THE WAR

Press, Volume XVI, Issue 2160, 21 March 1870, Page 3

THE WAR

[From a Correspondent in the North.] We receive very contradictory reports about; this tTriwera expedition ; but eince McDonnell's dismissal it appears that the invasion from the western side has broken down. The Wanganuis are presumed to be somewhere to the north, and Major Ropata with 500 of his own Poverty Bay column, together with a scratch pack from Wairoa, is going to try to cross Lake Waikaremoana. The boats if possible will be raised and matters restored as far as possible to the position in which Colonel Herrick left them when he was recalled by Mr Ormond last year. The Arawas it is said have struck work since the contract system of war-making has been introduced. It is impossible of course to form an idea how many friendly warriors will really go into the mountains, but as no preparations for the commissariat have been made, and as the food obtainable is a doubtful quantity the result is more likely to be a valueless than a salutary one; under these circumstances it is lucky we are spending nothing in paying these friendlies, and luckier still if we get off the claims they are sure to raise hereafter —for the chest is certainly very low. Most of the Constabulary are four months in arrears of pay, and the natives engaged at 3s 6d and rations complain that they cannot get a settlement of their claims. The Napier natives positively decline to serve on these terms, and Henare refuses to listen to Mr Ormond's entreaties to join the "Waikaremoana force. One pleasant piece of news reaches us that Major Roberts, one of the very best men among the colonial officers, is to go up to the neighborhood of Fort Galatea to intercept Te Kooti if he flies in that direction. The model police are still shut up rigorously in their redoubts, probably the best place for them, as for war purposes they are quite useless. The telegraph has been pushed on with unexampled activity ; one mile per month almost has been completed since Mr Pox came int.o office, and it has now reached Tarawera, nearly eight miles beyond Haroto, where Mr Stafford left it. Unfortunately the men of the old force are dropping off daily. A new regulation enables them to give three months notice of a desire I

to be discharged. This is an Irish police regulation and quit© inappropriate to the old AC, each of whom, after their field experience, was worth half-a-dozen six foot recruit policemen such as arc now being engaged. Unless providence specially intervenes to bring our troubles to a conclusion, fighting men will indeed be few. This expedition will bo a last test of our friendlies. Should they fail now it is to bo hoped the experiment of engaging those people wholesale will never be repeated, and that wo may husband what few really reliable men we shall have left.

It is said Te Kooti means to double back as soon as the natives enter the mountains, but this is perhaps only a canard to which attention is paid solely because he has hitherto carried out his promises. Thero is a general satisfaction felt at the romoval of McDonnell, in whom tho force had no confidence.

We have Major Heaphy here trying to find something to do in his new office. There would be plenty of work for him if he was independent, but the conflicting interests between the Maori owners of land and the several magnates of this part of the country are not easy to reconcile, especially when the latter are political celebrities. The great "Apostle" Eewi, of the Karaina plains has almost fallen into European hands, and Major Heaphy cannot do much to prevent it.