THE MURDER OF MR BENNETT WHITE AND AN ARAWA NEAR OPOTIKI.

West Coast Times, Issue 572, 25 July 1867, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MURDER OF MR BENNETT WHITE AND AN ARAWA NEAR OPOTIKI.

rt Mutilation of theik Bodies

REMAINS OF MOOBE AND B.EGGS FOUND.

(abridged feom the sottthebn choss.)

On Friday, June 28, Mr Bennett White and the native who carries the mail between Tauranga and Opotiki were murdered at the Waiotahi stream, about halfway betweon Ohiwa and Opotiki. The details that have reached us of this Ihorriblo affair are meagre enough, but there is not the least doubt of the fact. Immediately on£rec.eiving thVnews Major St John called outvthe militia and sent a strong party to the sceue. Close by the Waiotahi 'stream, but, as far as we can

gather, on tbat side nearest Opotiki, there were lying on the beach the bodies of Mr White and the native, both having been decapitated. A short distance away was the head of Mr White, the eyes having been gouged out. The native who was murdered, and who was carrying the mail to Opotiki from Tauranga, was named Wi Popata. As niight have been expected, there waa a great stir in Maketu when the news reached that place, and the Arawas were anxious to be sent out to scour the district where the men who have committed the murders live. A party at once left to bring in the body of Wi Poj>ata, wn o is an Arawa, an connected witlfrfche Maketu people. Besides the murders of Mr White and Popata, there is an Opotiki settler, named Lawson, missing, and great anxiety is felt on his account.

The beach road between Whakatane and Opotiki has been known to be unsafe for some time past, and Mr Clarke, Civil Commissioner at Tauranga, has always warned parties going that they did so at their peril. It will be remembered that Mr Bennett White was on board the Kate at the time when Mr James Fulloon and the crew of that vessel were murdered. Mr White's life was saved on that occasion, apparently more because the muskets presented at him- would not go off than from anything else. Since the capture of the murderers, and the execution of some of them, and the incarceration of some of the others, we believe that a strong feeling existed against Mr White amongst' their relatives, he having been responsible, in a Maori point of view, for bringing the cutter Kate across the Aukati, and causing all the succeeding troubles. Whether this feeling has had anything to do with his murder, we cannot yet say. •It is extremely unlikely that the murders were committed without a Maori motive, but except the one mentioned above, we are not aware of any iv existence^ It is probable it was committed by some of the nien who have been hunted from place to place, and who arc homeless and lawless, Mr White was one of our oldest native traders, and had escaped many dangers in the course of his long residence amongst the Maoris. The following is from the correspondent of the " New Zealand Advertiser :" — r Opotiki, June 28. The evidence of the native who found the dead bodies of the murdered menmay be condensed into the following brief statement : — Yesterday, he and his nephew were on their way to this settlement. The nephew, whose horse was jaded, was lagging a considerable way behind. When he reached the Waiotahi, a small river about four miles from this place, he saw the foot-prints of a number of natives in the mud, and not knowing whether the tracks were those of friendly natives or Hauhaus, he took off his hat and waved it to his nephewto hasten up. When he cameup, they crossed the river, and then he looked up river and saw a party of ai*med natives. They saw him too, and fired, but without effect, as they were at too great a distance from him. He came along the beach as fast as he could tovi ards the camp, and saw on the beach, below higliwater mark, two headless bodies lying on the sand. The feet pointed to the shore. He could not identify them at the time, but came on and reported the circumstances to Major St. -John o? s3£3iaS-he came into the camp.

