E—No. 0

THE KOHIMARAMA CONFERENCE.

measures as having caused a feeling of dissatisfaction among you. According to Waikato no force can be justly employed against any tribe except with their concurrence and approval. They do not bear in mind that this question has been under discussion during many years, fto rash haste marked the Governor's proceedings when he went to Taranaki. He wrote to William King and invited him to a friendly Conference, but the latter refused to come. When the surveyors went peaceably to survey the land, he opposed them with force, and compelled them to retire. The soldiers then weut to protect the survey. William King waited, hoping that one of his men might be killed and so furnish a pretext for fighting, and that it might be said that the Europeans had commenced it. Then aPa was set up on the land. The officer commanding the troops sent a letter to William King in the hope of dissuading him from compelling hostilities, but it was treated with contempt. Thus did he wrongly provoke the war which has been carried on since that time to the present. It was then that the Pa was fired upon by the soldiers. After this followed the acts of the Ngatiruanui and Taranaki. I shall not speak of these as you are well acquainted with the particulars. Enough. You have now heard the causes out ot which the war at Taranaki has sprung. I shall proceed to read the Governor's Message to you :— Message No. 3. Thomas Gore Browne, Governor. Many of the Chiefs assembled at Kohimarama having expressed a wish to be correctly informed jof the events at Taranaki, the Governor has instructed Mr. McLean to relate truly all that has occurred. The Chiefs will learn from him that many of the Maories in that district had earnestly desired the Governor to put an end to their bloody and disgraceful feuds which constantly endangered the peace of the District, destroying many of their own lives and endangering those of the Europeans. In compliance with their urgent request, the Governor declared his intentions at a meeting at which William King was present in March 1859 ; but William King, supported by men opposed to the sale of land, trampled upon his words, and assumed to himself the right of forbidding other Chiefs to do what they please with their own. William King was present when Teira made the offer and described the boundaries, also when the money was paid to Teira, and did not urge any claim to share in it ; but he drove away the Surveyors, and when asked to the Governor and declare what claim he had upon the land or what right he had to interfere, he refused to come, and when the land was occupied by the Queen's troops he built aPa upon it and obstructed the road. Even then he was allowed to go in peace, the Pa being destroyed. Not satisfied with this, he built a second Pa which was destroyed, and now he has built others, and remains in arms against Her Majesty. The Chiefs will therefore see that it was not the Governor who commenced the war, or desired it, but William King ; all this, however, will be related in full and explainedby Mr . McLean. Government House, July 19th, 1860. Meeting adjourned to 20th instant. FRIDAY, JULY 20th, 1860. The Native Secretary suggested that Tamati Waka should commence the day's speeches, and that he should be followed by Nopera, Awarahia, and the other members who only recently arrived. The speeches accordingly took the following order, viz. : — Tamati Waka Nene, Nopera, Katipa Te Awarahi, Te Ao-o-te-rangi, Petaera Wharerahi, Mete Kingi, Tamihana Te Rauparaha, Te Rira Porutu, / Tukihaumene, (A lew words in reply from the Native Secretary,) Paora Tuhaere, Hapurona Tohikura, Pehimana, Ihakara Ngariri, Hone Wiremu Hipango, Hori Kerei, Parakaia Te Pouepa. Meeting adjourned to '23rd instant.

15