WAIKATO.

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

WAIKATO.

I STARTLING SEWS, (From tlie New Zealand Herald, Maroh9.) Under the above heading the following account of a massacre of Europeans in the Waikato appears in the Thames Times of yesterday. It is just possible that the two gentlemen referred to the murders at the White Cliffs, which occurred on a Saturday, for as will be seen elsewhere, a telegram was received from the Waikato yesterday, by which, rime these alleged murders must have been known, had they been committed on Friday or Saturday last. The intelligence from Tauranga is, however, correct beyond a aouht, and it serious enough. The following is from the Thames Times : The report of another outrage penetrated upon white men by the Hauhms reached us at a late hour last night, and greatly we fear there : a too much reason to believe iu its authenticity. The news was brought to us by two gentlemen who "arrived from the head waters of the Piako, where they had been engaged in recovering some lost property that had fallen into the hands of the natives. On their return they stopped to breakfast at a Maori settlement, and whilst there two Maoris mounted on horseback arrived, and in an excited manner began a conversation with the other natives, who comprised a fe T -v old men only, all the younger members, of the tribe being absent. One of our informants happened to understand the language, and, to his horror, he heard the new arrivals state that five white men had been massacred at Waikato, either on Friday or Saturday last, and further stated that one of them had had his throat cut. Nothing was said of the man-. ner in which the others were disposed of.. A regular korero ensued, and one of the Piako men significantly remarked to the effect, thafc now it would be seen whether the Government would accept the challenge, and declare war, We may remark that our informants are men upon whom we can place the most unresei ved reliance. Before leaving the settlement they ascertained that the absent members of the Piako tribe had gone to the Waikato,