As soon as they could be got together, about twenty of the cavalry, under Captain Gwynneth, and about fifty of the mi litia, under the command of Major St. John, crossed the Waioeka, and hastened to the scene of the slaughter. Night overtook the party before they reached the place. They remained under arms on the beach all night and at the first glimpse- of dawn Captain Gwynneth took a party of his men and proceeded along the beach towards the Dhiwa. They found that the horses on which Mr Bennett White and the mailman rode were both dead, having been shot. The party theu returned. On their way back they saw an owl perched on some drift-wood, aud, searching amongst it, they found a head, which they knew at once to be that of Mr White. The crown of the head and back of the skull were fearfully gashed by the tomahawks of the ruthless savages. There was a bullet wound on the corner of tho left eye, which must have caused instant death ; and from the placid appearance of the countenance in death, I think it may be inferred that the bullet wound was the cause of death, and that the butchery was perpetrated on the body when it was no longer susceptible of pain. The head was placed in a coffin, and interred this evening at three o'clock.

July 2. The day after the murder of Mr White and his companion, Mr Henderson and his party of surveyors, who were at work on the Ohiwa, were fired on by the same party. Some friendly natives had just time to warn them of the approach of the Hau-haus, and they ran for their lives. Mr Henderson endeavored to save his instrument, and carried it as far as lie could, but finally compelled to throw it away in order to save his life. The Maoris fired eight shots at him, but fortunately without effect, and he and^his party arrived safe in camp, where they now remain.

Yesterday evening about dusk. Major St John and the officers and men of the expedition, numbering about fifty, returned from the gorges of the Waioeka, where they have been endeavoring for the last three days to find some traces of the enemy. Both officers and men endured great hardships during their stay in the bush, short as it was. One poor fellow, named Walsh, belonging to the Ist Waikato Regiment, was drowned in attempting to cross one of the reaches of the Waioeka by means of a rope. He lost his footing, struggled for a whfle to recover his hold of the rope, but was carried away by the violence of tho flood, despite all the exertions of his comrades to save him. It is said he carried a considerable sum of money on his person, which is sfclso lost.

July 2. News came into camp this morning that the remains of Moore and Beggs had been found by a Maori. The intelligence proved true. A party of twenty-five men, under Ensign Lawson, was despatched to Waioek, to bring what Jwas left of the murdered men, which turned out to be only the bare skeletons, all the flesh having been weeks ago devoured by Maori dogs and birds of prey. Nothing can be done at Opotiki as it would, be done anywhere else. You are aware that since the murder of Moore and Beggs, a party of

twenty-five men has been stationed at the Waioeka, about a mile and a half distant from the scene of the' mnivler. This party^ knew nothing of the coming of EnsigiP' Lawson to bring back the remains. They heard voices speaking in Mao.ri in the bush — the voices of two native chiefs who had accompanied Mr Lawson' s party. Hearing no voices but theirs, they concluded at once that they were Hau-haus. \ Lieutenant Grey, commanding the Waio- J eka redoubt, posted sentries around his > post, and, armed with a double-barrelled gun, rushed, at the head of his remaining force, into the bush in search of the supposed enemy. When they came within what they judged to be effective distance, they fired a volley; and only that the men, who were engkged in gathering up the remains, happened to he in a stooping posture, they would in all probability have been shot. About two o'clock, a messenger ran breathless into camp with the tidings that Mr Lawson and his party had been attacked by the Hau-haus. As the murderers themselves had told a half-caste Maori, one of their relations (sent to them by Mr Mair), where the bodies lay, it was thought they only gave the information for the purpose of drawing our men into an ambuscade. The bugle instantly sounded the alarm, and in a moment every man had heard it grasped his arms and started for Waioeka as fast as he could run — the infantry first, the cavalry as soon after "aa they could follow.

Another correspondent writes : — Moore and Beggs were killed in this wise." When the effort to apprehend Eru and other of Mr Volkners murderers resulted" in the death of two of them, several letters were found implicating the Uriweras. Accordingly, afterwards they urged the Whakatoheas to revenge, and some seventy of them, with only two or three Whakatoheas among them,! planned and carried out the attack at Waiokea. They afterwards circulated the report that the two missing men were alive, and consequent upon the receipt of that report, the second march on Waioeko, in which a party was driven away, which was on its way to Pirohonga (a bluff half-way between Opotiki and Ohape), to intercept any stray passers-by. The men were killed by gunshot, clase to the place where they separated from Livingstone and Wilkinson. The bodies "were hidden purposely. Knowledge of the spot came through Tiwai. The searching parties must have gone close to them, skirting the edge of the gully down which they had been dragged. The system at present carried out by the Hau Halts appears to have been adopted at the great hui, held, at Tawhaualast February.

