THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “Verie sans peur.” WANGANUI, OCT. 31, 1861.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 266, 31 October 1861, Page 2

THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “ Verie sans peur.” WANGANUI, OCT. 31, 1861.

The interest with which the arrival of the next mail from Auckland is looked forward to is in some degree commensurate .with the importance of the intelligence it. may*-'bring. It is generally ex-, pected that .we shall then have the great question of war or. peace decided. It is supposed that- our ne\y Governor will by that time have ascertained the feeling of' the Waikato tribes,’ and will be able to judge whether; the results may be obtained by peaceful negociation, which his predecessor believed could only be gained; by a successful war. He, has had little time to arrive at a conclusion; but his. acquaintance with the circumstances, his. intimate knowledge of native, character* and his personal acquaintance with .many of the Waikato chiefs ; above all; the impossibity of keeping an army of 6000' men idle during summer, make it not improbable that next mail may at least give, us some idea of the direction: events are about to take, if it does not bring us de-. cisive intelligence of the. course,the Go-, vemor has resolved on. Meanwhile, alt that is before us to guide our speculations ■:is the statement : made by the Colonial Secretary in ;his place; in ~the . house of Representatives nearly - two months ago, and-which was’ given to-our readers in a late issuer The long time that has,,elapsed, since that speech was delivered does not. lessen its interest, . because; .as. yet no, action, has been taken in conformity with it. Ali that we know in addition, is,, that Sir George Grey holds the sameviews as his Ministry, and is prepared cordially to adopt their policy. What is this policy J It is one, not of war or ofpeace, but .of principle. It is not mys-. terious, crooked, changeable ; but open, straightforward, and immutable as justice, itself. .It-does not dealwith details first, trusting to something turning up, which may justify the' course adopted ; but it takes a broad and comprehensive view of .the question, and leaves details to be de-. veloped when the time has come for them, yet-in accordance with the first prineiples ■laid down. It may- appear-that it is far easier to lay down general ideas than# details ; but this is a mistake. The minds, are few that can form a. comprehensive plan on sound principles, in comparison with those who can work out details. And the simpler the plan is—the more obvious it is to general comprehension, the greater is the-talent displayed in forming and developing it. The great fault of our late Government was a want of ability to take a broad and compre-. hensive survey of the position. They were like men ; in a mist groping'their way inch by inch, knowing thSphice they wished to get to, but-quitAat‘-a loss what, road to take. Hence the vacillation, the delays, the* ambiguities, the mysteries. A correspondent; in another column, blamfes the present- ministry, f.r- not goy-. . ing into the details of their native policy, within six weeks of their taking -office ; but when did the late Ministry, duringthe; whole time they were in 'office; de- . velop their plans or enunciate their prin-. ciples ? They did indeed write long me-, moranda oh native affairs, which weregiven to the public a year or two after' the ink had dried on them. They did. affirm that the Maori must submit to : British law. They did provoke a contest , in a case on the merits of wliich they had. ‘not informed themselves, and in respect to which they indirectly owned them-, selves in the wrong after a province had been destroyed, and the country involved in heavy expence. But on what prin-. ciples did they act? What details of their plans did they publish? Who ofall the colonists in -New Zealand knew what they - purposed to . do, within the next twenty-four hours; or < within the next twenty-four months ? Did; the whole • course of the contest at Taranaki,-or its termination, justify the notion ; entertained My the majority of the colonists at its comiiienCement, that the long-pending difficulty in. dealing \vith the Maories had, at lastMfeen.'ihet by persons, competent to deal with it? Dia, not the proceedings, on the contrary, those who had. at first believed in the competency of the ministry, and'show conclusively that they, had neither chart por. compass by which 'to direct their- ’but were ya^t

allowing the vessel of the state to drift hither and thither at the mercy of the winds and waves! ‘New pilots come on board, and because; thtgr sail and.lay-to until the Captain just appqipted should arrive, our . ’correspondent ;iinds . ffiult with them. They . have chart and compass, • but, because, in the Captain s absence, they have." not laid down theii whole coxirse, ami held;: it up : to public view, it is said that they intend to wreck the vessel on the rocks of Maori obstinacy, or fun her ashore on the beaph of the Missionary Utopia. The suspicion is - altogether gratuitous and •; unworthy ; : there'is not the. slightest reason for supposing that any unworthy concessions arepurposed. The present ministers, .have laid down for their guidance comprehensive’principles—plain and intelligible—- - so obvious, indeed, that, ope \vonders ‘at their not having. ; been actedon before, Theit starting point .is, that the Maories ; are men—acute reasoners, able judges of what is for their owii' interest,—not chil- -, dren, tp. be pleased, with a rattle or tickled /•••with. 4 Straw ; : but .men knowing, they have stake 1 in the country, 'and desirous to have that weight in tlie social scale ; which ■is :.due tlieir. interests. They are tp;*be asked to -assist in the ’“‘'impioyemeiit'of; iheff social, nnxUpiyil position; advantage is tq he taken - for this' purpose of those courts they, have themselves instituted ; and nothing is to be done in the way of pressing them to sell land, so as to raise the suspicion that the Government is actuated by any sinister motive ip making these changes. This is an intelligible and manly expression of opinion. It is moreover new and bold in this sense, that, it grapples with the 'difficulty in a, totally different way from any that has beeu proposed by Mr. Fox’s predecessors, The weapons which Were ‘ in their opinion turned against the Government, and which they had determined to wrest from the Maories’ hands, Mr. Fox lays hold of, and use's as a lever to lift them in the social scale. "This idea is unfortunately* so far as the : Government has been concerned, a novelty. Had it been acted on earlier, there can be little doubt of its success. But now, ' is there a-fulcrum on which this moral lever can rest ? We believe that the present feeling of a large number is, that law and order are best to. be obtained by a king of their own, and how far they are open to arguments which may convince them that such a notion cannot be realised, it is difficult to say. .They are acute reasoners. ' But the government and they start , from entirely different premises. Each party believes itself the stronger. If the government can convince the natives : that they cannot be successful in an appeal- to. physical force, the rest of the argument will be comparatively easy. ; Then Mr.; Fox will obtain his fulcrum without’difficulty. But if the govern--mOnt'canUbt convince' them - of' this ’by argument, it ’ must do so by ; physical , demonstration ; and having done so Mr. .' " Fox’s policy will be as useful and as applicable as now. Every lover of humanity must desire that it inay be carried out with out an a ppeal to arms ■ but its soundness and excellence are only the more conspicuous, that even should it be necessary to subdue the maoris, the principle involved in the policy must ’be acted on afterwards in. order to make them fellow subjects. ,