The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-25 00:00:00

The news from New Zealand that the Maories
had surprised the settlers and massacred several
European families, committing horrible atrocities,
will again painfully fix on that colony the attention
of the Empire. In REUTER'S sensational language
" men were burnt alive, children mutilated, and
the dead bodies of women thrown to the pigs." Of
course, the authorities, that is the Colonial Govern-
ment, are blamed, as the British troops having
been withdrawn, no one else remains on whom to
affix the great mismanagement. The colonists
ought, surely, by this time, to have learnt to be
more sparing of their censure of others, and take
the question into serious consideration how far they
are to blame themselves. We would be slow in
raising such a question, under such circumstances,
had the example not been set by the colonists them-
selves. In few other co int ries have British ti JO PI
suffered more evere:y, and in none have they loot
with le s mpathy in their heavy losses, or been
mo. e severely criticised. The paters joined
the setthrs in unsparing denunciation. Her
MAJEsTY's soldiers were tcrme I worse than use-
less, and were said more to hamper than to for-
ward the work in which they were employed.
This cry, taken up i=i Englan 3, did much to-
wards enforcing on the Government the rec dl of
the field force maintained in New Zealand at such
a heavy expense to the Imperial Treasury. But no
sooner had the regiments left than the demoraliza-
tion caused by the protection they had afforded be-
came apparent. The settlers, who were ready to
fatten on the expenditure of the British Commis-
sariat and to abuse the soldiers, were neither ready
to fight, to train for fighting, nor to pay ; and they
drifted into the terrible state of affairs now exist-
ing. A glance at the map will Flew what that is ;
but we must premise the few observations we have
to make by the remark that the war is confined to
the Northern Island, the centre of which is held by
the natives. The Southern Island has no more to
do with this conflict, as far as personal danger goes,
than have the people of England or of Ireland.
The geographical features are peculiar. From about
the centre, towering over Lake Taupo, rise a chain
of stupendous mountains which taper off on many
sides downwards to the ocean. The New Zealanders
hold that centre, and therefore command the sources
of the rivers, and can follow down their courses
into the wide valleys where the settlers are located
towards the sea, selecting any one for attack. The
telegram shows that Poverty Bay was the point last
struck, but a sentence further on announces that
" the colonial forces on the west coast have retreated
before the rebels, and a large tract of territory had
been abandoned," which is tantamount to saying
that the war was general over the country below
the city of Auckland. Poverty Bay south of East
Cape is, perhaps, the most easterly bay of New
Zealand. The colonial troops retreating on the
western coast were at New Plymouth, the most
westerly settlement of the northern island, which
shows that the Maories had gathered in force for a
simultaneous attack east and west. The plan of
savage warfare answers the purpose of savages, for
the cruelties perpetrated create such terror that they
cause a general panic, and men unaccustomed
to bloodshed and suffering, acting under its influ-
ence, get a scare, the moral effect of which it takes
long to obliterate. But like everything else, men be-
come used to being roasted alive, and all the horrors
savages can perpetrate as witnessed in the Western
Territories, otherwise the Indians of the Plains
would have barred the way to the Rocky Moun-
tains, and the Indians of the Eastern States might
have stopped the settlement of America. The
Western scout is not to be scared by Indians, for
he carries his own life as well as that of his enemy
in the weapon he uses, and he generally manages,
before he is captured, to blow out. his brains. A
similar class will arise among the now terror-
stricken colonists of New Zealand, but the induce-
ment must be given in the lands of the aboriginals.
The Maories will then learn that the game they
have chosen can be played with as much effect by
the Anglo-Saxon as by themselves ; and perhaps
after some terrible lessons, and with numbers sadly
diminished, they mly take their places among the
settlers as civilized inen. The question which rises
in so doubtful au aspect is whether such savages
ever can become civilized. All testimony concurred
in placing the Maori at the head of savage races.
He was supposed to be faithful to his engagements,
to be generous, and even forgiving, in war. His reli-
gion had become the boast among missionaries, and
he was even said to be the equal as an agriculturist
or a mechanic, or a sailor, of the best settlers from
England. Some actually denied that be had been a
cannibal, and the reproach had almost ceased to be
remembered against him. He had contended on
almost superior terms with the flower of the British
army, and a regiment, having scarcely an equal in
fame in that long roll, had recoiled, panic-stricken
and with fearful loss, in a desperate encounter with
these warriors. Their entrenchments were the ad-
miration of scientific engineers, and the traverses
by which they secured shelter against a storm of shot
from Armstrong guns might be imitated, but not
excelled. All at once we have this religious, brave,
and intelligent race, not merely brutally mur-
dering the settlers they surprised, but roasting
them to death, mutilating children, eating the
bodies of their victims, and potting the meat for
their kinsmen in the interior. DILKE, in his work,
Greater Britain, if we remember right, asserts that
such tribes cannot be civilized, and gives some ex-
traordinary instances, which will be found in one of
our back numbers, of sudden and uncontrollable re-
lapses into savagery. But what is the case of the
Cheyenne younglady,on being reared in a fashionable
school, who, when vexed, went to her room, let down
her back hair, and began to ho wl—to this sudden re-
coil into the darkest night of barbarism of the
Maories? It is easier to moralize thus than to sug-
gest a plan of operations. The island cannot be
abandoned ; the sister colonies cannot afford a war
of conquest against an enemy from whom nothing
can be got but bullets and tomahawks. It lies,
then, between the Imperial Government and the
settlers in the North Island. If the settlers are
cowed, the natives will literally gobble up all who
remain unless the Horse Guards are directed to
rescue them, on which event the greatest of all
the wars in New Zealand will arise, and one
simply of extermination. But it is possible that
the settlers may be roused to vengeance, and
men may give up ease and money making, to
take the field in earnest. If
,so the fate of the
natives will be as short, sharp, and decisive, as
such wars can be ; that is scouting parties will be
Maories'constantly h
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decision whether to aid the colony, or not,"will hinge
I conclusion, thoughtw seo
m ay successfulrem remark
n
the future connection of such possessions. There
is not a colony in case Imperial aid is refused whose
allegiance will hereafter withstand the strain of any
pressure or danger ; in the event of a war with a
naval power the whole will at once declare their in-
dependence merely to safe themselves from attack,
and for the protection of their shipping. And very
properly, for Empire has its duties as well as its
rights, and if England declines the duties it would
be unreasonable in her to insist on the rights of
Imperialists.—A nglo-American Times.

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Indian affairs, and the census.
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