NATIVE MEETING AT WAITARA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5401, 19 July 1878, Page 7

NATIVE MEETING AT WAITARA.

(FROM OUR WAIKATO CORRESPONDENT.) Hamilton, June 21. I have been very busy lately, and have not been in a writing mood ; but I have .two or three trifles that I want to chat about. I suppose that the Waitara meeting i«in full swing by this time ! The Ministerial Press have been directed to make a great fuss about this meeting, and appear to attach an importance to it for which they have really no warrant. Ido not think that it will be found to have any bearing at all on the question between Tawhiao. and the Governmant. It is ■ very significant that Tawhiao does not attach any importance to it, as he is not represented at Waitara. The only Waikato of any note who has gone from these parts is Te Aroha, a disciple of Te Whiti, and the head of a small clique who call themselves “The Twelve/'* Ngatimaniapoto are 4}ot at all pleased with Rewi’s action. They say that ho has, lost his head, and may lose his influence with the tribe, which is being frittered away at those illattended meetings, called for no definite purpose. Rewi’s motive for going to Waitara is, I believe, to test a prophecy of Te Whiti, ‘ that “if the principal parties to the Taranaki war could be got together at that Aceldama (Waitara). the Angel Gabriel would appear and restore to life all who had been slain daring the war ” —and, X suppose, relegate everything to the status quo ante helium. Rewi, anxious . to give Te Whiti a fair chance for hia prophecy, invited him to come to Waitara and meet Wi Tako, Mateno te Whiwhi, Wicemu Kingi, and Sir George Grey, all of whom are admitted to have had a good .deal to do. with Taranaki troubles. The newspapers report that Te Whiti will not attend for fear of embarrassing Rewi’a negotiations with the Premier. If - Ha absence should baulk the working of the miracle, it will, to say the least, be very unfair to those interested in the early resurrection ! The Waitara meeting will be another failure, and the Government will have to provide a third meeting before they can meet Parliament with the assurance that they have settled the Native difficulty. Tawhiao will not give a decided reply to the now famous Grey proposals until next summer. He is not the man to show his hand, and people are , not quite certain what the ' answer will be, but the general impression among those who are in the best position to form an opinion is that he will reject the -cash offerj because the amount offered is not worth quarrelling about, and he knows that there would be a great amount of squabbling over the division of that portion of the spjil ; but hewillaccept all the land he can got ip the spirit in which it was offered,—that is, unconditionally. He would still retain his hold of what we call the King country, for fear that his itutna would suffer if he gave that up. Those who • think that Tawhiao will accept conditions likely to trench, upon his dignity are much mistaken. He is a far more important personage now than heaver was before ; he did not appear at all fluttered when at a “banquet” given to him at Raglan the other day the servile*** chair” proposed “ Long Life and Happiness to his Majesty King Tawhiao.” There is some misunderstanding about the offer of land on the left bank of the Waipa River. The Maoris understand it to mean all the Crown land from the confiscated line down to Waikato Heads ; the published accounts bear them out, and there has been great indignation in con- - sequence amongst the settlers on that side of the river. To allay this it has been officially announced that Sir George Grey did not offer any land “ above KarakarikL” If this bo correct, why did ' Manuhiri send Te Tuhi, Tawhiao’s brother-in-law and chief adviser, to stop the work, and to tell the friendly natives employed on the Raglan road that all that country was under offer to Tawhiao/and that all .questions about roads must be referred to him until the negotiations with the Government were closed. An attempt has been made to -show that Tawhiao had nothing to do with the stoppage of this road work ; but the Maoris take another view of it. The road in is six or seven miles above Karakakiri, Retrenchment has not yet found its way, to Waikato ; on the contrary, a second ** Native Office ” has been created at Alexandra, the Maori Major being the chief. He has been permitted to add to his permanent staff a half-caste gentleman, who writes himself “ secretary and interpreter to Major Te Wheoro,” and the Major himself has received, what he prizes greatly, an additional £IOO a year to his own “ screw,” which is now £SOO. General Cameron would be amazed at the promotion of his old acquaintance. _

Hr. Cox having resigned bis seat in Parliament, Waipa is the arena of a contested election. The constituency appear determined to have a man of their own, and not a dam™? "’ho ■will dance when his master pipes. Mr. B. A. Whitaker is thepopular candidate. Mr. McMinu, who contested the seat with Mr. Cox, opposes him ; but although he is running on the Grey ticket, his friends are not confident. The “head centre” has telegraphed that ample supplies of the needful will bt forthcoming. The Grey clique at Te Awainutu who got up the banquet to Ministers known as “ the raw turkey feed” tried to bring out the Hon. Mr. Sheehan, and there was a long telegraphic correspondence with the chief about it, ending with the conclusion that a personal canvas would be necessary to secure success. Correspondence was in code G, T., of course ; a grateful country pays always.

(FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) New Plymouth, June 27.

My experiences in New Zealand during nearly a quarter of a century have been tolerably varied, but anything more utterly dreary than the last week spent here I find it impossible' to conceive. Neither New Plymouth nor Waitara - at the beat of times are particularly lively spots, bat seen under the influence of a pouring ra’n and a howling wind continuing almost without intermission day after day for nearly a fortnight, the effect can be better imagined than, described. At such a time, too, One feels completely isolated and out off from the rest of the world. Blooded rivers prevent communication by land, and.a raging surf is an impassible barrier to landing or leaving by sea. Indeed, I know of only one person more deserving of compassion than your correspondent under such circumstances as these. He was a bridegroom expectant, who should have been landed last Sunday for his wedding here, but whom a cruel fate and the steamer.Taiaroa kept tearing about for a day and a night within bowshot of his bride, and then carried him on sick at heart —and otherwise —to Auckland instead.

Every day for the last week we have gone on in one unvaried and monotonous round. We crowd in the early morning with, a host of co-correspondents and expectant pleasure seekers into the train for Waitara, and travel, as slowly as steam can take us, to the «!ine of the native gathering. Arrived there we plod through the mud to a miserable public house, its close rooms filled with a noisy, dirty, wet, smoking cro.wd of natives of all ages, sixes, and sexes, with their attendant pakehas, and with a place called a billiard room, crammed with young Maori lads swearing and drinking and playing agame called “devil’s pool,” a name singularly appropriate to its surroundings. The only refuge from this misery is under the friendly shade of an umbrella outside in the pouring rain, or it may be varied by climbing up a slippery hill to the pa close by, where, reclining on a mat in a miserable whare, lies the notable Kewi—lord of an estate of far greater extent and larger value than many an EngHsh earl* dom—a man who holds in his hands just now the fate and fortunes of several thousand men, Eewi is a small man, but there is great power in his face,- which has a very pleasant but thoughtful expression. He receives his many visitors with extreme courtesy and as much dignity as his surroundings will allow ; but the oharm of thefirst impressions gives place to pity when, as at the time I saw him, his little and only daughter, shoeless, unkempt, clothed in a. dirty roundabout of calico, amuses herself and her father as well with a sixpenny squeaking toy, and partakes with him, in common with the other occupants of the warn, of a pannikin of tea, so called, and some loaves of bread tipped out from a sack upon the earthen floor. What a miserable farce the whole thing seems that Ministers of the British Crown are kept hanging about for weeks waiting in a state of anxious expectancy for an expression of this man’s thoughts, and that thousands have to be spent in the endeavor to ascertain and publish to the world what he may be pleased to say or do. However, we manage to kill an hour with this visit, and gain food for reflection through many an hour more, which is a great thing just now. Having paid this visit, wo anxiously ■'inquire the news, whether there is any chance . of the meeting coming off, and finding there is not, we visit the extraordinary building which the' Government has . erected for tbo Maori visitors to lean-to,'close boarded on all sides, without any other nie.ans of admitting light into the several , compartments than the doors, when open, afford. It surrounds three sides of a largo open square close by the railway station, and ■ resembles a large cattle shed, except that

