NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 14, 1845. IMPORTANT INTELLIGENCE FROM THE BAY OF ISLANDS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 36, 14 June 1845, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 14, 1845. IMPORTANT INTELLIGENCE FROM THE BAY OF ISLANDS.

Bt the "Kate, which arrived from Nelson on Wednesday morning, intelligence has been received of the engagement which has taken place at the Bay of Islands, between her Majesty's | forces -and the natives under Heki and Kowaiti. The news was brought to Nelson in a vessel from Kawia, and was published in the Supplement to the Auckland Times ; and through the kiis» ness of his Honor , the Superintendent, we are enabled to lay before our readers a connected and authentic narrative 'of the proceedings, as detailed inthe'log of HJM.S. North Star, which, fortunately, had not proceeded to Chiria. From this account it .will be seen the natives are not an enemy to be despised ; they imtmtaiijed their-ground and fought bravely, and it was found impossible -to. take their pa without artillery, which, by some strange oversight, appears not to have been provided. The troops, seamen, and volunteers, are reported to have behaved with the greatest gallantry on the occasion, and. Sir E. Home bestows great praise on the friendly, natives for the co-operation and assistance received from them by the forces. When Pomare was taken; prisoner, a letter for Te Whero Whero was found concealed in his Bible, inviting him and the other Waikato chiefs to join Heki, and make oommon cause against the Europeans. It is .reported that two soldiers 'of the 96th -were shot for cowardice, in deserting their posts, by the men of the 58th. It is also-reported that Heki's party are assisted by runaway sailors ami other vagabonds who have macle common cause with them; such miscreants, if taken, in the fact, ought to be visited with condign punishment. We sincerely-hope Col.-Despard and tlie detachment of the 99th under his command will arrive in time to take part in the decisive attack on Heki's pa, and that the next arrival from the north may bring us intelligence of their having gained a signal victory over the rebels. Extract from the Log-book of the~North Star. •By authority. Monday, 28th April. — Observed the barque Slams Casrfe*wit-h troops of the 58th regiment, and brigantine Velocity with 96th/ working up for Kororarika. At 1 p. m. North Star shifted her berth lo the entrance to the Waitangi fiver, where the troops, ships, and the Aurora with the volunteers also -came to anchor. At sp. m. landed a guard of 40 men of the .s Bth, and hoisted the union jack on the beach of Kororarika, and read the Proclamation of Martial Law;"which flag was saluted by 'the North Star .with 21 guns; re-embarked the troops. 29th. — Weighed anchor with Slams Castle, Velocity, .Aurora, and Emma, up r the Kawa Kawa river; arrived off Pomare 'spa, within 700 yards, at midnight. Daylight, '30th: —^Observed a nag of truce flyingrfrom the pa, which was answered by hoisting a white flag at the royal mast head; disembarked the whole of the troops. Between 8 and 9 o'clock, Col. Hulme brought Pomare a prisoner on board North Star; two companies of the troops extended beyond the pa, where they remained two hours, and were then called in. At 2 p.m. a proclamation was issued by the commandant of the forces, desiring the natives to lay down their arms within two hours, if not they would be attacked and the pa destroyed, which was accordingly done at 4 o'clock — destroying, also, their canoes ; fired several shells from the ship at armed natives on the surrouricTing bills. The following day at daylight weighed and returned to our anchorage off Pahia — sent a boat for the chief Nene to Moutouroa, who came on board to consult measures for the attack on Heki. Friday, 2d May. — The Hazard having joined us from Auckland, the whole shipping proceeded to our anchorage, between the Favourite shoal and Kent's passage. At daybreak, on the 3d May, commenced disembarking the troops on Ooewara beach, landing the small arms, marines, and a brigade from the North Star and Hazard, in all 108 men. On their landing, they were joined by a number of Toraati Walker and River's party. About 9 commenced the march along the banks of the river Kiri, at dusk halted at a swamp (I believe called Te Waiaro.) Sunday. — Troops marched to Mr. Kemp's place off the. Kiri Kiri, remaining there till Tuesday morning, on account of the unfavourable state .of the weather, when they marched to Tomati Walker's pa, without impediment, through a dense wood, a passage having been previously cut by Walker's party and the pio-

