The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-13 00:00:00

The War in

'ealand,

(From the Times' Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Feb. 11.
Road-making, which the Weld Ministry an-
nounced as the cardinal point in their policy—a
measure stamped with the authority of the late
Iron Duke as the only one calculated to give perma-
nent security to a country inhabited by a warlike
aboriginal race—is now being attempted on the
west coast of this island. Preliminary to the actual
work of road-making the troops are taking up posi-
tions, and are meeting with the opposition a people
so astute as the New Zealanders were almost cer-
tain to offer. Waikato having become no longer
the seat of war, in consequence of the inability of
the natives to prevent the gradual occupation of
that district by the troops, the only course open to
the Governor was to direct the removal of the
troops to the one remaining seat of rampant
rebellion, with the view of impressing on the
natives of the west coast the same hopelessness of
further contention as it is now certain the Northern
rebels at length feel. Not that the Waikato natives
believe themselves inferior to our troops ; on the
contrary, they regard themselves as vastly superior,
man for man, and as having only been defeated by
the overwhelming numbers and numerous appli-
ances brought against them. Against the thousands
of soldiers, backed by the hitherto inconceivable re-
sources brought into the field, they feel powerless to
contend, and, satisfied with having made a noble
stand in the eyes of their own countrymen, they
have abandoned Waikato as the seat of war, the
few fiery spirits who still hold out having migrated
to the country between Taranaki and Wanganui,
through which the General is making his way.
The country between Taranaki and Wanganui is,
coastwise, about 120 miles in length, and contains the
very scum of the Maori race, the population present-
ing nothing of that true nobility of character which
distinguishes some of the Northern tribes. They are
notorious as the murderers of women and children
and the mutilators of the dead. Although few in
number, unable to muster along the whole line more
than 800 to 1,000 resident men, they have hitherto
set at naught the efforts that the troops at Taranaki
have made against them, and there can be no peace
for New Zealand all the while their country continues
to be an impervious nursery of the most utter law-
lessness. To make simple war with the hope of
reducing them to submission is, under the present
system of tactics, absolutely futile. The primary
step is to establish military posts for the protection
of road parties, and to leave time and employment
for wages to do the rest. This is the Weld policy.
It is desired to have no fighting but that which the
natives insist upon. If they stop the way they are
to be pushed on one side, but if they keep at a
respectable distance they will not be interfered with.
The "sharp and short" theory was never, unfortu-
nately, anything else than the tediously long in
practice. Now the theory is to be as admittedly
slow as its development,pust necessarily become.
The reoccupation of the Tataraimaka block, 12
miles from the town of New Plymouth, has been fol-
lowed by one small forward movement on Jan. 23.
The day previously Col. Warre and staff, Major
Atkinson, the Defence Minister, and Mr. Parris, the
interpreter, proceeded three miles southward to the
pah belonging to about 30 natives, whose represen-
tative chiefs had expressed their intention of sur-
rendering last December.— They had erected a re-
doubt in true military style, from which they filed
unarmed, expressing their intention to live in
peace, and inviting the party inside, to re-
ceive the surrender of their arms. The sincerity
of these natives is strongly evidenced by
three of their number who had been concerned in
some of the local murders accompanying the party
to Tataraimaka and giving themselves up to confine-
ment as prisoners. Next morning 150 of the 43d
left New Plymouth to relieve the garrison at Tata-
raimaka, the 212 men hitherto garrisoning it march-
ing
on to Te Ngana, six Miles southward, where a
redoubt was at once erected, to be eventually occupied
by military settlers. We have learnt to be very
thankful for the smallest mercies in connexion with
Taranaki, but a six miles onward movement, together
with the submission of 30 natives, andthe surrender of
three self-condemned murderers, would make us jubi-
lant and ready to prophesy all manner of smooth
things, were it not that the Upper Waitara natives,
in the opposite or northern direction—the adherents
of William King--had so recently shown how deter-
mined they were to resist every overture towards re-
conciliation: These people reside to the north of New
Plymouth, and have hitherto been on tacitly friendly
terms with those of their own countrymen who pro-
fessed to be favourable to the Europeans, but when
William King heard of the Governor's peace pro-
clamation of last October his suspicions were more
than ordinarily aroused, and he at once declared
that it was but a bait covering a hook to catch him
with, and that henceforth, " his eyes were shut and
his ears stopped, so that the should not know any
man coming to him ;!' in other words, that he would
have nothing more to do with the Governor or any
one friendly to him. At the end of December a
loyal native went to King'splace to tell him of the ar-
rival of some natives fromthe Chatham Islands. He
went unarmed, but with considerable misgivings,
and before reaching his destination was met bysome
rebels who fired, wounded, and eventually killed him.
A week afterwards his wife and an adopted child,
alarmed at his continued absence, went to seek him,
and were likewise fired at, wounded, thrown into a
hole, and killed. The settlers were even more horri-
fied at this barbarity than they had been at the
murders that had been committed on themselves.
The rebels might be expected to murder settlers, but
to murder their own countrymen under such circum-
stances was altogether a new feature in the events
of this unhappy struggle, and convincingly proves
that with such an enemy swift punishment is the
only argument that can be of any avail. Yet that
even punishment might follow decently and in order,
so that nothing might be left at which to cavil, the
Coroner directed the police to exhume the bodies
and bring them into camp for the purpose of inquest.
Military aid was applied for, the place of burial
being some miles within the rebel territory, but Gen.
Cameron, who happined to be at Taranaki at the
time, would not grant the request, and the loyal na-
tives of course regard us as not only incapable of
is protecting ourselves, but devoid of the courage re-
quisite for supporting those who are willing to do
what they can to protect us. Murders of friendly
natives, under very similar circumstances, have also
taken place near Wanganui, where a loyal chief
named Rio and three others have been barbarously
shot by their rebel countrymen.
New Plymouth is the northern basis of opera-
tions, and Wanganui, 120 miles lower down the
coast, is the southern. Into this latter place troops
and materiel have been paining for six weeks past,
principally from the now quiet district of Auckland,
Gen. Cameron himself arriving on the 20th January.
Although the extreme number of natives that have
yet congregated in the neighbourhood of the opera-
tions to be presently narrated can scarcely be more
than from 400 to 600, the General has ordered out the Militia to the assistance of his large force of
nearly 3,000 troops, and 200 of the rifle Volunteers
have been sent forward to garrison an outpost.
English readers will regard this imposing a
something like breaking a fly 11-- Y as
pon a wheel, and
must conclude that road making is progressing
rapidly, but the troops have done nothing of that
sort yet. Before the troops arrived an inland road
had been in construction towards the Waitotara
River by unarmed ordinary day labourers paid by
the Provincial Government. It had progressed about
14 mile 3 from Wanganui, or within six or seven
miles of the newly-acquired boundary of European
land. Verbal opposition had been offered; the engi-
neers laying out the line thought it prudent to de-
sist, flc3 the survey was considerably in advance, but
the labourers still kept at their work. To the Waito-
tard River, the boundary of the Queen's land, the
road would probably have been continued by a little
finessing with the 150 or 200 natives congregated
there, but beyond it there was little prospect of the
work being continued without coining to blows.
They declared that not a sod should be turned on
their own land on the other side of the river, and
with this view a pah had been constructed on a hill
commanding the passage of the river. The pah is on
a portion of a reserve made for the use of the natives

