THE WEST COAST.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 658, 22 February 1869, Page 3

T HE WEST COAST.

A FFAIRS AT THE FRONT.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.;

!!ince the return of the first portion f the troops to this district on the 3th January, there has been very ttle re3t for officers or men of the i>rce. The unfortunate men, hurried Ion 0, hy the impatience of the pubc had been for the last three jonths unable to get settled with, ad their accounts were in dire conr ision. They had received from ra e to time advances to keep them i tobacco, matches, and a few tries but to halance accounts—induing all their affairs at Patea, Waaanui, and Poverty Bay, likewise I rhe purchases of the various divi ons at all the halting places and tmps where they had made them—as a very complicated marter. The olonel determined that before he f ,gain took the field, and while he ivas delayed by many other preparations, he would have this growing pvil put an end to. The poor men, •with large sums in their pockets, |p,nd close to Wanganui, could not resist the temptation of " going on the spree." Very little notice was] taken of simple cases of absence of the East Coast men, but the recruits ■who had no excuse were more hardly dealt with. Many of these had only enlisted to get their first instalment of pay and a passage to the Colony, and then to make off. Some sue ceeded in this, but the pickets brought most back. The clothing and equipping of the several divisions also gave a great deal of inconvenience to the non-commissioned officers of divisions while the spree lasted. The Colonel discharged 100 men as soon as he saw them—fellows who never ought to have been enrolled ; and the Constabulary would stand a great deal more weeding yet The mortars and artillery, however, were not all collected when the ftalrmel decided to march, lea vine

tlieni to follow. On the 20th Jan., Hcordingly, orders were given for the troops to move to the Kai Iwi. From that day forward the several divisions, complete or incomplete in their requirements, had to push on and finish anything remaining on the march. The old bush line of road was re-opened, the bridge across Kai Twi re-buiL, and the artillery and stores pushed on uninterruptedly. The several divisions always entrenched themselves behind low parapets at night to prevent alarm resulting from a sudden volley from the bush, and to enable a few men to hold the positions while the rest were on the roads. The Hauhaus tried two small attacks. The first was driven back without any loss; the second cost us two lives, but as many to Titokowaru. Thus matters stood till on the Ist February—just one month since Te Kooti found himself, as if by magic, surrounded by armed men —Titokowaru beheld a half moon of little defensible camps, stretching from the bush to the sand hills, established close to his famous pa at Turangaika. Next day the Colonel moved .1 .. i . i ii

the men up to within a hundred yards, and established himself firmly alongside of the enemy. The firing was pretty sharp, but the men—strongly posted behind an earth-bank —were in safety. The night closed in with only one casualty on our side. No proper account of the locality could be obtained, but the Colonel had the bush scouted and (examined during the afternoon, and at night orders were given for another movement. The cavalry were always kept on the left flank, and next day were to move round by Nukumaru, while Lieut.-Colonel Lyon an 4 Major Roberts, with the Arawas, were to open an attack by the side where poor Maxwell was shot, Lieut.-Colonels Fraser and M'Donnell commanded on the side first attacked, and the former was to have passed through the bush, we understand, next day, to close the third and least known side. It was quite understood that the Colonel would not run any risk whatever, and that he had determined that if Titokowaru stood-he. would take the place by regular approaches, In

this he was adopting the only course possible with a force composed so largely of recruits, against a bold and hitherto successful enemy. On the 3rd the Arawas and Col. Lyon came into position, and soon after, the enemy's fire having nearly ceased, the pa was scouted from both at tacks, and found to contain only a few Hauhaus. Thereupon, the Colonel ordered an advance, and No. 1 and the Aniwas, from both flanks, rushed forward and got inside. The whole force now moved up, and certainly the pa was an ugly work to look at. There was no gate, and it seemed to be flanked and protected in every possible way. Ditches inside covered the defenders, and the stout beams of the palisade were far too strong to have been broken down by a rush. Four or five hundred resolute men could easily have held the place in an assault by five thousand.

session of the General Assembly, for never has anything been more niisrepresented than Mr M'Lean and his Maori performances. We trust to hear that Titokowaru, by the loss of his pa, has lost something of his prestige, but it cannot \)Q concealed that war in a bush country is far more difficult than in open one, and that the task now before Colonel Whitmore is very different from the easy operations un* dertaken by Mr M'Lean when Te Kooti was close to Turanga, and harder even than that Mr M'Lean left to the Colonel when he took the field and advanced against the enemy on his distant—and, by that time fortified—position of Ngatapa, I wish him success!

Tho general impression was that Titokowaru would make back to his own country, and the Colonel immediately ordered the troops to cross the "Waitotara ; but a partial skirmisd with Kemp's pursuing party of hia own tribe showed that Titokowar'i's foice was not yet across the ri\ er, and was still higher up than Weraroa. Next day the river was ascended by the Colonel and a part of the force, and Papatupu (9 miles up the stream) was burnt. The country here is very broken, and covered with dense bush, but partiesj were pushed on as far as horses could get, and collected a drove'of cattle and some horses. The enemy having

apparently retreated, the force returned to Weraroa, and that evening pushed on to Wairoa. On the sth, the Colonel, with a light column, ascended the hill of Okotuku, and examined all the ground carefully, but rio tracks could be found. He, therefore re-crossed the Waitotara in the evening, and has since organised parties to carry on the pursuit in the bushy ranges to which Titokowaru is supposed to have fled. The task is a difficult one. It has become now, by the cowardice of Titokowaru, what the mismanagement of Mr M'Lean's expedition made the subjugation of Te Kooti, —a. vpvv rlifFp.rfint, thincr from an at-

tack on a known and accessible position. It is laughable to hear the Hawke's Bay Herald crying out—alone of all the journals of the Colony—in disparagement of Ngatapa, and the crowning absurdity is the statement that Mr M'Lean in any way assisted Colonel Whitmore. It is pretty well understood by this time how much help the latter can expect from the former or his friends, .... -i -l i . ii-i

who tried .so hard to prevent the natives from serving with him. But the fact is that Te Karetu was a wretched bungle, in which, with a far larger force, Mr M'Lean achieved nothing but the death of 29 of the enemy, with an almost equal loss to himself; and that, when Colonel Whitmore arrived, the fat Ngatikahungunu had retreated, and even taken with them poor Ropata's men, who was left by sheer incompetence of Mr M'Lean or his subordinates, to starve and fight without ammunition on the very hill upon which, with better management, he afterwards aided Colonel Whitmore to triumph over Te Kooti. It is also well known that all Mr M'Lean's overpaid natives had to be sent away, and even Eopata had to ask to have

his men changed,—so cowed were they after their one look at Ngatapa; and that a fresh expedition, with a smaller force, notwithstanding ten times the difficulty to carry it out, with fresh nu-n and proper precautions, led to a successful result in spite of Mr M'Lean. I say in spite, for he prevented Col. Lambert from directing his horde of Ngatikahungunu to Ngatapa, they might have helped to intercept fugitives, and sent them to Puketapu,

where nobody ought to have known better that there was not a soul to be found. This was a great waste of money, induced by a restless jealousy and impatience of inore competent persons repairing the blunders he had made himself. All this is susceptible of proof: there is no rhodomontade in it like the revilings of Mr M'Lean's organ. It can all be pvoyed, and doubtless will be next