TE MOANANUI AND MR MACKAY.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1848, 4 December 1874, Page 2

TE MOANANUI AND MR MACKAY.

Our contemporary this morning published a telegram and letter from Te Moananui to Sir Donald McLean, with, translations of the same. The translations are as follow:—

TELEGBAM

If Mr Mackay should como to Auckland, do not listen to what he has fcc> say. Reserve jour decision, and do Dot bo in any hurry. We aro going to write you a letter to-day. You will then see whether our letter [what we wish] is right or wrong Eeply. Mb ha tb Moanatstti.

LETTEB,

Friend, come here, b» that we may < alk matters over here ; so that we mny say what wo have to say in your presence, in order that jou may not listen from a distance. Do not listen to what .is said by the European [Mr Hackly], who i* like the snake wriggling in the gra-s. When ho comes to the leg of a mn, he turns up and bites him. Come now, while matters are clear. If you come when milters are disturbed, it will be difficult to pet them right. Who can listen to good words after evil is done ?

From Meha tk Moananui, O friend, come here.

There is nothing particularly noticeable in the telegram, but the letter is essentially characteristic of Te Moananui, who is a specious talker and writer. He makes no direct charge against Mackay, and the reference to the " snake wriggling in the grass " is a figure of speech he must have borrowed from his pakeha Maori friends. Te Moananui, is, we belierej in receipt of a salary from the

Government—as a paid magistrate; and he threatens, as reported by the Advertiser, " that if some of the natives persist in selling land at Ohinemuri the party willing to keep the country closed—of whom he is one of the most determined—would fight them." No doubt if Te Moananui had influence enough Mackayand the other Europeans would have been pitched into the river long ago. If Sir Donald McLean cannot spare the time to come to the Thames, he ought at least to make enquiries into the conduct of Te Moananui, and see if his inflammable speeches and writings are such as should emanate from one receiving Government pay and professing loyalty to the Queen.