THE MAORI WAR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume 1, Issue 41, 21 November 1868, Page 3

THE MAORI WAR.

1-^ private meeting '"was held in Wellington 1 on th% I3th current, ' when it o was resolved to "memorialise the Governor' in order to 'procure the assistance of troops from Australia^ and also iio enable the - l^th regiment to take the field against the insurgents. We regret.to say Mr. Eichmonds,tated r his belief that this mo.der.ate request Svould not be 7 . complied with.- It - appears" that all the inhabitants of. Wairoa are leaving that' place ; "on Saturday "last the St. Kilda -took twentj-Bis passengers, and many. : others , were I making.; ."preparations • , for aa f , , early start." The G-overnment have authorise?! Mr. Maclean to take energetic measures foe. the protection of the colony ; and not before it was needed, as the^tfames'of thirty-four murdered settlers and twenty friendly natives have been ascertained up to this date, but it is feared that more have perished, the refugees give a list of forty-three Europeans missing. The Ahurin, which, arrived at Napier on Monday) morning, brought startling intelligence. { A successful attack had been made on the Big Eiver settlement, wliich was completely destroyed. The rebels were in large numbers there — from 500 to 600 strong — and had butchered j four friendlies in cold blood. At Turanganui, matters looked gloomy; the Europeans, only twenty-five in number, along with 200 friendlies, were engaged in entrenching themselves. Mr. Bfoomfield's house has been:bxutnt, and it. w.as ..'impossible, to leave the place with safety. More j alarming even than the news of actual disaster is the intelligence that Tamihama's people, generally considered a friendly tribe, had joined Te Kooti, whose : force, 500 strong, menaces Captain Westrupp's position. Capt. Westrupp's force consists of fifty European refugees and 170 friendlies ; but it is much too small to venture on an attack. "Many affecting incidents are told of the Poverty Bay massacre. Mr. Beggs was shot while loading his rifle. On feeling the wound, ne turned to his wife and exclaimed, " Ply to the flax bushes ; I am- killed." The poor woman, bewildered by grief and terror, clung to her dying husband, and with her child was tomahawked by the bloodthirsty monsters. Many women and children escaped in their night-clothes, and made their way barefooted to a place of safety. The Hau-haus set fire to the houses, and flung the wounded on the blaze. The wretches threw several infants to their pigs, and maltreated the women in a manner tfto horrible for us to narrate. The Wereroa redoubt was attacked on Thursday evening, but after three hours of what is calledl "desperate fighting," although neither side seems to have lost a man^hJß Maoris retreatgd., On the. ISth^an enthusiastic perinttßr tycHal?s|?nent ycHal?s|?nen motions express? gym^y IJLesufferers, an<^ MF^.;«;«!/liPPort to the G-overn-vw,««4»romisinjr £1 ; r5r 5 . menw*. measures they EJJEBjmJrHk the suppression of the without dissent.