MILLITARY ITEMS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 677, 29 April 1869, Page 3

MILLITARY ITEMS.

Two from Colonel Whitmore. He is at present on the Rangataiki ranges. Captain Humphries has been appointed Assistant-Adjutant to the Napier Militia. Some of the scouts at present employed are to be discharged. The p.s. Lyttelton will be vent on to Wairoa w ith stores shortly after ai rival from Blackhead. The Board of Officers, of which Captain Kennedy is President, reassembles this morning in the Militia office. Several absentees from Meanee were yesterday morning paraded before the commanding officer. We understand that greater strictness will for the future be observed in enforcing regular attendance at diill by the men of each company, as it is manifestly unfair to ihose who do their duty in this respect that others should be permitted to evade theirs. The guard for the camp at Petane has been reduced from its original force to 1 officer, 1 sergeant, 1 corporal, and 15 privates. Captain Morrison of the Pay Department, arrived yesterday morning by the s.s. Ahuriri. There is some probability that a Paymaster's office for field stores will be opened in K a pier. On Monday last Capt. Richardson •with about 20 of his troop, left the camp at Petane for, we believe, Wairoa. The same day some 30 of Karaitiana's natives arrived at the camp from Mohaka on their way home. They say that the Hauhaus had all left "the Mohaka district for Waikarimoana, and that 001. Whitmore will liave a good chance of dealing them a crushing blow there. On the following day (Tue-day) Te Hapuku, with about 46 of his followers, arrived at Petane from Mohaka. They started homewards an hour after arrival at the camp. The death of Te Kooti is still a matter of doubt. The friendliea last in from Mohaka do not believe it. They say that he was there at the time of the attack, but that Te Warn was not present—he not having left Waikarimoana at that time. The s.s. Ahnriri arrived in port early yesterday morning, with 45 men of the Armed Constabulary Force, who had been embarked from the p.s. Lyttelton, which vessel has been windbound at Blackhead since Sunday last. The-e men are under command of Capt. Handley, who, we learn, was formerly an officer in the Scots Greys. The Ahuriri. with the abo'« e force steamed for Wairoa at 9 o'clock last evening.

Pleuiio-Pneuaionia.—This disease, it is stated, lias broken out at Tokomairiro, iti the Province of Otago. At Wanganui, the body of the other trooper, Henry West on, was found on T!sur-day morning near the left bank of the river and opposite the spot where eleven dnß before had been drowned while trying to save li is comrade's life- An in - quest held on ihe remains returned a verdict of accidental death. The Wanganui Chronicle informs us that among the loot fo iid by the expedition up the Waitotara river the other day, was a canoe load of Libles, which showed no indications cf having been studied by the natives, or rather, it would feem, they had preserved them too carefully. They aie supposed to have been distributed ten or filtren years ago. A Pakliajikntai y paper informs us that during LSlio H-7-8 the following aims and ammunition were issued to natives by the Government in Taranaki, Lay of Plenty. Auckland, Wanganui, and Last Coast Districts:—Enfield rifles, 1,301; medium rifles, 30 ; percussion mu-kets, 477 ; breechloading carbines, 67 ; common carbines, 123; revolvers, 7-; twords, 28; sets accoutrements, 2,0„8: rounds of ammunition, 261,100. The Muuka Tkagedy.— We quote from ihe -Nelson Examiner, 14th April: "The papers opposed to the Government are making the most of this success of Te Kooti, and the whole blame is cast upon the Government for having removed some 200 Arawas [Ngatiporous ?] from the East to the West. Coast. With an imperfect knowledge of the district we shall olfer no opinion on the sul ject. though we n ay express a doubt whether, had no such removal taken place, the fall of Mohaka would have been prevented. All we shall at present say is, that it is as unfair as it is ungenerous to make atlacks on the Go vei'nment for partial miscarriages in a war of unexampled difficulty. No campaign ever undertaken by the most experienced of generals could stand the criticism of the critics of .New Zealand, who know to a man What *hould and what should not be done, although ignorant alike of warfare and the country in which it is carried on."