SPIRIT OP TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS. separate governor for every colony creates a definite
I pecuniary interest in preserving their isolation. There
is, too, an avowed mistrust of the motives by which
the Canadian politicians are actuated. It is believed
that the chronic difficulties between Upper and
Lower Canada are as troublesome as ever, and that
the politicians of both parties are seeking a way out
of their difficulty by obtaining the separation of
the two provinces under the cover of a general
Federation. These are in substance the views re-
presented in the letter upon which we lately com-
mented, and the justice of that representation is
since amply confirmed. We need not repeat the
arguments which we urged at that time in answer to
these narrow and one-sided motives. Of course
New Brunswick would have to give up something,
and it is easy to make out a respectable list of
disadvantages ; the question, as in all such cases,
is whether these are not more than balanced
by advantages, and of these latter we do not read
that any account has been made. What may
be the object of the Canadians is not worth discus-
sion. Half the useful things that are done in the
world are done from selfish motives under the cover
of larger designs. There is, however, one of these
arguments which seems to us to be refuted in great
measure by the maritime colonists themselves. They
have, they say, no common commercial interests
with Canada. But, at the same time, they are
clamouring eagerly for the completion of the Inter-
colonial Railroad. What can be the use of such a
railroad if they neither have, nor wish to have,
commercial relations with Canada ? For our part,
we can conceive nothing more desirable than the
establishment of such relations, and to encourage
them might be one of the most beneficial results of
the proposed Federation. There is probably, how-
ever, a furtker and still less satisfactory reason for
this disposition of the Maritime Provinces. We
noticed in the letter of " Union" the other day that
scarcely anything was said of the importance of the
Federation as a means of defence. That is one of
the chief motives urged by the Canadian Govern-
ment, and is one of the principal reasons why the
scheme is thought desirable in this country. It seems,
however, to have little weight in the Maritime Pro-
vinces. The fact is, they do not feel the danger,
and are not so sensible of the sacrifices which
threaten them as Canada is • and this, probably,
for two reasons. In the first place, as Canada
is the principal colony, they may think that it
would be the main object of attack and the chief
sufferer in a war. Newfoundland, indeed, and
Prince Edward Island may perhaps delude them-
selves with the notion that they are sufficiently pro-
tected by the sea. But there is a further reason
still. They have a notion that we might, without
serious danger, decline to defend Canada, but that
we should find it absolutely necessary to hold at
all cost the Maritime Provinces, as affording us
our only naval station in the North Aiiierican
waters. They suppose, therefore, that ve shall be
sure to defend them, whatever they may do for
themselves. Moreover, out of the small and sparse
population of the minor colonies it would be ab-
surd for us to expect the formation of any effective
militia, and therefore, so long as they retain their
feeble individuality, they fancy themselves secure
from all the ordinary sacrifices of independence. If
they were incorporated with one large Federation,
they would have to contribute their proportion both
of men and money. It will be strange if the recent
debates on Canadian defences do not show them
that these calculations are entirely mistaken. What
points of the Maritime Provinces it might be neces-
sary for us to hold in the event of war with the
United States need not'be considered. It is certain
that it would be unnecessary to hold the whole of
their territory, and that from a military point of
view it would be undesirable. If ever we attempted
to defend either Canada or New Brunswick, it would
only be in the event of the colonists displaying so
resolute and high-spirited a determination to defend
their soil that we should feel bound in honour to
support them even at a great sacrifice. For the sake
merely of maintaining our ultimate possession of
the colonies it would be unnecessary, and probably
very imprudent, to adopt such a course. In any
case, such a system of defence must he for all the
North British Provinces together. If, in short, these
colonies ever wish us to defend their whole soil, they
must combine in a general organisation and in
mutual assistance. These unsatisfactory revelations
could not come at a more opportune moment than
when we are considering what course to take with
regard to Canadian defence. It is plain that Canada
is not the only colony which will think itself entitled
in the event of war to special and complete protec-
tion from all the consequences of invasion, and with
the whole force of the Empire. We must make up
our minds, once for all, whether we will admit any
such claim. If the Canadians think that because the
Empire would suffer in Canada we should be bound
to defend it there, we should recommend the depu-
tation which is about to come over here to take a
few lessons in boxing. They would then learn that
one of the first maxims of self-defence is not to put
your hand wherever you are hit or expect to be hit.
If the French invaded Ireland, and we thought we
could better make them loose their hold by a counter
invasion of France than by fighting a battle in Con-
nemara, we should certainly never listen to such
nonsense as that every man in Connaught had a
right to protection from the enemy. From the
Peloponnesian War downwards, it has always been
the hardest part of a General's duty to persuade his
countrymen that the half is often better than the
whole, and that even to abandon everything for the
time may be the best means of regaining everything
in the end. But it is a lesson which must be sooner
or later learnt, and the House of Commons ought
to
the have the courage, if necessary, to enforce it upon

