THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1871.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 29, 9 November 1871, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. THURSDAY , NOVEMBER 9, 1871.

We arc glad to find, by the vote in aid of the Volunteer movement, it has become a recognised institution of the country. It is one of the charges upon the revenue we think appropriate and admissablc, because we consider a drilled and militarized population the best guarantee for the future peace of the Colony. AVe are by no means satisfied with our present peculiar relations with the natives, especially if we take Mr Parata, the member of the Waikato, as the true exponent of the feelings of his constituents, and we have no doubt he is. A motion was introduced by Mr Wood, asking ii the frontier settlers were justified in resisting vi d armis an armed agression, and the case of Mr Walker’s was mentioned as a case in point, whose cattle had been driven off, killed, and otherwise maltreated, from a run leased by him from the rightful owners of the fee simple. There was the usual amount of illogical declamation from Mr McLean and his coadjutors, who persistently declared that in all cases of native armed agression the victim would appeal to the' law. This outrageous proposition was cordially endorsed by our native representative, who boldly taxed the Government with dealing with land over which it exercised a a very cpicstionable authority. He quoted the Treaty of Waitangi, when Jackson’s petition was under discussion, and enquired why the Maorics’ land was confiscated, in direct violation of that Imperial compact? His political education was not sufficiently advanced to provide an answer to the query, and no one was candid enough to tell him it was for murder and rebellion, and the Native and Defence Minister’s proclivities were too ex parte to explain that the said treaty was no longer inviolate, that according to the rules of civilised nations the violation of one of its clauses was sufficient to abrogate the whole. Mr Parata protested against the Europeans being allowed to defend themselves, and while he allowed them the mild protection of the law, blandly suggested an equal distribution of arms and ammunition to his constituents, if circumstances should render an appeal to arms unavoidable.

There is something seriously comic in a Cabinet Minister rising from his seat and telling the settlers they must rest with folded hands in the presence of an armed party of native freebooters, and quietly suffer The destruction of their flocks and herds. He becomes intensely absurd when he speaks of appealing to the law. If it was meant in jest, it was cruel ; if in earnest, it was sheer fatuity. No man knows better than he that' our law is a dead letter, and the' Queen’s writ a contemptible thing in the eyes of the Maori. It is in the face of this beautiful exposition of our social and political relations with this people, we hail with satisfaction the recognition of the claims of our Volunteers upon the Government. We heartily join in the prayer for peace, but at the same time we consider the better way to secure it is to be ready for war. Every sensible and thoughtful man must lie cognizant of the disquietude which agitates the native mind. Sugar and flour, and the varied contributions of the native office will eventually lose their potency ; the sugar will cloy the' stomach, and the flour induce indigestion, and then the only tonic is blood, its antidote is fear, respect for our arms, and our inflexible justice.

Wc should pre'er to sec a still further interest manifested in our citizen Defence Force. We have our Naval Volunteers, for instance, an undoubtedly useful corps, who should form the nucleus of a crew to man a monitor. They should be trained in the use of heavy artillery afloat some vessel placed as a training ship at their disposal, to navigate among the islands and shoals of the Hauraki. They should lay claim to something more than a becoming uniform and their name.

IVe have a young engineer corps, who look dashing, and are no doubt the admiration of the girls at the Sunday parade, but they, too, arc miserably deficient in the education which their name suggests. How many of their officers could lay out, at a word, a redoubt with Hanking bastions, ditch and breastwork, or instruct their men to make a gabion or fascine, or throw up a line of rifle pits for their comrades in arms to occupy ? Now this is, in our minds, precisely the practical education which should be given to them, so that should they take the field they may not disappoint the country and themselves. Sham-fights are all very well in their way ; they teach the men regularity of movement, and the ordinary detail of attack and retreat, but the engineers should be well appointed, and instructed to throw up an earthwork in a given time, which might save a column outnumbered, or cut off until relief came. They could not possibly have a better authority than the only foe they will in all probability ever encounter. The native system of fortification is unexceptionable ; and so admirably were their defences constructed, so impervious to. artillery, so few salient points, and strategically, so perfect that the Imperial engineer officers reluctantly confessed they had something to learn from them.

We throw out these suggestions in the hope volunteer schools may be established, and our young corps instructed in all. those branches of their profession, without which they become more fit for ornament than use.