ROPATA’S EXPEDITION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 14, 29 April 1871, Page 2

ROPATA’S EXPEDITION.

[Hawke’s Bay Heraed, April 18.]

Our readers will remember that our advices in reference to the expedition last published, brought us down to the point at which Captain Porter left for Poverty Bay. At this juncture, also, three search parties had started in different directions, with the aim of coming upon Te Kooti’s tracks. The rain had already begun when Capt. Porter left. The direction, however, which he took brought him out of it, whereas the route taken by the search party brought them into a part of the country where it was coming down in torrents. After they had been out a few hours the whole country was under water, and they found themselves completely jammed up by the floods in the river, and unable to move either in one direction or another. One only of the search parties—that, namely, bound for Te Haupapa, reached its destination.

On reaching Te Haupapa, tracks were discovered and followed up. Two individuals were caught in the bush ; no information, however, beyond what had been already obtained from the others,' could be got from them. They had been searching for Te Kooti during several days previous, in the various bush gullies in the neighbourhood, where they thought # he might be in hiding (the Jcaingas w T ere all, of course, destroyed), but had seen nothing of him, and could give no information at all as to his whereabouts

Ropata waited for seven days longer, in the hope that the rain would cease. As, however, it continued, and as his men were almost starving--having nothing but fernroot to eat —he at last determined to come out, and arrived accordingly in Poverty Bay on Saturday last.

Their hard fare and continual soaking had told upon the men terribly. Kopata himself was one mass of boils, and few if any, of his men were much better. His legs, from the knees downwards, were so thickly covered with sores, that one could scarcely have put his finger on a spot which was free from them. That they managed to march through the underwood in the bush at all, is of itself a marvel. If they had stayed much longer in the interior, and the virulence of the eruptions had increased, it is hard to say what the result would have

been. If marching through the bush had been altogether impossible, as it was very nearly so, we 'imagine the only other alternative would have been to lie and rot at Te Haupapa. Ropata believes that Te Kooti is still hiding somewhere in the neighborhood, but, of course, under the circumstances, he could noi have continued the search any longer. From the prisoners, who were, taken at Andrew Matete’s pa and the other settlements, Ropata learned that the greater portion of those vsfho escaped, when they themselves were taken, were Urewera. and that these Urewera went off in a body to join their own tribe, who have now, for sometime past, submitted. By doing so they have also deserted Te Kooti, and have, virtually, surrendered. Te Kooti’s party is now believed to consist of nine men, besides himself and five women. Oriwia (Olivia) the sole remaining and best beloved of his wives, is beginning to be tired of playing the rover’s bride, and would, apparently, be gladly con,tent with a less heroic mate, if the change were accompanied with a greater immunity from hardships and privations. Te Kooti is aware of her fickle and ignoble desire, and, whenever his party have to go through a piece of bush, he takes care to keep hold of her dress all the time.

Among those who are now with T® Kooti, there is not one of the old Chatham Island prisoners. They have all either been killed or captured, or else they are with one or other of the friendly tribes. The people who are with him now belong, for the most part, to his own original set at Poverty Bay. One or two of them are natives from the Upper Wairoa. Ropata and his men are at present at Gisborne, and are being paid for their services. They will be brought back in a few days to their own settlements, by the s.s. Napier. The expense of the expedition has been very small indeed. The men have received pay at the rate of 3s per day. They received a small quantity of rations, during the few days in which they were near the coast. These rations would not amount altogether to more than about two in a month, Indeed one of the greatest benefits of the expedition has been that the invaders have eaten every morsel of food to be found in the enemy’s country. For the few days before they left, a piece of bread, the size of a marble would have caused quite a scramble. Ropata himself is said to have observed that Te' Kooti would hardly get fat on what was loft there.

The above contains all the news with regard to the expedition that we have as yet. There is one incident, however, connected with it which we have not recorded. When the expedition left Maungapowhatu, on their march to Wairoa, they heard of a member of their own tribe —a Ngatiporou-—who was living by himself with his wife at a place not very far from Maungapowhatu, hut some distance off the road. They sent a messenger from Maungapowhatu to tell him to stay where he was, that they would not hurt him, and that they would bring him home with them. On that occasion, however, he was not to be found, though his whare and plantation were discovered. They have now heard from the prisoners taken that Kereopa was living with him, and would certainly have been captured, if they had not sent on the messenger to convey their expression of good will to their apostate countryman, his entertainer.