it is much less comfortable than decent cattle sheds usually are. The Maoris evidently do not appreciate the kindness of the Government, for they prefer the old warris at the pa, or the house with the drink and tobacco and the “ devil’s pool.” There being nothing more to see we get through the remaining hours as best-wa can, and are most thankful to return to New Plymouth by the train at half-past three. This programme, less the visit to Rewi and the inspection of the cattle-shed, has had to be repeated every day until to-day, when the usual routine was broken by the arrival of some forty-nine bullock and. horse teams from Paviaka—Te Whiti’s pa, near Mt. Egmont—laden with pigs and potatoes, a contribution to the feast which is the usual accompaniment of meetings like those. The arrival of these drays was certainly a most interesting sight. They' came winding down the hill to the Waitara Valley in pro- i cession, with a motley collection of drivers, whose bullock-whip* kept uj> a running fire as of small arms in the distance. The leading dray bore, as a banner, a gunny mat on a long ragged pole, suggestive of bags of sugar, I suppose, and a very fussy Maori, with a small red flag, rode up and down to preserve the order of the march, As the procession neared the town all the Maoris, men, women, and children, turned out, and with waving boughs and hats and shawls, and stamping of feet and shrill cries of welcome, saluted the convoy. It seldom falls to anyone’s lot to listen such an unearthly din. To the cries and chaunts from the human throats, and the violent and regular stamping* of many hundred human feet, were added the squealing of 100 pigs, as they came bumping along in the advancing drays, and the forty-nine whips of the drivers were cracked with an energy with which, I venture to say, the forty-nine whips had never been cracked before.

. As soon as the drays had drawn up in treble line within the cattle-shed square, the.“rangatiras,” both pakeha and Maori, retired to the empty store in which the meeting was to be held, and when Sir George Grey and the principal men of both races had taken possession of the dozen chairs, and the rest of the assemblage, male and female, had settled themselves comfortably in the-straw—the cattle-shed idea evidently running through the whole of the preparations,—the long expected korero began, as follows ;

Rewi :T rejoice over you. Sir George Grey, because we have come to meet at this place, and to see each other at this particular spot. Your haud is on my head, aud mine is on yours, and this is-why we have met each other here. It is good for the tribes to see us together, so that we may utter what we have to say in this very place, Waitara. Sir Geoeoe Grey : Rewi, you asked me to meet you to talk things over together here at Waitara,'where the war began, and X am here in compliance with that invitation. Since that war began here everything has changed, and what we have to consider is the future and not the past. The question now is not whether you will be governed by other persons, but whether you will govern yourselves. We are all on an equal footing, uniting to choose the people who make laws for us. Maoris sit in Parliament, an t are made Ministers to carry out the laws. We now make one nation. Nothing prevents natives patting more natives into Parliament. Nothing prevents Rewi or other leading chiefs taking seats in the Upper House or becoming Ministers. Titles to land are decided by Courts, not bf fighting ; and the Government intends proposing alterations in the law,- by which more native judges will be appointed for the courts. Every day, in ■fact, we are becoming more and more one people. Even looking back on the war, there are some things we may all be proud of—great courage shown on both sides ; great bravery ; great generosity. The days are now come when we are one people, inhabiting one island, not destroying'one another, but rather uniting to destroy a common enemy. Truly in all ways we are one people now. Mr. Sheehan here is a native of New Zealand—born here, attached to the country, intending to live here. Mr. Grace, too, who is interpreting, is Hew Zealand born, and both of them are proud of their country as any native. A whole generation has grown np, and so we are one people, and cannot help living together,.and cannot separate. -I had even designed, had war broken out in Europe, to form a regiment here—English and Maori—and I thought the natives migh'furnish great officers and brave men., We have met here to discuss this state of things, to make the natives wealthy and prosperous, to secure their laud to them', and to make it profitable. We are here because it is our duty to build up our joint nation into greatness. Intermarriages are taking place daily;’there is hardly one great chief. who is •not closely related to Europeans. Let us, therefore, try well and faithfully to do th : s work. We Ministers, native and European, will help. Let great chiefs come forward, join in the government, become Ministers, and make and administer the laws.

Rewi : Your words are very clear. It is right for us to work together. You have come here this day to seek out means to minister to the ailments of me, who caused trouble on this island. Therefore my heart is truly glad, and because .Karaitiana, We Tako, Matene, and other great chiefs are here. It is right that you should lay down subjects for us to discuss to-morrow at our meeting. lam going to ask you a question. At which place shall we commence the work of good ? My opinion is the place should be Waitara, and that one tree should be planted here from which good should come. Let us plant that tree here, and should it flourish we can plant cuttings elsewhere. If it is not planted here, the young trees planted elsewhere will not succeed. This is the subject for us to-morrow, when I will speak at large and plainly. Let us speak together without reserve; secondly, let what we say bo genuine; thirdly, let the plan be final. This is all I have to say to you to-day. I wish to speak to my friends ; to-morrow I will again speak to you. Sir G. Grey: I will meet you to-morrow. I believe you and I are able to plant a tree, the suckers of which will grow and flourish elsewhere. We have able men to assist us. I agree with you what we have to say should be fearlessly said—gently, but without fearing to give offence to any one. I believe, by adopting that course, we may come to a satisfactory conclusion. I understand you wish to speak to your people; we will, therefore, go or remain, as you please. Rewi: If you do not stop, who will beams? ■Rewi then addressed Matene te Whiwi, Wi Tako, Wi Parata, Karaitiana, and Mete King! separately, expressing his pleasure at meeting them, blaming himself as having been the cause of the war, and expressing a hope that the meeting might have a satisfactory issue.

