Wanganui Chronicle. and TURAKINA X RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. TUESDAY, 4th MAY, 1869.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1022, 4 May 1869, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. and TURAKINA & RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. TUESDAY, 4th MAY, 1869.

Great Britain and New Zealand are divided or separated by the whole breadth of the globe. There is a cynical proverb which tells us that “Friends agree best when they are far apart.” We do not believe it, either as regards men or nations ; and its incorrectness is very manifest in our relations with the Home Government. These have occasionally not been of the most pleasant character, distance notwithstanding. The “dry light” of which Bacon speaks — the light that is pure of all colouring matter and that shines through no disturbing medium — has been frequently wanting in regard to the statements affecting this portion of New Zealand, and numbers of representative people in England have neither said nor done well by us in past years. Often, in entire forgetfulness of the fact long ago set forth by the Latin poet, that men do not change their minds or habits of thought when they change their skies, New Zealand settlers have been stigmatised, in newspapers and at public meetings, as cruel and rapacious — as actuated almost solely by the intent to rob natives of their property and to acquire possession of land somehow or anyhow. It is needless here to speak of the gross injustice of such an accusation ; we merely mention it, in passing, to show that proverbs are not always the essence of wisdom.

However little help we may get from England, this style of speech at least seems at an end. There is a warm side to us just now in the old country. It would be sad enough if it were not so. The AngloSaxon race is really bound together by sympathetic chains stronger than those of brass or iron, and its members can never wholly break them. Hence in the hour of calamity, judging from private correspondence and public journalism, the relationship of race and of association asserts itself, and the throb of our misery is felt across the sea. We do not know if it was or is meant to send troops to New Zealand, but it is easy to see that the sending of them would meet the approval of a large majority of the British people. Our own impression is that the Home Government seriously entertained the intention of adding to the small Imperial force in the North Island ; it is yet impossible to say whether the intention has been carried out or not, but if troops are not now on their way to these shores, we believe it will be as much owing to a foolish telegram of our Governor as to unwillingness on the part of the British authorities to send us aid. The telegram referred to runs thus :—

“Residence, New Zealand, December 8 — The rebels on the east coast of this island who perpetrated the massacre at Poverty Bay have been defeated in two engagements with severe loss. It is now intended, as soon as possible, to concentrate the greater part of the colonial forces on the west coast, with the object of putting down the rebellion in that quarter. The so-called Maori king is still quiet, and there has been no fresh out-break hitherto in any part of the colony.” Satisfaction of no slight kind, we are told, was felt in London on receipt of this telegram ; and supposing a regiment or regiments under orders to hold themselves in readiness for embarkation to New Zealand, the most natural result of such official information would be, in our present relations with the Imperial Government, to countermand such order, and to let us work out our own policy in our own way, seeing we were going about it so triumphantly. How far the Governor’s telegram was correct, more especially read in the light of recent events, our readers can judge for themselves.

Popular Lectures. — Mr Fox gives the third of this series of lectures on Thursday evening. We presume that it is unnecessary to do more than announce the fact. Auctioneers. — The following gentlemen have taken out license as auctioneers for the year 1869-70 :— Messrs William Finnimort, Edward Lewis, Robert Spark Low, and Joseph Chadwick. Wanganui Cavalry. — Mr Chadwick, as chairman of a meeting of this corps held to elect a captain (vice Major Finnimore resigned), has received a note from Major Nixon accepting the position as unanimously requested by the members. Breadstuffs. — As uncertain as the price of wheat, might pass into a proverb. Anyone who has been in the habit of studying the wheat market must have seen that it is a perfect puzzle. In Adelaide, prices this year opened at 3s 11d in January ; 5s 6d is now asked notwithstanding a declared surplus for export of 75,000 tons. In Melbourne wheat of good quality is selling at 6s 3d, duty paid ; flour, £14 to £15. Cheer up! — Some of our correspondents, writing of native industries, are rather despondent. We bid them cheer up. The old proverb, although we do not pin our faith to proverbial wisdom, holds true universally — “Heaven helps those who help themselves ;” and the full reading of it should be, that those who cannot or will not help themselves cannot or will not be helped by Heaven. And so, according to our understanding of things, it has come to this with us that we ought to grow more, manufacture more, buy less, and spend less till the “good times” come again.

Customs’ Duties. — The amount of duty collected at the Custom House, Wanganui, for the month of April, was £2,158 16s 8d. Public Meeting. — The meeting to-night is deserving of the attention of the electors. One Provincial Council has ceased, and the public know the best and the worst of it, but before electing members for a new Council the constituency could indicate its opinion of things in general and of provincialism in particular, in a way that might tell upon the powers that be. We hope, therefore, that the electors will take an interest in business so nearly effecting them, and show that they do so by a large attendance at the meeting to-night in the Odd Fellows’ Hall.

The Waitotara Rebels. — The Resident Magistrate took occasion yesterday to announce from the bench that these rebels, now or recently harboured at Putiki, were under the special protection of the half-a-dozen policemen of Wanganui, and that they must not be molested by the Pakeha. We have great respect for all constituted authorities, but we can ill understand this ostentatious care for red-handed rebels, and in so far as we do understand it, we have not a particle of sympathy with it. The Government seems either utterly supine or perfectly powerless to avenge Maori barbarities, and this mode of treating the subject is something like adding insult to injury. Yet the people must say nothing. Affairs have come to a pretty pass certainly. Meantime, we understand, the Waitotaras have considered discretion the better part of valour and taken themselves off. The wives and children are left behind, and the ground between the Waitotara and the Wangaehu rivers is to be kept as neutral, so that their safety may be secured and blankets, provisions, and comforts readily procured. When the men have rested sufficiently and got a supply of ammunition they will no doubt take the field against us again. Mr Buller would change the venue by saying that these Waitotaras were not part of Titoko Waru’s men. But the Putiki natives set up no such defence, and are rather boastful of its being otherwise. There is thus a conflict of authority, and the latter are likely to be the more accurately informed. Taking the law into one’s own hand is always to be deprecated ; but the authorities must woefully fail in their duty before such a thing is ever hinted at, as we are compelled to say they have failed in this instance.

Savage Warfare in America. — The struggles of the North American Indians have often been illustrated in connection with the Maori wars. All the merit of similarity must lie in the fact that savage races invariably refuse to accept their destiny without a protest and an appeal to arms in which they are generally successful. In the prosecution of those wars, relatively, there can be no greater dissimilarity than between the conduct of the American and New Zealand Governments. We would commend to the attention of those who console themselves in defeat by the examples of history in other wars of races, the following record of how success is followed up and how measures are taken to ensure future tranquility :— The news comes from the Western Prairies that the Indian war is virtually ended. General Sheridan sends a despatch, under date of 1st January, to General Sherman, from Fort Cobb in the Indian territory, in which he says :— “The destruction of the Camanche village by Colonel Evan’s command on Christmas day gave the final blow to the backbone of the Indian rebellion. At midnight on the 31st of December, 1868, a delegation of the chief fighting men of the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes, 21 in number, arrived here on foot, their animals not being able to carry them on. They said they ruled the village and begged for peace, and for permission for their people to come in, and asked no terms, but only for a paper to protect them from the operations of our troops while en route. They report the tribes in mourning for their losses. Their people are starving, having eaten up all their dogs and finding no buffalo. We had forced them into the canons on the eastern edge of the ‘Staked Plains,’ where their was no small game or buffalo. They are in a bad fix and desire to surrender unconditionally. I acceded to their terms, and will punish them justly ; and I can scarcely make an error in any punishment awarded, for they all have blood upon their hands.”