NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2059, 29 September 1880, Page 3

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

[By Telegraph.]

[from our own cobhespondbnt. 1 WELLING- CON, September 28,

The Native fencing difficulty opposite Parihaka assumed a somewhat new phase to-day. Official telegrams received this afternoon state that Colonel Roberts, in accordance with instructions from Mr Brjcs, had a party of constabulary waiting in readiness for the approach of the fencers this morning. The fencers numbered thirty-eight in all, of whom only ten wore men, the rest being young boys. Colonel Roberts, with the constabulary, met them about fifty yards from the fence, and, through an interpreter, ordered them to stand. They obeyed, and then Colonel Roberts similarly warned them not to advance any further, or attempt to fence, aa if they did,

Ithey would be arrested and tried a* the others were. He cautioned them against setting the Uw at defiance any longer by persisting to fence, and told them that they would not bo permitted to trample the law under foot. Kerehana I the leader ot the fencing party, promptly replied by asking, “Who brought the Government here to make laws for us,” and then proceeded to argue the point. Col. Roberts, however, stopped him and declined to enter into any discussion on the legal bearing of the case, merely ordering him and his party to return at once to Parihaka, Kerehana retorted that they would return when they had reached the joint to which they had been sent (i e., the fence) and not before. He also endeavored to raise a controversy as to the ownership of wheat which had been sown. Colonel Roberts, however, ignored that issue, and said that “the end of his word to them” was that they must go back to Parihaka, and leave the fence. The Natives took no notice of this, but remained standing quite still. Colonel Roberts then ordered the Constabulary to advance. The order was obeyed, and the men marched steadily forward, taking no notice whatever of the _ Natives being in their way but quietly pressing them backwards. This went on for about one hundred yards, the Nut ves offering no resistance. They then gave way and fled, some dropping their fencing materials as they went. They have not since returned. Orders were then given to pull the fences ot Faripara and at the Waitotara ford. When this was done the same Natives who had come down in the morning were seen sitting about 100 yards from the fence. They watched the proceedings, but remained perfectly quiescent, and in the end went away quietly.