WAIKATO.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5335, 3 May 1878, Page 3

WAIKATO.

(from our own correspondent.) No sooner was tho Assembly prorogued iu December last than agents of tho Government began to worry the King’s people to fix a time and place to “meet Grey.” It was a long timo before these efforts had any result ; the early telegrams bearing tho names of Tawhiao and Manuhiri were not really genuine, although the Government may have believed that they were'so at the timo. At length the King did consent to “ meet Grey " at Kopua, a large kainga a few miles beyond tho confiscated boundary line. ■ On the 30th January Ministers arrived at Alexandra, and on the Ist of Bcbruary they went up the river in canoes, belonging to the Knpapas of Lower Waikato. I have been assured and believe that no special invitation from tho King was given, ns is usual upon these State occasions, and that the Ministers went up without it. Upon reaching the landing-place they were greeted with the cry of “ haeri mai,” repeated two or three times by two women ; the crowd were forbidden even to approach the river bank to witness the arrival. Having left the canoes the party were taken to tho marquee, where the people, to the number of seven or eight hundred Waikatos, and a few Maniapotos, were assembled. Tawhiao then stood up, and for nearly an hour gazed silently at his own people, throwing an occasional side look at Sir George Grey. He then said a few formal words of welcome. He was succeeded by Tapihaua ; this is the man whom Sir George Grey iu 1876 threatened with arrest for a murder committed in 1863. Tapihaua said a few formal words, after which Te Ngakau made a brief speech, aud tho day's business ended.

In the evening Sir George Grey sent for Manuhiri, who declined to meet him except “ before the people.”' On the 2nd Behruary 1 there was an. open-air meeting, at which Manuhiri, Manga, and other chiefs made very brief speeches. - Manga (Rewi) said: “Do not hide anything; speak your thoughts.” Mauuhiri’s -speech was of one sentence : “ I have waited for seventeen years,—my heart is fluttering,” meaning that he had been waiting for Sir George Grey to restore to him the confiscated lands which ho had taken away. What may take place at private meetings on such occasions is not thought to bo of any consequence by the people, and Mauuhiri’s speech was looked on as the only important one of the day. On the 3rd (Sunday) the Ministers returned to Alexandra. ...

Mr., G. M.- Reed, the editor of an Otago paper, formed one of the Ministerial party, having come with them in the Hiuemoa from the South ; Messrs. l Berry and Montrose, reporters for Auckland papers, were at first refused permission to accompany Ministers, but at the last moment they were allowed to go, upon their agreeing to accept the Government account of the proceedings. Some of; the frontier settlers who had been invited by' Rewi were by Sir George Grey’s orders turned back, on ' the plea that “ the natives did not wish any but Kawana Kerei aud his friends to be present,” and yet several of the resident Europeans went uninvited, and were not in any way interfered with by the natives. Winiata (the murderer of Packer), Te Kooti, Nuku (concerned in Todd’s murder), Purukutu (with the rest of the Sullivan murderers), were on the ground the whole time, and all took au active part iu the food processions, &c. Winiata father avoided the pakehas, but the others were interviewed by the reporters, not at Otorohanga, fifteen miles distant, as an Auckland paper, the Star, puts it, but within one hundred yards of Sir George Grey’s tent at Kopua. The “special ”of that journal was peacefully snoring and dreaming in the Alexandra Hotel at the time when he supposed aud reported that he was drinking rum with Te Kooti and Purukutu twenty miles away in the heart of the Hauhau country.

It is said that this was only a “ preliminary meeting,” and that the meeting for business will take place in March. Certainly nothing was gained by us oa that occasion. The natives will distinguish it from former gathering as the “hui ” where the Government supplied so many tons of flour, rioo, aud sugar, aud where the band of murderers were seen cheek by jowl with Ministers and other honorable gentlemen. Heoiano for the present, moreauon.