TARANAKI.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 125, 19 June 1863, Page 2

TARANAKI.

[From the correspondent of {he Advertiser, June 6.] New Plymouth, Friday, June 5, 1 p.m. I forward yia Wanganui, per Sea Gull, the following important information : Tlie Herald’s prediction is fulfilled. Thai Matnitawa natives have all gone over en masse to the enemy, and have signified their intention toTnurder the settlers. These are William King’s immediate followers. 1 hear a proclamation is coming out, warning the people against holding any communication with Wi King’s tribe, to keep close to town. Events of great moment are at hand. Yesterday’s victory over the enemy will bring matters to a crisis. Be on your guard. Trust no native.

I believe there will be shortly another expedition against the enemy South. I hope the same good success will follow the General. Sir George is gone to Auckland, and his Executive, and our hope is that he won’t come back, but leave the matter entirely in the hands of our brave General, who has no flour and sugar in his system.

Monday, June 8. I sent you a few hurried lines ou Friday per Sea Gull,, informing you that the result of the surrender of the Waitara had been the alliance of the Mataitawa natives with some of the south. The notification of which I spoke warning the settlers to the north of the town to be on their guard, has since been issued. I told you in a former communication of the return of the expedition to the south, and buted it to the state of the weather. Tlie real cause was the unwarrantable interference of the Governor, who ou hearing a report from some “friendly natives” of the presence of the enemy, and of a meditated attack upon the town, at once notified the circumstance to the General, and this was the main cause of his return ; the discovery, however, made by these “ friendly natives ” turned out to be nothing but a “mare’s nest.” Your may imagine after that both settlers and military were glad to bo relieved of the Governor’s presence, which they were soon after, by his return to Auckland in the Eclipse. If “ what everybody says is true,” the private as well as public conduct of his Excellency is not, to use a mild expression, wholly blameless. Whether the reports current are true or false, they are generally believed. It may be said that we" have no right to meddle with a public man’s private life ; but the private conduct of some public men affects their position very materially. Be Ithis as it may, the conclusion of the best informed appears to be that Sir George Grey is not that immensely clever fellow ho has been made out. Inexplicable policy here has ruined his reputation as a far-seeing, shrewd man. I have had several interviews with him, and I have always come away with animpressionthat he is very oldwomanish. But the most extraordinary part of his conduct is the way in which the natives can bamboozle him, and how blind he is to plain facts. Could anything have been more monstrous “than his persistency in telling people here that everything was going on satisfactorily with the natives, and that they might safely go on their bush farms ? And when I knew, and all knew, that an ambuscade had been planted on the Wairau beach, was it not almost criminal to tell people that it was not fact, that there was no such thing ? The Herald reported it, and said where the murderous scoundrels had been planted, and the paper was put down by the Governor’s toadies as misrepresenting the true state of things, and Sir George actually told a family that very afternoon after the Herald came out reporting the ambuscade that it was false, and “ they might safely go out and crop their farm,” about 7 miles back in the bush? But what followed on next Monday? Nine British soldiers were waylaid , and butchered in cold blood ! The Herald was not then thought a “questionable authority” (as the New Zealander calls it). But will you believe it, when I tell you that when the first messenger came in with mournful tidings, his Excellency disbelieved it ? It is true, I can assure you. Then his crowning act of folly—giving up ‘Waitara without the promised investigation. ~ What did Paora say, “ It was only after the murders the Kawana gave us Waitara.” Of course it was put down to fear. And what has been gained by this cruel injustice toTeira? Have the JNgatiawa come over to law and order ? Kahore. They have declared for rebellion, murder, and marauding Was it for Waitara thatKingihasfought? No! Itwasfortheking,and rebellion to our laws. Even now (and it is really almost beyond belief) Sir George, I am told, hopes that war may be averted. “ Soldiers have fallen, and natives have fallen—therefore let there bo peace.” But Sir George, the natives won’t have peace. You must make up your mind to punish them, and punish them severely, before you can. hope for quiet and order. The natives wish to be the dominant race and think they can

attain their object (poor infatuated fools) and you, your Excellency, must make up your mind to take the idea out of their heads by proying to that we are the dominant race. The brutal murders on the 4th May was a challenge if I mistake not, and is considered as such by the bulk of the natives, who will support the miscreants who made it. General Cameron has commenced well, and may success attend his efforts to uphold! 0Ul * Queen’s supremacy and rule.

