THE WAITOTARA SETTLERS AND THE MAORI PRISONERS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 713, 30 August 1869, Page 3

THE WAITOTARA SETTLERS AND THE MAORI PRISONERS.

(From the Evening Post, 23rd August.) Tt seems an extraordinary state of affairs to exist in any country under the British, flag, that the settlers of a large district should find it necessary to memorialise the Governmant to prevent the return among them of the criminal murderers who have desolated their country, destroyed their property, and left them almost in a state of destitution, and yet such is the case. We learn from the Wanganui papers that a meeting of the Waitotara settlers was held recently, the object of which was stated by tin chairman to be:—" To raemoralise the Government to prevent the Ngararau tribe from returning to the Waitotara district. _ The Hauhaus had done great mischief in that district, and it was necessary to prevent the natives who had participated in the rebellion from settling again. Mr Moore said that at any moment the Waitotara sottlera might be exposed to the fury of the Hauhaus who had been treated very leniently by the Government. They ought either to be sent out of New Zealand or put out of the world altogether, and if the Government did not do something the settlers ought to take the case into their own hands. He, for one, would devote three months, without pay or rations from the Government, in helping to settle the matter."

There is little doubt these settlers hare good grounds for the fears they entertain. They have been so long accustomed to see robbery and bloodshed, and crimes yet more revolting, winked at by the late G-o----vermnunt and its agents, that they may be excused for looking with doubtful eye on ihe measure? adopted by their successor* for dealing with the rebel Hauhaus. They have seen Maoris known to have been in arms against us walking the streets of Wanganui unchallenged, and protected by our allies at Putiki; they have seen Patara, u murderer and a scoundrel of the deepest dye, taken into the confidence of Mr Parris, and allowed every facility for carrying on treacherous intercourse with his rebellious confreres; they bave seen every effort made, to find excuses for hapus of the various tribes who were covertly acting against us, and they know that while Messrs Parris and Booth maintain their positions, philo-Maoridom is still in existence. There are a certain number of prisoners in our hands certainly, awaiting trial, but there are numerous others equally guilty at large, and who are now abb to= threaten the Waitotara settlers in th© event of re-occupying their desolate! homes. Every man belonging to the Waitotara tribe has been acting against us more or less, and every one of them who attempts to return to his location should b© at least driven away, if not captured and treated as murderers and rebels deserve. This weakness and disunion—this want of energy in dealing with the rebellion, is what it feeds on. This it is that lays us open to the taunts of our neighbors m Anstralia, as having displayed a wretched shrinking from the obligations and requiremeets of the situations—a shuftiing with its responsibilities, an indisposition to face bjldly the exigencies of the occasion; as having disgraced the British name by our impotoncy and intestine divisions. Halfmeasures have never yet pccomplishad anything great—mote especially in matters of war or policy—and never will. If ever peace is to descend upon this unhappy distracted country, bringing prosperity in its train, the race of Booths and Parrises and all such Maori sympathisers must be swept away ; rebels must be treated as rebels, and not as naughty children, and the prestige of our name, lost in our fatuou* dealings with them, be sternly restored. j (From the Evening Post, 25th August.)

Mr John Handley, a well-known Waitotara settler, haß written a letter in which he mentions E. Tapa, Mr Booth's principal witness against the rebel prisoners, in-any-thing but favorable terms. After speaking; or his doubtful, vacillating conduct for some time—his watching whether Colonel Whitmore would be defeated at Moturoa. to determine wnether he should join Tito* kowaru; his arrest as a spy for being found prowling about Wereroa, and his subsequent release by Mr Booth r with a pass to enable him to go where ha liked without molestation—Mr Handley Ba j S: —«JE. Tapa organised a party of the Ngarurau to bum the settler's houses and plunder and destroy their property upon the Waitotara block. Where is this E. J'apa now ? Why, Sir, he has been takeu to Wellington by Mr Booth, not as a prisoner to be tried for his crimes, but as a witness to give evidence against his corebels. And where are his men of the S'garurau whom he headed, instigated, and led to destroy the settlers' property upon the Waitotara ? They have surrendered to the up-river Wanganui natives, and sent their chief E. Tapa with Mr Booth to Wellington, at the publio expense, and he will live there and be brought back at the public expense, after doing all lie can to induce the U-overnment to allow himself and his people to return- again to their old haunts upon the Waitotara Block as thev did before, where they would, most likely," live peaceably until they could renew their strength for a fresh outbreak upon the settlers." It does not argue very favorably for the conviction of Tauroa and his gang, that the prosecution is depending upon bucli witnesses as E. Tapa. We refer to this matter to show the Government that the people of the western districts, especially the Waitotara and Patea settlers, dreading the return of those prisoners, are anxiously watching everything connected with their trial, but particularly the deuce, as that can be had if properly looked, after,