The Tuapeka Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 18G8. "Measures, not Men."

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 33, 26 September 1868, Page 2

The Tuapeka Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 18G8. "Measures, not Men."

The extraordinary partiality of our Provincial Executive for some highly-favored districts, and their equally extraordinary dislike to others, are matters almost too notorious to require comment. A very flagrant case has, however, come under our notice, which a sense of public duty induces us to briiy before our readers. The Gold Escort Returns would be, if properly given, a valuable and I authentic means of directing the i energies of the capitalist or miner. At present they aro worse than useless, and any attempt to make use of them, as a guide to selection, can only 4ead to disappointment. Whatever individual interests may be at work, there is evidently a strong desire in high quarters to pufi the Dunstan goldiields at the expense of Mount Benger. Not only is the latter place denied an Escort, but its very existence, as a district, has been attacked by the removal of Warden and Magistrate. The inconvenience resulting from this very false economy on the part of Government may bo easily imagined when it is considered jthat the only opportunity afforded to Mounjb Benger litigants* to settle their disputes is when the leisure or caprice of the Switzers Warden permit a ; visit. The next Court day is the 6th of October, an interval of six weeks being allowed to elapso since the last visit of the Warden. Such ; a state of things as this would be ! impossible 'were the actual return of gold obtained on Mount Benger made public.Smd its position as a goldfield vindicated. It is a wellknown and easily-proved fact that two storekeepers in that district send, by private escort to the Dunstan, over 500 ozs. fortnightly, in addition to which large quantities of gold are purchased by storekeepers at Long Valley and the Fourteen-mile Beach. If we deducted the amount they thus pilfer, as it were, from another district, the yield -is considerably reduced in dimensions. How far this treatment has been a result of the celebrated Goidfields Commission's report-, we are not in a position to say ; suffice it to say that' that document has already cost the Province enough, and could only be used as an instrument by an unscrupulous Executive, blind to all else but their own private interests. But the enemies of the Mount Benger district jdo not confine their attacks to- the fining population: with their usual disregard of pledges, they > l^ive made common cause with the squatter as against the settler - interest. " In spite of this, so manifest are the advantages of the district that, in anticipation ' of the land above the township of ! Roxburgh, on the west bank of the ! river, being shortly open for selec- | tion, it has been taken up and fenced in by intending settlers. As the French Revolutionists guillotined aristocracta pour encoUvager lea auire3, so our Government, as a proof of their desire to encourage the settlement of the country, have i not allowed a single application to !be lodged in the Camp. What makes this a blacker job "than it might otherways appear is the existence of a special arrangement I 1 niwcen the squatters and the Executive, in terms of which the settlers ynl\ be compelled to erect, at their own expense, substantial sheep -and cattle-proof fences, and i are also debarred the privilege of running a single head of cattle on

the residue of the surveyed land, except with the permission of the squatters. Such one-sided and selfseeking conduct on the part of those whose position would lead the public to expect honesty and impartiality can only tend to disgust the population, and finally ruin the Province.

Great Britain has seldom failed to obtain glory from her greater wars, and shame and disaster from her petty struggles. Bhootan, Craffraria, Ashantee, and New Zealand present a catalogue of blunders and mishaps which would be ludicrous but for the loss of life occasioned by them. Since Exeter Hail got possession of St. Stephen's it has been our policy to fight bloodthirsty savages witli rosewater and protocols. As a natural -result, we find ourselves dispised and insulted. The disaster at Te JSgutu o te Manu can have surprised no one ; yet we hear nothing oi a change in policy. To fight the cruel and treacherous savage we must use his own weapons against himself. Where mercy is regarded as weakness severity is the truest mercy. "Exterminate them first and civilise them afterwards," was the advise of an American statesman in reference to the Indians, and the epigram contains a profound truth. Declare all the unoccupied land in the colony the property of the Crown, and let Maori and Pakeha have an equal opportunity of purchasing j attract from the Cape, the western States of America, and t Texas a skilled force of bush fighters, and set a remunerative price on every Maori head. Teach these savages that war is an " organised cruelty," as the- most mercirui of American generals called it, and the native difficulty is at an end. Prior occupation can give no claim to land which is never used, unless the Almighty desired the fairest por- | tions of the world to remain a j wilderness. Most truly did the | poet, Christian and philosopher, William Wordsworth say — " God's eternal instrument In working out his true intent Is man arrayed for mutual slaughter : Ye 3, Carnage ia His daughter." We have attempted gentle means and have failed ; the stern necessity rises up, what we cannot improve we must destroy.