Terms of Peace.—Confiscation.

Indeed, whether we be moved by a righteous desire to punish the "Rebel Tribes"^* for this, the third, Maori Revolt—or by a desire to effect the regeneration of the Maori by preparing him for the fruitful reception of British Institutions—or by a desire not to move the mirth of Europe and America by retreating, under cloud of a sham Peace, from a War with a few thousand aggressive Savages—or by a desire to redress the wrongs of the Colonists and to preserve our National Property in New Zealand for the use of the nation—whether our course of action be etermined by one, or by other, or by all, of these motives—our first, our only, curative step, now that the Sword is drawn is to use it mercifully, but firmly and effectually. No idle supension of arms patched up by Missionary and Aborigines' Protection Societies, aided by Utopian Philo-Maori men in the Colony, and disguised under the name page 45 of Peace, could prove, in effect, other than a delusion and a snare. The only Peace that could prove a lasting Peace—the only Peace that could prove a foundation on which might be built up that Policy towards the Maori which, alone, could now save his Eace, would be a Peace achieving and comprising three things:—the disarming of the Rebel Tribes—the confiscation to the Crown of a large portion, say half of their unused Wild Lands—the hanging of the brutal murderers of our women and children. Both here and in New Zealand, public opinion, has decided that the first and the last of these measures are alike righteous and necessary—but by that section of your community represented by the Hon. Member for Maidstone, and by a few of our hollow Peace men in the Colony, the necessity of the second measure has been called in question.

But, in truth, Sir, "Confiscation" is the alpha and omega of the whole matter—the very key-stone of the arch we would build. The great result to be aimed at in now using our arms against the Maori until complete victory is ours, is not that his Defeat shall be expiatory of past Revolt, but that it shall be deterrent of future Revolt. It is not what we may regard, but what he will regard as his Defeat which will have on him this "deterrent effect." Let the struggle end as it may, if it end by his being left in the mind that he has not been thoroughly vanquished, all our powder will have been burnt in vain.

Now, from the earliest days of our acquaintance with the New Zealanders down to the present time, no idea, no rule, no custom, has been more marked, more common, among them, than that which couples the "Defeat of an Enemy" with the taking, or the right or power of taking, page 46 his Land, True it is that, owing to their little need of Land and their immense possessions of it, they very frequently made no use of the territory of a vanquished enemy. But they have ever held, and they still hold, that to be a Conqueror of your enemy you must be a Conqueror of his Acres:—you may use them, you may drive off the old occupants, you may permit them to remain—but, one way or the other, you must show that you are Lord of the Soil. Indeed, so strong and universal among them is this feeling at the present time, that they have frequently been heard to argue that in our first struggle with them under Heke in the North, and in our second struggle with them under Te Rauparaha in the South, we, if not the Oonquered, were at least not the Conquerors, because we took none of their Land.

The number of acres which would be taken from the Rebels, on the principle of taking half their unused territory can, now and here, be only a question for conjecture—place it, however, at 4,000,000. When steady peace had set in, such tract of Land might represent a value of £2,000,000; and in reason and equity, would be a property which ought to be given to the Colony as some compensation for its losses and sufferings by the War—the Colonists, in this mutual work of protecting the National Estate of New Zealand, having suffered far more, both in purse and person, than the Co-owners of such Estate at-home, But, in this vital question of "Confiscation," put the Colonists, if need be, altogether out of court:—keep the Land as a demesne for the Crown, burn it, sink it, do what you will with it—but take it from the Rebels. As has been shown at page 9, Land, beyond a small or moderate quantity, is no more a thing of necessity to the page 47 Maori than Opera Box may be to Mr. Buxton—take it from the Rebel to convince him you are his Conquerors, and you enrich him by its loss.