IN NATIVE DISTRICTS.

A.—No. 10.

41

he guilty of violence himself, but that other tribes might. He is doing his utmost to spread disaffection among our friendly Natives, and recommends them to clear out and go to the bush ; but six of our Natives spoke at the meeting, and assured him of their determination to remain faithful to the Government, and deprecated in strong terms his interference. The day after we were there he wrote to the Superintendent, asking him to come and see him on the Bth of October. The Superintendent has offered to meet him at Mahoetahi on Wednesday next, but whether he will come down there or not I cannot say until his answer is received. He has only seven others with him, and so far as I can ascertain, no other Natives of tiie district are supporting him; but ho is no doubt trying to take advantage of our misfortune in the Patea district and our weakness in the Mataitawa district, where there are but few settlers left. There is one family living close to them, at Te Koparoa, perfectly isolated from the other settlers and the block-house, there being no road to their place. I have recommended His Honor the Superintendent to advise them to come away therefrom for a time. Every other part of the district is perfectly quiet at present. I have, &c, E. Paebis, The Hon. the Native Minister, Wellington. Civil Commissioner.

No. 39. Copy of a Letter from Mr. E. Paeeis to the Hon. J. C. Eichmond. (No. 290.) Sib, — New Plymouth, 21st October, 1868. In further reference to my report of the 10th instant, No. 286, in reference to a meeting at Koparoa, and the arrangement for a subsequent meeting at Mahoetahi, I have now the honor to report that Tamati Teito and five others came by invitation to Mahoetahi on Wednesday last, to meet His Honor the Superintendent and myself. At the request of Tamati Teito, about a dozen of the settlers of the Mataitawa District attended the meeting, and the Natives present were the followers of Mahau and Tahana. The subject discussed was the same as on the former occasion, the confiscated lands, which he said we must abandon, without which the settlers would be killed. I reminded him that, at the meeting at his own place the week previous, he had said that other tribes might do it, and that now I wished him to understand that I did not want his opinion as to what other tribes might do, but that I wanted to know what he himself meant to do. In reply he said, If they do not leave I will kill them. I gave him to understand that if an European had been guilty of such a threat he would have been arrested at once, but as he had come there by invitation of the Superintendent, I would not take advantage of him, but warned him not to repeat his threat, and told him that the killing of European settlers would not restore the land to the Natives, but bring further trouble upon them. As he distinctly held out the threat to do bodily harm to the settlers, I recommended His Honor the Superintendent to advise those settlers beyond the Mataitawa Block-house to come in, until we saw what the upshot was to be, which he did accordinglv, and as the most of them were present, they agreed to come in the following morning. Before leaving, I had a private conversation with Mahau, who at once suggested that I should either make Tamati Teito prisoner, or allow him to drive him away from his place at Koparoa. My objection to the first proposition was, that Tamati Teito had been present at the meeting by invitation of His Honor the Superintendent; to the second proposition of Mahau's, to allow him to drive Tamati Teito and his people away, I was quite averse, knowing that if that was done, they would be sure to return and surprise the settlers in retaliation. I therefore arranged with Mahau and Tahana that they should take the matter in hand, and see if they could induce him to retract what he had said; or, if he refused to do that, and still threatened violence to the settlers, not to allow him to return, but detain him until they heard from me the following morning, which Mahau agreed to do. Before leaving Mahoetahi to return to town, I ordered a Native policeman to go during the night to the chief Nepe, who lives at Pekatu, near Mangonui, and request him to come in to me the following morning. As there were many Europeans at the meeting, the news spread rapidly that the Mataitawa settlers were called in, which was the cause of a good deal of excitement, more particularly in town; and before I went to bed several.came to my house to inquire if the report was true, which of course I was obliged to admit, but at the same time I told them all that there was no occasion for the slightest alarm. The following morning His Honor the Superintendent and Major Stapp met me at my office, to consult as to what had better be done, when we decided to put the settlers into the Manutahi and Mataitawa Block-houses, as a precautionary measure. AVHiilst we were engaged at my office, a deputation of four shopkeepers waited upon us to make certain suggestions, when His Honor the Superintendent very properly told them they must leave the matter in the hands of those who understood how to deal with the question better than they did. His Honor the Superintendent, Major Stapp, and I, were starting to go to Mataitawa, after I had taken out warrants of arrest for Teito and three of his followers, in case I decided to arrest them after hearing what had taken place during the night; but before we left town, Tahana and Kipa, two of our Assessors, arrived from Mahoetahi to inform me, that Tamati Teito had recanted during the night, and given them most satisfactory assurances of his assent to put a stop to the whole matter, and hot to interfere with the settlers, and that Mahau had taken Teito and his few followers with him to his place at Te Puata. Some of the Justices of the Peace were of opinion that a meeting of that body ought to be ■convened, and accordingly those who were available were soon brought together —about ten of them. I took Tahana and Kipa to the meeting, and got them to state what had taken place during the night, 11