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That although the local authorities have constantly represented to the natives that the white population cannot take part in the native feuds ; the natives who have been living amongst your memorialists, who have sold and are willing to sell land to the Government, have repeatedly declared that your memorialists are interested in the question at issue, that land is the basis of their wars, and that they will drag the settlers into the strife whether they are willing or not. That the European inhabitants of New Plymouth are unskilled in the use of arms, that they have neither weapons nor amunition, that they have never been organised for the purpose of defence, and that they have no Block-house or stockade, or place of refuge in case of an attack. That the present warlike position of the natives, your memorialists feel that any attempt they might make to organise themselves or to secure a place of shelter for their families, would only create alarm and distrust and probably bring down on them at once and unprepared, the calamity they seek to avert. Your memorialists, therefore, pray your Excellency to station at New Plymouth, at the earliest possible moment, and without any ostensible preparation, as they believe the utmost care is necessary to avoid alarming the native mind in its present unwonted state of excitement, And your memorialists will ever pray New Plymouth, January 6th, 1855. (Signed) Thomas King, M.H.R. James C. Sharland Edward Dorset John Watson E, Bayly Here follow 196 other signatures

Resident Magistrate's Office, New Plymouth. 26th May, 1855. Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th ult., conveying a request from His Excellency the Officer administering the Government that I should furnish him with my views on the state of affairs at Taranaki, further to direct Mr. Halse to explain fully and minutely to the Hua natives that they are on no acrount to interfere with the supplies or traffic of the Europeans, either on the public highway, or by the beach, and likewise to intimate to the same tribe His Excellency's satisfaction at the return of the abstracted gun. In accordance with the wish expressed by His Excellency, I have the honor to remark that the conduct of the natives towards the Europeans has undergone no apparent change since the departure of His Excellency from this place ; and the circumstance of the abstracted gun having been given up, taken in connjxion with other minor circumstances in which the natives have been brought into contact with Europeans, and wherein they have deferred to our advice and interference, leads me to the conclusion that to a considerable extent they still respect our laws and customs, especially as regards the intercourse subsisting between themselves and Europeans, and further that there exists no ostensible cause for a qurrel to be raised by them with the Huropeansj and as the pretext for our interfering on behalf of the late Rawiri's party appears to be no longer prominently put forward, I have the greatest hope that our neutral position may be maintained and peace with the Europeans continued. During the present week, information was brought to the natives of the town pah and Moturoa, that Wirimu Ki'igi, of the Waitara, with his followers, had performed a Haka or insulting dance and song, which greatly exasperated the natives of those places, who proceeded to the Hua, Hawatown, and Waiongana, when the Maoris there joined them in expressing by a similar dance and song their defiance of Wiremu Kingi and his party.