By the arrival of the s.s. Tauranga, we have received in full the statement o£ Witiria) the native who gave the information of Bennett White's murder. Witiria's statement is as follows : —

" On Thursday, the 27th instant, I was returning from Maketu, whither I liad been summoned by Mr Commissioner Wilson to attend the Compensation Court as a witness. I was accompanied by my son Paora. We crossed OMwa ferry about noon, and noticed nothing unusual until we reached Waiotahi river. At this place I was riding in advance of Paora some 300 or 400 yards, as his horse was jaded with the long journey. Wfren I arrived at the Opotiki side of the Waiolahi, ford, I observed a good many foot-prints on the sand; and, thinking our people were there pig-hunting, turned up off the beach towards the old kainga, there expecting to find them ; but the great number of footprints I saw at high-water mark convinced me at onctrfiia^a strong body of Hau-haus must be in the vicinity. I instantly called to Paora, and beckoned 1 o him to come on quickly. The Hku-haus heard me call and rose out of the fern at the old kianga, about 300 yards off, aitd.fired upon us very sharply, for they Were in. considerable force. The firo ceased, however, after we. had rouuded a point of the cliff; but still we hastened on as I feared we might be intercepted at the other streams on the beach by other parties, who might hear the firing and come out of the other valleys near Opotiki, Just after rounding the point, I was startled at seeing the head of Bennett White standing upright on a small rock on the beach, with the face towards the sea. I passed close by it. The flowing beard was carefully spread down over the rock t Close by it, on its back,' lay- his body naked; and near it the headless body of the mailman) with a pair of drawers on. This body was lying on its side. I did not see the head of the postman. After passing the bodies a few yards, we saw Mr White's horse lying dead, shot behind the shoulder. I now told Paora to leave hiß tired horse and jump up behind me, and my horse, which is a strong one, carried us at full speed beyond reach of danger.''

There is little doubt that the Hau-hau ambuscade vras laid fdl Major Mair, Mr Commissioner Wilson, and the Whakatohea chiefs, who it was well known would return from attending the Compensation Court, at Maketu, at a- certain time. Major Mair, however, had remained at Tauranga, and. Mr Wilson had altered his arrangements and liad gone to * Auckland.

DeeamliAnd. — The power which in our waking momenta is employed in correcting the reports of the various senses by comparing them with one another — in examining thejevidenco of all the impressions made on the mfnd, and testing them by the analogy of its past experience, — appear in sleep to be, in most cases, totally suspended. If, for instance, an impression is made on any one of. the senses, the- fancy immediately connects it with some cause which has produced the same sensation before, or has been considered likely to do so. This is the philosophy of the ghost, which is said to attend pork suppers. The weight of undigested food in the stomach is readily attributed to some external cause ; fancy combines all her ideas with the horrible, and represents a monster seated on our chest, or ready to crush us with some great weight. That this want of co-operation in the faculties is the cause of some of the most curious phenomena of dreams, is evident from many well-authenticated facts. Drßeatlio sponks of a man who could be made to dream anything by whispering in his ear. Dr Gregory* relates of himself I that, having once occasion to apply a bottle of hot water to his feet when he- retired to bed, he droamod that he was ascending the side of Mount- Kina, and that he found the heat of the groin I almost insufferable. Persons who have had a blister applied to their heads have been known to dream o£ being scalped by a party .of North American Indians. Such are some of the well known phenomena of dreams, but there are others even yet more startling. — " CasseU's Family Paper."