Another Native Deputation.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 40, 8 March 1884, Page 3

Another Native Deputation.

The special correspondent of the " Bay of Plenty Times " supplies a full report of a meeting which the leading chiefs belonging to Ngatitcrorooterangi, a hapu of the Ngatiwhakaue tribe, had with the Hon. Messrs Rolleston and Bryce at the Courthouse. The deputation consisted of six in number, of which Mr W. Rogers was chosen spokesman. Mr Rogers stated that the natives were willing to sell the land for the railway direct to the Government, or to give the directors of the Company a large tract of land on condition that it was sold and the proceeds equally divided between the Company and the natives. Mr Bryce said had he known this was all they had to offer he would not have met them. ' Mr Rogers repeated that it was an oiler of substantial assistance, whereat Mr Bryce jumped on his feet, looking daggers, and said : "You don't know what you are speaking about." Mr Rogers again replied, and said : "I must thank Mr Bryce for the compliment which he has been pleased to bestow on me, and I would add that the directors of the Railway Company must share the honour with me, because the very proposal which we have now offered, and of which he says I know nothing, is the one that the Railway Company offered us, our acceptance of which would have been considered ot the greatest assistance to them ; but Mr Bryce says it is no assistance, and of course Mr Bryce must be right, for he is a superior man ; in fact, an imfallible one." A quiet smile broke over the countenance of Mr Rolleston as Mr Rogers uttered this cutting irony ; but Mr Bryce looked as though he could have swallowed up (metaphorically speaking) the whole deputation, Mr Rogers especially. The meeting then abruptly broke up, the august Hon. John Bryce precipitously leaving the room.