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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5158, 3 October 1877, Page 2

The recent native scare at Wanganui, by which families of settlers have been driven from their homes, has excited much uneasiness in the public mind regarding the possible results of the continued operations of the Hawke’s Bay Repudiation Party and their pakoha allies in the different parts of this island. Native discontent is, as we havesaid, avery dangerous weapon to use in political party warfare, because the ultimate results are not always under the control of those who foment it for their own ends. In the case before us we see how innocent persons have bean made to suffer ; how the peace of a district has been disturbed, and how the confidence of the world out-of-doors may be shaken as to the security of life and property in one of the most prosperous and thriving districts in this colony. The man Takairangi who created this disturbance was, as we have said, loafing about the lobbies of the House of Representatives for weeks past, with the other hangers-on of the “ Wananga,” and we are informed did, on an affectionate leave taking within the precincts, and with his arm round the neck of a certain legal gentleman, announce that he was going back to Wanganui to try whether he was strong enough to drive the Europeans into the sea. He blundered, and it suits the party now to repudiate him ; but he was only endeavoring in his own way to bettor the instructions which he had received. We may hope now, with this example before us of the danger of the new mode of obtaining justice, that the operations of the propaganda may be confined to the Waipawa and Te Aute Districts ; lest if there should be more instances of women and children being driven from their homes in terror on the Sabbath day a sharp and summary method may be resorted to for the putting a stop to the nuisance. The following report by the police officer in charge at Wanganui has been placed at our disposal for publication “ I have the honor to report for your information that about noon on yesterday amounted messenger arrived from Captain, or Commodore Montgomery’s, near Kennedy’s Ferry, bringing the news that Tamati Takairangi and fifteen other Kaiwaiki natives came to the place early in the forenoon, ordering them to clear out with their stock and everything belonging to them ; that they were going round to the different settlers in the neighborhood, giving them similar orders, as an armed party of two hundred and twenty was following up to enforce the order. On subsequent inquiry I ascertained that the seventeen natives were principally women and children, and that the armed party only existed in the excited imagination of the messenger. Commodore Montgomery and Mr. T. M. Robinson sent their families to town. From what I can ascertain on inquiry I understand Takairangi is acting under legal advice in order that he may bring his case into the Supreme Court, but'has no intention of committing any breach of the peace.”