THE ECONOMY OF SENDING A GOOD FORCE AT ONCE. 483 should be assembled in New Zealand a force of five or six regiments, a couple of our smallest gun-boats, and three or four steam-sloops of war. (31.) I fear this will seem a heavy demand on the Mother Countrybut I fear no smaller force will do. A smaller force might be sent in driblets, and the result might well be that the present disturbances would be prolonged a year, and that in January, 1862 we might find ourselves despatching half an army to New Zealand to avenge a thousand murders, the destruction of millions of property, and the sack of every second Settlement from north to south. It is reported that the Governor has asked the Colonial Office for an increase of force; but with the reticence common to responsible officials in such matters, I fear our excellent Governor has been almost afraid plainly to tell the Colonial Office how bad the case really is, and how alarmingly worse it may soon become. The Colonial Office too, has probably been favoured with confidential communications from Bishop Abraham, Archdeacon Hadfield, and other bigots of the Church Missionary party, urging the Home Government to withdraw the troops, recal the Governor, sacrifice the Colonists, and entrust the management of New Zealand to them. But as we have seen in Chap. II., the Church Missionary party have been entrusted with the management of New Zealand once before; and the chief feats of their government were these-first, the provocation of a war-second, the ruin of thousands of Settlers -third, the debasement of thousands of Natives — fourth, the acquisition of large landed estates for themselves; and our old Church Missionaries are now as powerless to put things in order in New Zealand as was Mrs. Partington to stop the Atlantic with her mop. In this matter of despatching troops to New Zealand, then, let the Colonial Office, for once, heed Colonists rather than Governors or Missionaries, send out the assistance necessary to make up the Force I have named, and send it at once. I apprehend that such Force could be spared: China, India, and the Cape are quiet; England has now her Rifle Volunteers. But, in advocating the expediency of making New Zealand the head-quarters of a strong military and naval force, other arguments, if necessary, might be urged beyond any founded on 484 NEW ZEALAND AS A MILITARY SANATORIUM. the existence of our turbulent and rebellious Native population. Dr. Thompson's military statistics prove, that in regard to health of troops, New Zealand actually stands some 75 per cent. higher than even the Cape. Regiments leaving India for England a year before their time would find New Zealand an admirable half-way resting house for the year-a country which, with a climate cooler than Africa's, warmer than Britain's, would brace them up and prepare them for the colder latitudes of Chatham and Fermoy. In no part of the world, too, could troops be subsisted cheaper than New Zealand; and no where would vessels of war find more secure harbours, or finer timber, stores, and spars. Every regiment in New Zealand, like our old 58th, when not wanted in the field could find profitable employment and high colonial pay on public works, and would thus be spared that enforced idleness of monotonous barrack life which an eminent Judge has lately denounced as the great evil of a soldier's life. A naval and military force stationed in New Zealand, would also stand midway between the French Colonies in Oceana (32) and our gold fields in Australia. It would be in the very heart of seas swarming with American whaling vessels; near to Mexico and the Spanish republics, on the one side, hard by the Dutch and Spanish colonies, India, China, and Japan, on the other; and I believe I shall do no more than echo the opinion of many naval and military men who have seen the country if I say that, looking at her combination of natural advantages, New Zealand might now well be made the great Military and Naval Station of the Pacific, the Arsenal and Sanatorium of the South. If the Home and the Colonial Government, always and for ever maintaining the Treaty of Waitangi (33), will, between them, station and create in New Zealand such a force as I have named, almost any measures which our "Native Council "(34) could suggest for the preservation and civilisation of the Native race would prove successful. If not, if missionary quackery is again to prevail, if the cry is still be peace when there is no peace, if a strong force, for kind use, is not to be maintained for a time in New Zealand, no measures that the Native Council may suggest will prove other than very partially and very slowly successful, or utterly futile and abortive. FUTILITY OF ALL MEASURES WITHOUT A FORCE. 485 While, therefore, it is uncertain whether such a Force will be given or withheld it would be as idle a thing to discuss, now, what Measures we ought to take to build up a sound Native policy, as if, in planning the erection of a mansion, we were to dispute about the breadth of door and window while it remained utterly uncertain whether we should ever possess the means of procuring even the brick and mortar necessary for our very foundations. What procedure to adopt for the settlement of the all-important Land Question-who we shall recognise as the owners of tribal and harpu territory-how far severalty and individuality of ownership shall be overshadowed by Mana-whether we shall waive the Crown's pre-emptive right, and partially admit "Direct Purchase "--how we shall best ally ourselves with the Natives in the work of blessing them with British laws-whether or no the period be not reached when they might be invited to enter the General Assembly (35)-how they may be best imbued with that "knowledge of common things," and with those first principles of sanatory science for want of which they are a departing people (36)-how some physical amalgamation of the two races could be brought about (37)—how best to curb the Missionary Faction, and abolish their Imperium in imperio-how the Colony, the Colonists, and the Natives shall find a fitting Representative at Home (38)-these, and fifty vital questions could easily be solved by the Native Council, and the