LATEST INTELLIGENCE FROM THE SEAT OF WAR.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 92, 22 September 1863, Page 6 (Supplement)

LATEST INTELLIGENCE FROM THE SEAT OF WAR.

ATTACK BY THE NATIVES AT KAMA RAMA. (From the Correspondent of the Southern Cross.) ,Attack of natives on a working party of the 40th. Two men engaged in clearing bush above Rama Rama Oamp saw Maoris gliding towards them. The men ran to meet the escort, and saw the natives rushing across the road for tie arms of the 40th, and carried off 20 odd stand of arms ; no ammunition. The escort came up, firing into the successful natives. The latter killed two of the 40th with their own arms. One man of the 18th wounded. A party of armed bushmen fired a volley into the flying natives. Natives retired west. Three natives killed. One pulled down by a large Coromandel dog; on getting up again, the man was shot. On receipt of the foregoing telegram, a reporter left this office for Drury, to ascertain the particulars of the untoward event. He returned at 2.30 this morning, and supplied us with the fol--1 wing details : — On Tuesday, at about fl o'clock a.m., t.vo men who were engaged felling limber for the purpose of clearing the bush from the Great South Road, observed several Maories passing through the bush to the rear, and making towards the working party of the 40th regiment, at the bend of the road on the right, bayond the camp at Williamson's clearing. The bush, at this place, comes out towards the line of road in a sharp corner, and was at all times a locality where an ambush could be easily laid. The two bushmen referred to threw down their axes, and ran to the road, for the purpose of apprising the escort, which was then coming up the line from Drury. The natives fired between twenty and thirty shots at them, but without effect. The bushmen made their way good, and reported the circumstance to the officer in command of the escort, who ordered an immediate advance. The Maories, in the meantime, went straight to that part of the road where the arms of the working party of the 40th Re#t. were piled ; and the escort arrived jnst in time to see the natives carry off twenty-three stand of arms. The escort fired into the retreating party, killing two of the Maories ; a third was shot by a soldier, through the exertions of a dog of the bloodhound breed, which belongs to one of the bush party, and which arrested the Maori, pulling him to the ground, and rendering it impossible for him to get away before the escort came up, when one of them shot him. The body of the native was lying on the roadside shortly after the afiair : the remaining corpses of the enemy were lying where they fell, off the highway at a considerable distance. The enemy returned the fire of the escort, wounding private Laurence Clover, 18th regiment, Royal Irish, severely in the leg. The Maories, on going up to the pile of arms, it appears, took possession, firing a volley at the working party of the 40th regiment, killing two men on the spot. One of these is private Giveny, 40th regiment, and another is a private of the same regiment, whose name I could not ascertain. Giveny joined the corps in Melbourne. He had two bullet wounds on his body — one through the breast, another through the thigh. The second of our killed was shot iv the breast. Ifc seems that no commissioned officer was with the working party of the 40th, although it consisted, I hear, of 24 men; but doubtless this circumstance will be carefully inquired into by the proper authorities. The Maories made good their retreat into the bush, on the westward of the line of road, but encountered the fire from a party of bushmen, deeper in the forest than the men of the 40th, who had been warned of their danger by the firing around them. Whether any of the Maories then fell is not known. The news of this raid by the Maories was brought to the Drury camp by a carter, who was coming to the Land Transport stables. One company of the 70th commanded by Captain Tovey, marched for the scene of action, succeeded by Lieutenant Rait, R.N., and his mounted troops. All the troops in the camp were under arms. The troops of cavalry took the road to Makatu, to cut of the retreat of the Maories, if they returned by their former track, but as they retired by a line to westward, the troops saw nothing of them. The company of the 70th meeting the escort returned to camp. The dead and wounded men of the 40th and 18th were conveyed to the camp in ambulance carts. This affair lasted nearly three quarters of an hour. The natives came down from the east side, and most likely formed part of the war party encountered # by the Forest Rangers at Paparata, as reported in the Daily Southern Cross, I have heard the number of the natives variously estimated at from 40 to JOO. The Defence Corps, under Col. Nixon, a company of the 18th regiment, commanded by Captain Ring, and a detachment of the Forest Rangers, under Lieut. Jackson, went to the Hunua Ranges to-day, with what result 1 can-

not say. A portion only of the.Defence Corps returned, "the remainder of the force being bent 'on prolonging their journey. . a . .T , A reinforcement of 83 rank and file of the -12th regiment arrived at Auckland on the 25th, ult., from Sydney, by the s.s. Claud Hamilton, and further'rein-f force ihents are daily -expected from Melbourne and Tasmania. .-. . A chief named Tum'uhue, one of the King's Ministers, is reported to have been killed by one of the shots from the Avon. • '' It was reported that tlte Governor and General Cameron had inspected the native position of Mere-mere, and that the troops would attack it on September Ist and 2nd. , It is estimated that there are about 3,000 natives congregated there.