BY TELEGRAPH. (per press agency.) Waitara, Juno 28.

The meeting was continued at 3 p.m. today, notwithstanding a report that it had been further postponed. Sir Georoe Grey asked Rewi if he was willing that the meeting should- now take place, Rewi replied : This is what we have met for : You wish to know my sentiments, and I am here before you. Sir George Grey : When Tawhiao sent to me to meet him at Hikurangi I went, and he is now considering the matter over. Rewi : I am aware you were there, aud I am now willing to speak to you. Sir George Grey : I am a friend to you, Rewi, and to all of you. Reivi : I am here to listen to you ; I am the man of evil, and this is the cause of my coming here ; and I would like you and Te Ira to speak first. Sir George Grey : Let us have a fair understanding of what you mean. Rewi : My word is to return Waitara to me. . . Sir George Grey : Have you anything else to say, so that wo may discuss matters 1 Rewi : This is all my speech, and if wo can come to any conclusion, railway, roads, and other matters can then be talked over. Sir Q. Grey, : I do not understand your words ; it is getting dark ;, we will meet tomorrow. _ Rewi : Very well, but I will not sanction your leaving Waitara till this is finished. June Mo* '

The meeting was continued at noon to-day Rewi said in order to give everything a fair understanding, and to mako things clear, ho would speak nothing hut the truth ; I want Waitara. This is my word, and this is why X told you to meet me here.” , Sir G. Grey : I give you a fair understanding. Waitara is in our hands. Rewi :X am ageeeablo to your words. Both our bands are now taken off our heads, and my question is answered. Natives and Europeans of Waitara,—Be not afraid ; stay quiet. Sir George Grey and myself are hero, and I will not go away till this question is settled. At the conclusion of the meeting, Rewi said : To-diiy our bodies have been joined together; but our laws have yet to bo mode. I . . i " 2.30 pirn.

A tremendous squall has just passed over Waitara, lifting one section of wooden buildings, 300ffc. long, clean off the ground. The

buildings are completely levelled, and parks of them are burning from the fires lighted inside. A great number of Maoris were inside at the time, but no one was hurt. The weather is frightfully squally at present, and there is no appearance of it abating. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT). New Plymouth, Jane 28.

The first part of to-day was devoted by the Maoris to speeches of welcome to each other, and feasting. In the afternoon talking was resumed between Sir George Grey and Rewi, when the latter demanded to have Waitara restored. The talking will be resumed tomorrow.

July 1. At the meeting on Saturday Rewi repeated the demand for the return of Waitara.

Sir G. Grey replied: Waitara is givea up to us two. Tliis is the opening where our hands should be and contention cease.

Rewi replied, addressing the natives ; Sir G. Grey has given the Waitara to us two. We two have this, land in our hands, and we two have now to talk over Waitara. Sir G. Grey formerly held Waitara. Now Sir George and I hold it. I have a law as Sir G. Grey has, and we are going to work this out. He and I shall remain at Waitara for some time, I shall not return North.

Roth Europeans and Natives - are much puzzled to know what all this means, and the effect of the supposed surrender of.Waitara, following the concession to Tawhiao of confiscated laud at Waikato, will probably have a bad effect on the settlement of the Waimate Plains question j as larger concessions will be demanded, and it is expected that heretofore Sir George Grey completely ignored the Native Minister. I omitted to inform you that on Friday Rewi, in reply to Sir George Grey, distinctly reminded him that he had invited himself to this meeting. The Government has promised to give a subsidy to a new steamer to ply between New Plymouth, Mokau, and Tawhia. Yesterday afternoon a large part of the shed erected for the natives was blown down, and a woman and child were slightly injured. Monday is a public holiday, and a great feed will be given by Europeans to both races at Waitara.