THE RECENT APPOINTMENT.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 1, 5 January 1867, Page 3

THE RECENT APPOINTMENT.

The recent appointment of Major Smith to the command of this district, and the resignation, consequent 'thereon, of nearly the whole of the officers of the Volunteer and Militia corps in the Wairarapa, are subjects which have not excited that attention outside the district which they merit. The efficient defence of this outpost, in the event of another Hau-hau invasion, is a question in which not only the settlers resident in the district, but those of the whole province, and indeed those of the whole colony

are more or less concerned. The sub-

jects referred to, consequently, are not merely of local but of general interest. How it is that they have not obtained move notice arises from the habit Enadishman have made a second nature of O never troubling themselves about causes until they are made to feel their effects. The invasion of the Wairarapa would doubtless furnish an exciting subject for not only the Wellington but the Colonial press; the destruction of some out-set-tlers homestead would supply a sensatiou heading for every newspaper in the colony; the massacre of a number

of defenceless women and children would justly arouse the indig-nation of every settler in New Zealand; hut the means by which such evils may be averted command no attention until those evils make their appearance. We have heard on more than one reliable authority, that it has been for some time the intention of the Hau-haus to make another incursion into this district after harvest; and we should like to know what is more likely to precipipitate such an event as the receipt of the news by them of the command of the Wairarapa being- intrusted to so inexperienced an officer as Major Smith, and of the consequent resignation in a body of the Volunteer and Militia officers of the district. Whether the Government

acted wisely in making- the appointment, or the officers of the Volunteers tions, are questions which it is our bounden duty at all events to refer to, as they are questions in wdiich the whole of our local readers are more especially interested.

As regards the appointment itself, we have no hesitation in pronouncing- it to be a miserable blunder, and a blunder, too, of that kind which in its results may prove—what Talleyrand defined a state blunder to be—worse than a crime.” It is probable that the Government, like most governments—wise after the event —see the matter in this light; for is it not because it can neither be defended nor explained defence or explanation is vouchsafed t As, however, it would in our opinion be a blunder to appoint any one of the Volunteer or Militia officers to the command of the district, which blunder would not be less but greater, were the rule of seniority observed, we cannot think those officers did right in sending in their resignations tor the reason they have assigned. Nor do we think their assigned reason fol- taking this step the time one. We believe that the appointment of Major Smith over the heads of his brother officers would have been equally as objectionable, and by the majority as strongly objected to, had he been the senior officer of the district. This is not a question which alone interests those officers; it is one in which the district is more interested than either them or the Government they condemn. The command of the Wairarapa requires to be conferred on a man possessing more military genius, and more experience in active service than have fallen to the lot of any mere captain of a Volunteer corps, and the population, wealth, extent, and position of the district demand that such a man should he selected for the post and not the other. If no such person could be found, or the Government was not in a position to employ him, then, to carry out the volunteer principle in its entirety, the nomination of one of number for the chief command should have been left to the officers, and upon one of those nominated the Governor should have conferred the appointment. Had this course been adopted the present state of affairs would not have happened.

At present the officers only have entered a protest against the action taken hv the Government, and hence the latter view the matter as one exclusively between it and them. It becomes necessary thereiore, if the Government is to be undeceived on this point, for every corps, and the whole district to demand that the ■-appointment le cancelleil.