PREDICTIONS OF THE REV. MR WHITELEY.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 482, 25 March 1869, Page 3

PREDICTIONS OF THE REV. MR WHITELEY.

The following is copied from a grapic letter, written home by the Rev. Mr Whiteley, one of the victims of the White Cliffs massacre, so recently as September last, and almost prophesying the event which Poverty Bay and White Cliffs beheld : During the thirty-five years that I have been in New Zealand I never felt so desponding as at the present time. Our numbers in this Province are vastly reduced, and if the rebels come here or rise in this neighborhood we are almost powerless to stand against them. Our friendly natives arepuzzled, and know not whattomate of it. They saw a large army of soldiers sent here from Sydney, from Melbourne, from India, from England, from " all the world," to suppress the rebellion, and that army was recalled either because they could not do the work, or that England found out that the work to be done was not " tiki" (not right) : that is, that the colonists had involved Britain in an unrighteous •war; and their conclusions now are that we are left to ourselves, and that the rebels will now take advantage of our deserted and unprotected state, that they will seek " utu " (payment, revenge) for all the past, and as we failed to conquer tfem when we had ten thousand soldiers and all their big guns in the land, we have now no chance whatever. And, of course they consider what will become of them, and ask themselves the question, what is their wisest course. If they by fidelity to us assist a failing cause, how will they stand when we fall ? And they are confirmed in these views and apprehensions by the fact that the few soldiers that remain here do not help the settlers at all, but are just spending their time amongst us like gentlemen. And if our own pakeha soldiers do not help us, why should they be expected to do so? Can we gainsay this reasoning of the Maori mind among our friendly natives ? The friendly natives never approved of the withdrawal of the troops until matters should be thoroughly settled, and it is now with them a very serious question, what will be done, and how will they be affected ? Some three or four months ago the friendly natives of this district visited the rebel tribes m the south with the hope of promoting and establishing peace. This gave those tribes an opportunity of returning the visit, and they came by hundreds. But they came, not as those who are vanquished and humbled, but as those whose right it is to dictate terms and lay down the law. Of course they came without arms, and were received with every manifestation of friendly feeling and hospibospitality, both by natives and Europeans. But to the appeal made to them by the authorities in the way of assertion and example, " "War is at an end, is it not ?" and which was responded to in native fashion by a loud and unanimous "Ae" from the pakehas, they made a very equivocal and unsatisfactory response, and since their return war has been recommenced in a most savage and murderous way by them or their friends. The impression is therefore irresistible that they came here for the purpose of spying out our weakness, and also of getting the friendly natives over to their side. Out of deference to those

by whom they were entertained they allowed us to hold our religious services in their presence, and to preach to them the everlasting Gospel, but they took care to lose no opportunity in exhibiting the fascinating ceremonies of their new religion of Uau-hauism before tbe Christian natives, and of doing all they could to persuade them that it was all the same religion as their own, and vastly superior in their way of observing its ceremonies and worship. That they succeeded to a very large extent is unquestionable, and the declining interest manifested in our schools and worship is painful proof that the friendly natives are sympathising in a very serious degree with those who are in rebellion against us. The success which the rebels have achieved will of course further confirm these wavering " friendlies " in their faith in the cause of those who have taken up arms against us, so that it may before long become with them a settled conviction that we are all wrong, and that they are bound by duty and by interest to abandonus.