PERILOUS POSITION OF TAURANGA.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 16, 22 April 1867, Page 93

PERILOUS POSITION OF TAURANGA.

(From the Tauranga Argus, April fl.)

By' the time these lines appear in priht. iP all -probability the I2th Kegiitfeht Will have lisit us for good. Their ,lively bugle calls will no longer echo through the deserted camp announcing- the dawn of day, and the approach of morning. The first and last posts will dot be .sounded by fife and drum, we shall, be enlivened. no more by the martial strains of the military band, many pleasant memories, and some sincere friendships, will have terminated with the departure of this fiue regiment. But the matter has a serious as well as a sentimental aspect. In their departure we shall have lost nearly a third of bur small commu nity. ,It i 3 not too much to say that by their departure we shall have lost au expenditure of <£20,000 a year. Some people will say that this is the gobsb that laid the golden eggs. Perhaps it is. How do we now. stand? Our industries are not. progressing, and cannot progress till the Maori (question is settled. Of course we expect the numerous substantial buildings rapidly being erected for speculative purposes, and which will be completed by the time the trade for which they were intended has ceased to be. Settlers will not remain on their land. One has been fired at, and others have removed their families from farms which they consider no logger safe. Beport says that the Hauhaus are still mustering, and are receiving accessions from several tribes hitherto passive. The Ngatimaru tribe and Kennedy’s Bay natives are said to be packing up to join our foes. It has been asserted in print that all the Ngatirangis—amongst whom we may be said to live—are not loyal, that they are supplying the Hauhaus with provisions, and, though fighting in our ranks, are firing “ blank cartridges.” What do they do with the bullets ? Do they sell them to the Hauhaus ? Amongst our faithful allies, the Arawas, it is alleged that Kia Wi Maihi, a powerful chief, is disaffected, and informs the Hauhaus of all our movements, and that this is the reason why. they manage so, well to keep out of sight that we can scarcely believe they are near us. Yet many Maoris, whom we can believe, positively assert that they are in force in bur neighborhood. Our army for defence consists of about 50 Waikato meh on pay, and certainly not more than 130 able-bodied civilians and militia off pay, all told. Aggressive expeditions are out. of the question. The ’ Maoris 'have long ago said that the last' great fight for supremacy would be ih Tauranga. They were to drive the Pakehas into the sea, and the withdrawal of the Imperial troops was to be their opportunity.' “ The hour has'come, 1 and the men.” It is not reasonable to suppose* that they will dislodge and destroy 180 resolute Englishmen who are fighting for their hearths and homes and worldly goods. But this is what they can do. They can come in’ the dead of night and set fire to one or two of.our great wooden buildings, which will burn like matches! The l undisciplined civilians will start in ' alarm from their slumbers, and crowd tqgether iu one of the redoubt's, while the exulting savages will plunder the stores.

With this prospect we cannot expect that trade can proceed. Every man will be wanted, and all together will not be enough to guard the scattered township:, approached as it is from’ so‘ many points. The waters of Tipuna, the Wairoa,' the ford opposite the Archdeacon’s point, that at Judea, even Tauranga harbor, communicating as it does with Hairini and Waimapu, are highways by which swarms of natives could approach our poor little town. Without heavy guns or a very numerous force we- could; not prevent canoes ffbm landing on the Te Papa boach^ 1 .which' is something; like, two miles lopg. r And, that , force we have not. ilt miy' be said, .why try to alaifin ~ tHe' ' pbpulitionV* apff stf drivb

that it is better to anticipate the worst than to be surprised by unlooked-for disaster. And the cpnclusions of those who.know what Maories are, and what warfare is, are of a serious kind. ..In ignorance of what the Government in : tend-doing, it may safely be said that they must, not, and canno.t abandon Tauranga to its own miserably inadequate means of defence. .There, are hundreds of unemployed .men in Auckland,' many pf them would jump, at the offer of militia pay and rations,,!and \yith them a force sufficiently numeraus. could be formed, not, oply,to .intimidate the. rebels, but also to ..quell the rebellion, and restore.peace to. this disturbed district. Unless the Government raise such a corps, the . costly surveys of land will go for nothing ; valuable property, will, be abandoned or destroyed, and the splendid harbor, and surrounding country, offering as it does so many advantages for an important and .^prosperous: settlement, might relapse into the . comparative solitude in which Captain Cook found the Bay of Plenty (to which he gave name), navigated only by canoes of dusky inhabitants pf a semi-barbarous land. This, of course, ,is. an impossible view of the case. We have come here to colonise, expended treasure and many precious .lives to keep a footing in this place,, and we cannot recede* To parody the metaphorical phrases of two generations ago—the shades of departed heroes, whose remains peacefully repose iu tiie ceme tery of Te Papa, would frown with indignation on an event which proved that they had died in vain. This is now historic ground. Almost within sight from our doors are Pukehinahina and Tirangi, where gallant men fought and fell. Opotiki and Whakatane, the scenes of Volkner and Fulloon’& atrocious murders, are not. remote, and it would be a poor finish to the story if it should be written hereafter that “ Tauranga was held for some time at great expense and with no small loss of life by the aid of Imperial troops, which were at last withdrawn, and the settlers, being unable to defend it from attacks of hostile natives, abandoned it in despair.”