MAORI STRENGTH ON THE WEST COAST.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1878, 1 March 1880, Page 3

MAORI STRENGTH ON THE WEST COAST.

[By Telegraph.] [from our own correspondent.] WELLINGTON, February 19. Regarding the numerical strength of the Maoris, Captain G. W. Woon, of the New Zealand Militia, writes as follows: —The correspondent of the “ New Zealand Herald ” on this coast is responsible for a statement which may cause unnecessary anxiety and alarm. He says that old settlers assure him that, between Wanganui and the White Cliffs 3000 Natives, capable of bearing arms, could be raised at forty-eight hours’ notice. Twenty years ago, when the war broke out at Taranaki, a combined movement of the tribes on this coast was made against Now Plymouth. Every man, old and young (and many of the women) mustered “to drive the pakeba into the Taranaki roadstead.” Well do I remember our anxious state of mind when our little town, after every outsettler had been driven inside the trenches, and with its handful of military and civilian force, had to hold its own against the beleaguering horde of blood thirsty savages, who had commenced their operations by cutting down two helpless boys in cold blood on the outskirts of the town. The total combined force of the Natives, including a contingent from the Waikato, did not exceed 1210 men. All who could carry a musket or wield a ttnnahawk came, and they were made up as follows Taranaki tribes, 430 ; Ngutiruonui and Ngarauru (Waitotara), 580; Waikato contingent and tribes north of New Plymouth, 200. After their losses in the war (and it is a well-known fact that the Natives on the Coast suffered terribly in various engagements) and from disease since 1860, I am outside the mark when I say that it would be an extremely difficult matter to bring 500 fighting men at the present moment into the field. I may venture to say that even twenty years ago it was no oisy matter to take 300 Maoris into action at any given spot.

Both in the Russian military schools and in the active army the greatest attention has recently been turned to the study of the geography of Austria-Hungary.