General Assembly, if, and if only, in their efforts to civilize and save the Native race, Native Council and General Assembly be backed by the display of such a Force in the Colony as, proving to the Maori that we are the stronger power, shall encourage and increase the good portion of his semi-savage community, and intimidate and reduce the desperate and the bad. EMIGRATION AS AFFECTED BY THE WAR. I cannot but regret that so large a portion of my limited space in this volume has been claimed by this Chapter on the New Zealand war. In commencing this second edition in the Highlands, some months ago, I shared the impression of many of my fellow-colonists, that this Maori King Move 486 EMIGRATION AS AFFECTED BY NATIVE WAR. ment would produce no mischief; and, if let alone, would taper off in clap-trap orations, in war-dances, in pig-feasts. I hoped that the 500 pages to which my publisher limited me in order to enable him to put such a price on the book as would bring it within reach of intending emigrants of moderate means would be devoted entirely to practical emigration matters, and that I should have ample space in which to treat of my more favourite subjects of exports, and markets, the plough, and the fleece. But each month's mail brought grave news, and it soon became evident that if I wished to produce an honest book I must curtail what I had hoped to say on farming and grazing, and devote even a chapter to the fresh and unhappy subject of a New Zealand Native War. This enforced alteration of design will, I fear, prove distasteful to many of my readers who, like me, care little in the abstract for Native questions and forms of Government in New Zealand as compared with rural matters of garden, and grass field, Merino, Short-horn, and Thoroughbred. But I must ask such practical emigrants to remember that this New Zealand war is a thing which strikes at the very roots of emigration, and that it has been my duty to attempt to show them that, in the North Island of New Zealand, the sword, for a time at least, may well stop the plough. I say this with sincere regret, but I say it openly and advisedly. My own individual interests, the interests of three-fourths of my family and friends, would lead me to encourage emigration to the North Island to the very utmost of my power.. But, deservedly or not, I am, I think, in some quarters, regarded as an honest authority on New Zealand, and I shall not forfeit any position I may have attained by concealing, now, what I truly think. The great South Island of New Zealand, embracing the provinces of Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury,* Otago, a country larger than England, possessing a finer * Canterbury and Otago.—A little injurious tittle-tattle and misconcep tion relating to these Settlements may here demand a word. Sydney, Melbourne, Van Diemen's Land-nay, even Auckland and Wellington--have affected to think that Canterbury, too fine a gentleman to soil his hands, would fain clip his sheep in kid gloves. Now, doubtless, there is an unusually large proportion of gentlemen in the Canterbury community, THE NORTH ISLAND NO FIT EMIGRATION FIELD. 487 climate and perhaps a more fertile soil, contains, as yet, a British population of only some 40,000 souls. In regard to personal security of life and property, even a general Native war in the North Island would no more affect the South many of whom, I daresay, do actually wear gloves; and there may be certain fair ladies there, who, when they emigrated, dreamt they were going "To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines, Diffusing languor in the panting gales, To lands of singing and of dancing birds, Love-whisp'ring woods, and hills alive with herds." But so far is it from being true that Canterbury is "too fine to work, that I fancy her annual exports of wool and wheat, and of all which brings grist to the mill and money to the chest, will, ere long, prove that she works even harder than some of her ruder rivals. Indeed, if we have any lurking notion that an accomplished mind and intellectual refinements are mere cumbersome finery in the "Bush," the sooner we disabuse ourselves of such notion the better. In fact, those temporary privations, those occasional stoppages of "creature-comforts," that "roughing" which generally attends the emigrant's first campaign or two, are not so well borne by the unlettered peasant, or my lady's-maid, as by the scholar, the gentleman, or by the lady herself. As to mere "creature-comforts," I recollect that in early days, in New Plymouth, there was a frequent scarcity of fresh butter. This privation shook many a labourer's family to the centre; and when it happened to be followed up by a cruel cutting-off of " Devonshire cream," the Cornish miners all but flew to arms. Now in these "dairy-dearths" the more intellectual portion of the little community could conceal the poverty of the butterless board with the noble "Masque of Comus," or go with Addison to the country and milk "Sir Roger's COWS. Mind triumphs over matter, even in New Zealand; and gentle blood is good, even in the "Bush." I certainly think that the high price of 21. per acre demanded for wild land constitutes a serious objection to Canterbury. But this is the only objection; and now that the Canterbury people must begin to see, as I have observed at page 240, that Squatting, pure and simple, will have to give place to Grazing, and that, for the future, if their Settlement is to maintain its progress, it will be by selling land to Graziers, and not by leasing it to Squatters, I imagine that the price of land in Canterbury will, ere long, and ex necessitate, be reduced. As to Otago, the remarks at page 154 may tend to dispel the erroneous idea respecting the severity of the climate; while as to the objection which has been urged against this Settlement that she is too Scotch, I would remark that she is every day becoming more liberal and cosmopolitan. Moreover, the fact of a large portion of her people being from over the border is, I think, an argument in favour of Otago rather than against her-for no country in the world sends forth finer Colonists than Scotland, and none can show bonnier lasses or braver men. |