The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 755, 19 April 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to ail men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political #•##■ * '■ * Here shall the Pres-} the Peoele's righ; ' maintain, ■* v j ; Unawe'cl by influence and unbribed by gain „ .- . •* ■ THURSDAY^ APRIL 19, 1 877.

The .removal of stlie men of the Armed Constabulary located m Waikato forward to the frontier, and the alleged motive for doing so, bring prominently into notice the utter-inadequacy of the force to the purposes of defence. The nominal strength is) eig-hty men, the actual number- does not exceed seventy of all : ranks. These are to be located half at "Alexandra' and; half at Cambridge, .;'; stations five : and-twenty miles apart from each other by a practicable road, while between these two points not a single member of the force will be stationed. The truth is, that m its desire to come before the House with a practical reduction m expenditure, the Government has made a false move, and every step it takes leads it fnrther into the mire. First of all it reduced' the strength of the Armed . Constabulary, to a point whichfleaYes that body perfectlyjanfitted for the defence of; the -North Island, should its services ever be required m the field. Tb make the most of the men' at its disposal m : this -particular^ district it moves them forward 'to the frontier, and then^ finding the. material too scantyy.ifr occupies two ./stations only where it should locate!, three, and caps • the olimai by putting its. army of defence into array with d right and left wing and no centre. As a matter of strategy,, this is a most egregious blunder y as a matter of. finance, it may prove the costliest piece of economy which a New Zealand 1 Government has yet put m practice. As a resolution adopted at, a meeting .at .Kihikihi, reported m another column very justly puts.it, <( when Kihikihi canbereftujigrotected, there is no.; longer need of. a, defence force m Waikato." The half-way point '■■ between Alexandra and Cambridge, the. very point, upon the frontier line, which the . Government now proposed to leave unprotected, is m" fact the key 'to? the whole position. General Cameron well knevir this, and made Te Awamutu his headquarters. No one kjaew this better than a former Defence Minister, Mr. TV Russ'ellfand we believe he holds the same opinion still. To locate ■ the Armedj.Consta-hulary upon the frontier may be the best way to effect "the* 'greatest possible ishow with the fewest ..possible men, but to . station them m the manner proposed is simply to show our weakness m 'the clearest • possible light to the natives. The Government, m short, has made a mistake, and the only way out of it is 'to retrace its steps from the beginning. Eighty men •will not -aflford a sufficient force for the defence of the district. That force m-ust be nearly doubled.- It was the opinion of the late Sir Donald McLean— and it' is that of those best competent to form an opinion on ■• the matter— that there never! should be less than 150 men on the Waikato 1 station. We ' have pointed this out on former occasions, but less, urgently than we might 'have done, for very obvious reasons. ' When, however, there can he found .a leading organ of the Middle Island Press taking this view of the case, not even the faintest shadow of selfinterest or the desire to unduly advocate the expenditure of public; money m its own district, which might.be, fairly or unfairly, urged against the appeal m the one case, can be so m the other. The ' Lyttleton Times ' of a recent dnte writes unmistakably upon the subject, and warns the Government, m no measured terms, of the false and dangerous economy which lurks m this seeming retrenchment of £30,000 m Defence Expenditure. We have already published the extract, but we de not hesitate to refer to it again, under present circum-

stances. Referring to the proposed saving 'of the £30,000, if says :— " The sum mentioned .represents at least 250 men, and it is a matter, m •. • o.ur ; - opinion, . of ; grave . doubt whether an^mmediate^reductiott to

