THE WAR AT WANGANUI.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 414, 27 November 1868, Page 2

THE WAR AT WANGANUI.

The Sturt, by which the Governor returned to "Wellington, brought intelligence that Colonel Whitmore has retreated nearer to Wanganui. Handley's and another house have been burnt by the Maoris. Every post north of Wauganui, except Patea and Kai Iwi, has been abandoned by our forces. The Wereroa redoubt, ably defended by the Militia, who drove back the rebels, was ordered to be destroyed with all it contained. Since the Poverty Bay affair, the settlers are corning in in great numbers. As the war with the Natives in the neighbourhood of Wanganui has attained some considerable proportions, it will be interesting to our readers to know precisely the cause of it, and what the Natives are fighting for, and what we are fighting for. A man named Henderson, and another man named Luxford, bought land_ from military settlers near the bush inland from Mokoia, and not far from a native village called Whakamara, and they were turned back three times by Hauhaus from Whakamara, when going to their land for the purpose of preparing it for cultivation. These men, it will be recollected, were on land which had been confiscated by proclamation. After some further trouble, Mr Booth, the resident Magistrate at Patea, went up to see the natives, and the following is his own account of the interview:—

" The natives appeared very surly, and a young man named Tumoana asked me what I had come there for. I answered, I had come there for the purpose of accompanying the men who were with me to their land. He (Tumoana) replied with the usual arguments of the Hauhau, that we (the Government) had first made peace with them (the Maoris), and,

after lulling them into security, were now, in time of peace, trying to steal their land from them. He requested me to return and locate European settlers seaward of the Hingahape stream, but the Maoris would never consent to settlers occupying land near the bush ; that the Hauhaus would continue to oppose settlers in the occupation of that land, and that they should burn down any fences or whares the settlers might erect, —arguing at the same time that they should be destroying their own property only, the timber, &c, having grown on their land." Tumoana said, "We never gave you our consent to the confiscation of this land. We protested against the survey, and sent back the surveyors several times ; and we only allowed the surveyors to J finish their work, when you wrote a letter to us, because the word had gone forth that there .should be peace in the district, but we will not allow the

pakehas to come here. If, as you say, you are determined to bring these men on their land, if you bring with you the force you have brought to Mokoia to carry out this determination of yours, let us know when you intend to come, that I may collect some men here to meet you." Subsequent to this, several attempts were made by the owners of sections of the confiscated land to occupy it, but they were always compelled to desist by the Natives.