The intelligence which has just come from New Zealand is
pre- cisely such as was expected from the manner in which the Local Government behaved after the Wairau massacre : the Natives have again been attacking the settlers, and, if with less fatal ef- fect, more insolently and alarmingly. This time it is in the Go- vernor's own neighbourhood; and Captain Fitzroy has been obliged to send to Sydney for military reinforcements to repel further aggressions, which were still apprehended. Of course the savages might be expected to go on; for their whole expe- rience taught them that it was safe sport to plunder and insult the settlers. Savages and children understand acts more clearly than words; and when, after Rangihaeata had butchered Captain Wakefield and his companions at Wairau, the Go- vernor all but praised the murderer with faint condemna- tion, and abstained even from bringing him to trial, the Na- tives learned that their worst acts would be tolerated if not applauded. The systematic efforts of Government to lower the settlers have succeeded in making the savages think the colonists a set of people to be injured and insulted without risk. Therefore the maletreatment has been renewed; and Captain Fitzroy, having frittered away his own influence, is obliged to send for soldiers to quell the contumacy that he has abetted. In the end, his policy will not prove humane even towards the Natives. Had the murderers of Wairau been sternly called to ac- count, the seizure of Russell would not have occurred : but the preposterous indulgence that spared the ruffian Rang-ihaeata will find its sequel in the slaughter of many a Rangihaeata ; for if Governor Fitzroy do not coerce the aggressors, it is evident that the settlers, in sheer despair, will take the law into their own hands, and exterminate the vermin into which silly pampering has converted the Aborigines.
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