NATIVE INTELLIGENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 985, 16 June 1879, Page 2

NATIVE INTELLIGENCE.

Ha wee a, June 14 The excitement at Normanby is intense. The place is being fortified, as the bush offers splendid cover for an enemy's attack. Business and occupations are being neglected, and everybody is appearing busy with erecting a blockhouse. However, it is just likely the Maoris will be careful about committing depredations, The . blockhouse will be well manned day and pight by the local defence force. This means heavy work for the settlers there, and especially if Government keep's the district long in suspense. Normanby would show more discretion if not so excited. The settlers with arms and well organised can defy the Maoris if necessary. At a few hours' notice we can transpose several wellsituated houses ,in various part's "of the town into blockhouses, as arranged by Major Noakes, by digging trenches, raising breastworks, &c. Business, although dull, has never been suspended in Hawera. Things go.on in their usual course. Our drills are mostly at .night time. A few of the most exposed settlers have wisely arranged for their families to sleep in town until things ape move BEttled. Beyond this we are put to no inconvenience. We want to see the surveyors on the as aii earnest of the Government pushing the settlement of the question. New Plymouth, June 16.

The Carlyle correspondent of the Taranaki Heralcl wired yesterday that Katere, a loyal chief on the Plains, had sent a letter to Major Brown, stating that the Ngataterana chiefs will not allow fighting at Kitemere on the Plains, and that the war will be at Parihaba, under To Wliiti and "Whakabiho, if at all. Katere says the Government shoulcj. erect a fort on the Plains, and fetch Hiroki and Te "VVhiti away from Parikaka. , The chief Tauroa was in Carlyle yesterday, and said the man Read, who was reported to have been turned back by the natives, must have misunderstood his meaning. He merely told him that the men get drowned if they attempted to cross the river till the flood tide, and he advised them to stay till the tide turned.