The Press. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1869.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1829, 22 February 1869, Page 2

The Press. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1869.

The news from the North is again most deplorable. We hear from Taranaki that another shocking massacre has been committed at an outlying settlement near the White Cliffs in that province, the inhabitants of which have been suddenly set upon and murdered by a party of Mokau natives. The victims are, Lieutenant G-ascoigne, with his wife and two children; the Eev. Mr Whiteley, an aged missionary, who has laboured at Taranaki ever since the foundation of the settlement, and who has hitherto been so respected by the natives that during the last war, we are told, he could go anywhere with impunity; and two settlers named Eichards and Milner. All other settlers in the locality have made their escape to the town. The names of the murderers, four in number, are known, and it is said that none of the other Taranaki tribes are in any way implicated ; which is probably true of the tribes- as a whole, as they have lately shown no disposition to hostilities. But individuals among them may be differently minded, and we fear this party will become the nucleus of a band formidable, not from numbers, but trom ferocity, and from the uncertainty what place may be the scene of their next onslaught. A single such band is enough to stop the progress of settlement and to keep the country in constant alarm. We trust the men of Taranaki will be allowed to deal with these wretches as they think best, and that a price will be set on their heads sufficient to induce the other natives to join in the pursuit. The sooner they are exterminated the better. From the other side of the island we heard last week that Te Kooti, who was said to have died in the bush from exhaustion, or to have been shot by his followers whose flight .was impeded by having to carry with them their wounded leader, has turned up in the Thames district. He is reported to have built a strong pa, to have seized on the horses of the friendly natives "for his cavalry," and to be threatening an attack upon Opotiki, the settlers in which neighbourhood have been called in by Major Mair. We do not suppose the colony is in much danger from anything that it lies within the power of Te Kooti | to do. He cannot have many men with him; his murders have alienated the great majority even of his own countrymen, whom his first. proceedings in his new sphere of operations will riot tend to conciliate; arid whatever prestige he might have acquired by his first successes must have been much damnified, if not wholly lost, by his expulsion from Ngatapa. It will not do, however, to trust too much to the last consideration. The Hau-haus no doubt have a very different version of the Ngatapa affair from ours, and what we call defeat and flight they represent in no worse a light than a masterly retreat. Besides it is said that Ngatapa was reoccupied after the departure of the colonial forces. Still Te Kooti at his best cannot be an enemy to be dreaded. He may carry on a kind of guerilla war for a while, but he must be crushed* eventually—and let us hope i he will not escape a second time. But the great, danjger is—and it is one which such an event as that at Taranaki brings painfully to mind—that he may surprise some outlying family of settlers or some little remote settlement, if there are any such in that part of the country; while any successful raid of the kind might lead to his being joined by others of the disaffected natives. At all events, apart from his murderous fanaticism, he is a centre of rebellion and a pest to the colony, and there will be no peace till he has been hunted down. Why should not the Arawas and Ngatiporous, if they have not been transferred to Wanganui, be employed for the purpose ? With regard to the West Coast campaign there is no news; and no news in this case, contrary to the proverb, is bad news. Witfi the summer at an end and the enemy undeafeated, in fact with all our work still before us,-that there should bo nothing being done is as bad news short of actual

reverse as could be had. The natives appear to be scattered in more or less force all over the country in the neighbourhood of the colonial forces, a disagreeable proof of which has just been given by the loss of seven men through an ambuscade. Titokowaru himself has vanished, no one knows whither; but it is quite clear now that be has no intention of meeting Colonel Whitmore in anything like a stand-up fight. If so, it is impossible to say how long he may not contrive to elude pursuit, or when order and security will be completely restored. It was a great misfortune for the colony that he ever escaped at Nukumaru. There was a chance then of ending the war at a blow, and we fear that no such opportunity will recur.