IMPORTANT FROM TARANAKI.

Press, Volume III, Issue 131, 1 April 1863, Page 2

IMPORTANT FROM TARANAKI.

By the Storm Bird wliich arrived in Lyttelton about 3 o'clock this morning, wo have received Wellington papers to the 28th inst., containing the following important news from Taranaki:— MILITARY MOVEMENTS. Some excitement prevailed in town on Wednoslast, when it transpired that a force of military were under orders for Waircka. On that day bullocks and carts were pressed for immediate service, and other signs given which meant that a movement to somo part of the Province was intended. On Thursday morning at 8.30 o'clock, 300 of the 57th Regt., under Colonel Warre, C.8., together with Lieut. Ferguson and a detachment of the Royal Engineers, marched off by thc Great South Road towards Omata. His Excellency Sir George Grey, General Cameron, and suite, followed. Tho troops reached Waircka at 10 o'clock, and encamped on Wilkinson's farm, near thc Southern boundary of the Omata block, where a stockade is to ho erected. A number of the Taranaki tribe havo been for several days at Wnirau, a nativo settlement between Omata and Tataraimaka, who no doubt were surprised by the sudden occupation of the territory said by them j to be theirs by conquest in 1860-61, and it has ! given rise to considerable conjecture as to their intentions. The smoke of large fires, supposed to be signal fires, was seen at Tataraimaka and beyond it after the arrival of tho troops. It was bringing back old times when the well-remembered picket bugle call of the Volunteers was sounded on Thursday evening, and 120 men were told off for inlying picket and blockhouse duty, and were marched on" to their respective posts. Tho regulation system of guards and pickets has been reestablished, the Volunteers alone having as yet been called upon, but as somo of the blockhouses are now garrisoned by them, a portion of the Militia, wo presume, will have to take a share, of the duty. The detachment of tho 65th, under Captain Gresson, came in from the rifle practice ground at Waiwakaiho on Thursday, and is stationed in the Marsland Hill Barracks and Mount Eliot. Six of the Volunteers, under Sergeant F. Mace, have been appointed mounted orderlies to attend upon the Governor and General Cameron. We understand that the road will bo at once made by the military between the Putoko pa and the Omata stockade. It is quite impossible to say what will be the issue of His Excellency's movements at Omata, or whether the natives will interfere with him, but it is not probable that they will.

Sir George Grey, General Cameron, and staff, together with thc Colonial Secretary and the Native Minister, have daily visited thc camp and the Putoko. It is said that on Thin .day two delegates from the Taranakis met the Governor at the Putoko. We have not been made acquainted witli the object nor of thc result of their mission, but hear that they told His Excellency that they claimed all the European hind around the town, when Sir George replied that they had better also claim thc sun moon and stars. We hear also that they informed His Excellency that they should bo willing to give up Tataraimaka if all the runangas north and south wished it, and if he gave Waitara to them. LATEST FKOM TnE CAMP. The military have commenced a redoubt on Wilkinson's farm, on a hill overlooking the Putoko, and surrounding country, which they are rapidly constructing. Natives are to be seen on one of the spurs of the ranges.-—Taranaki Herald, March 14. The ' Taranaki News ' of the 19th contains the following:—"The Harrier arrived this morning, just before our hour of publication, bringing 200 of the 70th Regt. We have been favored with a sight of tho 'Xcw Zealander' of yesterday's date, which states that 100 men of the Artillery are also destined for Taranaki to serve as a mounted force. They, however, have not arrived by the Harrier, and there is a report that tho Airedale has been taken up for an intermediate trip which may have relation to bringing them." The ■Wanganui Chronicle' says that several armed parties of Waitotaras and Ngatiruanuis have gone north to the scene of action.