bo no fighting, or there would be no

loan to get the country out of trouble. The country,- mcauiug not the people of the West Coast menaced, with a native war, hut the Southerners who wish the proceeds of the new loan to be first netted to restore confi dence aud tone to the somewhat col lapsed condition of mercantile affairs. If Major Atkinson's successful efforts at Hawera to induce the settlers there to put off their alleged warlike inten tions for a more convenient season, will end in making the loan, which is in such a ticklish position, safe — his exertions in his new character of " peace at any price" ambassador ought not to go unrewarded. Mr. G. McLean is a shrewd man, and no doubt he expresses the Southern feeling when he says there must be no fighting, as it will endanger the coming loan. It was rather too hard though on the Hawera people, who are law-abiding subjects, to represent them as burning to shed their blood, and were only re strained by the soothing councils and fatherly advice of Major Atkinson. If the time comes, when it will be neces sary to do so, we have no doubt they will fight bravely in defence of hearths and homes ; but, on the whole, they would rather tend their flocks and herds, and pursue their ordinary avo cations than carry war into what may be deemed the enemy's country. But Mr. George McLean may havo been joking. His jokes are sometimes of a laboured character, especially when read. However, this may be as respects the warlike tendencies of the Hawera people, his remarks on the possibility of a war, and his depreca tion of it arc uttered in such solemn, sober language, and the prospect of its disastrous effects on a possible loan, is contemplated with such evident horror that there is not the faintest appear ance of a joke there. Money is not in Mr. McLean's opinion, a sub ject to joke on. It ought to be contemplated with feelings of devotion rather thau mirth. Apprehensive set tlers may be chaffed, but to laugh at such an awful subject as the pos sible failure of a loan is evidently to him a species of unpardonable financial sacrilege.
