TAWHIAO AT AUCKLAND.

Patea Mail, 27 January 1882, Page 3

TAWHIAO AT AUCKLAND.

At the reception of the Maori King in Auckland, Ngakapa, a chief from Coromandel, was most conspicuous among the notables assembled. He was arranged in true Maori costume with his staff and feathers, and evidently considered himself if not superior, evidently equal in importance with the King. Upon a movement being made to the carriage in waiting for Tawhiao, Ngakapa by a skilful manoeuvre got in first and patronisingly motioned the King to a seat beside him. This little movement somewhat disturbed the arrangements previously made, but it had not a disturbing effect upon old Ngakapa.

Some influential chiefs in Auckland on Sunday night, were taken for a walk on Queen-street wharf after church hour. It is well known the wharf is a first rate promenade, and the number of persons there on a fine evening is very large. The natives were much surprised at the great crowd, and asked where the people were all coming from. When told that they were residents of the city, one of them remarked—“ Well now 1 can understand the great cry of the pakeha for land ; these poor people have no where to go, and of course are anxious to possess our lands,”

A visitor to Orakei, where the King party were entertained, says:—l am convinced, from all I can gather from the chiefs, that they are more anxious than they care to show that the isolation in which they have been living should come to an end. Even Wahanui in the course of conversation expressed a wish that the relations existing before the war should be resumed, but he and others expressed the strongest condemnation of the action of Mr Bryce in destroying the cultivations at Parihaka. They were also anxious to learn what would be the probable fate of Te Whiti, Titokowavn, and Hiroki, but expressed no sympathy with the last.