of which will be the steady development of a deep-laid plot, alithdugh it has the present appearance ol -vm isolated act, whose foul perpetration thenfitives-pretend to have no sympathy with. We are no alarmists. We de not wish to import anything into the intelligible readinghe information we possess, beyond what we are bgund to do in deciphering the signs of the by ; the light of past experience. We do nbt dfeny that tact and prompt measures of the, Government may avert an (extended outbreak for some considerable tima; but do we act wisely in' slum Bering on a, magazine w'hose lighted fuse has not yet run out ? Take any one of the telegrams from either of the three sources by which w« have obtained them, and another leaf in 'the chapter is turned. •. The attempt on Mr. Mackay’s life; Tawhiao’s ret fusal to give up the murderers, because. the surrender of the murderers of Todd and others *wili be required also at hie hands; the almost dafiy accession to the number of those known to be enJ gaged in Sullivan’s taurfter and their* reported determination to fight; the acceptance of the opportunity by Tawhiaol to import matters of political moment into the complication—by ref using to acknowledge the confiscated point in one direction, and that we sayl is not peace. We trust, however, thatl no undue action will be taken by the Waikato settlers to hasten on even that which cannot be averted. They muslj let the Government move its own power in the foreground; and if the worst comes to the worst, if may be confined to fighting with armed forces ; but if the natives feel it to be the

settlers who are fighting, their revenge’ will be made complete on the settlers, in return, to prevent which all possible patience should be endured. Moral support, we repeat, is the only power at the command of the settlers until the Government find diplomacy useless and it should be given unsparingly.