The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-16 00:00:00

piece of impertinence," while those of the south arc
loud in their praises of its " gentle and gentle-
manly self-assertion." The almost universal opinion
is, that the conduct of Ministers is legitimate and
dignified, and that as men* conscious of their own
rectitude, and the singleness of mind with which
they have advised the Governor, they had no other
course open to them than that which they have
adopted. Meanwhile, what now is understood to
have been the General's make-belief prosecution of
the West Coast campaign had until the last few
days the appearance of being abandoned, the field
troops returning to Wanganui, and of course by
night whenever practicable. Portions of them were
at once sent to Taranaki, to reach which place the
men marched from the front 60 miles southward to
Wanganui, and then taking shipping, proceeded
northwards 120 miles. A march of 30 miles north-
ward, in the first instance, would have enabled them
to reach the Taranaki outposts, and so opening up
the whole line of coast have afforded a pretext for
considering the campaign at an end. The real ob-
ject of the campaign, it will be remembered, was to
make, a military road, or at least secure such a
command 'over the whole route as would enable
it to be executed at pleasure ; but the troops
have neither made a single mile of road nor
protected the civilians in the one that was being
got on with when the campaign began. The dis-
grace of leaving 30 miles of the coast unoccupied
is, however, strange to say, being now obliterated.
That which the General refused to do two months
ago under the pretext of winter setting in and the
.-
difficulty of 'obtaining supplies, is now being -done
by his subordinate officers. The troops are being
marched back again to the front, and a simultaneous
movement from the extreme positions at each end

is understood to have been decided upon. Colonel
Warre is moving southward from theTaranaki side,
while Col. Weare moves northward from that of

Wanganui, with the object of forming a junction
and thereby opening up the whole coast as origi-
nally intended. Nor is this all. Troops have been
moved forward to Waitotara for the purpose of

compelling the evacuation of the Wareroa Pah, the
pah which the Generale avoided by a night march
at the 'commencement of the campaign. To Ordi-
nary minds the military operations are incompre-
hensible. 'No one seems to know 'who commands.
The .Got-ernor, 'when at Wanganui two- months
since; sent an expedition to occupy a post 70 miles
up that river, certainly without the sanction; if not
in direct opposition to the General's wishes. The
expedition, composed of from 200 to 300 militia
and natives, was fortunately successful, for although
refused the Commissariat steamer and obliged to
risk the effect of surprise by employing canoes, the
little force succeeded in occupying a position which

the General had declared to necessitate the employ-
ment of 2,000 troops. Then, again, it was by the
advice of and with the personal assistance of Major
Atkinson, the Defence Minister, that Col. Warre
stretched his instructions, and took possession of
the White Cliff, Warea, and Opunake, and since the

last mail we have had Major von Tempskay, of the
Forest Rangers, breaking the monotony of Patea,
camp life by making a raid inland, by which,
although failing to effect the surprise intended, he
did excellent service. It will scarcely be credited
that the Government of the colony knows little or
nothing more than outsiders do of these movements.
It is presumed that the General and the Governor
acquaint one another with their plans ; but at this
moment the Ministry are entirely ignorant of the
movement of the troops I have indicated, except as
they gather the particulars .from the newspapers.
Common courtesy should keep them au courant,
but from the reticence of the General to the
Governor, or from that of the Governor (absent
at Auckland) to the Ministry, so little is
known that if the war was being prosecuted in
China, the New Zealand Ministry could hardly
know less, and yet the British Parliament considers
we ought to be very grateful for being allowed to
pay only £4O a head for each soldier under General
Cameron's command, forgetting that the colony is
being plunged deeper and deeper into pecuniary
and other difficulties from which it cannot recover
for years.

I mentioned last month that the llau llau farm-

ticisms on portions of the east coast had consider-
ably subsided, mainly through the influence of two

Wellington chiefs, Wi Tako and Matini to Whiwhi,
and their 30 or 40 followers. It has now made its
appearance on the west coast of this province at
Mauawatu and Otaki, in consequence of the visit of
some prophets from Opotiki. The murder of the
Rev. Mr. Volkner is openly justified by the new
converts, and they declare that if Gabriel directs
them to similar deeds they will obey him. It has
been difficult for the Government to act in the mat-
ter. Any attempt to put down these fanatics by
force would spreadwar over the whole of the settled
districts on that coast, and yet to allow the perni-
cious doctrines to be promulgated unchecked would
be culpably to subject the settlers to the fear of out-
rage. Fortunately Wi Tako returned to Welling-
ton, and was urged to proceed to Otaki imme-
diately, close to which place he resides, in the hope
that his influence there may subdue the excitement,
and enable Ministers to escape from the dilemma
in which they are placed. Until Wi Tako's sub-
mission last year he and his people were looked
upon as the prime movers of all that was threat-
ened in the neighbourhood of the west coast
southward of Wanganui ; but Dr. Featherston,
at that time acting as the general Government's
agent for Wellington, well knew that Wi Tako's
adherence to the King movement sprung from the
hope that it would have introduced law and order
among the tribes, and with much painstaking se-
cured his great influence in preventing the commit-
tal of overt acts by the turbulent spirits around him.
Now, Wi Tako has earned for himself the distinc-
tion of being the most potent ally the Government
have in this neighbourhood. The Ministry are
anxious to express their sense of his services, but
they have as yet been unable to do so in such a
form as will not foster the opinion, more or less
prevalent among the loyal natives, that more is to be
gained by opposing the Queen than there is in sup-
porting her. It is only in deference to this opinion
that the desire to honour Wi Tako with a seat in
the Upper House of Assembly has been, temporarily
at least, given up. No chief in this part of the
island is so well qualified for the position as he is,
and although the idea of introducing natives into
the Assembly has hitherto been derided by the great
section of the colonists, it is by no means impro-
bable that it will not speedily be realized.
Her Majesty's steamship Eclipse has made two
unsuccessful attempts to capture the murderers of
the Rev. Mr. Volkner. On the morning of Sunday,
the 21st of May, she arrived off Opotiki, and after
landing a native to reconnoitre, determined to at-
tempt a night surprise. Shortly after midnight four
boats were manned with about 80 of the crew,
Captain Freemantle being in command. , The party
had not proceeded far from the beach when they
found the natives on the look-out prepared to op-
pose them. An interchange of volleys took place,
when, fearing an ambush, the sailors effected a retreat
with only one of their number wounded, two of the
natives being killed. On the following 'Wednesday,
while the Eclipse was at anchor at another settle-
ment, Captain Fremantle was informed that

Ephraim, the half caste who fastened the rope
round Mr. Volkner's neck, was on shore in com-
pany only with some women and children. A
native (the same who landed at Opotiki) and
two sailor lads disguised as natives were sent on
shore, andsucceeding in capturing Ephraim dragged
him down to the beach, where he adroitly gave them
the slip, and, unhurt by the shot fired at him by one
of the lads, made good his escape. The report of
the revolver brought Capt. Freemantle's boat, but
too late to be of any other service than that of re-
conveying the baulked captors to his ship. These
unsuccessful attempts are the more to be deplored