The Weekly Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1868. THE POVERTY BAY ATROCITIES.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 99, 23 November 1868, Page 283

The Weekly Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1868. THE POVERTY BAY ATROCITIES.

The news of the horrible massacre committed .by the Haukas at Pover-ty-Bay fell liketheexplosion of a homhshell ih the Town, of "Auckland arrival there of the Lord Ashley, the fearful intelligence was "made known. It was felt that no part ' of the East Coast was safe V ' «r," . ; .. . r, v * s \ ‘V v front the repetition of the events of that 1 So recently* Poverty Bay, and written in bipod for fall time. ; Runi6rs t of ;danffermenacingtliesettlersatGpotiM rife—-the ..friendly natives t aving !been'wa,rned bytherebelsvfco leave the district previous to a

threatened: attack on the settlement; and the extensive ; natnre : of the : re : sources'iand 1 .the ; rapidity of: the movements.of the .Hauhaug were well known, and calculated to; inspire the Auckland public with real alarm./ . Pofctunately, H. M. S. S. Rosario was in port, and prompt measures were taken by Dr.; Pollen, resident minister at Auckland, for the despatch of that vessel, under command of Captain Palmer,, to Turanga, there, to remain for a time to afford a refuge to any families on the coast who may be subject to any fresh attack from the fanatics. The Anried Constabulary also, in the Waikato, were increased to 200 men, and it was hoped that further steps were being taken simultaneously by the General Government at Wellington to afford protection to the threatened districts. - The columns of all our contemporaries teem with' outbursts of indignation at the nature of the barbarities committed by the wretched fanatics, and the parallel between them and those enacted by the Cawnpore rebels during the Indian mutiny presents itself to every mind. It is felt also that unless the career of these wretches be promptly checked, still worse and worse tragedies will be enacted by them, for, as a contemporary observes, “ the mob of infuriated savages seem, like the tiger, to grow mad at- the smell of blood, and their treatment mint eventually be the same as that usually accorded to dangerous wild beasts.”

It is difficult-to compass the extent or the ramification of the work of blood, or how far the whole King party may be invooAjd in it. It forcibly brings back to our memory the remarkable proclamation issued by. the Maori King a few months ago, which indicated October as the month for the natives to riseall over the island, and it is a terrible comment on the words of an Auckland contemporary, who pooh-poohed the affair, and thought another year must have been meant, because, forsooth, some five or six days of that month had passed without showing signs of such contemplated rising. Surely it would have been far more rational to have waited until that month had passed before crying “ peace, peace,” lest the event should prove, as it has unfortunately done, that there was no; peace.

We now most anxiously await news of the course of events on the West Coast, —:the last authentic intelligence being that of the disastrous rout of the Colonial Forces, under Colonel Whitmore, on the 7th hast., and some indication of his being in course of preparation for another attack. It does seem most surprising that in these days of rapid intelligence by electric telegraph we should be without news from the seat of rebellion on the West Coast for a period of nine or ten days. It is much to be feared that the news, when it does come, will be of further disaster. It can hardly be the case that good news would be so long on the way.

[The afioye. article was published in the. Times of Thursday. As we go to press to-day; newsfias arri\ ed via-Auckland that our forebodings were.not unfounded. The. news from the JW’est Coast: is. so..bad , as to. be almost incredible. Weraroa ; ; had been/abandoned in obedience ta v Col'. Hadltain’s orders,' inTtfic; moStignomiiupus 5 ;w^TOidy duf 1 * to be Sturt having been sentvujr" to remove; the small force there. The Hauliaus werein , force at Kaiwhike,' iniies from

Wanganui.. The town was patrolled at night, great alarm?, was felt,land a public: meeting had been field condemning Colonel Haultaifi. . .The Hauhaus were. elated at the success of the murderers at Poverty Bay, and expressed their desire to imitate them.] '