The Invercargill Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 21, 24 December 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1863.

There are three things which commonly happen to a m=in about- Christmas time. His friends ask him to dine ; his tradesmen ask him to pay his biils ; and old Father Time asks hita to remember that he is a year older since the last 25th December. Happy is the man who can digest the dinners hl3 frieuds provide ; happier the man who can satisfy his tradesmen; but happiest of all is that fortunate wight who is able to look Father Time in the face, knowing that the past year has not been altogether badly spent. There is something, however, left after the quiet thoughts about the past. We have no wish to lecture, but. even those amongst us who, in more senses than one, look further than the present, will forgiye us for just putting them in mind that the colony ij passing through a crisis. Let us enjoy our Christmas ; but at the .'same time let us recollect that in the North Island, brive men — Our own countrymen — have either perished before a savage foe, or are still engaged in a conflict, in which the enemy has hitherto displayed brutality only equalled in the Indian mutiny. We have no sympathy with those, who, following in the wake of Bishop Selwyn, think, and are prepared to think, everything good of the Maori;' hut at the end of the year, with a war that has robbed some of us of dear frieuds, and spread desolation round a hundred homes, let us hope that amongst all the toasts proposed, and healths drunk, some one will be found to say " A speedy termination to the war." . .> . There is, let us hope, a probability that the worst of the war is over. The last news from Auckland is to the effect that General Cameron has taken unopposed possession of Ngaruawahia, the seat of Maori lto)alty. No event could more strongly show how thoroughly the Waikatos feel the capture of their two strongholds, — Mere Mere and Rangiriri. But that they had begun Us understand the irresistible character of, the tactics and force brought against them, they never would have allowed the village of their king to have been quietly occupied by an invadinsr force. As Te Wheoro said in his letter to the Governor, " Waikato has failen '' indeed. It is but two or three years ago since the flag of the .Maori King was raised at Ngavauwahia, amidst festivities on a gigantic scale. And ever since, until now, that symbol of Maori nationality has exerted an influence over a large proportion of the Native population. , In that little village was located that authority which the Maories had set up, in Older to cement all the -trib-s together in a powerful league for opposing the spread of colonisation, and disputing the authority of an alien Government. Before Oiat simple banner, ancestral feuds have • been buried, and . hereditary animosities hushed.. ' The rrithles'^ conquerors of thirty years ago, met before it. in close bonds of union with the tribes whose lorefathers they had savagely slaughtered and enslaved. The grave and deliberate formalities of civil : 2ed Courts were initiated, laws were promulgated, alliances formed, and a state revenue established from the. voluntary contributions of a hundred srattered tribes The organisation of the K-ing move - ment, if not perfect, was astonishing. Mot only, were the sympathies of the Natives enlisted by the personal appeals of influential chifs. who, in their poetic language, called up the deeds of Old New Zealand, and stimulated the martial ardor of a warlike race, but their prejudices were attacked and their reason enlisted by means of that great power, the Press. The records upon which their crude and imperfect faith is founded were ransacked for similes applicable to their o.vn case, and eagerly seized and adopted by a race whose whole language is mude up of imagery. However baneful the effects of the King movement upon the Natives have. been, and although in many cases it was made a mere cloak for outrages and crimes, it is no less true, that amongst the very best and most enligthened tribes it had taken a firm and lasting hold upon their minds; we are bound to believe that with many of the leading chiefs, in this national movemcut, . the King

-movement was essentially a patriotic measure. Prom whatever-cause it had arisen, .'and however much they mistook the benefits European settlement was on 'errrng on the Natives themselves, the MaOrit's viewed the gradual, sure increase of colonisation, and tile alienation of their lands with suspicion and alarm. And tiey only required something that would give -to this feeling a tangible effect— -something- 't ''sat- would unite the : raee in a bond of tmion, to repel the advance of colonisation. It was supplied in the founding of a dynasty. The' banner which has just beenignominiously hauled down forever, | was tbe symbol of a national feeling, of I national hopes and national ambition. i With it has been prostrated everything ! that united the scattered tribes of "New Zealand ; with it has fallen the might and power of the warlike race that hitherto wielded undisputed authority over tire broad and ferti!e : lauds of the Waikato; with it also has been removed the one great barrier that opposed the advance of civilisation and the amelioration of the Mnorics. Le Rol est morll What a change a few short weeks lias effected ! Only the other day the Co'ony was chafinjr at the apparent i useless delay of the -General's advance, | and indignant at the comparative impunity with which the savage bands of Maories we're murdering the unarmed inhabitants of defenceless settlements. It was impossible lo conceal rive alarm that every one felt, but few dared to utter, and the public mind was kept-'i-n a perfect fever of anxiety. -"But we now, see the fruits of the patient preparations of General Cameron. We can now appreciate the sound prudence and calculation which prompted the delay of striking the blow, until it Could be done with irresistible force and effect. The scene is changed indeed ; the once beleagured settlements of Auckland are swept of every lurking foe, and the army that for so long halted impatiently, has marched triumphantly through the very "heart of the enemy's country, capturing and scatteiing io hopeless defeat the very flower of Maori chivalry, and compelling the leaders of tlie insurrection to suO for peace. But there is yet a (ask unaccomplished, and one which must be performed, and that is the castration of the Taranaki tribes, — of tho^e who for je^rs have plundered and outraged the settlers of New Plymouth; of those to whom the murder of unoffending settlers is a familiar practice. The deaths"- of Hope and Tradgett, and of their comrades have yet to be avenged. There is hope for the patient long-suffering inhabitants of Taranaki ; and when the miserable savages who have so long hindered their progress have received the punishment due to their misdeeds, we shall see New Plymouth restored to more than its pristine prosperity. Grateful indeed should the colony feel for the success that has attended General Cameron's arms, and heaitily indeed should every "Bri&n in New Zealand echo (he thanks accorHed to the. brave men by whom that success has been achieved;-