THE WAR.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1849, 17 March 1869, Page 3

THE WAR.

THE FOECES US" THE BUSH.

The " Evening Herald " of the Bth inst. says:— Operations at the Front are going on steadily, and are principally confined to the cutting of tracks through the bush. The effects of the late floods are everywhere visible. The country is completely covered with the white mud of the late inundation. In the bush, where the forces are encamped, the mud is eight or nine feet higher than the level on which the men slept previous to the flood, and from the mud on the branches of the trees the water must have been ten feet above the level of a totara tree which has probably from time immemorial served as a bridge to the Maoris using the track leading to Okotuku, which is being improved by the men. The Momahakiis a very tortuous stream, and it is very difficult to say exactly where it will next present itself when it is once crossed. There seems to be a whole tribe of large creeks converging in the immediate front of the forces, and as these are deep and muddy, the men are compelled to make rude bridges across them. Polling two tree 3, and placing cross sticks to make a tread usually suffices, as the streams are not broad. Tbe troops are now about four miles advanced from Wereroa, where the headquarters still are, and it is believed they will emergent an old clearing and so save a considerable deal of work. On Friday the advance party came across a Maori sentry, whom they fired upon, which, together with the fresh marks of the Maoris digging for worms as bait for eels, and footmarks, show their proximity. Though dense and indented with gullies,

j the valley is too low and flat afford any chance of seeing the enemy, till he is actually reached. The men are becoming accustomed to the supplejacks, and at least know their way well about the valley. When they attack the enemy, if he should stand, they will know for the first time how to shift for themselves ia the bush. The enemy has for some days past kept in perfect concealment, and when his stronghold is reached he will no doubt be found strongly posted. Some hold his line of retreat will be towards Waitara; some that he will fall back on Te Ngutu ; but the truth is he has no traitors to betray his intentions, and money or inducements can obtain no reliable account of his position. The main track, which is now being made, from the precipitous nature of the inclines, cannot be of any practical value to the country, but it will make one fastness less inaccessible. Parties are engaged in examining the ground from a shorter distance from his position, and the probabilities are that other paths may be found to abridge the labour of the troops. The low fever among the men is somewhat abated, and they are in fair spirits considering the nature of the work to which most of them have been unaccustomed, which they are engaged in. In a week's time Titoko Waru will probably find retreat again necessary, when he will cross the Patea river. Parties have already gone before him, no doubt to provide food for his men at Gentle Annie, or perhaps Te JSFgutu. The place he is now in, within four miles of Okutuku, is one of the most inaccessible in the whole island, and any rush now would bring the force again into a slaughteryard. The " Chronicle " of the 9th, relative to the same subject, remarks — Colonel "Whitmore is in hopes that all this bush work will make the men fitted for the work before them. All the division have gone across the Waitotara, and most of them are pushed still further forward. Some ninety Wanganuis have recently joined the force, and they should be valuable as scouts and indicators of ambuscades. We hear incidentally that although the enemy is never seen, fresh tracks of him are often come upon, a fact which should induce the utmost vigilence on the part of the force. We fear sometimes that in an hour of unguardedness and fancied security some dire mischief may happen. As we have already mentioned a low fever is very prevalent in camp, and many officers and men are suffering from the effects of it. The men call it " camp fever," but it is probably caused by the swamps and low lands in which they are and have been so long working, over which every morning and evening a heavy mist may be seen to hang, which is no doubt exceedingly injurious to health. Intelligence from a native source reached us yesterday, that on the previous day the Arawas and Kupapas had come upon the enemy's pa in the bush and destroyed it. There was bnt one man found inside, and he was wounded, having apparently been left behind by the enemy in his haste. This man, it is : said, was wounded in the ear at the | Karaka skirmish ; he was despatched at once by our allies.