AN EXPLANATION.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 440, 2 July 1879, Page 2

AN EXPLANATION.

(To the Editor of the Patea Mail.) Sir, —ln your issue of the 28th instant? your Hawcra correspondent charged mo with makingdifforent statements at Hawera about the Maoris having commenced ploughing at Mokoia. I may say that on last Friday morning I was passing Mokoia, when I came up to a dray-man named Hugh McDevitt. He said to-me, ‘‘Look at that lot of Maoris going over the hill ; there are fifteen of them, and they have two ploughs; they passed through that gato, and loft it open. Those men (pointing to two men on the road about .GO yards from where we were) asked them where they were going, and they said, 1 Capoy make it the plough on Bayly’s land.’ ” The Maoris were in sight of me, passing over the hill on Bayly’s property. I went on to Hawera, and told Mr McGuire at his office what I had seen and heard. On leaving Mr McGuire’s office, I was rushed on the street for news by dozens of the inhabitants, and asked to toll them all about it. 1 did so, but at the same time advised them to be cautious what they did, and send down a messenger to find out if it was right. Most of them were certain it was right without sending or enquiring any further. Hugh McDevitt lives at the Manutahi Hotel. The two men who shut the gate after the Maoris, stopped at the Manutahi Hotel, and related the same yarn to Mr Carrol, who will substantiate this. What man would have passed by and taken no notice of this, in these ploughing times. Apologising for trespassing on your space.—l am, &c., GEO. ROGERS.