THE SETTLEMENT OF OUR DIFFICULTY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1016, 20 April 1869, Page 2

THE SETTLEMENT OF OUR DIFFICULTY.

As every feasible plan given with a conscientious desire to settle our present native troubles, is worthy of consideration at such a lime, we extract the following from an article on the subject in the Neio Zealand Uj'i'tdd : “A number of men should be en-p-ao-ed at home to come out to the North Island, that they should be, if possible, • ten years’ men, whose term of service in the British Army had expired. Officers of character should also be sought to come out wiih them. A free passage should be oranted to them, and the rate of pay fixed upon in England. It should be higher than that given to British troops. These men upon° landing should be placed upon a block of land ; at first stationed near together in considerable numbers until they had made passable roads bj which they could move backwards and forwards through the country, and to and from our Coast Settlements. As this was done they should be placed inland, that nearest to the centres where the men were stationed being first occupied, and so gradually extending. They should have a liberal allowance of land given them, and every assistance in getting it under cultivation ; say a thousand or a couple of thousand acres to the officers, in proportion to the capital they could bring and expend upon the land given to them, and at least one hundred acres to each man. The men should be armed with the Snider, and a thousand men of that character, located in such a central situation, armed as suggested and with a few field pieces among them, would be a standing menace to the Maoris, and make them be somewhat cautious in attacking any of our settlements anywhere near such a station. The men would have no Maori sympathies ; they would be as entirely desirous of peace as any other part of the community, and they would be able to give a good account of any Maoris with whom they might come in contact.”—The worst of it is that in prescribing for a difficulty the writer indirectly advances a still greater difficulty—that of further confiscation.