THE HIKURANGI MEETING.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 811, 28 August 1877, Page 2

THE HIKURANGI MEETING.

We learn from a reliable source that few speeches were made at the Hikurangi meeting. Te Ngaku spoke for- Tawhiao and called upon, those tribes liyingp at KLawhia and other settlements along the West Coast to abandon their settlement and come to live at Hikurangi, near the King. He also gave positive, instruction that no Europeans were m future to be allowed to eiiter the King Country, or penetrate even as far as Te Kopua under any pretence. This order is said to be issued m. consequence of" the attempt made to capture DawsOn, by following him up the - country lately, when a constable want to Kopua.

Si nco various rumours are afloat about the native settlement, which is how being, formed ab the junction of . the Waipa and Puniu Rivers, it maybe interesting to some to know the true account of it as furnidied by themselves. Tawhiao or Takaroto as lie is now called, has given Te Wheoro and his people the whole tract of country bounded on the and west by the Punui and I Waipa Rivers, and on the south by a straight line extending from the top of Kakapuku Mountain to the Puniu River, near Kihikihi on the one side, and tq the Waipa, near Kopua on the other, or about 6,000 acres of the finest land in' the province; to form a special settlement of the Waikato Kupapas with the distinct understanding that no Hanhaus shall settle ampung them or interfere with them m any way or attempt to introduce among them the Hauhau oeremouies or religion. Tawhiao's desire is that they shall form a settlement, or town as he calls it, afterjtjhe European fashion, letting each .man have a few acres marked; off for himsolf and family to cultivate?. So far from regarding such a ; settlement -as any canse of alarm it is looked on by meny as far more ; likely to be a matter for congratulation, as ib may afford the Government a great facility for opening a road into the interior if they push on the railway Jto, tlie Pjihiu River, and then bring 'the influence of this friendly settlement to bear upon the Hauhaus to induce them-, to let us carry it through to Taranaki.