NEW PLYMOUTH.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIII, Issue 948, 29 July 1856, Page 3

NEW PLYMOUTH.

By the overland mail, we have the 'Herald* of the 12th, from which we extract the following : — The position of this Province regarding its relations with the aboriginal population which, since its settlement, has been collected about it, as well as the recent accumulation of a still larger force of strange natives in its immediate neighbourhood with avowed hostile intentions, has long been known to government, and military protection to meet any probable emergency has been supplied ; since which time, except on extraoidinary occasions, the press has merely taken its most useful position — that of journalist. From all we are now able to learn of the intention of the native tribes collected in our neighbourhood, the position of the Settlement is gradually, day by day, becoming more and more menacing, so far as compromising European neighbourhood goes. The Ngatiruanui natives around here are encamped on the borders of the forest south of the Kaipakopako pa, are throwing up strengths and building pas with a view to hem in the Ninia people The latter however hold out, and it is supposed that even should the quarrel come to conflict, the powerful pa of Arama Karaka, and the determination of his followers might probably foil his opponents. The Ngatiruanui have thrown up a stockade within about 250 yards of the Eastern boundary of the Bell Block, and distant from the Ninia pa about 500 yards. They are now engaged building another extensive pa about 80 yards seaward of the stockade, resolving to invest the Ninia in order to force Arama Karaka to evacuate it. Their next business, they state, is to fix permanently the boundary of the European settlement at our present boundary of the Bell Block, and then, they say, they will go back to their own district. The result of course depends on the chances of a coming struggle which it is difficult to calculate, impossible to rely upon. Those who are supposed to have attained a true estimate of the native character, think that, should the Ngatiruanui fail in their attempt to overcome the Ninia people, they will turn on Katatore in satisfaction for Piripi. Indeed, our informant states that Kdtatore has already narrowly escaped with his life from his friends the Ngatiruanui on Saturday List.