BATTLE OF WAIKOEA.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 220, 23 February 1866, Page 3

BATTLE OF WAIKOEA.

The Wanganui Times of the 9th instant says : — The following despatch from our own correspondent reached Wanganui at 4 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. Waingongoro, 4th Feb., 1866. "We arrived here this day after a twenty miles march from Ohio, six miles this side of Opunake. We have had a week of constant rain, so it was time a change of clothes came to hand from our swags deposited here. We burned any amount of Hau-Hau villages along the road, but the only powder we burned this side of Tarauaki was burned in taking Waikoko, the head-quarters of Hau-hauisrn on that line. I sent you a hurried account of the affair, also previously au account of our forest march by way of Tarauak;, which 1 suppose you have received by this time ; but in case you should not I will give you a slight outline of the engagement. Tue moment we turned the Taranaki corner it seemed impossible to obtain information; the officers commanding posts knew next to nothing, and the Taranaki friediies less even. At Warea, Captain Corbett, of the Taranaki Bushraugers, stationed at Waitotarata (seven miles further on) came into the camp, and gave the (xeneral some information which the latter thought sufficient to act upon Captain Corbett was to get into the rear of the native positions with his seventy men and some Taranaki natives, aud was given a whole day in advance of our move to accomplish this object. It muy be as well to state at ouce tuat Captain Corbett failed to carry out his plans, as he was discovered by the Hau-haus the day previous to our attack, and had a slight skirmish in consequence, getting one xnnn hit. Loug before daylight, we started from Waitotarata: JSative Contingent, under JSasigu M'Pomieil, leading } Iforest}

Rangers, under Major Yon Terapsk] next ; the detachment under Colon* Trevor next ; aiTd thennarTretacliinento the 43rd, under Captain Horne ;■ Eoya Artillery, without guns, under Lieutenan Carey, for rear guard. Dr. leathersto] accompanied this expedition. Our natives knew nothing about th< track to the pah, but with the usua sagacity of Maories chose, amongst th< numerous tracks crossing one another the one that had most signs of " life " or it, though in all other respects it would appear to the uninitiated that this track was the most neglfcted, being rather overgrown with bush. Tet, even after seeing " good " signs, the natives acknowledged that they knew not where this track might lead to, and thus we floundered on in the dark, literally and figuratively. Our long Indian file of nearly 400 men was several times broken, whole companies got lost, and many were the troubles that beset this last daring effort of our General to bore into the heart of one of the most complicated political difficulties ever known. The road leads over comparatively level ground, buc was densely overgrown by a young forost, in which the taint track wound and twisted amidst old pahs (now forest groves), old embankments and deep ditches. .In one of our last halts Ensign M'Donnell went ahead with some natives to see what was before us. Itwas not long after this that we heard some shots and then heavy volleys. All hurried on now, and shortly a clearing of considerable extent, cut out of the heart of the solid forest, appeared. On some knolls in the further end we saw our natives perched firing away lustily. The Rangers then extended, the 14th did the same id rear of them, the 43rd formed the third line, and the .advance was sounded. From Ihe two. knolls the Hau-hau pah, with an extensive village around and inside, was seen at 2000 yards distance. The fire of the enemy came thick and fast ; their numbers seemed to be considerable j (probably 200 or 150), the bush was b'ned with them, and they greeted our arrival with three regular '" hurrahs." The Forest Rangers availed themselves, however, of a projecting corner of bush, and getting thereby within. fifty yards of the pah, rushed it, and were the first in it, with a few of the foremost of the 14th. One of the Forest Rangers was here badly hit in the leg, but was left to the Doctor's care, as his comrades had to rush after the flying foe. This foe proved shortly that they were no Ngatirunnuis, bub belonged to the true old fighting stock of the "Waikatos. Their retreat was most admirably managed : their track lay through a dense virgin forest, where, at every point of vantage, their best shots halted in ambush, and poured a volley into their pursuers. One man of the 14th, who had joined the Rangers in the pursuit, was shot dead ; one of Captain Corbett's men (the former having come up in time for the pursuit), was hit in two places shortly after that, bis wounds proving, however, not dangerous. As it was found impossible to outflank the Hau-haus, on accouut of the fearful counhy the pursuit led over, that pursuit was nt last abandoned. So the fighting ended for that day, and 400 men set to work to pull up half-grown potatoes, so that within two hours twenty acres of that Hau-hnu necessary, food, were destroyed. Only three bodies of the enemy were found, but ib has been ascertained that about ten are dead, and a good many wounded ; our loss, one dead, two wounded. Again, General Chute proved that the remotest, the most secret abode of the Hau-haus, was not beyond the reach of retribution, as the ruins of "Waikoka attest. BETFR3T OF THE FfEtT) FORCE TO 'WAXG-AJfTJI. Major- General Chute and his field force have returned to "Wangmui, after one of the most extraordinary campaigns ever performed by a Britisb General, Avith some five hundred men, Europeans and natives. On "Wednesday evening. Dr. Featherston arrived, looking all the better for having to rough it. At mid-day yesterday a portion, of the Contingent catne strangling into town, each man well mounted, and leading one or more horses as trophies of victory. From 200 to 300 horses that they had captured a few days ago from the enemy were thus brought down, and in due time taken across the river to Putiki.