PROJECTED VISIT TO POVERTY BAY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 342, 13 February 1889, Page 4

PROJECTED VISIT TO POVERTY BAY.

Auckland, Jan. 9. Tin; ie loubttible wanioi Te Kooti, whose aim.il in town wo announced yesterday, \ios during yeatciday and last night visited ab his quartern .it the Waveiley Hotel by a laigo luiiubt.i 1 of Thames and other loj.'il iialivcd, \Vho manifcsLei con&ideiablo Liuiosiby in the man of whom they had all heaul bnfc whoai few if any had over seen before. Last evening Te Lvooti had another iiite"\je\v with the Native Mini&t^r, the Jfon. E. M:tchclson, relative to Ins projected vi-it 10 Poverty Bay. The Minister jias decided to place no obstacle in the May of hU visiting the scene of his foimer e\i<loitb, as the old native, who is 'Je irous of visiting hi.3 friends and tribal relatives in the Turanganui district, is now as much a subject or Her Majc-ty the Queen .•■sjtny other inliaoitaiit of the cjiony. Although Mr Mitehel&on admits his undoubted light to visit the Bay, still he has c.\ti acted a promise from Te Kooii that he and hh iollowers will go unarmed, and 'with ptaceable intention?. This condition may be .'•aid to be supei fluous, for Te Kooti fo mnlly ronounced altot.<-ethei all war.mo practice heticefortli on the occasion of his f aidon in 1884, when he met the .Native Mimsfcti, Mr John Bryce, at Mangaorongo, in tiie Waipa district. His vi^it bo the East Coast will be unostentatious, and he will take special care nob to arouse the old-time feelings of enmity in the district. The visit will most piobably eventuate in about a month, Te Kooti and a numberof followers proceedingon horseback Irom hia settlement at Otewa on the V/gipa river, by way of Te Aroha, Tauranga, and thence through the Urhvera country to Tuianganui. Last evening a Star representative had an hour's horero with Te Kooti and hia wife at the Waverloy Hotel. After the noted chieftain had moistened his thirsty clay with a . glass or two of i-eal old Irish " mountain dew "—" — for which refreshing beverage he has developed a taste which would do credit to an ex-M.H.K. — he became communicative, and his usually refc^genb manner in a great measure disappeared. He states that he has not been iv Auckland for the last 24 years, and is greatly surprised at the changes which have taken place in the city during his absence. Karly in the

"sixties" ho " was one of the ciew of a fcmatl cutter which used to trade between Gisborne and Auckland, carrying East Const psoducc, etc., and in tins manner was a frequent visitor hero. Later on ho sen ed on board the s.s. St. Kilda, the Government steamer, which afterwards by a ciuious coincidcnco was the vc3sel which conveyed him with many of his compatriots to c.\'le in the Chatham Island?. To Kooti h accompanied to town by Itl-a p incipal wife, Heine, a woman of com ldei able rank in Iho East Coa&b tribe of JS'gatikahungunu. She is a till, gaunb, detci mined - looking woman, of considerable intelligence, and one can fancy that.sl.e formed a fitting helpmate for her wailikc lord. Very few of the original twohundied Maoiibwho escaped \\ ith To Kooti from the Chathams are now ali\o, almost all having nicb their death by rillo bullet > or the inevitable privations ot hunsjci and thirst which the dating band had to onr-nunter in their guciilla waifaro. I To Kooti is a member ot aha pit of the I N.atipoiou tiibe, of tho East coast. His leal namu ib Turuki to Riknangi, To Kooti (Aiujiice "Scott"') being the namo by which lie was baptised in' youth by Bishop vYilliam=;, of Waiapu. Amount his fiiends nsd l-o'athes ho is known generally as Tuuikf. Dm ing to-day Te Kooli and his fiiends wcie en»«»g^d in seeing what Uieio was to be Fecn of the to y . n, and this e\cning they will bo pioscnt as iuvitud guests atjNJiss (•'coririe ,Sinith?o:i's concert in tho City HaU. lie return 3 (o the Waikato l>y Monday monunrr'b tiain from Auckland. On Ji is ttavols through the country To Kooti's followers aie habitually unturned. Te Kooti himself always can ied his re^ol\cr on his person, but in fjtuio ho intends to travel unarmed. He hos presented his vc\o!ver to tlie Xali^e Minister as a token that in futuic ho would nob trust to any arms whatcxer for his protection, but place himself entirely under the <igi>> of the law.