DEFENCE FROM MAORI AGGRES. SION.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 755, 19 April 1877, Page 3

DEFENCE FROM MAORI AGGRES. SION.

Sir,— The following is ah extraot from a letter received from my brother, who is residing at Tauranga, and next neighbour to. the Mr Fraser of whom he writes :—

" The telegram yon sanr m the Weekly about the Maoris here, is true enough. There are a lot of them squatting on FraserV land. One day lately he told them they would have to clear off, as he intended to plough up the land. The next : day, ' v?hile he was away m Tau > ranga, a lot of them went to the hbus<>, threatened to tomahawk Mrs Fraser, and play the mischief generally if they did not clear out. She at once got a horse, and went after her husband, and told him what had happened* He went to Mr Brabant, and demanded a warrant. Our worthy EM. flaid it w»s of no use giving a warrant, as they could not get the natives. Fraser caid, give him the warrant, and he would oateh the niggerß himself. Brabant then refused point blank. Half-a-dozen constables could have taken the whole: lot without the least trouble, but, oh! no! that would have been too much responsibility for a Resident Magistrate and Native Commissioner, with £600 a year, to think of. The end of it viill be, these fellows will have another piece of land Bomewhere else given them. They have not a shadow of a right where they are. Fraser holds the land under Crown, Grant." ■' Now, sir, here is . another case simUa to that which occurred at Alexandra a few weeks aince, and yet|we are to believe that the natives will never give us any more trouble, and that it ia quite right and safe to reduce the defence force of the country to a mere name. In the whole of Waikato, I suppose, we shall have some forty men of the A.C. force, and these are to be crowded into one corner of the district, faraway from the most troublesome natives. Kihikihi, a settlement within one and a-half miles of the Maori' country, a place constantly visited by numbers of lawless Maoris; who, on the least provocation, or no provocation at all, give vent to their insolent bounce and swagger— is to bo left without a man of any description to keep -the peace; and even the very' 'build* ings are to be taken down and removed. And this is not /all. Under Sir Donald MeLean's fostering care, a body of cavalry was raised m the Wai.kato, of which Waikato and- the 1 Province were justly proud. This force > numbered altogether about 120 jmen, all well mounted and aimed, and to some extent drilled. The whole cost of the force was about £1100, or about £9 per man and horse per ; annum. .There is every probability of this force nielting away, during the next few months, to the merest shadow. The Goyernment doeis not consider it worth while to remunerate the' Commanding Officers of the two troops for their trouble I and loss >of time, and if those officers continue to give their time and trouble for nothing, they are a good deal more patriotic than I should be under the circumstances.! ; Ido not know how it is with the Cambridge troop, but I do knowthat a large proportion of the' Te Awamutu troop, look upon: it as a slight to the whole troops and are prepared to send m their, arnjs along with;their officers resignation. . .. .. „.. ;,. [„-,.■ ;:, . .• : , ', • .•••.- There is another matter whioh shows' how very littjle value: the Government Betßupon the services of the troop. A short time ago, those who had served five years m , the corps got their volunteer land-script but the present system of discouraging the volunteers is again shown. The district to which selection is confined, and the time during which it may be made, are both so limited as to make the scrip aimply valueless, so much so that a good deal of it will probably never be made use of. These, sir, are facts which I think are deserving- of consideration, and taken m connection with tfeo late ina'anoes of Maori insolence at Tauranga and Alexandra, seem to show that the saving of some £30,000 promised by the present Government m the defence of the country, may be very dearly paid .for m the future.— l am, &c,, J. H. Blandeno. Te Awamutu April 17th ' '■