MONGANUI WAR.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 June 1843, Page 4

MONGANUI WAR.

In publishing the following letter from one of the European sufferers at Monganui, we cannot do so without expressing our deep sympathy with him and the other settlers, it is indeed distressing to think that men who have laboured so industriously, and who were on the eve of comfortably reaping the fruits of such praiseworthy exertions, should have their hopes so cruelly blasted. The Manganui settlers are not men of doubtful character, they are neither "runaway convicts," nor " sailors," but very respectable emigrants both from England and South Australia, a quiet, peaceful, orderly and highly interesting community, as may easily be gathered from our intelligent correspondent's very temperate remarks. We do heartily and sadly feel for them in their misfortunes. But why in the name of humanity do not this government render assistance to these people ? do they wait until they hear that the Natives have not only exterminated one another, but the Europeans also ? And that too by the very guns and ammunition supplied by the government themselves ? ! ! ! This is no mere whale boat concern ! ! Valuable lives and properties are not only in danger, but they have actually been destroyed — and the war is still not at an end. — Shall Mr. Shortland, because he committed a mistake in sending the troops to recover a whale boat at Tauranga, now seal his heart to the complaints of the European and Native population at Monganui — shall he now refuse to do what is right, just, and merciful, merely because he committed a blunder in the former case. We tell this government, that they are highly culpable for having allowed this war to take place, and we tell them .more that for every drop of blood which is shed, they will be held at least morally responsible. To the Editor of the Southern Cross. Sir,— As the advocate of the liberal principles set forth in the " Southern Cross" newspaper, allow me, as one of the sufferers of the late disastrous war at Monganui, to put you in possession of the following statement of facts, and to make what use of them you may think proper, and to notice two points on which you nave been misinformed.

lish, nor the chiefs from whom we purchased it, had any right or title thereunto. It is stated that £100 was paid him out of the treasury, but the payment consisted chiefly, if not entirely, of muskets, powder, and shot, which enabled him to carry on the late destructive war at Manganui, and here we are naturally led to ask : would it not have been more fitting the representative of a Christian Queen and country, if Captain Hobson, had provided cattle, ploughs, harrows, and other implements of husbandry, rather than place in the hands of this demi-savage, such destructive weapons ? — Upon Captain Hobson's return to the Bay of Islands, he issued a Government notice, forbidding any township to be formed at Monganui at all, to the great loss of the proprietors, and of those who had purchased town allotments, and to the manifest injury of our beautiful harbour, which possesses every thing in itself, to render it one of the most desirable residences in this country. It has a good family hotel, and abundance of pigs, fish, native and English vegetables, fresh water and firewood. The ground in the neighbourhood, besides yielding the finest spars and Kauri timber, which has been supplying Kororarika, Nelson, and Auckland for the last three years, is highly productive and fertile. How many of the fruits, herbs and trees, growing in England that we have got in our gardens at Manganui, and how thriving, considering they are only in their third or fourth years growth ; witness the acacias, vines, Orleans plum, filberts, and apricot trees. Our harbour too, is well known in Sydney, and the United States of America, as a depot where some of their largest vessels have been wont to refit ; having no bar entrance, and excellent anchorage, and where, but a few months ago, the Henry, whaler, Captain Young, from New Bedford, captured a fine whale, as she lay at anchor, which yielded 80 barrels of oil, by the light of which I now write. So much, in fact, did Captain Young prefer Monganui to all the other parts of New Zealand he has visited, (except the Bay of Islands) that he has purchased a fine tract of land near us, and is now gone to fetch his family ; intending to bring out a windmill, blacksmith, forge, &c. As soon as this purchase of Captain Hobson's was completed, E Puni came to Monganui, with all his war canoes well manned, to enforce his claim by battle, and our excellent chiefs, (for more amiable Maories than some of them cannot be found) roused, and indignant that this pretender (who for thirty years should not have hinted at such a claim) should presume to sell to any one, their, and their fathers' land, (much of which, the last fourteen years they had disposed of to the European settlers residing thereon, and with all of whom they had lived on the best possible terms) immediately assembled their followers, and the two native armies met at Poro Poro (the war dance, and their shouts, shreeks, and grimmaces, were carried on for two successive days, and though an abundance of guns were fired, the only harm done, was frightening the ladies, who were advised to go on board the Neptune, (a vessel built at Manganui) and proceed in her to the Bay of Islands. The third day, being the Sabbath, the armies agreed to a truce, and I passed through them as they all sat on the ground, together uniting in singing an appropriate hymn. The result was, that E Puni, ashamed then, of his conduct, withdrew his claim, first, to one part of the disputed territory, and then to another part, till at length, the only claim he made, was to a lofty eminence near the entrance of our harbour from Doubtless Bay, on which he planted the flag furnished him by Captain Hobson. No sooner had E Puni, or Noble, and his party retired, than all our head chiefs waited upon Captain Hobson at Russell, and convinced him how egregiously he had been imposed upon in making this purchase, especially as the bill drawn on his Exchequer for muskets and ammunition, had been duly honoured, and though, by the peaceable termination of the war, Noble had not been able to prove the murderous qualities of his guns, yet it was too late now, for the Exchequer to recover them ; I know that the report reached us at the time, that some of these guns were innocent of this destructive quality. Be that as it may, our chiefs did not take their leave till Captain Hobson, or his Secretary, had given them a puka puka, duly signed, acknowledging that they were right, and that Noble had no just claim whatever. This letter, by the way, ought surely to have been shewn to Col. Godfrey, when he came down to Monganui lately to try our claims ; if it was, why did he not (when E Puni stepped in, and interrupted the business of the Commissioner) at once proceed to act on that authority, and not leave our claims in the vexatious and unsettled state they have been in for the two last years ? {To be concluded.)

