The Southland Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1870.

Southland Times, Issue 1211, 18 February 1870, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1870.

"Whateteb may be the issue of the ! existing difficulty between the Imperial I Government' and this colony, New Zealand will owe a lasting debt of gratitude to those able champions who have espoused her cause. Amongst these Mr Edwaed "Wilson, of the Melbourne Argus, now in London, occupies at the present moment the most prominent position. It has long been asserted by leading colonial politicians that ignorance of the subject with which they had to deal was the great stumbling-block in the way of British Parliaments and Ministries when legislating for their depeudencies. The voluminous discussions which have recently taken place between the present head of the depart nent and gentlemen who have formed their opinions on colonial questions from personal experience and observation, have abundantly proved the truth of that statement. In a lengthy letter to The Times, Mr Wi' son is "admitted to have convicted Lord G-banvelle of ignorance of colonial questions, and also to have shown conclusively the folly of what he styles the disintegrating policy of the present Government. The letter is too long to be transferred to our columns entire, but the following extracts will show how correctly the writer has apprehended our case, how honestly yet boldly he has stated it, and how warmly he has sought to enlist English sympathy on our behalf, by enlightening the English public upon the real condition of the colonist?, and the inevitable results of dismemberment upon the commerce of Great Britain herself. Mr Wit son establishes his position as an unprejudiced and impartial writer, in so far as the immediate affairs of this country are concerned, by saying — "As far as New Zealand is concerned, it. is only right to say that I have no special interest in that colony. I have not one penny invested in it, or its securities. My feeling for New Zealand in its troubles is simply that of a fraternal sympathy with a sorely-pressed community of fellow-subjects, modified to some extent by the conviction that the inhabitants of that colony will compare favorably with any body of settlers that have ever yet swarmed from a parent hive," and proceeds to discuss the Bubiect as follows : — "It is not my intention to entangle you in the complicated details of this melancholy New Zealand business. Suffice it.that a ruinous and protracted war seems likely to assume a more and more deadly aspect, and that Great Britain decides to look calmly on while a process of extermination of one or other race goes slowly on, accompanied by circumstances of horror, of which we have already had some foretaste, and for which we had better prepare ourselves against the arrival of each successive mail. "With one modification, probably scarcely any one would dissent from the | recent discovery, ' A dependency should ! meet the expenses of its own defence ' — if it can. If it cannot do so, either the mother country must do something to assist it, or the dependency falls away. We have yet to learn how, and what eventually becomes of it, and probably j the great discoverer to whom I have alluded is about the last man who could assist us as to the later stages of his experiment. " I believe that New Zealand is such a dependency as I have describt d. , She appears to be tasked altogether beyond her strength. I have travelled there and know something of her resources, of the pursuits of her inhabitants, and of the character of the Maories, whose dedication to an unnecessary extermination I parenthetically stigmatise as a heinous national crime. And while there, in a period of profound peace, and with some experience of colonial finance, it was one of my puzzles how the two endu could be made to meet, with any decent margin for public works, the necessary outfit for a new country. A protracted and expensive war seemed absolutely out of the question ; and, so far from now coinciding in the common outcry that they have not done half enough to meet the difficulties of the situation, I declare my astonishment at, and admiration of, the spirit that has led them to do so much. "It is a country of considerable resources, but of rather gradual development. Apart from the goldfieldß, which are things of recent days, and still in process of development, they have not a great deal out of which revenue can possibly be extracted. Their yield of wool is insigniI ficant compared with that of the Australian colonies. For their bulkier forms of cereals they have no external market, and probably never can have any. The settlers are usually struggling people, with bills to meet and families to feed, and with as little natural aptitude for deserting their homes and modes of livelihood to fight the Maoris as the tenant farmers of our rural districts, or the small traders of our towns. It is really only those who have known the daily life of colonies who can appreciate the troubles of such people, or the extreme cruelty of the cry to tax themselves and fight like men, when, driven in from their holdings (

by dread for their wives and children, they have to leave their stock and homesteads to the marauder, and, clustering in the towns, await the passing of the storm. To tell men so situated to tax themselves still further is a wanton insult. The very sources of taxation, a profitable industry, are dried up ; and as that form of love of country engendered 'by; birth upon the. soil has not yet had much opportunity' Jo grow, we shall probably find the harraSsed taxpayers seeking other shores, and the possibility of increased revenue made sfcift;more hopeless by a rapid diminution^'!numbers. The sailor tells us "the sh.ijp is the mother of freight " And those who know anything of the principles of taxation must be aware that the" moderately prosperous citizen is the only possible sponge out of which adequate revenue can be squeezed. " Itisasserted, and Ibelieve with perfect truth, by those best acquainted with all the details of thia dreary business, that the British Government is mainly responsible for an imbroglio out of which no human being can at present see his way. It is a matter of notoriety that Imperial assistance has been withdrawn while the contest is still raging. The troops have been brought away while the Maoris are unsubdued, and the old Roman maxim, 'No peace save after victory,' finds nc* favor in these degenerate days, in wlficjh nothing ia supposed to answer 1 that does not pay its five per cent. Yet 'surely^ we ought not to forget that very severe things are said of allies who run away during the very fight itself. And, soothing to some minds as may be the sophisms by which such deeds are excused, I think I may say that throughout the whole southern hemisphere scarcely a man could be found who does not characterise such conduct as a cruel and cowardly desertion. ' " We may feel more or less obliged to Lord Granville for his attempt to teach us that after all blood is very much thinner than water. But if Great Britain were first thoroughly informed; and then fairly polled upon the question, his lordship might probably be startled at the reply. ' : .5 " But let us di*aw the curtain for a tnnsr upon : this 1 hutniliating - scene in' -our colonial history, with a sad misgiving that we shall soon "have to haul it up^again upon most appalling incidents, -and j turn our attention to the general questfon so aptly illustrated by what is passing -in i that ill-used and unhappy country." " f