The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 843, 29 July 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1871.

A FOEMAn protest, embodied in a reso lution which has passed the Otag< Council, declaims against a furthei waste of its revenues in Maori war! in the .North Isknd, and invites th( co-operation of Canterbury and th( Middle Island Provinces to put a stoj to it. The object of the resolution is to obtain a financial separation betweei the two islands. It is regarded as i hardship that, while the populatior and revenue of the Middle Island an one third greater than the North Is land, the colonial expenditure in th< latter division of the colony has beer one third larger. In analysing th( national expentiture, defrayed out o: loans, it is seen that of the ten mil lions already representing the indebt eduess of the colony, four millions an represented by the consolidation of th< loans obtained by the various provinces while the war loan amounted to thre< millions, which have been spent ex clusivoly in the North Island These were some of the arguments used in favour of securing for each island the expenditure of its revenue. It was contended furthei that the proposed arrangement was eminently calculated to lessen the probabilities of future disagreements between the Native and European populations. By enforcing the principle that all disputes relative to Native lands should bo treated as local matters, and the expense of settling which should devolve upon the lpcalities themselves, it is argued that a policy will have been initiated which would tend greatly to the cessation oi hostilities. The relative positions of the two sections of the colony in respect to the landed estate formed the basis of a further argument for the proposed distribution of revenue. While the land in the North Island had been given away, or sold at a rate not exceeding ten shillings per acre, in the Middle Island settlers have paid an average of nearly twenty shillings for all lands obtained from the Crown; -and while in the latter there still remained a large and valuable public estate, in the North nearly all the Crown lands had been alienated. Referring to the likelihood of Native wars being fostered by the continuance of the present system, Mr Barton, in the Provincial Council said:—" He believed there were numbers of persons in the North whose interest it was to have those wars going on> for the sake of the contract? they could make out of them. Besides, there was a large army of loafers in the North, whose only chance of occupation was war—-

either young men, who came out from Great Britain desirous of entering upon military Service, or older men, who had from various causes left the ranks of the regular army at homo. The very existence of this class was sufficient to cause a probability of war. He ventured to say that if the truth were made known, it would he shown that in many iustances the Maori wars had been deliberately incited by Europeans. To prove that such was the opiuion of some of the Maoris themselves, the honourable member read a Maori statement which had been read by Mr Eolleston in the House of Eepresentatives, and which asserted that Tito Kowaru had been incited to make his depredations by Europeans." Without endorsing the above sentiments, we think that a very wasteful system of expenditure is being lavished upon the Natives. Although regarding the financial separation of the two Islands as no longer practicable, a resolution such as passed by the Otago Provincial Council may be instrun e ital in checking the profuseness with which large sums of money are being expended in pampering up the Natives who at any moment may prove a source of great trouble to the colony. A very considerable source of income which could be made available to purposes of general benefit, is directed to the maintenance of the present unsatisfactory position of the Native and European populations. We have no means of estimating the various tribes which by a system of money payments are induced to assume a friendly spirit towards the Government; but they have been said to embrace every tribe of note uot included in the ranks of those manifesting open disaffection and hostility ; nor has this statement been contradicted. It is not improbable that the colony, therefore, is in a far more dangerous position in regard to the Natives than it was two or three years ago. We have habituated a dangerous class to the use of arms and strategic movements without at the same time embodying a European force which would at any moment be available for the purposes of active warfare, and these have now become accustomed to a life of comparative plenty and idleness arising out of the piofuseness which has supplied them with money, stores, and ammunition for merely nominal services. Any steps that may be taken with the object of checking this expenditure should meet with the approval of the people of the Middle Island. The financial separation of the two natural divisions of the colony is, however, another matter. The greater resources and wealth of the Middlo Island do not furnish a reason that the entire task of restoring peace on a substantial basis should devolve upon the North Island alone. The Government must have regard to the welfare of the colony as a whole, and must see that if massacres take place, effectual means shall be taken to prevent their recurrence. At the same time, seeing that the chief burden of taxation incurred through a war expenditure is borne by the Middle Island, it is essentially necessary that its Provincial Governments should combine to interpose some check upon the wasteful expenditure of past years in dealing with the Native difficulty.