We know no place called in your paper Manganui, our settlement (which is 75 miles from Kororarika, N. N. W. from the Bay of Islands) has been established upwards of 12 years, and has always been Monganui, signifying Large Sharks, for which it used to be famous. Again, in perusing the following brief narrative, you will find that in more instances than one the lives and property of the English have not in all cases been respected. In the summer of 1839 I purchased of the chiefs Warrikauri, Akewa, and Tukaridi a few thousand acres of land near Monganui, and with my family proceeded to take quiet and peaceable possession of it. Capt. Hobson, the Lieut. Governor, with Dr. Johnson, came to Monganui in 1840, and strongly advised all the gentlemen and their families there to respect the rights and keep up a friendly intercourse with the Natives, assuring us that, as head of this local government, we might also look up to him for protection. A circumstance occurred however the very day after Capt. Hobson left the harbour, which proved that under his government we had no protection. A tribe of Natives from Waiho, (calling themselves Epicopo,) hearing I had lately arrived in this colony with stores and other goods, pretended that my children had gathered a piece of firewood from a bush in which their ancestor had been buried, but which bush is the property of my neighbour, Mr. Thomas Ryan, who desired we would use what we required ; the fact is, the piece the children brought was proved to have been washed up by the tide, which flows under these trees. On this false and frivolous accusation they demanded Ist, the sum of £50 payment, and on refusing to pay even a sous, they surrounded my dwelling, dancing the savage war dance, after which Epee (the descendant of the person said to have been interred there) ran to and fro between two lines of Maories, pointing his spear at my breast, each time endeavouring to break open my door, which, of course, I resisted ; they then set fire to the thatch in two places, and, to save the destruction of all my property, I was compelled to give them ingress, when they ransacked our drawers, chests and boxes of £20, and I am persuaded had it not been for the timely interference of the Rev. M, Petit Jean, the catholic priest from Wangaroa, they would have stripped us of more, nor have I been able to get any redress from that day to this, though I sent a letter to the Lieut. Governor at the time, detailing the particulars cf this outrage. It is true that we were promised a resident magistrate, and looked forward to his arrival with much anxiety, knowing that then such grievances could not pass with impunity, but no signs of a magistrate have as yet appeared, and I see by your 2nd number that Dr. Johnson signs himself therein J. P., acting police magistrate at Monganui, 24th June 1840, but as he was only there a few hours, and most of that time on board his vessel, we had no benefit from his services. At the period of Captain Hobson's visit, he and his officers were much struck with the site and eligibility of the recently laid out town of Gloucester at Monganui, plans and maps &c. of which had been sent to Sydney, Hobart Town, Adelaide, and Kororarika, the chief town of New Zealand ; many town acres had been purchased from Messrs. Partridge, Smythe, &c, the proprietors of the land, and allotments along the harbour frontage and wharfs along the Gloucester Creek had been secured and were about to be immediately built on. At that time we had only 12 British families settled round our beautiful harbour, but in less than a year parties from the Bay of Islands, Port Philip and America, &c, would (as they had decided to settle amongst us) have materially encreased our population, which already included (besides other respectable emigrants) two medical men and a protestant dissenting minister, at whose house Divine Service was held every Sabbath day. It ought to be mentioned to the honor of Capt. Hobson that when he heard this circumstonce, and not approving of Dissenters, and in the absence of a clergyman of the Church of England, he graciously appointed the seafaring gentleman, at whose house he was entertained, not only to the office of Surveyor General of Monganui, but also Chaplain, strongly advising him to read the Church 1 Prayers every Sunday. On his Excellency pointing out an elevated and eligible spot for a government house, the proprietors in the most handsome manner begged his acceptance of it — in short, enough ground in the township would have been offered for all necessary government reserves, but unfortunately on leaving Monganui for Kaitaia, Capt. Hobson and his suite accepted an invitation to dine at the warre of Epune Kareao or Noble, who (vexed that his ancestors 36 years ago should have lost the ground at Monganui, on which he saw good houses erected, and the adjacent land being well fenced and brought into a high state of cultivation,) persuaded his guest that he was the sole proprietor, and that neither we Eng-