NEW PLYMOUTH.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1 January 1855, Page 7

NEW PLYMOUTH.

Not very long ago the principal native chiefs of this Province presented an Address to Sir George Grey, professing great loyality to the Queen of England, and affectionate regard for the Governor. Amongst other sentiments of honest pride the following important words found a place in the Address :—"Our town New Plymouth has not been defiled by blood." Subsequently a public dinner was given to the chiefs of this place, at which their old and kind friend Mr. McLean attended; and on that interesting occasion, Maori speaker after Maori speaker, assured the respectable assemblage of Europeans, that is was their determination to abandon native usages and adopt the customs of civilized life. They said too, that j all matters of dispute should be submitted to the regularly, constituted authorities of the land. i

""What do the people of Taranaki nieafl, by such assurances as these ? They say one thing and do another; for we learn with heartfelt re- ; gret that they have gone so far in wickedness as to kill one another. Is life of so little value in tbej eyes of the Taranaki Natives, that men, —immortal | and redeemed men—may be shot down any day ! or any hour they please ? If these guilty J persons are not amenable to any earthly tribunal, they certainly are to a heavenly one, where every I man will be judged according as his work be,j "whether it be good or whether it be evil." K these reflections meet the eye of the parties! now engaged in the inhuman pursuit of "shedding! blood/ we trust that they will relinquish theirj Btrife, and return at once to the path of duty. Since writing the above, intelligence of another: outbreak, at Taranaki, has reached us. We copy! the sad account from the "Southern Cross" of the! 26th ultimo. The particulars are as follows : ) "The Nelson brings no mail from New Plymouth. I The following particulars relative to the native, disturbances at that place, we have learnt froroj the passengers per Nelson from New Plymouth.; A new cause of disturbance had arisen there, ini consequence of a letter from a southern flativej having been found addressed to the wife of chief' (Isaiah), belonging to the Waitara district. Tbei chief, suspecting an intrigue between thetfl, ac-i cording to native usage, caused him to he shot. Information of the occurrence was forwarded to! the friends of the deceased, it was surmised by l£av tatorc, the originator of the late disturbances, the account being colored to suit his owu purposes. On receipt of the news, about 200 men belonging to the deceased's tribe came from the south to revenge his death. They proceeded to tbs pah, and demanded that Isaiah should be given Up to them, in order that he might be shot. This was declined by Isaiah's party. A volley was then fired into the pah by the southern natives, which was immediately returned by those inside. The loss to both parties amounted to 13 killed and a number wounded, the deaths being nearly equal on both sides. The assailants then retreated Since then our informants state that another attack had been made, in which the chief Isaiah had been killed. This, however, was ouly a rumour.' 7