Neither of the Taranaki papers has spared Sir George Grey, but they necessarily have to speak somewhat enigmatically. ' His Excellency says the New Zealander is the paper, and it is supposed that he honors it with his special confidence. Speaking of the New Zealander, what a rotten thing that has become ; The articles in it are the silliest trash conceivable. I am told the Southern Cross is by far the most popular paper in Auckland. The Club here won’t take in the New Zealander, nor that old woman’sjpapor the Spectator of Wellington. You will have seen by the Taranaki papers an account of the attack made upon Lieutenant Waller of the renowned 57th, and of his gallant conduct on the occasion.

The attack of the rebel positions on the 4th was a gallant affair, and it shows that rifle pits can be best taken by storm rather than by sapping. General Cameron’s arrangements and plans were admirable, and the niggers were completely surprised. I believe the fallen are your natives, for the bodies could not be recognized by a Taranaki native named Komene. It would have been more pleasing if it had been the Taranakis, (the Putukai for instance) or the Ngatiruanuis ? for I believe they are the murderers of poor Hope andTragett, X have been told that a great many more were killed than we have any knowledge of. - Indeed, it is certain many more were killed by the troops after the rebels hor'oed. Our men "have been avenged, and I feel that no punishment can be too great for those horrible murdtrs on the 4th May. I shall never forget the ghastly sight of the murdered bodies, covered with gore and black sand, and so frightfully hacked! Poor, poor, Tragett! —he was a good fellow, and a great friend of mine—indeed of everybody’s. I feel convinced in my own mind that a trying time for us all in the Northern Island is in the future. There is no telling what the natives will he up to, and I think that a general war is inevitable. You must be tupato, and I hope your settlement may escape the horrors it has been my lot to witness.

Hori, the prisoner, -who shot Lieut Tragett, and •who subsequently lay in ambush for Lieut. Waller, is still in the cells, and why ho is not strung up on one of the rewaremas near which he laid, and tried to shoot Lieut. Waller, is not known to us. Sir George Grey’s unaccountable conduct again ! Keeping him alive has had one consequence—there was no prisoner taken on Thursday last ! All were bayonetted, and their death made auite certain. Tragett’s gold watch, and Dr. Hope’s chain, also a rifle and appointments belonging to one of the murdered men, were on the follow’s (Hori’s) person! When he was taken, he begged to be shot, there and then ! He is a big, tall halfcaste, a fellow I know very well, who lived at Tipoka.

The bushrangers do their work well. Captain Atkinson's party have been out nearly every day all through the bush, but have not come across any natives yet. They hope to intercept some of the Northeners on their way to join the Southerners, and we expect one of these days to hear of some smart work in the bush. Our fellows are all there, and in the forest will be a match for any number of the enemy. They (our volunteers) are all armed with the breech-loaders—a very effective weanou in the bush.

The trenches are done away with, and indeed al! General Pratt’s humbug. Instead, bodies of men are constantly moving round the town (patrolling) and double sentries placed in places where the natives would be likely to enter the town. The blockhouses are all manned, and another is being built on the race course, besides, we have the hush parties out. The 57th act bravely at the out-posts. Wasn’t that plucky of Lieut. Waller? Colonel Warre and his regiment are infuriated against the natives, naturally, and are after them, whenever they have a chance. Major Logan (now Lieut.-Colonel) is a splendid fellow, and as he does not hit it with the Colonel, also a brave fellow, it is a pity he is not in command of the troops at Wanganui, where there is sure to be work yet for the “ fire-eating 57th.” It is reported that he was the first to enter the pah, and that he ran a Maori through the body just as he was levelling his gun at him. We shall be anxious to hear from Wanganui, and what effect the thrashing given to their friends and relatives has had on the Waitotara and upriver natives.

The following from the General Orders, was published on Saturday : “The Lieut.-Geueral takes this opportunity of offering his best thanks to Capt. Brown and the officers and men af the Taranaki Militia and Volunteers, for enabling him to collect an adequate force for the attack, by undertaking the entire protection of the town of New Plymouth in the absence of the regular troops, as well as for the goodwill and seal with which they have always shared the arduous duty since the commencement of hostilities.”

