PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. Wednesday, October 19, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 988, 19 October 1881, Page 2

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. Wednesday, October 19, 1881.

The bellicose utterances o£ the Hon. Major Atkinson, in his address to the Egmont electors, a few days since—the particulars of ■which reached us by last mail—carry their own significance. Amongst other things the gallant Major thus expatiated on the present aspect of Native affairs : — Two years ago I promised that I would support no Government that would not effectually settle the Native difficulty on our coast. Since taking office I have told you that the Government were steadily working in that direction, and that while they would not be unduly hurried on the one hand, on the other they would not be debarred from enforcing the authority of the law without fear of any consequences. If you will recall to mind how matters stood two years ago, and compare them with the state oj things at present, you will see at a glance that a great advance has been made, and I now say emphatically that the time has come when an end must be made Of this strong threat to the peace of the Colony and district, and that it must, and I believe will, be effectually disposed of this summer.

These are words, coming, as they do, from a Minister of the Crown, the exact value and import of which many will be found unable to gauge. We put it in this way because it is fresh in our recollection that but recently another Cabinet Minister gave expression to similar, and still more emphatic opinions, and placed himself in such hostility towards his colleagues that he had to choose between the disruption of the Government and his own retirement, which latter Mr. Bryce decided on. The exigencies, and mediatorial necessities of Governments are likened unto the histories of peoples which repeat themselves in the cycles of years. And gratifying as the Colonial Treasurer’s words are,

what proof have we —well, we will not say of their sincerity, but that they convey the united convictions of the Cabinet, and that the mandate will, even “ this summer,” go forth “To arms! To your tents! O Israel?” Major Atkinson did not speak in any way as a mouthpiece of the Government. He did not appear in any representative capacity, therefore he was not, we opine, authorised to pledge, or anticipate the action of the Government. True, Major Atkinson may have been speaking with authority, and as one knowing the mind of his Government; but he must not be disappointed if disbelief creeps into the folds of his address, as it is being transmitted to the ears and eyes of his hearers and readers. The suspicion has gone abroad that, as war is popular in the neighborhood of his constituency, if not amongst his constituents themselves, the gallant Major was seeking less to lay before the electors the decision of the Cabinet, as to the future disposal of the Maori difficulty, than to cast bread upon the political waters which would be gathered after a few days. If, as Major Atkinson “ emphatically ” says, “ the time has “ come when an end must be made of “ this strong threat to the peace of the “ Colony and district,” why does not the announcement of it take the form of action ? Why is it reserved for an electioneering address of a member of the Government, and to be first put in circulation on the hustings in an out-of-the-way corner of the Colony, on the occasion of asking renewed obligations ? It may be that Major Atkinson is not prepared like his late colleague, to take the courage of his opinions, and urge the gauge of battle with the same “ ejnphasis ” as that with which he talks of it, even though it should cause his retirement from the Ministerial benches. It may also be that the Government are “ biding their time,” waiting for “something to turn up ” —a few murders for instance—so as to give them a casus belli on which to ground a pretext for upholding the sovereignty and dignity of the Crown; but what kind of replication is it to the incessant cry for active operations being commenced, to say that the time has come, but we are behind the time ? The time has certainly come in so far as the Natives are concerned; but it is. even now, a moot point—Major Atkinson’s asseveration notwithstanding—as to whether the Government really are prepared to take the field against even a determined and combined attack ; and we feel confident that in desultory, or guerilla warfare, they will find themselves lamentably unprepared. Look at the ostentatious orders that flashed through the Colony only a week or two since, when the Government, thinking the Maoris at last meant business, sent orders north and south for the speedy enrolment of all the available men that could be found, for active service at the front. And then, after an unlooked for success attended the movement, and Mr. Te Whiti cried peccavi (we are unacquainted with the Maori synonym) a few volunteers were selected here and there, and Major Withers’ choice pick at Auckland, told they were not-wanted. Had Major Atkinson, as the fighting member of the Government, made the statement in the House that he has done to his constituents, we might have been disposed to believe that there was no underlying object in view ; but, without wishing to detract from the earnestness and value of his words, we are bound to confess to a kind of misgiving that the gallant Major was not speaking as an exponent of the mind and determination of the Government.