ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

Auckland Star, Volume X, Issue 2926, 30 August 1879, Page 2

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

Mr Sheehan leaves for the Thames at 11 o'clock to-day, mid will proceed direct to the scene. It is probable that the attack on the surveyors will furnish Mr Sheehan with a ieasion for demanding' iitu; as the attack was committed <>n Government land, and the payment which will be exacted will be permission for the road and telegraph to run through that part of the district. If this can be completed, the (affair will prove a great advantage in the long ruu. Meantime we have every confidence iv the tact and firmness ot the Native Minister, and there is no cause for the slightest alarm. The whole affair is a mere dispute about a boundary.

It is believed that a mistake has been made iv connecting the Ngatikohe -with this attack, as they have always beeu very friendly and assisted in opening the goldfield. 1 ho tribe has always beeu lcokei upon as occupying au inferior position, but has rendered much valuable aid to the Government. They are the sellers of the block on which the attack took place and are not likely to be aggressors* The Ngatiko, to whom the attacking party belong, are a turbulent lot,and recently obstructed the snagging at Wai ho. They are even more a serf tribe than the Ngatikohe. The other tribes express their contempt o£ Ngstihako by calling them the " eelcatchers." They aro connected distantly with Tukukino,\vho countenances them to. some extent. They possess no influence whatever, and are very few iv number. The Pukehauge block, which is described! iv an appended telegram as the scene of the attack, is bounded on the west by the Waiho River, ou the north by a Hue corn* mencing near the Okahukiira, extending eastward along the boundary of the Tamatawahine blook, ou the east by the Ohinemuri Goldfield block, on the south by Native land. The block is estimated ta> contain about 2,000 acres. Mr Bnyldoa was authorised to commence the survey about five weeks ago, the followingnotives.sighing the authority : —Timiuka, Tarawhakrea, Here Kiwha, Benata Tamato, Te Wetenc, Hoani Kaharuhi, and Mamaeroa. The survey was being made on Icbnlf of the Government, who. wera the purchasers, and for ■whom Mr Mackay made advances soma years ago.

Mr Cashel, of Ohinemuri, informs us of the following facts which throw light on the outrage : —Six weeks ago, with a party, he was surveying the block where tke outrage is supposed to have taken place. The block has not passed through the Court and his party were surveying fox the Nga.tihako, the supposed perpetrator* of the present outrage, who had made an applies* tion to the Court. There are very few of of the tribe, but -they are a turbulent lot ; their stronghold is Toawaiti, between the Piako and Waiho. They fired over the heads of Mesacs Maokay, Creagh, Cashel and, others o»ce before, when Mr Mackay was goring Wfiiho %vest block ready far the Government. The survey ou that oooasion was stopped for a short time, but was afterwards completed, Mr Mackay arranging the matter amicably. Another tribe, the Ngatikoos, have taken advances, ou the land from the Government, and Mr Bayldon's survey party wore preparing it for that tribe who had also applied totho Court. They had asked Mr Cashel to survey the block, but having already done part of it for the other peoplo, would nofc undertake it, and hence Messrs Bayldon and Crump were applicants. The tribe is a very small and isolated one, but they claimed several pieces in the last Court, bufe gaiued nothing, and hence have been veiy discontented^ They are the same people tiafc prevented the snagging of the river. Is the ofl'caders desired to escape they would undoubtedly make across for Tarapipi settlement at the Piako.