The following letter, from the Assistant Native Secretary to the Superintendent, was also posted on Saturday:— “ New Plymouth, sth Juno, 1863. “ Sis, —In consequence of certain information which I have received this morning. I have the honor to recommend that a notice be issued, warning the settlers not to be moving about carelessly in any part of the district north of tho town. “Notice has already been issued, I believe, with reference to the other parts of the district. 1 The Taranaki Herald of tho 6th, in referring to this, says:—“Yesterday tho Assistant Native Secretary sent a letter to the Superintendent warning him of danger to be apprehended 'to persons going carelessly about on the north side of the town.’ The letter itself is somewhat vague, inasmuch as it does not state from whom or from

what quarter the danger is to come ; but it was not worth while breaking through the regular official system of mystery in the present instance becaus it was perfectly well known that the warning referred to the Mataitawa natives having declared themselves—what every one knew them to be—the allies of the Taranakis and Ngatiruanuis. That ‘ great act of justice,’ the abandonment of Waitara, seems to be bearing remarkable fruit ; or are we to attribute this untoward act to the most unfortunate absence of Sir George Grey ? His personal influence is indeed a strange power if the withdrawal of it for one day produces such strange results.”

You will excuse the rambling character of this letter—want of time is sufficient to account for this. I think I have told you that the half-caste prisoner, Hori, has not yet been tried by courtmartial as one of the murderers of the 4th May, and that this is the reason that no prisoners were taken on th 4th June. He gave information with reference to the missing soldier Ryan, who he said had been buried. First a party under Major Logan went in search of the body, and subsequently a party of 300 men under Colonel Warre. The latter party were fired at from the rifle pits in fho fortified pa which has been erected ou the spur of the hills. Ryan’s body was found huddled into a potato pit, about 130 yards from the scene of the murders up the Wairau-road, with one bullet wound in the head, and two tomahawk cuts in the back. He was no doubt shot the same day with the rest, and was killed while trying to make his escape across the country. His body was exhumed and brought to Oakura for decent burial. Colonel AVarre reported that the rebels were busy, in constructing defences, in which the women and children joined AYe are fortunate in having such brave officers and so able and courteous a commander. Through Captain Brown ho informed the Militia and Vounteers that ho was most anxious to consult their interests and wishes, and that blankets, clothing and waterproof coats should be served out to them. Orders had been given, he said for new boots, which they should have the moment they are made. This communication was received with gratitude and applause, but the General’s proposal to send out bush parties under officers to bo chosen by the men was received with still more lively satisfaction. Immediately the whole of the No. 3 Company of Militia and nearly the whole of No. 2 Company of A r olunteers stepped forward for the service. These were subsequently joined by about half of N o. 1 Company of Militia and No. 1. Company of Volunteers. The General accepted the services of fifty who chose Captain Atkinson for their Commander, and constitute the “Bushrangers” of whom I spoke in an earlier part of this letter. I refer you for the brilliant exploit of the 4th to the Taranaki Herald, which is pretty full, and, I believe, accurate.

We extract the following from a private let ter.—

“We left Taranaki ou the evening of the 3rd inst at 6 o’clock for Tataraimaka, we travelled’all night and got there at 4 a.m. nest morning; wo waited until 7 o’clock, when we commenced, and before we left off we killed 43 Maories, and took their stronghold from them ; they were greatly taken in, theywerc never served so before, we did it in the dark. Two miles from the stronghold there was a ware, which wo fired at, the first shot went through the door of the ware: an old chief (Bob a Hangie) got on top to see what was up ; we fired again at the ware and knocked off about four feet of the side where he was standing, and killed him. We brought all the dead bodfes we could find to town, numbering]forty-three,; we expect there were about thirty or forty killed and wounded. One of our men wont into a ware for the purpose of searching it, he found an old fellow there who was dead, he was just about to search him, when I happened by chance to be looking in the door I saw a Maori girl (about seventeen years of age) who had been concealed, coming towards my comrade with a tomahawk in her hand. I waited till I saw her lift it to strike him, when I drew my revolver from my side and shot her through the head. We got a little child (four years of age) who we let run away. We leave Taranaki again on the 7th (Sunday).”

The following is a list of the casualties in the attack on the native position : 57th Regiment. Killed. Private Edward Martin. Wounded. Private H. Shipman, mortal, wound in head (since dead). Private J. Osborne, dangerous, wound of abdomen (since dead). Private P. Flaherty, severely, gunshot, shoulder. Private J. Evans, severely gunshot, wrist. Private M. Eox, slightly, thumb wounded. Private J'. Deagan, slightly, gunshot, face. Private D. Hurley, slightly, tomahawk, ankle. Private Isaac Morton, severely, contusion both thighs. Private B. Stackpool, severely, tomahawk, shin. 70th Regiment. Wounded. Private William Wallace, severely, gunshot, elbow.