AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 206, 23 December 1864, Page 1 (Supplement)

AUCKLAND.

THE REBEL PAH IN THE NORTH,

At the time when the escaped Kawau prisoners evacuated the pah on the top of the Tamahua range, at Omaha, we strongly pointed out the necessity of at once demolishing fortifications said to be so capable in the event of war breaking out in the North, of offering successful resistance to our troops, if taken possession of by other natives. It seems that no action was taken in the matter, and we now learn that Te Hemera, the Mahurangi Chief, has arrived in town with the intelligence that sixty of the Ngapuhi’s have throw nthemselves into the empty pah, and that there is every appearance ol a crisis being at hand. This is no more than we have all along expected. Sir George Grey’s vacillating policy will bear its fruit not only in the South, but in the North, too.

Had the policy of the Assembly of 1863, been allowed by Sir George Grey to have been carried out —had the confiscation so

much talked ’of Jbeerr madejsomething morethan an empty threat—had the I rebel landsbeen as they might have been, but for a crochetty minded Governor, planted with European settlements, and sold to enable others to occupy and hold the country —then, disaffected Natives in the North as well as. open rebels in the South, would have learnt the wholesome lesson that our acts of legislature and threats of punishmentjare not empty bags of wind—mere straw stuffed scarecrows. As it is these natives naively remark that the good things fall only to the lot of the most turbulet natives—that to obtain flour, seed, and potatoes, &c.,||natiYes must’make themselves troublesome to the Government.

The Northern Natives have remarked that but once has Sir George Grey visited their districts, and that that once was only when they commenced fighting amongstjthemselves near Wangarei. “He is,” they say, '“"the Governor of the bad Maori only, not of the good,” and that they have learned" that |we only respect them when they showfthat they are | able to become troublesome Sneiehbours.

There is§very little doubt but that matters are in|a"very critical position throughout'tlie north. From Hokianga, from the Bay of Islands, from Wangaiei. from Kaipara, from every place where we receive intelligence, and that from reliable and trustworthy sources, we hear the same tale—there is a movement among the natives which onefpud all say betokens no good. There is no open demonstration, but as in the calm before the coming storm, low ominous| rumblings, are heard—words pregnant with meaning are occasionally dropped, tokens significant only to those who are accustomed to the habits of the people betray what is.working beneath. The North is, in fact, a mine which wants but a single spark to explode it; when and and how that spark may fall, no one can say. Firmness and decision might have averted the danger, but we fear that matters have gone beyond that point at which they cau.be controlled by pacific measures.

Since writing the above a rumour has arrived in town to the following effect. We give it for what it is worth. That there are now in the North 1170 Maoris under arms; 600 belonging to the Hokianga tribes, 270 to the Bay of Islands, and the remaining 300 to Wangarei, Kaipara, and other districts where the natives are mire or less disaffected. That a party of these natives have taken possession of the stronghold at Omaha as the rendezvous for the disaffected spirits of the North, and that their design is to lay waste the country settlements and swoop down on Auckland itself. As we said before, we give this rumour, as it was pretty freely circulated last night, for what it is worth. There was just such a rumour prevalent in July, 1863, respecting the Southern natives, and it turned out afterwards to be something moi’e than rumour. As in that case, so in this, the intelligence is said to, have been conveyed to Sir G. Grey by an influential chief, whose sympathies are with the pakeha. It is impossible with matters, in this critical state, that Sir George Grey can allow the Executive of the country to be removed from Auckland. The delay of a few hours in taking prompt decisive measures, if ever such a critical positidn as that now rumoured to exist should arrive, might be productive of the most disastrous results to life and property. —New Zealand Herald, Dec. 6.