NORMANBY.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 447, 26 July 1879, Page 2

NORMANBY.

(FROM A CORRESPOND ENT.) A public meeting was held here on Wednesday last; Mr C. E. Gibson in the Uliair.

The Chairman said the meeting had been called in order to ascertain the feelings of the settlers with regard to Sir George Grey’s Administration of native affairs in the district. He read a telegram which he had received that day, with reference to certain statements made by Messrs Rees and Gisborne in the House ot Representatives, daring a debate the previous evening, and without commenting in any way upon the statements made, he would call upon the meeting to give an expression of opinion thereon.

After some discussion, it was proposed by Mr C. Allan, seconded by Mr Rowe, and carried unanimously, “ That this meeting views with feelings of strong disapproval and intense alarm, the conduct of the Grey Administration of affairs generally, and of the native difficulty in particular—the mismanagement of the settlement of the Waimate Plains having imperilled the safety of the lives and property of the whole of the settlers, and threatens the district with complete ruin. Believing the Government have no scheme to propose, and that they are trifling with the settlers, we earnestly pray that this incompetent Government may be dismissed, and replaced by more able and earnest men. That this meeting repudiates any expression of thanks said to have been conveyed to Sir G. Grey by a deputation, and hereby records its feelings of contempt of the Kent telegram, and regards it as an insult to their common sense. And with regard to Mr Gisborne’s statement, ‘ That the whole question could be settled in the Law Courts,’ it is the opinion of this meeting that the question of title should not be gone into, or any negotiations whatever entered into with the natives of this coast, until the murderer, Hirolci, and his protectors are given up to justice.” A vote of thanks to the chair brought the meeting to a close.