THE AFFAIRS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 62, 22 October 1864, Page 5

THE AFFAIRS OF NEW ZEALAND.

•: ' l(FronV the Auckland Weekly News.) X '" ' ' It -would be useless, or_something worse, to deny that a- feeling -offno -slight uneasiness has been 'caused in the public miucL by ,tl\o. aspect of aftairs'id the" political; worW :pf "Bfew ; : Zealand just now! " The returri of the Colonial Treasurer, without securing, the money for which he went, is partly accountable, for this-feeling, no doubt; but there are also other and much more serious causes Sor r the, uneasiness felt- •>' • We^say more serious, -because, -although it is perfectly true that of the , million. ,- loan asked for by the . Colonial only- .spine £30,000 was obtained" before' the V mail lefW still: the, fact that the loan asked' for "at perhaps the : most unfortunate moment since the war began must be held in a great measure to account for this. The news of the Gate. Pa defeat was, . however, illogically, taken as a great blow to our cause, and unquestionably ' iriade' a ' difference of hundreds of thousands of pounds in the suras applied for.' Howeverj .'the fact that between the 12th anil the 26th' the panic" was so far got the better of thafi ; the ': sum taken .up rose from three thousand to thirty thousand pounds, is pi' itself a guarantee that the whole million will be taken up before many months have elapsed, especially when the news of the success at Te Ranga, and tlie~ subsequent submission of the natives shall have counterbalanced- the news , of an opposite tendency which had ; so disastrous an effect/ on the loan. The. really disturbing reflections, however, are caused by the aspect of things here ; and there is,. it must be confessed, less to be said in their favor than in favor of the loan prospects.; The .difficulty seems to be that the representative of the Crown aims at a dead lock. It is now five months since the campaign in this province closed, and as yet no steps whatever have been:taken to: bring matters to any settlement. Hot one acre of land has been declared confiscated according to -law ; not one step has been made, towards securing- the peace of the country. Taranaki remains untouched ; Wanganuiis in the same position as ever, with its savagely rebellious Ngatiruanui tribes as defiant as ever. Everything in fact, is at a standstill, and the only active steps that appear to be thought of any consequence by the Governor are those that are taken in the attempt to pursuade a few scores of wretched fugitives to come back and be coddled at the island of Kawau, ■WVrp Governor Sir George Grey a man of defective mind, all this might be very provoking, but ■wuiuu uo uepnved of much of its significancy. It would be easy to conceive his running away from his work to such child's play as this merely from the restlessness characteristic of defective brain. It would not be difficult to conceive his leaving all the interests of the country unattended to without any more cogent reason than that in his Maori prisoners, who would not remain prisoners, he had found an interest sufficiently great to fill all the small mental space he had to spare. No one fancies Sir George Grey to be a fool, however; consequently everyone is forced to look about for some reason that may account for the extraordinary neglect of action which he has shown. Some dpsisn the Governor mnst have in all this, «nd the difficulty no is to know exactly what it is. it is not a pleasant thing to be forced to attribute anything bad or ungenerous to either men or Governments ; but unforti.nately human nature is not free from such things, and to i<more them would be foolish. The position of tue colony at the present moment it owes in no trifling degree to Sir George Grey, and that position is a very peculiar one. It is not a violent assumption that the same statesman who brought about an intricate position has also every intention of taking advantage of it when it has been brought about. Our position may be briefly stated in this way :— The Imperial Government is tired of supporting the war, and wishes to force the colonists themselves to support or to end the struggle. With thi3 view, it ha 3 imposed upon the°colony the task of paying forty pounds per man for each soldier we keep after the first of January, 1865. The burden is greater than we can bear, and no one knows this better than Sir George Grey. The Colonial Treasurer agreed to this arrangement upon the faith that the war would have been . virtually over before the end of this year, so that a couple of regiments at all ersnts would have amply sufficed for our needs. £ior m this arrangement can we say he was to blame. Everyone knows, and none was more ready to. make the affirmation that Sir George Grey himself a year ago, that the war might have been finished within the time reckoned upon had ife been allowed to go on. It would be a remarkable war which would be finished by the system of Mieawber-like tacticß employed for the last six months, and to all appearance still in favor. This waiting policy, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, is Sir George Grey : s own policy. He it is who keeps the troops motionless, and who paralyses all regular settlement of the country by the Waikato Regiments ; and the only end attained therefore we may suppose the only object aime 1 at— in delay. The first of January, 1865, is not distant, and in face of the enormous burden to be imposed on the polony, the Governor probably reckons on gaining the support of his Ministry m patching up a peace. We think he will not succeed. We imagine the present Government would far Father say they would not pay for the regiments, and the Imperial authorities better remove them than prove false to their ovrn principles, and sacrifice the colony. If the Imperial Government withdraw the troops, good and well ; we should know what to expect, and should at all events henceforwrrd manage matters in our own" way. If they left them here, as when the rub came, we feel sure they would do, the colony would stand committed to «»thing, and the Assembly would have a fair opportunity of making its own terms.