NEW PLYMOUTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 552, 17 February 1858, Page 5

NEW PLYMOUTH.

(From the Taranaki Herald, Jan. 23.) The native embroilments have assumed a new phase. Katatore's \ party have in turn become vengeance seekers and during the week have taken forcible possession of Rawiri's reserve in the Bell district as a post of assault, and tabooed the road against Ihaia and his party. Shots at long ranges are exchanged almost daily, a sufficient indication that the natives have again entered into open hostilities, the side they espouse depending upon the view each take of the bloody business detailed in last Saturday's Herald.'

Most of our readers are, we believe, acquainted with the position of the land known as the late Rawiri's reserve, and called by the natives Hawetaone (to indicate that it is midway between the town and the Wa-itara). The reserve formed part of the waste lands of the Crown, and was given to Rawiri by the Government as an acknowledgment 'fit his long and faithful exertions on behalf of the settlers, and of the principal share he had in procuring for them the Bell district in which the reserve is situated. Eawiri built a wooden house upon this land, and occupied it for some months before he was killed by Katatore, and it has now, ■ strangely enough, been taken possession ofjby the Katatore party, but against the consent of Rawiri's widow. The alarming feature in the proceeding is that the Reserve is within easy gun range of the houses of three or four of the settlers, whose lives will be endangered should a collision occur between the natives thereabouts. That such will be the case is extremely probable as JKatatore's natives have already challenged Ihaia by advancing towards his pa, and he is not the man to allow it to pass unanswered, or to iremain for any time on the defensive elated as he is with past successes. The premises of the settlers have already been in a manner forcibly entered and made use of by the natives to enable them to carry out their murderous projects, and we know, from their own statements, that they will again avail themselves of every cover at hand for carrying on their peculiar tactics. It would therefore be well that the settlers of the Bell district should know to what length the Natives may go,— whether, for instance, entering their houses, and popping at their enemies from the windows or chimney tops, or helping thenselves to their stores (as has already been threatened) is to be quietly endured, or what the owner is to do under the circumstances. Some will be content to ask the intruders to quit, whilst others who are accustomed to look upon their house as their castle may be tempted to expel them by force. The Government would probably advise the applicant to abandon every thing to the enemy for a time and locate himself under the shelter of Marsland Hill, and if he is a little unreasonable about his losses he must at least thank the Government for the suggestion which probably enables him to escape the natives with his life! The question should nevertheless be asked, we repeat, to enable the settler to understand his true position, which we are sorry to think is a very precarious one. Hitherto he has been neutral as regards the natives, and is wiiling to remain so. This the natives perfectly understand. But will the Government help him, or may he help himself to the best of his means if the natives interfere with his neutrality by entering his premises and directing the bullets of their enemies towards them ? It cannot be fully known that the settlers are living on land two or three times purchased from the natives, that they have resided upon it for the last five years, and hold grants from the Crown for their properties.