A.YEAR OF WAR—A RETROSPECT

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 356, 22 March 1861, Page 3

A.YEAR OF WAR—A RETROSPECT

" The heather is on fire !''

In three days, from the date of our present issue, we shall have passed through the first year of a. second New Zealand war; — and what a year of difficult}', disaster, and disgrace, have we we not suffered ? Leaving it to "vigorous prosecution" and "peace-at-any-piiee" men to determine the justice or injustice of the war—eschewing even an opinion of its prudence or its policy, let us take a few random observations of its conduct and their results.

Before, however, entering upon this part of the question we are bound to record our firm and deliberate conviction that to the relaxation of the Arms Ordinance by the existing New Zealand Government; to the facility thereby rendered to the enormous acquisition by the natives of arms, ammunition, and all sorts pf warlike stores : and to the simultaneous withdrawal, by the Imperial Government, of the 58th regiment without any relieving corps, and the powerless reduction of the Military establishment of this Colony, in the teeth of the remonstrances urged by all who were privileged and competent to raise an objection, much, if not most, of the present wide spread and still extending insurrection is mainly attributable,

After twelve months conflict with the Maori, what have we achieved? Are we one. step' nearer the solution of this war question than when, on the 28th February, 1860, Colonel Gold and his "gallant three hundred " set sail from the Manukau in the full and confident belief that in less than six weeks they would return in triumph to winter quarters? Far be it from us to rip up the sad details of opportunities presented to and lost by Colonel Gold —of lives sacrificed—of support withheld—and of enthusiasm extinguished. These are matters of history here; and they are also matters that must yet be searchingly investigated elsewhere. Well! we have been relieved of Colonel Gold; but have we been bettered by his successor? Has the war been since prosecuted in a more determined spirit, or to a more determined or conclusive result? Have three thousand accomplished what five hundred failed to co? Have the butchered of the Puketekauere—one of General Pratt's proclaimed missions—been avenged ? Has the retreat from the peach grove been wiped away? And after a spring and summer now nearly spent, has any one substantial advantage been obtained to compensate the loss of gallant officers and soldiers weeded away in the most distressing and dispiriting manner? With each arrival from New Plymouth, men's hearts are in their mouths, because they have been taught to anticipate nought but evil to their friends and fellow countrymen, only carried into spasmodic action, and never yet permitted to consummate any promising success—for when the advance ought to be triumphantly sounded, and " Britons" shown how to " strike home," the retire is falteringly heard—dispatches are penned to acquaint us with what haHbeen left undone, and the Maori, instead of being followed up blow upon" blow, is suffered to recover wind and heart, to choose fresh positions, and with his inferior arms and wooden bullets, to set our Enfields, artillery, shot, shells, rockets, and all- the improvements of modern military science, at defiance. Strike a balance of profit and loss, and we shall find against certain advanced redoubts in the valley of the Waitara, the town of New Plymouth closely beleaguered, its suburban homesteads and farms in ruins, and the province itself almost wiped from outof the category of New Zealand settlements.

And why should this be so? From our own coasts, —from Australia—from England—and from India, we have had considerable reinforcements of able subordinate officers and good and gallant soldiers, willing, nay earnest, to accomplish all that brave men can. We have it from an undoubted source, that these, as they have arrived at Taranaki have been astounded at the inaction they witnessed; but, what then ? they are constrained to do as those before them have been made to do, they swell the numbers without augmenting the strength of the British array, for, to quote a phrase unhappily becoming too familiar to the colonists, they speedily get General ised.

We have been instructed "by the Governor, through the medium of a Government Gazette, that disaffection is on the spread ; and William Thompson, in a letter to the Chairman of the Waikato Committee, confirms the assurance, inasmuch as he tells him in no measured terms, almost in the language of Rob Roy, that " the heather is on fire, arrest the tlaze who can." There are surely means to beat it put, were energy and determination brought to bear upon it. But they are not. what is worse, there is an ugly whisper abroad that the Commander of" the Forces entertains conscientious scruples cencerning the righteousness of the war. We heartily hope that the rumor is a groundless one, but we perceive it has reached the Editor of the Southern Cross, as well as ourselves. Of what use will be more men from England for whom the colonists have so earnestly prayed if they be not bravely led and vigorously employed in extinguising a rebellion which daily becomes stronger and which, if not speedily suppressed, will be sure to end in a war of races.

The people of England imagine they have done great things—and we give them every credit for it—by sending a regiment from India, and a battery of Armstrong guns and a company of artillery from Woolwich. As far as this goes the reinforcement will be a most seasonable one, but it is altogether incommensurate with the end sought to be attained. It is on the " little war " scale so forcibly depreciated by the late Duke of Wellington. England is as yet unable to realise the cliancter or

the necessities of a Maori war. She has

been taught to regard the conflict as a mere emeute of a half armed, disorderly body of semi-savages, which a small force of her magnificently armed and equipt soldiery she deems sufficient to put down. This was precisely the same mistake into which the first originators of this unhappy strife fell. 'And what has been the answer up to this hour? —This; —that these indifferently armed Maoris have for twelve months set the might and majesty of England at successful defiance—that they at this moment beleaguer an English garrisoned town ;^a"nd that whilst we have made no sensible impression upon them, they have, under the very eyes of our commanders, and with perfect impunity to themselves, carried off an immense quantity of plunder, robbed, burnt, and destroyed at their pleasure, and, as we have already said, virtually blotted Taranaki from the list of New Zealand provinces.

The Maori is a very different foe from either the Sepoys or the Chinese to cope with—warlike, brave, and skilful—a firstrate tactician, an admirable strategist, and an intuitive engineer; he is an antagonist that requires a strong arm and a shrewd head to deal with. Men's eyes, now that the China difficulty is settled, are turning towards that quarter in the hope of aid. We but express the opinion of competent authorities when we say that by such aid the revolt would be most expeditiously, mercifully,/and economically quelled—a war of races prevented—the Queen's supremacy established—and New Zealand placed upon so secure and prosperous a footing as would preclude the possibility of any future outbreak.— Auckland Weekly Register. '