that extent* of specially^' tmiiied men; is advisable m the present cii'cumstances bf the Colo.ny. The native 'difficulties by .ho meanjj;extinojb, and may yet give us great trouble. In spite of Pollenian polish, our relations to the native race m thany parts of the" North Island are not very satisfactory. Is it wise, l .heu, by a large reduction m the force, ■which we have at great cost and with -.: great .. trouble' successfuUy formed," to v teln"pV;" the recurrence of native disturbances,, and at the same time lessen our ability to put them down 1 Ucohomy under such conditions will probably be extravagance. The moral of the events of 1865 and 1866.: should not beforgotten. We are now,- it is true, m an infinitely; better than we were m then to. cope .with- native outbreak, but m outlying, districts we have many vulnerable points, and any prevalent sense of insecurity there, and there : curretnee of. guerilla wafare, would ■be disastrous to the Colony. No doubt reduction may be made, but rit'should; be 1 made" with causion-.and| fty'degYees! "' iT And- the: greatest care should.be taken that we may not be left m any . future emergency to relyj altogether on raw recruits. We should, for our own sake, treat with liberality our present trained officers and men, but we fear there ig rio.idfe^ position to do so. A sudden, and arbitrary disbandonmerit of a large body < of them may shortly entail irreparable evil." . - When a Middle Island journal of the standing and ability of the ' Lyttelton Times' is found arguing against a reduction of the defence force of the North, its utterances are entitled- to the greatest possible weight. The ' Times,' however, is so writing m the interests of the South. It looks upon the defence expenditure as a man of business looks upon the payment of insurance premiums, as a tax, but a tax which he cannot afford not to pay. And this is just the case Jof the Colony. The cost of defence is the insurance against the breaking out of hostilities, the mere occurrence of which — putting actual war ; and its consequences out of the question — would be a direct and indirect loss, which it would be hard to estimate.

The sudden breaking up of the Nguruawahia hospital, and discharge of tbe resident surgeon, Dr. Carey, has already been referred to m our columns. Whether the Government acted rightly or not m suddenly ceasing to carry on this public institution j whether it .would not have been better and wiser to have kept it m existence yet a little longer, until, indeed, the Four Counties had sufficiently felt their way to taking the matter off the hands of the Government altogether, we are not going to argue. There is one matter, however, we intend referring to, and that is, the very ec nt measure of justice meted out to the surgeon m charge, who, after sixteen years of Govermnent service, and having spent the best years of his life m the arduous, duties of a military medical officer to the Militia, Waikato Volunteers, and Armed Constabulary, is Bhelved without notice, and with no larger gratuity than that awarded on reduction of the Force to the latest appointed sub inspector m it. •The- matter is one which has been warmly felt by the people of the district , generally j so much to, indee that memorials to" the House of Representatives are now m cours9 of signature throughout the Waikato, asking the Assembly to take the matter into its special consideration and deal with this particular case upon its merits. Knowing these, we are not surprised that the memorial is being widely signed. Is., certainly does seem that the gratuity for loss of office is .out of all proportion small m the case of Dr. 'Carey, who, m accepting the position of Hospital Surgeon at Ngaruawahia, from the late Defence Minister, lesa /than a twelvemonth ago^ m lieu of the appointment he then held as Surgeon to the A.C. Force m Waikato, was led to look upon it as a retiring permanency, to which^ indfeed, his services would have well entitled him. He entered the services of the New Zealand Government m 1863, as assistant-surgeon to the lat Battalion of the Auckland Militia, doing town duty for a while, and then "proceeding to the front with the Volunteers, serving with Major Lyon at the Galloway redoubt. On return from camp, Dr. Carey, with Dr Goldsboro', organised the Auckland General Militia Hospital, of which institution Dr. Goldsboro' and himself were •appointed medical officers. Up to the time of Dr. Carey's appointment as surgeon to the 4th Waikato Regiment, m 1864, his services were m continual requisition, but, from the date of the latber appointment, they were far more trying, when' he became sole medical officer m charge, without assistance ; while to make matters worse it was not long before the pay of surgeon was reduced to that of assistant surgeon only, and the surgeons of the 2nd and 3rd Waikato regimonts being struck off pay the whole medical work of tbe district devolved upon him. The same services have been performed by Dr. Carey to a late date, for when the Colonial Government cut the painter and left the men of the Waikato regiments to their own resources it was Dr. Carey who was appointed as the most suitable and efficieut officer to take medical charge of the Armed Constabulary, while from then till now a large amount of grutuitous medical assistance has been given by him to tho Government immigrants, since the introduction of the Public Works and Immigration scheme rendered some such assistance necessary m the district. Who can wonder, then, that the many friends of of Dr. Carey m Waikato have taken up his cause.