COUNTRY MARKETS

HULL-TUESDAY.

---
At our market to-day there was a rather limited supply
of English wheat which met a heavy sale at a decline of is
per qr.—red. 368 to 370 ; white, 42s to 43s per 5041 b.
Foreign held with firmness, although much neglected.
Barley rather cheaper. Peas very scarce. Beans fully as
dear. Oats in demand, at is per qr. advance. -The arrivals
of linseed during the week were very large, being 10,239
qrs., principally from Calcutta.

SALISBURY.—TUESDAY.
At to-day's market a moderately good supply of wheat
was shown as regards quantity, but samples out of condi-
tion. Barley in favour of buyers. For oats there was
better inquiry, and rather higher prices were paid. Beans
dearer, and peas firm at previous currencies. For flour
there was the usual inquiry.
The following are present prices :—Wheat realised from
36s to 42s ; barley, 23s to 29s ; oats, 19s to 28s ; beans, 40s
to 465; and peas, Ms to 48s per qr. Winter tares, from 8s
to 11s per bushel ; Best bread, 10d ; household ditto, 9d
per 81b loaf.

NEWCAS TLE-ON-TYNE.—TUESDAY.
There was a small supply of wheat from the growers,
and only a moderate quantity coastwise, with nothing front
abroad. Trade ruled dull. Barley, being scarce, was 10
per qr. higher, both for malting and feeding. Malt, beano,
and peas 6d to is dearer. Oats is advance. Flour was 6d
lower.

Northumberland wheat sold from 32s to 445, Norfolk and
Suffolk, 39s to 45s ' • Dantsic, 39s to 46s ; oats, 21s to 26s ;
barley, 26s to 31s ; beans, 36s to 40s; rye, 27s to 36s ; malt,
51s to 62s per qr. ; flour, 26s to 28s per sack.
The averages were—wheat, 40s ld; barley, 32s Od;
oats, 21s 7d; and beans, per quarter.

LYNN.—TITESDAY.
At to-day's market the show of wheat was limited, the
demand was slow, and where sales were made a reduction
of 6d to is per qr. had to be submitted to. Several of our
large growers refused to sell unless at last week's prices.
Barley, beans, and oats were the turn in favour of sellers.
New wheat, 44s to 475; new red, 88e to 395; old white,
41s to 42s ,• old red, 38s to 398 per 36 stone. Barley for
malting, 33s to 355; secondary, 30s • ordinary, 26s to 280
per qr. Oats, 22s to 24s per •24 stone. Beans, large, OS
to 36s ; small, 37s to 40s per 38. stone.

. .
MARKET HARBOROUGH.—TUESDAY.
At to-day's market the supply of wheat was not over
large, and the trade was' quiet. ' Barley steady. Oats firm•
—New white wheat, 40s to 44s ; new red, 37s to 40s per 86
stone. Barley, fine, 345; other kinds, 26s to 28s per qr.
Oats, new, 19s to 23s ; old, Tos to 28s per qr. Beans, old,
40s to 42s ; new, 34s to 38s per qr.