MEETING AT TE AWAMUTU.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 158, 13 May 1873, Page 2

MEETING AT TE AWAMUTU.

Ax inffuential\n,TOlnuaiei>ously attended meeting, in> response to a call from several of the leading gentlemen in the district, assembled io> the Volunteer iJUII, Te Awamutu, on. Tuesday last. Major Jackson, M H R., on being called to the chair, read the notice calling the meeting — " to ' Consider the present relation* of the Europeans and Maoris " — and, after a few remarks, called upon Mr A. Kay to propose the first resolution :—: — "Thit this meeting acknowledges with gratitude the efforts of the Government to biiuj»tht murderers of Patrick Sullivan to justice, and chernhes the confident hope thatii those efforts will nut cease uutil they are crowned with success." This was seconded by Mr A. Rosa, and carried nem. con. The following resolution, was proposed and seconded respectively by Mr James Henderson and Mr A. Ramsey :—: — " That this meetiug begs most respectfully to remind the Government that the successive murders perpetrated, and outrages committed, in the Waikato distiict, tend to destroy the confidence of the settlers in the power of the Government to protect them, and to depreciate the value of their property, by p» eventing settlers investing capital in unoccupied land, and to retard m aterially the progress and prosperity of the colony. " In proposing the next resolution, (he Rev Mr Mandeno made some very strong and pointed romarks with regard to the garbled and false statement swhicli had appeared in one of the Auckland newspapers — that the late outrage was limply a private quarrel and had no political significance, and compared the views taken bj one party as those of a man of a bilious temperament. He stigmatised, the telegram reports as a tissue of falsehoods, and concluded bj | submitting the following :—: — " That this meeting cannot allow the statements of the journals in Auckland to escape the imputation of gross falsehood, when they assort that Sullivan perished in a private quarrel with the natives, since there is the testimony of the natives themselves, and of the settlers who are most intimately acquainted with the facts of the case, to prove that he was an innocent man — sacrificed to the-fury of men who disputed the equity of the tille of the occupiers to the land upon which he was at work " This, after a lew words from Air P. Bond, who seconded the resolution, was carried without a dissenting voice. The next proposition w as made by Mr Bridgman, and ran as follows : — " That this meeting earnestly solicits the attention of the Government to the necessity of establishing an aukati to prevent hostile and armed natives from roaming about at their pleasure to tlireaten, alarm, and murder the settlers, and to this end recommend that a system of passport be adopted ; and also that it may be made lawful for the Armed Constabulary and others to apprehend any armed native or any native traveller without a passport." Mr James Cunningham, in moving an amendment to the above, thought that the presence of the natives amongst the settlers was rather a protection than otherwise, as it enabled information- to- be conveyed, and suggested that the natives should be allowed to come in as usual. This, however, did not meet the views of the assemblage, and was negatived on the voices. The following gentlemen were then appointed to act in conjunction with the committee appointed in Cambridge " to watch the course ofevents:' I—Rev.1 — Rev. Mr Mandeno, Messrs Finch, Kay, Cowan, Holden, Cunningham, and Ross. The meeting then concluded with the usual vote of thanks to the chairman.