POVERTY BAY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 675, 22 April 1869, Page 3

POVERTY BAY.

NOTES OF PASSING EYEKTS[PBOiI OUR OWN COURESrOND"ENT.] 17th April, 186 D. If the news be true which we received from Mohaka last week, and of which we have neither confirmation nor contradiction, things in this part are looking more gloomy than ever. If the Hauhaus have sacked Mohaka, there appears no particular reason why they shouldn't sack Wairoa, and from Wah oa proceed hither. "We cannot op to this date get any sort of information under that head —the road appears to be closed. A boat left this Bay about five days ago to get tidings, but has not yet returned. We are in a state of the most distressing anxiety. Our defences are very nearly complete : a strong block-house and stockade have been built, and in a general sort of way we have made preparations for defence; the male inhabitants and the Constabulary are under arms most part of the night, and things assumed a decidedly warlike appearance. But although we take our stand to face the enemy if he should attack us, our chances of pi'otracted resistance are small—for our numbers are equally small. "We anxiously expect the long-pro-mised Commission; but in the present aspect of affairs on this Coast it doesn't seem likely that that important article would be productive of much good. For e"en supposing that it does " settle the land ques tion," it is doubtful whether any one not actually rooted in the soil would care to speculate much in it, notwithstanding its manifold advantages.

We are at the gates of Paradise, bu f we can't got in. The flaming sword is ever present, and beyond the limits of a barren 50 acres or so near the river mouth, the rest of this valley might as well be at the bottom of the sea for all the good it is to us. Better, perhaps; for then, at sill events, it would be qnito nnt of the way, and the desire to obtain it would trouble us no more. The Government will find it a difficult matter to start any new settlements on this coast. If I am not mistaken the old ones have something to do to keep alive. We have let the opportunity for settling these rich valleys slip, and there does not appear any i easonable hope of our recovering the lost ground. However, we must hope for the best, and if we can't find much in the present of a satisfactory nature to look at, we may at all events indulge in the vague possibility of better times being hid in the future. A feeble effort at gaiety was made a week or two ago —we had races and some feasting and dancing; but it appeared to me to be about as successful as an attempt atjollification on funeral cold meats. Still, it is a pooi heart that never rejoices; and it's perhaps just as well to get into the house of feasting when you can, rather than into the house ot mourning—the doors of which are more frequently open than shut just now. Stormy v-eabher has visited the Bay from the South, with rain, but it ha", not lasted long. How do you people fare in Napier 1 Our fears are chronic —we never know when they begin or when they end, but live in a state of constant dread. Pleasant, isn't it 1 Public feeling— if there is such a thing—is against the dismissal of Mr M'Lean. But I join issue with "public feeling," because I do not see what other course was open to the Ministry. Mr M'Lean is too big by half for any moderately-sized Covernment to manage; and as far as I am able to judge of the value of his services by the results thereof, I don't think the country loses much. That gentleman is so plifted up with the adulation of his followers in your Province, who are constantly dinning into him a very large measure of glorification in the matter of his u management" of the natives, that I really think he begins to believe it himself. Which is really a very deplorable condition to fall into. However, it is to be hoped that

since Man has hitherto failed to find any for our Maori sickness, Nature, regardless of the strength of our constitution, and the splendid abilities for statecraft we possess, may some day or other cure the evil herself, by the simple action of Time.

By the schooner Jubilee, which arrived in the Bay on Tuesday, we ha\e a few additional items. She left about 3 p.m. on Monday, and brings a few cases of fruit, and one passenger, Mr J. Turley. The first information respecting the Mohaka tragedy was received at Turanga on Sunday evening week, from a native, who stated that he had come from Muriwai, where he had left Mr Espie, who would be in on the following (Monday) morning, and who would furnish the settlers with an intelligible account of the affair. On the arrival of that gentleman, he informed the people that he had left Wairoa in . perfect ignorance of the scene that was being enacted only a few miles further along the Coast; but that before lea\ing Mr Walker's station on the follow ing morning a native came in with the news that Mohaka had been attacked by the Hauhaus under Kooti and Te Waru, and that all the white settlers, and all the Maoris with one exception, had been murdered. On the receipt of this account, a boat was despatched to Mahia, to endeavor to obtain either a contradiction or confirmation of the sad news—Hemi Mauku, a Muiiwai chief, being among the number who manned the boat. All the week the s ttlers anxiously waited for the return of the natives, but they did not put in an appearance until the morning of Monday the 19th, (Laving arrived at Muriwai on the Sunday evening) when it became known that the previous reports were, in the main, too true. 30 natives and 10 whites were reported killed : the remainder having escaped in the schooner Hero, which happened to be off the river at the time. This was all Wat could toe gathered from the native account; no names were gi\ en, of either Maori or pakeha, as being among the fallen ones; and, as the mailman had not arrived when the Jubilee sailed, no further particulars can reach Turanga until the Star of the. South anchors in the Bay.