THE KOPUA MEETING.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1622, 2 May 1879, Page 2

THE KOPUA MEETING.

TBy Teleoeaph]

ALEXANDRA, May 1. Nothing fresh has occurred at Kopua. The Natives had food given them, and are content to wait some days longer for the speechifjing. The Revs. Buddie, Lawry, and Schnackenburg, old Wesleyan ministers, are here visiting their old scenes of labor, where they had stations which had been confiscated by Tawhiao, and are anxious to improve the occasion by spreading broadcast Maori Testaments, and endeavoring to revive old feelings which the outbreak of 1863 dispersed. Many other Europeans are present, and Tawhiao has ordered fproper .supplies to be 86t apart for their use. Ministers are almost certain to be censured on their arrival for broken promises made at Hikurangi. The making of the WaipaRaglan road and gazetting of Maori lands, which it was understood would be given back, will be discussed. There are upwards of 4000 "now on the ground. Thompson's house is being prepared for the Premier, and other Europeans leave here to-day. Rewi has sent another invitation to the Government party. Tawhiao says it will take three days to complete his talk. [I'BOM OUE OWN COEEESPONDENT.] ALEXANDRA, May 1. Yesterday Rewi was induced to write a letter requesting Sir George Grey to return to Auckland, but Rewi reconsidered, and permitted Mr Von Sturmer to destroy the letter. To-day the Rev. Mr ';Buddle, .Wesleyan missionary, from the Three Kings, visited Te Kopua with the Rev. Schnackenberg. They breakfasted with Rewi and Manuhiri at Thomson's house. Major Jackson and Major Searancke, late R.M., were also present. Rewi, addressing Mr Buddie, said :—" Thia is the result of our taking our hands off each other's heads. Grey and I are now one in body, but we have still two hearts, and will disenss matters from independent standpoints. What is the good of people who cannot discuss things from different sides ? I will tell him my thoughts, and he will tell me his." • Later Mr Buddie and others visited Manuhiri at his house. The reception was moat cordial.

Manuhiri said to Mr Buddie, " Yon have not grown old," and again—" Tenei ano nga mei kua mate" (this is the representative of things that are dead). This was an allusion to Mr Buddie's former missionary efforts thirty-four years ago. Since then most of Manuhiii's people have died. A conversation took place privately between Mr Buddie and Manuhiri, at which I was not present, but for an account of which I am indebted to the former. Manuhiri remarked—" Formerly you brought us Christianity. Then came troubles about land, and after that war and strife, but in time we have met to restore the first condition of affairs." Mr Buddie remains with Rewi's people to-night. One Maori, who was a boy in the time of Mr Buddie's early missionary labors, but is now middle aged, said to him, " You used to tell me when I was a boy about the infernal fire. For many years I wondered what that could bo, but I found it was the blaze of the Pakeha big guns." Eain commenced in showers last night' but it cleared up. About noon today the weather again threatened, and dark clouds gathered over head. Since one o'clock constant showers have fallen. Groat quantities of food were'brought to-day from the Waikato camp to an open space nearer the river. Five hundred bags of flour were taken from under the titree sheds, and carried down a distance of half a mile by the Waikatos. The Natives carrying sacks of flour over the plain resembled a caravan of ants. Great stores of food would probably be divided this evening to prevent it spoiling by rain. Among the luxuries were a hundred boxes of pork preserved in dripping. The boxes arc made of titree bark.

Te Reinga, Manuhiri's daughter, asked me this morning if there was any truth in the report that Manga hud sent a letter to Sir G. Grey telling him not to come. Of course, I undeceived her. Te Roinga is the place of departed souls, in Maori tradition at the extreme of the North Island. I asked Te Reinga how she was so named. She gavo me to understand that it was given her at a

fericd when her people were being rapidly illed off by war and disease. She is evidently half insane.

Sir George Grey, the Native Minister and party of ten, will arrive by steamer to-night, *nd will be.conveyed up river by Te Wheoro's friendlias and Ngapuhi chiefs to-morrow. The three proposals of the Ngapuhi people, which emanated almost wholly from Sydney Tawhenga individually, were telegraphed here and translated to Rewi and the Ngatimaniapoto people. They appeared somewhat offended at the dictatorial tone of the resolutions, until it was exSlained that they had not emanated from r gapuhi as a body. Rewi yesterday expressed great admiration for the Rev. Mr Rsid, because he was a man who spoke his mind.