THE MAORI WAR

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 301, 7 September 1860, Page 3

THE MAORI WAR

[From the Sydney Morning Herald.) A.Plan has been submitted by Dr. Mackay of-Melbourne, recommending the Government to form a body of volunteers into troops bearing various national and other inspiring designations—who are to go to New Zealand and conquer the Maonesnovv in arms. Of the proposition itself we have nothing to say. Any movement calculated to strengthen the efforts of the Government, and to put a speedy end to the New Zealand war is, in our opinion, not only due to patriotism, but to humanity. A long war will certainly be far more disastrous";; to the country, and to the native inhabitants, than one sharply terminated, although with some apparently greater sacrifice of life. Innumerable examples have shown that it is not by the sword that the multitudes perish in modern warfare, but from other causes affecting health, and exposure to numerous accidents of field and flood. Of this the Crimean war was a memorable instance. Terrible as were some of those conflicts, the sacrifice of life was far less in the field than in the tents. In this respect perhaps we have more to dread in the prolongation of the New Zealand conflict than from the power of the natives. Incessant exposure,

and insufficient supplies, are more ; fatal to our soldiers than the rifle of the foe. ■It is.to the following paragraph, which we extract, from Dr. Mackay's propositions to the Government of Victoria, that we direct .special, attention:—• "From £15,000 to 420,000 would, I should suppose, be. amply sufficient for the expenses. This is to be advanced by this Government, to be repaid by sales of land in the conquered portion of New Zealand." "The savages to be entirely subjugated; the males carried over here to be prisoners of war to serve in this country as slaves for seven years; the females to be carried away and disposed as wives for the Chinese and well-conducted white convicts; Dr. Cairns, and the Bishop of Melbourne, and other ministers of religion to be at liberty to use all fair means for their conversion." We fancy sometimes that we are a people full of humanity and tenderness for the rights of men,—that we have passed far beyond the atniosphere which enveloped the heathen world, and reflected those scenes of ferocity, cruelty, and revenge which stain the pages of history. Sometimes we attribute this great change to the natural qualities of Englishmen. At others we suppose that civilisation has lifted the veil from the eyes of mortals, and enabled them to discover through the various tints of color, and the many forms of national life, the relations of brotherhood. Sometimes science comes in and claims the honor of ennobling the human passions, and elevating them far above the dark and dismal epoch of heathenism. But here we have a gentleman who attaches to his name " L.L.D."—indicative that he is leampd in the laws and literature of his country, and that he has attained such eminence in these acquisitions as ; to entitle him to honorary recognition. He comes forward and proposes to an English Government not only that the land of the natives, which he calls " the conquered portion of New Zealand" shall be sold to furnish payment to those who may become volunteers, but he dares to offer a proposition which outrages the first laws of nature and of the most ordinary humanity. The savages, as he calls the people of New Zealand, certainly far surpass many of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom in intelligence, inpersonal dignity, and in the elevation of their sentiments-, as well as their appreciation of, and attention to, the duties of the. Christian religion. The particular be-ligerents are for the most part under the instruction of the Church of England missions, and are,members of that denomination. The savage, considered as a heathen, is the exception, and not the rule in that country. No doubt we can, in the insolence of our power, apply epithets ' of this kind to men possessing as much natural dignity as we can claim ourselves —just as the Greeks and Romans in their most degenerate times called all "barbarians " outside the pale of their effete civilisation, and considered thisasufficientreason to put them under insupportable tribute, or to sell them into personal slavery: This Dr. Mackay also presumes to recommend that the male natives of New Zealand should be brought into Victoria as prisoners of war—not with the rights of prisoners of war, who are released when peace is restored, —but for the absolute annihilation of their race. They are to be put into slavery for seven years. No provision is to be made for the youthful portion of the natives, who depend upon the protection of their parents for their subsistence, and who receive from them as much tenderness as is commonly shown to children. There is, however, a provision made for the females—and our readers will observe in it how possible it is for the moral sense to be totally destroyed*! How possible it is for a man who has taken a somewhat conspicuous part, such as his has been, in public affairs, to be ignorant of the first elements of justice. The wives [of these men, this precious politician and embyro general tells us, are to be given up to the Chinese and white convicts—we presume at the different penal settlements, such as Cockatoo and Sandridge. Assuming that these propositions are merely a bad joke to convey a sneer to the Bishop of Melbourne and Dr. Cairns, we can only say that they contain just the sort of language which finds currency among that class of the community who boast " that they fear not God, nor regard man."' It is not to such persons that the country must look for the establishment of colonies or the maintenance of the honor of the British name. Every right-minded man must feel a deep sympathy for the aborigines of New Zealand. It is due to ths high qualities they have shown. It is due to the cause in which they combat. It is due from the evils which impend over them, and which threaten the destruction of their race. We have no charter from heaven to set up for physical superiority, or to assume that because our ancestors left the most barbarous customs, a few centuries before the New Zealanders, that these are outside the circle of humanity, to be hunted like wild-beasts—to be deprived of their national rights, and to be treated as slaves. We know, because we can take a wider view than the native mind is likely to comprehend, that modern civilisation is absorbing—that all small powers and states must relinquish their isolation and individuality, and merge into the influence of a stronger. This is a law fraught with many benefits to mankind, and its full recognition is the only means by which the remnant of the New Zealanders can be sheltered from the consequences of their own intestine strife, and take a permanent station among civilised men. We know,-too, that that struggle , which they now are making, and which has cost us a few lives, will be much more fatal to themselves. In wrestling with the great power of Great.Britain they have undertaken a task utterly beyond their strength. It is the ¥ duty|of every man to establish the authority of the Crow a with as much vigor

and'decision as possible, but it 'is our cliity also to preserve for those people (he sentiments of humanity— to recognise fully their personal rights, and, as soon as possible, to restore to them the blessings of peace. To inflict personal injury, or to take sanguinary revenge, is so abhorent to every sentiment of justice that, if we conceived it possible that such a policy could be cherished by an English people, we should feel that the doom of Heaven had already gone out against them, and that their dishonored banners would soon be torn and trampled in the dust. We recall to mind that precisely the same sort of language was used about the Americans when they were in arms against Great Britain—that the same language appears in the party writings of the old Irish factions when dealing with each other in times of popular commotion. It is the outburst of the base and sanguinary spirit which has so often disgraced even a noble cause, and which every Christian man and every public writer is bound to: stigmatise with the strongest reprobation.