The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 773, 31 May 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1877.

exact justietJ to all -men, Oi whatever 0,l political ! Hero shall the.Prwj the..PkoPiiiV*.rigi.t inamiain, .. : ; . : '■]'" Uitawod by^nA'U^e^ti-<jli^ißb^blßd-;l)}r ; 'Kai'ii

The settlers of. KihifcihL_ have, it will be seen, held a meotinf —and well they Hiijrhi—to protest against the■?aetioa;o?-the Crovorririiefil iirleaving* tli# fvoiitie* liq.e, til the -way from some nix and t»euty v ariles-, iri a condition -tH'■'■ defencelfessnVas. Ai

l©efene« Ministery- ir& suppose "Dr. -Pollen musk bear "the brant .of public iudignation lijjhteptisl j\ anmsed in the Waiketo by th_is = state of things; thongli vte fart-math doubt -if, in fihis isiStanee, thii'bkhia does not lie \vifeh the Premiep/ hiniaelf, and with his Slepiiistopheles at Wellington, Colon«i>M6ulo. At anj rate, abuse of tf o Defence Minister

-or- casting iinpatatioinv of selfishness on. the officers .of the Armed Constabulary. Force vrill.not mend mattars. ' -Whether the head-quarters be placed at OttinbiJidjpe, Alexandra, up Kihikihi, matters, little. JPjr all

vpractical puppoflcJ--, it mafctei-a little at also which ot'tho&e.plaaes the ~qf15.;%. commanding the diqtri«t resides, ro long as he liros at one o* otker of them. That is a- matter bejond th* question altogether, and maf rety ■iairly-'be left, as ib -was-, indeed, by the t*overnnie«i> as betireea Alexandra and Cambridge, fat his .afcion. The real grierancs: is the leaving the stretch of frontier line—the more exposed portioa of it bfiag mt.sfc •_• remote- from either sfcatioa—. entirely undefended. Tfhis' the€k>vernmeht hare done, aad this is their blunder. Strateycully-speak' iug, ,at leasl-ona-bhird the ' fbrea, available for the Waikato should be stationed at JCihikihi. -.lf there are only sufficient mea apportioneJ for Cambridge and Alexandra, -and-we believe ftnis is so, the* the -remedy is not to abandon the frontier, bub to increase the strength ,of tfee fbroe stationed in the Waikato .distfiefe. To take the-eourse the GoTemment

have done is simply'to in rife attach, and we can scarcely wonder at *he uneasy feeling -which their action has caused amongst the settlers since the determination became

knavn. On .Saturday there wer,e, we learn from private sources of in-" furmation, a very large.number «of -settlers from all parts'of tht Te Awamutu and Kihikihi districts, waiting in the township for the meeting to come off, bat, as-it d been postponed till, evening, the flooded state of the roads caused very many to leave for their homes by daylight. JSut: for this the.meeting would have been the largest ever -held in the district. We' have, before

urged upon the Government, the re-

consideration of their -decision to leave Kihikihi without a. single member of the force stationed Alexandra is doubtless the kev of the whole -position, and .Cambridge, menaced by Maungatautari, needs a strong garrison, but to leave a frontier line of six and twenty miles entirely unprotected is about as wise a step as if a general were to draw up his force in two win«s without a centre. °

The Government have two things to consider in the disposition.of (he forces they have at their, command—the making such a show of force as will render attack a.matter of such risk that it will never- be.attemoted, and the infusion into the-mindsof the settlers and their families of sueh a' •sense of security that f panics-will be impossible, and settlement may increase and solidify as.-rapidly as can be. To secure this i» to hasten the moment when. D.efenee expenditure may be .cut -down to a merely, nominal sum, and too great and too sudden a retrenchment means actually a larger expenditure in the long run. "We could wiah that the Government vera able to fairly gp . preciatethe position of this digtricfe

as regards its connection with the! Defence Department that they could grasp the situation, and acb with common business taob and shiewdness in dealing with ib. Their conduct is the verj reverse of' such a course. A force of Aimed Constabulary leas by one-third than the efficient defence of the district demands is kept up. But even this is nob. .all. When even this force*is ouly rendered of any benefit at all by the supplementary strength ot the local Tolunteer Cavalry, a niggard. liness ia practised, which refusing, be the axtent of what eight and a-half eo&atableg coal the Colony, to auasjdise the .services,.af a hunarad and twenty raeu, who maintain thetnsalveo and their horses ready for any emergency, eajases the latter »e----rioasly -to think 0/ iisbaadment. P?he ©oyernmwil?, in the- ; fwt place, keeps a fbr«e-of -eighty -men where bhe me i«eally*necesaury, *n<l then, for the difference of soihetw© or three hundred pounds a year, vender* a ispleadid body- of cavalry, morel • jiameroni than'"the regular .foroe,] and without whom the latter is the ; proverbial red rag which might draw down the boll, butaffbrd he protection from it. -We-cannot understand sueh a, polity a« this. -Ib-is utterly unworthy of the Government of a: Oqlohy which has had sueh «:vCe-x----perjewees to guide it. Bat bad'as all- this-fejy the moat; contemptible pieee of cheeseparing that we have . ever heard or any government attempting ' under the -head of economy is that practised on their regular .fpree stationed in the Waikato, and of course ia other confiscated districts. Hill retently a sur-geon-was-attached fo the "staff of the. Armed Constahu'ary ia the district/whose fall pay was a little over ~£Boo a-year. -.That, aapointr hient has beea dispensed with,.and rthe nien of the Araied Constabulary, when sitk, call ia a medieai man, who sends in hit charge to the Department But will it be believed that payment for medieai attention to the wives and "families "of the men has beea refused by the Department, and orders have bsen issued that rach charges must be borne by the men thenaeelvea. There are torn* tweaty-teven married men aaioag the eifhty of the Armed Constabulary Jorte (stationed in :VTaii.ato, and eighty-two children. Theae families, stationed -at Alexandra and with no staff medical officer appointed to the JForee, must send, -in one case, twenty-two,-and ia other fourteen /mlilea to Hamilton for a medieai jaan . whtu-t ich necessity occurs. Tha order is more than a blunder. It ia poti>U* cruelty. For, eaa il ba ■ apposed that a constable at Aletandra, say,-with a salary of sic «hillin«-a-day, ©mi afford, if a member of his family fall §ie£, to fay a medieai maa'a fee of three guineas for atteniaaee, aad taen trudge tweaty-two miles to 1 Jlamiltoa with the and as far back -again with the medicine, because the Goteroment will neither provide "the medical attendance nor—keep medicine in stock afc 'either .place. A case of this kiad occurred only the other day, and but that the medieai maa applied to had more humanity than the Government and went two and twenty milei gratuitously-=to attend his; patient the number of widowers in 'the foree in this district would now hare been one more than it is. In the army ierviet at home the women and children of the regiment receive the Services of the itaff surgeonf as free of eharge as do their husbands and' fathers, and married men, suth as recruiting sergeants or others on stiff duty away from headquarters, haviag their families with theia, have bhe medical attendance needed by their by such medieul men as they may chose to call in, the charge being made, to the war department. Why such an exception should be made here, and where distance - -often renders medical attendance so costly, we -cannot understand. Like too many of the Government arrangements in this department it is 'calculated to render the service distasteful to the men and to defeat the object'Qf the Government.