WAIROA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 334, 21 December 1865, Page 3

WAIROA.

(fkom oun ows coshespondent) 13th December. It is almost a joke to call it sending you news to tell you that the p.s. Sturt duly arrived here on the Bth instant, bringing with her all the “ big wigs,” and some 100 men of the various corps, known under the non-descript titles of " Taranaki Militia,” 4 ‘ Hawke’s Bay Military Settlers,” and “ Hawke’s Bay Volunteers.” I must say that, judging from some three days’ experience, the corps are fully entitled to the credit of being “ good drinking men.” If they charge the enemy with half the vigor they have discharged of their contents the bottles in front of them labelled and numbered, they will deserve well of their country. There seems to bo an impression prevalent that the enemy will not stand. It is pretty certain they have built no fighting pas; and the accounts of their numbers is most contradictory. From my own knowledge of the strength of the various hapus opposed to us, I should estimate them at 250 ; and I am convinced if they fight at all that in Te Warn we shall find no mean enemy. Our native allies are “impatient for the fray,’ and surely it is a pity to baulk their ardour, as, humbug apart, either Hau-hau or friendly natives, judicionsly expended, helps on the great work, the extinguishment of the native title. Unless the Government can obtain back country, the new township of Clyde will be only another sham, that may, indeed, suffice for its immediate purpose—the filling of the nearly exhausted treasury,—but which must eventuate in ruinous loss to those who, putting their faith in Government proclamations and puffs, “ cast their bread upon the water, hoping after many days to find it.” Find it they may, perchance, but musty and rotten. Bt the s.s. St. Hilda, which arrived in the road* stead at one o’clock this morning, we have intelligence to the 20th inst., but nothing of importance had transpired up to that date, though it was expected that our forces would commence operations upon the enemy in a few days. Therefore, in all probability, the next news we have from Wairoa will be of an exciting character, and we look forward to its receipt with some interest.