THE EAST COAST.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 664, 15 March 1869, Page 2

THE EAST COAST.

IMPORTANT FKOM OPOTIKI. MURDER OE MR PITCAIRN, SURVEYOR. CAPTURE OE FRIENDLY NATIVES BY lIAUHAUS UNDER TE KOOTI, The New Zealand Herald, March 9, contains the following important intelligence : By the arrival of the s.s. John Penn from Shortland last evening, we have received very sad news from Opotiki, which arrived at Shortland by a messenger from Tauranga. It is" reported that a Mr Pitcairn and others have been murdered by Te Kooti and his party at Opotiki, and that the place is surrounded. Since writing the above we have received the following letter from a correspondent at the Thames :

" Bad news has arrived here this morning from the Waikato and the East Coast. I send you a copy of the Times containing the former, which is believed to be correct. It may be correct or it may not, but the following intelligence which I am enabled to furnish you respecting the doings of Te Kooti on the East Coast, is but too true. " A special messenger from Tauranga has just left here on his way to Dr Pollen, the Civil Commissioner not being at Shortland to receive the letter which he brings from Colonel Harrington containing the report of what has occurred on the East Coast.

"Mr Pitcairn, the surveyor, has been murdered, and a party of Arawas, or some other friendly natives, has been surrounded and taken prisoners by Te Kooti's people, at a place called Ohiwa, nine miles this side of Opotiki. "There was also to be a general attack on all the settlements around on Friday night last." This is fearful intelligence; but it is only what we might have expected From recent occurrences.

FURTHER PARTICULARS OE THE MURDER OF MR PITCAIRN. We have to thank Mr H". Brett, shipping reporter of the New Zealand Herald, for forwarding us, per Star of the South, a proof slip containing the following information which was received by the Government at Auckland on the night of Monday, March 8, respecting the transactions on the East Coast which have resulted in the murder of Mr Pitcairn :

A native letter dated Whakatane, March 2, says that Te Kooti and Waikowha were at Ohiwa, and that Mr Pitcairn had been killed in his house; that Te Kooti had taken Kakuraku out of his pa, and would attack William's pa that night. And the statement says that Mr Pitcairn and a part of six natives wero up the Whakatane Yalley on the 28th B n eb., when they heard a heavy volley up the Waimane Valley. Thinking this denoted the appearance of Te Kooti, they returned towards Whakatane, and on their way met a special messenger sent by Major Mair to warn Mr Pitcairn, and tell all the friendly natives to assemble at one spot, Afterwards, the same evening, two Hauhaus were peen approaching Pvakuraku's pa at Whakare. On Kakuraku going to meet them they said Te Kooti had sent them to ask. him and his people to join Te Kooti at the head of the Waimana Yalley, and warning him that his only chance lay in joining Te Kooti at once, that Te Kooti had been reinforced by Te Waikowha and all the Uri weras, and that "no one would be spared." Rakuraku declined to go with them, or to join Te Kooti on any consideration, and intimated that if the messengers did not return he would probably take them prisoners. Mr Pitcairn did not stop at Whakatane, but went back to the Uritara Island, in the Ohiwa harbor. He was seen on Tuesday morning (March 2), and is supposed to have been killed on Tuesday or Wednesday night. This would be at low tide, for then it is connected with the mainland by