The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 352, 16 September 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1868.

A MUCH more humiliating spectacle for boasted civilisation could not be offered if the whole world was searched, than that afforded in New Zealand at the present time in the relations of the white and the Maori race. The Maori is master of the situation with a vengeance, for not only is he well capable of taking particularly good care of himself, but the system of G-overnment that the colony is cursed with, whilst it prevents the settler from taking care of himself, aids the Maori in murder without reprisal, and in positive wrong without remedy. Sir George Grey, who is now feted and flattered, who has judges to feast him, and ministers to bow down to him, first initiated this policy, from which at the present time New Zealand is reaping such a blondy and a costly harvest. Flour, sugar, blankets, and comforts of all kinds, were the weapons with which he thought it prudent to fight, and for a time the savages, like all their kind, were content to live in plenty and in comfort, as long as the European population was small, and they were in fa3t the dominant race, fed and filled by the colonists. The last war that arose should have dispelled the illusion, but Exeter Hall and the modern philaiithropists of our day insisted that it was only an outbreak occasioned by white rapacity; after an inglorious and ignominious contest, in which some of the best blood of England was fruitlessly shed, we virtually withdrew from the contest, and in fact allowed the Maories to consider themselves the victors in the struggle. As a matter of course, the British prestige was destroyed, and when Hau-hau fanaticism obtained sway cannibalism was rerived, the Queen's authority was ofluted, the heads of British officers were carried in triumph through the island, missionaries were killed and partially devoured, and all that the Government did was to let the perpetrators alone. At length some atrocities that could not be looked over even by a Maoriblind Government, were committed at Patea, and after a vast amount of circumlocution, and a determined but ineffectual pretence to believe that there was nothing significant in the slaughter of half a dozen white men, and subsequently feasting on the body of one, the Government very reluctantly instructed Colonel M'Donnell to commence offensive and retaliatory operations. "Weeks passed by and the Hau-haus laughed at the Pakeha, and when at last, Colonel M'Donnell did take the field, it was with a Ealstaffian array, an undisciplined body, leavened only by about ten per cent, of trained men. 'The history of the warfare is short, and it is as disastrous as it is brief "We have gained one single success, we have sustained repeated repulses. The Chatham Island prisoners escaped (heaven save the mark) or rather went away home, for they cannot be said to have escaped in the true sense, and all attempts to capture them resulted in defeat and disgrace. Col. M' Donnell has sustaineda serious repulse, Von Tempsky, and captain Buck, two of the best bush fighters that ever drew a sword in New Zealand; Captain Palmer, Lieutenants Hastings and Hunter, gallant fellows all, and thirteen other brave "men fell, whilst twenty others are wounded; including Lieut. Rowan and Dr. Best, and two are missing. The actually killed arc eighteen, the wounded who could not walk off the field may be added to that sad list, for we learn that they were left on the ground and were no doubt massacred as soon as our force had retired, so if wecountforty white lives as lost in thelast unfortunate engagement we should not be far wrong. "Wbat possible amount of Maori blood would compensate for that loss of civilised life, and how long will the people of New Zealand quietly submit to have the lives of their own race sacrificed, the honor of the flag under which t^y

live sullied, the British name, scoffed at and derided by a lot of brutal barbarians ? we feed and pay the so called friondlies so tliat they may give information to the enemy, we permit such men as Colonel Hanltain the so called defence minister, to issue proclamations which tie the hands of the military authorities in the disturbed districts, and render them incapable of action where action is required, and enable offenders to laugh openly at what they know to be empty threats. In another column we make an extract from a Wanganui paper, which will fully bear out that statement. The Government are ready to slobber over Maoris the moment the latter profess repentance for little irregularities in the shape of assassination and robbery, whilst the ruined settler, the victim of the dusky prodigal, may petition in vain for compensation for losses sustained, through an idle belief in the power and the intensity of the law under which he was induced to form a home. There is affection and forgiveness for the Maori, there is neglect and contempt for those he. has plundered, and they are told in fact that thev are lucky to escape with their lives. PhiloMaorism has assumed the shape of a malignant disease, with which the ruling powers are affected, and whether it is to be quietly allowed to carry off victims without demur has yet to be seen by the people of the colony. At any cost, at any sacrifice, and under any circumstances, the blood that has been shed must be avenged, and the honor of our race vindicated, if we hope ever to make New Zealand a home The Hau-haus can be swept off the land ifthe white race choose, and whether the authorities like it or not, a policy of extermination must be commenced, and having been commenced, be carried out at all hazards. There can be no middle course, and the sooner the inevitable is begun the better for both races. Let us hope that at last, taught by misfortune and goaded into action by the Assembly, the Government may once more restore the eredit that they have lost, and wipe off the disgraceful stains that at present lie thickly on the Colonial escutcheon, cast by the hands of the native race. Nothing but terrible reprisals will strike fear into the malcontents, after their late success, nothing but ample vengeance will satisfy those in these islands who are not suffering from the philo-Maori mania.