The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-16 00:00:00

THE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1881.

From the farthest extremeties of the earth come I
perpetually new evidences of the wonderful truth of
VOLTAIRE'S terrible satire of " Micromegas." The
colossal inhabitant of Sirius asks of one of the little
atoms of humanity whom he is examining with the
aid of a stupendous miscroscope, and whose other-
wise inaudible voice he is just able to catch faintly
through the tube of a gigantic ear-trumpet—" le
Sirien" asks this little infinitesimal atom of
humanity what may be the origin of those sangui-
nary wars among men, about which the said atom
has just then been descanting. "Le Sirien," says
VOLTAIRE, " fremit, et demanda quel pouvoit etre
le sujet de ces horribles querelles entre de si chetifs
animaux. 11 s'agit, dit ie philosophe e., the
atom inaudible and imperceptible to the unaided
senses but then under the ear-trumpet and the micro-
scope), it s'agit de quelques tas de bout grands comme
votre talons." It is the old story, of course. But
here comes the old stoly again to our hearing from
the opposite extremity of the globe. From New
Zealand, in point of fact. Where—another war or
the fag end of the old one has again broken out.
Our advices from our antipodes give the particulars
in detail. And among those particulars comes to
us, as an epitome of them all, the Proclamation
issued by Governor BROWNE. From a careful exa-
mination of the causes of this fresh outbreak of hos-
tilities between the native tribes and the
English, it will be seen how perfectly accu-
rate was that ironical comment dropped like
a drop of vitriol on to his page by the
pitiless and probe-like pen of the French SWIFT—
that cynical writer who, if he resembled SWIFT in
the cruelty of his irony and the frightful poignancy
of his satire, as far exceeded SWIFT in the scope of
his genius as GULLIVER was surpassed in proportions
by the stupendous bulk of MICROMEGAS. There,
too---in New Zealand, at our Antipodes—where
the Aborigines are confronted by the civilised Eng-
lish---the cause of quarrel is a little bit of earth
about the size of the nail of the wandering traveller
from the Dog Star. Viewed with the eyes of any
celestial visitant—any war that has ever been fought
upon the globe is just as absurd in its way as this.
But of all the ridiculous events of the kind that can
happen, the most utterly ridiculous is—(that
especial horror of the Great Duke)—a Little War.
And this is precisely the character of these inter-
minable little, never-ending, still-beginning., wars
in New Zealand_

Let us look at the last specimen, as presented to
our view in the Proclamation of his Excellency
Governor BROWNE. And the cause of it? Row
possibly can it he talked of gravely ? Well, the
origin of the whole quarrel appears to date back no
further than to the year 185 S, when a portion of
the Maori tribe, dwelling in Wakaito, set up
a King of their own—a tawny Majesty,
answering to the ridiculous name of POTATAU
Actually—this same King POTATAU (having, no
doubt, an eye to power and regal magnificence)
was., in the June of 1858, solemnly installed by his
Maori lieges at a place called Rangiawhia. Two
years later King POTATAU dies. He is succeeded
of course by a New Potatan in the person of his
Ran, King MATUTAERA. Since that period, that is,
since 1860, for a little more than a whole twelve-
month past, matters appear there to have been
going from bad to worse. The Governor, in his
proclamation, states this downward progress of
things very plainly :—" Diversity of opinion," he
says, " existed from the commencement as to what
would result from this movement. Some were led
to believe that its supporters desired only the
establishment of order, and a governing authority
anOng themselves; while others viewed with ap-
prehension a confederacy which they deemed
fraught -with danger to the peace of the co-
lony. The
Governor at first inclined towards the
more favourable
view of the movement, but soon
,„
felt misgivie
s which have been justified by the
event." Yet he goes
On to
however, has not ; say, " The Governor,
interered to put down the Maori
King by force. Re
has been unwilling to relin-
quish the hope that the Maoris
themselves, seeing
the danger of the course they were pursuing, and
that the institution. of an independent
must prove ineffici ant for au. Purr of authority
e
would of their own accord abandon their good,
s eir attempts?'
How little these a raiable anticipations of his Ex.
events have only too
celleney have been' realised,