NEWS FROM THE NORTH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 166, 13 April 1871, Page 7

NEWS FROM THE NORTH.

The Thames " Advertiser " understands that no action has yet been taken by the Hon. the Native Minister x-e-specting the opposition of Te Hira and party to the carriage of the Tauranga mails. Mr. M'Lean has informed Mr. Puckey, in reply to his telegram respecting the position of affairs, that he will see what can be done with the natives at present in Auckland attending the Lands Court.

A Mr. M'Kay was sent on the 17th ult., by Greville's agent at the Thames, with the' English telegrams to Tauranga, but did not succeed in his attempt to get there overland. His proceedings are thus described by a correspondent of an Auckland paper : — " He left Ohinemuri on Friday last, and reached a creek a few miles back in the ranges, where he was stuck up by a native's dog. He knocked the animal on the head, but the noise made brought the native on the scene, and, to escape, M'Kay plunged neck-deep into a flax swamp, and made the best of his way back to Belmont. He started again the next day by another and a less frequented track, and managed to complete half the distance to Katikati — not without risk, however, as there were several dangerous streams to cross. At the point indicated he came to another stream which he could not get over. Leaving the mail bag and superfluous clothing upon the bank, he tried to swim and was well nigh drowned in the attempt, being swept by the current over a rapid fall in the stream. After gaining the land again ho planted the mail bag and returned to Ohinemuri. Not caring to attempt the route again, he instructed a native where the bag was to be fonnd, and engaged him to tiy and convey it to Tauranga : and so the matter rests, as it is not yet known whether the native succeeded in his mission. With regard to the mail which was seized by Te Hira on Sunday last, Mr. M'Kay says he sent it back to Tauranga by a party of Ngatikoe who were returning to their homes in that direction. They are described as being very indignant at the arbitrary proceedings of Te Hira, and offered to make common cause with the whites against him. Te Hira, it is said, vaunts his power, and defies Mr. M'Lean to attempt to force the mail through. M'Kay says that only the Ohenimuri natives side with Te Hira."

The Thames correspondent of the " Cross," writing on the 21st, says :—: — Further ne <vs of a startling character reached me this morning from the Upper Thames, and the facts are such as to lead to very serious apprehensions whether the opposition of the natives to the Tauranga mail route will be overcome, excepting by the adoption of determined measures on the part of the Government. I have to i*eport that at last, after many narrow escapes, the •Tauranga mail has fallen iuto the hands of the natives. On Sunday last the mailman (a Maori) from Tauranga was espied by some Hauhaus, and chased and taken ; and the Maoris are exceedingly jubilant thereat. They still hold possesion of the mail, and express a determination to retain it. It is also said that the tribes Ngatikoe and Ngatipotou are expected to leturn -to the Upper Thames in a . day or two, and that they are resolved to maintain the aukati, and will shoot any unauthorised person who may attempt to break it. I am informed that pickets are posted all over the country, and that in some places post-and-fences have been thrown as barricades across main tracks. This afternoon Mr. Puckey, Mr. Warbrick, and one or two others, proceed to Ohine-

muri, to unco mure try their power of persuasion upon the " noble savage."

It appears that the announcement of the proposed alteration of the telegraph route from Tauranga to Auckland via Ohinemuri, to Tauranga to Auckland via Cambridge, has excited much astonishment amongst the Thames people, who feel that such a change in the route will be fraught with loss to them. As the case stands the Thames is in a great high-way line, and constitutes one of the connecting links between the North and South. The adoption of the Cambridge route will have the eft'ect of in a measure thrusting the Thames into a corner again.

The " Advertiser " gives an account of the stoppage of a Mr. Hector M'Kenzie, who leit the Thames in order to cross over to Tauranga on business. Mr. M'Kenzie waited in order to cross over with the Ngatikoe, forty of whom bad been staying at Ohinemuri, and were returning to their regular residence at Waihi yesterday, but Te Hira obstinately refused to allow him to do so, telling him that he was a dangerous man, having brought the telegi*aph to the Tauranga district, and being a Government man. Mr. M'Kenzie pleaded hard to be allowed to pass, and though Mr. Louis Dihars told Te Hira that he had nothing to do with the Government, and was not going to spy out the nakedness of the land so as to take the " wire " over it. All in vain. Dihars remarked to Te Hira that the G-overn-ment would take up the matter, and that he would yet be sorry for what he had done in stopping the mail, and preventing people from using the road. Te Hira replied, " When M'Lean was in "Waikato he said not a word about Todd's murder, and he will not say a word about this !" We pronounce Te Hira a close and accurate reasoner. The road is barricaded at the Paeroa, and armed scouts are constantly on the alert to pounce upon any passenger and drag him before Te Hira. The Ngatikoe, who were returning to their own district, were politely informed that if any of them attempted to return by that wry they would be shot, so exclusively is the tapu put upon the track. The bearer of the mail and telegrams, who had risked his life by flood and field in attempting to get them over, bribed a Ngatikoe, who adroitly concealed Her Majesty's mail in his blanket. Te Hira will be certainly wroth when he hears this, but we will not reveal the name of the man who has done this service to the State. A mailman arrived there ou Sunday from Tauranga, having so far eluded detection and stoppage, but on his arrival the mail was taken from him by Te Hira. Our report is, that the mail still lies in Te Hira's w'.iare, having been confiscated ; but another report is to the effect that Te Hira sent it back to Tauranga yesterday morning. A.t all events, it has never reached its destination. Mr. Puckey and Mr. Warbrick left Shortland fo Ohinemuri yesterday, on the forlorn hope of persuading To Hira. They have simply no chance with a man of who. u e style of reasoning the above is a specimen.