neers of the 58th regiment. Here we ensconced, temporary houses having been erected made of the Nieltau. On Wednesday employed reconnoitering and selecting positions for rockets and attacks on Heki's pa, Ttfhich was found to be very strong.. (The pa was defended by three separate palisadings, and a stone wall with a ditch inside. The palisadings had three tiers of loop holes, and were interwoven with the native flax.) Thursday, Bth. — Shortly after eight o* clock, the whole force moved from the encampment to attack the pa. At nine the rocket party took up their position, and commenced a well directed fire on the pa. The second passed through it; the passage it made being quickly filled up T>y the rebels. .After the fir-ing of the sixth rooket, three parties composed as follows, viz :—: — Small armed men of the North Star and Hazard, Royal Marines and 96th regiment, and light company of the 58th regiment, intending to attack three sides of the pa simultaneously, took -up their positions under a heavy and well directed fire from the pa, and a party of natives under Kowaiti on the brow of a hill, about 150 yards from the pa, defended by a breast work, which ' was, taken, posession of, and served as-a protect ion to the attacking parties, who ha ; d to wait , the firing of the Rodkets before fhe attack could jtake place. A sharp and continual fire was'kept ' up by our party on the pa, which was as sharply Teturned. The attack, as at first intended, was deemed impossible to -be carried into effect without a sacrifice which could not be attended with other than the most serious consequences to so small a force, it being impossible to make any decided impression with small arms, and the LieutenantColonel being under the idea of taking it by assault. About noon one of Nene's party, a fine gallant fellow, discovered Kowaiti's party within "60 yards of our position on the brow of a hill, under cover of some brushwood on elevated ground adjacent, we immediately poured in a volley and charged them. TheTebels in the pa observed this, hoisted the English red ensing ! anda red flag on separate staffs, and a party of about 120 sallied out from the pa^and attacked the small party placed under the breast work to keep up the fire on the pa. Seeing this, the party having put Kowaiti's party to flight, returned to assist those in the breastwork ; Heki's party seeing this, retreated into the pa again. In about an hour Kowaiti again made his appearance in his former position, was again charged, tind routed with great loss, and never made his appearance afterwards. A heavy destructive fire was kept up till 4 o'clock, when the order for joining the main body having been received, and seeing a body of the reserve advancing to cover the retreat, it was done in good order, with only one killed and three wounded. The firing on both sides ceased at five o'clock, 'when the troops and natives returned to Nene's encampment. During the day the whole of Walker's and other friendly tribes were with the main body, ready in the event of Heki's retreating to the woods : being exclusively useful in bringing off our wounded men under a heavy fire within half-musket shot of the pa. We remained at the camp all Friday preparing stretchers for the wounded, and returned to the Keri Keri on Saturday, and on Sunday embarked. Too much praise cannot be given to the natives in every way, by procuring food for the iroops, and assistance in carrying the wounded on our return. The following is a list of the killed and wounded : — SoldierssBth and 9 6th regiments, j J^^. Seamen and Marines, (, ? killed ' . Ll l wounded. The above is extracted from the Supplement to the Auckland Times of the 17th May 1845. It also contains two private accounts of the affair, which give great praise to the troops, seamen, and^olunteers. It appears, from those ' accounts, that the natives had from one to two hundred killed, and that they fought and fired well. Heki's pa is sp strongly fortified that it requires artillery to make any-impression upon*it~

The brig Falco, captain Mosley, from Boston, arrived here on Saturday, having on her way touched at the Cape of Good Hope, and Western and Southern Australia : she has on board as passenger J. B. Williams, Esq., Consul to NewZealand for the United States, to whom we are indebted for files of American and Australian papers. This gentleman, who has previously discharged the duties of this office at the Bay of Islands with credit to himself, and to the satisfaction of his Government, revisits this country with enlarged powers, but in the interval finds a great change has taken place. The American establishment at the Bay of Islands is broken up, Kororarika is reduced to ashes, and open war is raging between the British Government and the natives. Under these circumstances we should imagine Mr. Williams would be free to select his residence in any port of New Zealand, and his intelligence and habits of business would naturally incline him to choose that port where he could be most useful to his countrymen. Nearly all the American vessels frequenting i these seas are whalers; the best fishing-grounds

are onthe east coast of the Southern fsland, within' 200 miles of Cook's Straits. Nearly all the commerce of these islands centres in this port.All the whaling carried on in New Zealand is principally in connection with the mercantile houses established in Wellington, and whaieF& requiring stores or provisions will obtain them here on more reasonable terms than at any other port in New Zealand, and have greater facilities for parting with their oil in payment. All these advantages we have no doubt will weigh powerfully with Mr. Williams in determining his choice ; and should he decide to remain in Wellington, he will find the settlers cordially desirous of cultivating his acquaintance, and of affording him «very facility in their power for discharging the duties of his mission.

Four or five Hobart Town whalers were successfully engaged in fishing near Akaroa, off the east coast of the South Island. This branch of the trade, though the most lucrative, as we attempted to shew in our observations on whaling, we are obliged to forego for want of capital.

sPbom the Sydney papers we extract two articles originally published in the London Morning Chronicle^ in December. Our 1 readers will see that by anticipation they entirely agree with the general line of argument advanced by us on Captain Fitzroy's conduct, but, that we are moderation itself compared to the unmeasured indignation of our Elder Brethren " in the Old Country." Even the similies are, by a curious coincidence, the same, as when last week we took occasion to compare his Excellency to Sancho Panza, but with an apology to the memory of that inimitable original, — a saving clause — shewing how the Disciple of Exeter Hall -copied the weak points and absurdities of the Governor of Barataria, but was immeasurably behind his Prototype in discretion and common sense. — What wUI be said wiien they learn irr England -the history of the flagstaff — and the proceedings of the present session of the Legislative Council, including his Excellency's opening and closing speech ?