TAURANGA.

Southland Times, Issue 578, 15 October 1866, Page 3

TAURANGA.

THE SURVEY AT TE PUNA AND WAIROA STOPPED.

FLIGHT OP THE NATIVES TO THE BUSH.

(From the correspondent of the Southern Cross.) Tatjbastga, 19th Sept. The feeling which was created by the ejecting the occupiers of buildings at Tauranga had scarcely subsided, when the alarming intelligence arrived that the surveyors at the Wairoa and Te Puna had been visited at their camps by the natives, who at once entered their tents and took away their instruments, &c. In the absence of further information as to the meaning to be attached to this strange act as to the Maoris, and which is said to have been done at the instigation of the chief William Thompson, I will content myself by inserting the contents of a letter on the subject, written by a gentleman well acquainted with the natives, and who resided in the district of Wairoa when it occurred : — | " Wairo, Sept., 17, 1866. " Dear ,—I beg to send you the particulars of Mr Thomas Jordan, assistant, and staff being ordered to leave their stations at the falls on the Wairoa River, Tauranga, 12th September, 1866. Mr It. C. Jordan, the principal in this survey, has been detained at Te Papa since the 13th instant, and had not returned, when fear of his men left the camp about eight a.m., leaving behind Mr Thomas Jordan and assistant. About nine a.m., Mr Jord^ went out in quest of wild ducks, whe;: ,c met four natives; he bid them the co apliments of the day, and stretched forth his hand to salute them, which was scorn fully rejected ; but was told " Haere ki waho " (meaning, Get away). Mr Jordan haying no knowledge of the native language, caused them i by signs to understand that if they would I go to his camp his assistant would explain and listen to them. Upon arriving at the camp, the natives deliberately walked I into the tents, and commenced a search ! for the instruments, and found one cirJ cumferentor, two chains, and one set of arrows, which they took possession of, i and then told Mr Jordon to leava at j once, and take away their traps and be off. To this he demurred ; but on looking outside the tent, they saw eight other determined-looking natives squatted on the opposite side of the river, which determined them to act cautiousfy and promptly. Two of the natives remained behind by the tents until Mr Thomas Jordan and his assistants obtained a canoe and removed all the personal effects of themselves and the party, and then paddled down to Mr 1\ Johnson's station

?j at Te Papa-o-haria, and afterwards for- - warded messengers with despatches to ) Mr E. C. Jordan, who. doubtless, will } have the case investigated by the authori- , ties.

L MR, GOLDWItf SMITH ON THE CEISIS ; . IN EUROPE. l In a letter to the " Daily News," Mr j Goldwin Smith, late professor of history • in the University of Oxford, comments on the part which ought to be taken by England in relation to the present European crisis. " All parties in this country," he says, " are agreed in determining, if . possible, to avoid a war. But it is absurd, as well as offensive, to assume an attitude of supercilious indifference to a great European crisis* We cannot remain uninterested, nor in the end fail to participate, in that which vitally affects the whole system of which we form an integral part. England will be compelled to speak at last, and the only question will be on which side she will raise her voice. Chatham stood by Frederick the Great. But, instead of Chatham, Bute is in power. Whatever the domestic policy of the Tory party have been, its foreign policy has always been calamitous and ignominious, because it has always ' been directed to the objects of a class, not to those of the nation. The alliance i of England with Louis XIV. against the j Dutch Republic, the peace of Utrecht, I the peace of Paris, the war with the American colonies, the crusade against the French Revolution till it merged in a really national struggle againt Napoleon, are the bywords of national shame and disaster. The thing most congenial to the Tories in Europe is the torpid deI spotism of Austria ; but they also, with the sure instinct of a party, recognise the great patron of reaction in the Emperor of the French, with whom some of their chiefs appear to have formed intimate personal relations. The singular person who is at their head in the House of Commons is led, both by his anxiety to catch the aristocratic tone in politics, and by his favorite tactical constitution, to speak with contempt of the cause of Italian unity and independence. Parliament will soon rise, and we shall be fortunate if, before it meets again, something is not done contrary to the interest and honor of the nation. The sympathies of the Liberals, however, now that the real character of the crisis is disclosed by the conduct and bearing of the Prussian nation, cannot be doubtful. The cause jf Germany and Italy is ours."