The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-20 00:00:00

TEE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

At the United Service Institution, on Monday
evening, a paper was read by Captain C. Pasley,
RE., "On the War in New Zealand," in which he
was engaged and wounded. On the lecture table
there was placed a large model of a New Zealand
pah, fortified in the usual manner, and a portrait
of one of the chiefs who took a prominent part in
the late war was exhibited. Captain Pasley cora•
menced by giving a sketch of the history of the
colony from the earliest period to the commence.
ment of the war, in which ho represented the
natives in a more favourable light than is usual.
About three-fourths of the Maories have been con-
verted to Christianity, and they are, he said, as
good Christians as the average of Englishmen, one.
half of them having been converted by the mis-
sionaries of the Church of England and one-
fourth by the Wesleyans and Roman Catholics.
The liturgy has been translated into their lan-
guage, and they never undertake anything with-
out a previous prayer meeting, in which the
liturgy is used, in the responses of which they gene-
rallyjoin. They are very particular in their observ-
ance of Sunday, and one of the advantages gained
over them during the war was owing to the pah
having been surprised whilst they were attending
religious service, for they did not calculate on
Christian soldiers attacking them on a Sunday,
On their conversion to Christianity they ceased the
practice of eating human flesh, and none of the na-
tives are now cannibals. The superior character
of the Maories to other savages was shown on their
first communications with Europeans by their pre-
ference of useful articles, especially of steel imple-
ments and blankets, to mere ornaments, and they
were extremely industrious in manufacturing and
procuring articles for barter. So early as 1822 the
chief of the northern promontory visited this coun-
try, and took back with him 30 muskets, with which
his tribe were enabled to extend their conquests
over a large pori,;.n of the northern island. This
early initiation in the use of fire arms, and the natu-
rally warlike character of the natives, have been
principal causes of the difficulties that have been
Encountered during the recent war. Captain Pasley
gave an account of the origin of the war, in which
he vindicated the conduct of the Home Government
and of the governors of the colony from the charges
that have been made against them, by the local
press and by some of the newspapers in this coun-
try, of ill-treatment of the natives, and of mismanage.
ment. The immediate cause of the war was the
purchase by the Government of a small tract of lad
about 10 miles north of New Plymouth. The lattl
was sold with the full consent of the tribe to which
it belonged, but William King, the chief most hos-
tile to English rule, objected to the appropriation of
any more of the island by the English, and there-
fore he opposed the sale, though not having any
claim to the land itself. It was the maintenance of
the right to this purchase that caused the war.
Capt, Pasley pointed out the great difficulties which
the English troops had to encounter in hostilities
with an-active, courageous, and enterprising enemy,
in a very difficult country, intersected by ravines
and covered with bush, and who, by their spies,
were fully aware of the positions of the troops,
whilst the latter had few means of ascertaining the
movements of the enemy ; for those tribes of natives
who were in professed alliance with the colonists
would not give any information that might prove
destructive to the other tribes. As an instance of
the difficulty of warfare in such a country, it was
stated that the enemy would be completely con-
cealed by ferns that grew six feet high, and from
that ambush they could fire on the troops unseen.
The reverses on several attacks on the pahs on pre-
vious occasions had given confidence to the natives,
who imagined they were far superior individually
to the soldiers, and they were thus emboldened
.to
make war. Capt. Pasley described the great ,
with which the Maories defended their paw,ot
and l