THE WANGANUI AFFAIR.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 280, 5 April 1848, Page 4

THE WANGANUI AFFAIR.

The accounts from New Zealand which have been recently published being somewhat confused, have given rise to the impression that the military operations undertaken against the natives have not been successful, and that our relations with them are unsatisfactory. Nothing can well be more untrue. Not only have tie natives been completely repulsed in their attack upon the English settlement by the bravery of a small detachment of British troops, but they have been entirely dispersed by the friendly native tribes. The origin ot the recent disturbances has, in brief, been as follows : — A midshipman of her Majesty's ship Calliope, by accident, shot a native through the head with a pistol. We assume this view of the case to be correct on Governor Grey's authority, as he is not a man likely to falsify facts, and must be well aware of the real history of the calamitous occurrence. The natives, however, would not suffer themselves to be convinced that the injury was inflicted by accident. They either did, or were determined to believe, that their countryman had been deliberately murdered, and swore to take bloody revenge for his death. Now, it so happened, that about five miles' distance from Petre, in the district of Wanganui, a Mr. Gilfillan resided with his family, in a lonely farmhouse. On the evening of the 18th of April Mr. Gilfillan, who had been into town, went to his stock-yard to see that all was right, and whilst he was so engaged observed a party of six natives coming down the hill opposite his house. They approached, and entered into conversation with him. The family were all indoors with the exception of Mr. Gilfillan, who for some time walked up and down in front of his house talking and jesting with the natives. Suddenly he felt a violent blow on the back of his neck, and knew that he was severely wounded. Despite of this, and the number of his opponents, he contrived to make good his way into the house, and barricaded the door. At that moment there were in the house, besides himself, his wife and three children who were subsequently murdered, as well as three others and an infant, who escaped. Into the sickening details of the butchery it would be unnecessary to enter. Let it be sufficient here to say, that Mr. Gilfillan was persuaded by his wife to make his escape through a win-

dow, as they both believed that it was only his life which was aimed at. He did so, and dragged himself, wounded as he was through the garden and the long fern, and so contrived to reach a station where he might raise an alarm. It was, however, too late. The next day, Monday, the 19th, a policeman despatched to the spot found near the house two children of Mr. Gilfillan's, who told him all the rest of the family were killed. Proceeding a little further* he found the bodies of Mrs. Gilfillan and her three children. They were quite dead. Close to the spot the policeman heard the cry of an inlant, and on entering the stockyard he found it, perfectly uninjuted, lying in the lap of a young woman who bad been seriously wounded in the head. No traces of the murderers were to be found but a bloody axe which had been thrown upon the ground. New Zealand, however, is not Ireland. Petre is not Roscommon. It is not easy in such a country to conceal the real actors in a scene of this sort. The friendly natives soon reported that the men who bad been engaged in this act of atrocity were publicly boasting of their share in the deed. It was found a task of np great difficulty to procure their arrest, and they-were soon safely handed over to the custody of the soldiery. The firmness and decision of Captain Laye, of the 58th regiment, who was then commanding at Wanganui, seem to have been above all praise. lie directed an inquest to sit on the' bodies of the victims, and the jury, mainly upon the evidence of Mr. Gilfillan, who identified the prisoners, brought iv a verdict of "Wilful Murder" against them. They were immediately tried by a Court-Martial, as martial law had been previously proclaimed throughout the district, and four of them were sentenced to death. The finding was, without hesitation, confirmed by Captain Laye, and on Monday, the 24th of April, the murderers were publicly executed. It is impossible to speak too highly of the judgment and determination evinced by Captain Laye in the situation in which he was placed. This single act of vigour will, in all probability, be found to have effectually quieted the barbarous natives, and to have convinced them that the blood of the white men cannot be shed with impunity. It was, however, the immediate cause of a demonstration on the part oi the tribes connected with the culprits who had been sentenced to so ignomini: us a death. An attack took place on the station of which Captain Laye was in command, but the hostile natives were repulsed on every point, and when Captain Grey arrived at the post of dagger, it only depended upon him to have given the order that would have consigned them all to death at tlu bands of their own countrymen. He acted, however, with greater humanity and sounder judgment. Having defeated them in a skirmish in which they lost twenty men, he deemed that the lesson inflicted upon them had already been severe enough, and allowed them to retire with no further molestation into their woods to reflect at leisure on the nature of the power they had set at tempoiary defiance. Captain Grey's despatch gives, if it be possible, even a more satisfactory account of the causes which led him to assent to the liberation of Te Rauparaha. It was represented to the Governor that he was so completely degraded by his captivity in the eyes of his countrymen, that for future he could inspire no further dread ; that if he were longer detained in custody, the natives would believe that he had been secretly murdered by the British, who were afraid publicly to acknowledge the deed ; and that some of the chiefs who had been most noted for their fidelity to the British were ready to be guarantees for his good and orderly behaviour. Upon such representations, and at such intercession, he was handed over to the guardianship of an old ally, and is living peaceably in a district assigned to him as the limit of his liberty in the northern part of the island. Such is a brief outline of the substance of the despatches received by the Castor from New Zealand. So far from that colony being in a disturbed condition, or the last engagement with the natives having been one of doubtful success to the British arms, it would appear that nothing has been wanting to the vindication of justice, law, and good order. Unless in the opinion of those who prefer extermination to every other means of colonization, we see nothing m the recent occurrences that can form the subject of a moment's regret. — Times,