NATIVE INTELLIGENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 8 September 1880, Page 2

NATIVE INTELLIGENCE.

(by TELEGRAPH.) Wellington, September 7. The Government have reoeived a telegram from the oamp that 8 men l and 24 boys came down to the road this morning and went through the form of putting up a fence. They were not arrested, but simply sent away. Mr. Bryce is at Hawera now, and will stay there some days. New Plymouth, September 7, At 11 o'clock this morning, 59 of the native prisoners were brought up and charged,.on the information of Inspector Gudgeon, that on the 4th September, 1880, at a certain place, to wit at Punga-' rehu, in the County of Taranaki, confiscated territory, mentioned in the West Coast Settlement Bill, 1880, they wilfully placed on a qprtain road, being a highway in accordance with the provisions of the said Act, a certain obstacle, to wit pieces of fencing, thus impeding the full use of such highway, in part by her Majesty's subjects. Mr. Standish, Crown Prosecutor, conducted the case, and stated the facts he would adduce in evidence. Copies of the West Coast Settlement Act had been carefully distributed at Parihaka among the natives and it oould not therefore be said that the natives had been led into a trap. They were fully aware of the consequences of their acts before they were arrested. His Worship said it was singular that so many men should be called to answer a charge of that description, without being represented by counsel. The evidence of SubInspector Gudgeon and Sergeant Grey was given, showing that the natives had obstructed tlte main road by erecting a fenge across" it. The New Plymouth gaoler was also examined as to the identity of the prisoners. His Worship committed the prisoners for trial at the District Court criminal sessions, to be held in New Plymouth, on the 23rd inst.