NATIVE INTELLIGENCE. [FROM SEPTEMBER 1 TO SEPTEMBER 30]

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2865, 1 October 1866, Page 5

NATIVE INTELLIGENCE. [FROM SEPTEMBER 1 TO SEPTEMBER 30]

b e We are glad to be able to publish the following iv speeches of Te Moananui and "Williatr Id !£k om PSOIIP S011 delivered at a late meeting at th< u Lower Thames. They have a most importani & c political bearing, and, besides that, nothing a. could be finer, in a literary point of view : \xe than both speeches :—: — ed Ta Moananttc said : Welcome to Hauraki ! Thai in canoe, being broken by the storm, came hither. These s i r canoes, Parewaikato and Parehauraki, have but one l% ~ anchorage ; and when the storm came they wen J broken. And now come you hither to the canoe oi 5 your ancestor. Since that canoe is broken, spriug you into this. , Both are now lying at anchor. c . [There is peace at Waikato and the Thames.] Mj . father, hearken. The birds hold councils, they hold councils in relation to the hawk and the sparrows' hawk, and in relation to man, lest they be entrapped, p- The dog holds a council, too, in relation to man, being s> afraid of man. We too will hold a council together; ,k for man holds council with man. We suppose that our knowledge surpasses that of the toroa,[alba- " tross] (i.e., the Anglo-Saxon race); buttheknow3e ledge of the albatross shoots on before us, and in > knowledge we are by it left far behind [i.e M the , c Maori is not able to cope with the skill, the wisdom, and intelligence of the European race, which, like 7' the albatross, comes from afar]. My father, hold al you on to the toropeke [i.e., a noose used for the feet j_ in climbing trees.] Let the day laden with peace 3 £ be held by you, be held by you. You and I cannot , succeed in climbing a branchless tree unless we have :( * a toropeke or noose, then we shall be able to climb, d We are living in the centre of the tree which has ;o been grafted by the albatross [i.e., we are living in a a place where we come daily in contact with the Anglo-Saxon and his laws]. Life is life, and death is death [i c., we may choose either life or death ; if 3. life, we must not resist by force of arms ; if death, p then we shall take up arms]. And now hold you n on to the toropeke, or noose, by which we shall climb thattree [i.e., rise in position, socially arid politically]. 6 If a man merely puts his hands against a tree, he ■Y cannot by that means ascend : but if he use the t toropeke, or noose, he will be able to ascend. You c and Ido not know where the albatross was born, , nor do we know the place of its christening [i.e., we 1 have no knowledge of the origin of the Anglo- '<- Saxon race, nor the mode it adopts for the education c and growth of its people]. Ruateniahu is still 0 Ruatemahu, and Tautepaoa is still Tautepaoa, the dreaded of the land [i.e., the fear and the dread of " the European race cannot be .removed by any effort 1 of the Maoris]. Urukau stands with his weapon in I his hand, striking it against his own breast [i.e., the a Maoris have so diminished, that the pakeha, having ~* no foe to encounter, strikes his weapon against his own breast]. We are left solitarily in the midst of - the combatants. i William Thompson replied : Call to me in strains [ of welcome, Omy child ! Here am I, journeying on ; lam onboard the canoes of your ancestors [i. c., I am one with you]. Talk to me, the man whose speeches have been as household words to other men ; j but as to my speeches the Waikatos have not re- . gardedtheni. And what is the result ? Why, they i are fishing for the kumukumu, and the haku [i.e. , the Waikatos have been driven from their homes, and ' obliged to wander far in quest of food, sometimes catching gurnets and barracouta].- The water is naturally cold, nor does it know that it has a strong | friend behind it, the sun, which has power to give it heat [i.e., the Maori did not care to know that the -Anglo-Saxon has power to impart natural \ heat; as well as to scorch]. If ■ the . eye had , been used, it would have been discovered that the sim had power to impart heat to thp cold water. Ear 3 are ears/eyes are eyes, and the heart is the heart [i.e.,man is possessed of the faculties of seeing, hearing, and thinking, but he neglects to make a right use of them]. When mean men, such as I, talk to the Waikatos, the eye is turned away. There are one hundred bends of the river, and one hundred river- deities [i. c., the Waikatos have many chiefs, and there is want of unanimity in their councils]. And now, 0 son, the hand is reached out to hold the toropeke, or noose, as you see, for I am here at Hanraki [i.e., lam on the side of peace]. My evil mode of conducting matters, and the haste evinced by me [i,e., by the Waikatos], have resulted in my .turning into a house [i.e., have resulted in my conquest and retreat]. Your speeches are excellent. Mr. Civil Commissioner Mackay has been for some time at the Thames paying certain of the natives for land purchased by the Government, and holding Courts. William Nicholas was fined £15 for selling spirits to the natives, and Robert Forrester wa fined £5 for giving spirits to the natives. Mr. Mackay held a Native Circuit Court at Kauaeranga, at which a man named James Priestly, a storekeeper on the Piako, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment with hard labour, for a breach of the Act passed for the purpose of preventing arms from getting into the hands of the natives. In the cutter in which Priestly was going up the river were found a number of muskets, and a quantity of caps and powder. He had not the license required by law for having them in his possession. Several persons were punished for soiling spirits to the natives. The juries at the Court were comprised of six Europeans and six Maoris.

Letters from Raglan give an account of a large native meeting -which had been recently held near that place with reference to the disposal of land to Europeans. There seems an increased -willingness amongst the natives there to part with their land, for which, by the operations of the Native Lands Act, they are now assured of a fair price and adjudication of title. Matutaera, it seems, has been reprimanding some of his subjects for planting too near the sea, and so within reach of the pakeha. No decision has yet been come to by the Government with reference to the road between Raglan and the Waipa, the making of •which has for a long time been ardently desired by the people of Eaglan. A correspondent, dating from the Thames on August 29, says: — "It is deplorable to see the moral degradation of the native race at the present time. Any one visiting their settlement on the Lords-day will find most of them either working or gambling (hipi), and when remonstrated with, ' Are you not ashamed of this bad work on God's day V they carelessly answer, 'Eha kei te Parirou, te ratapu? E ritetonu nga ra (What is it to the Parirou, the Sabbath? All days are the same). This state of things certainly wants remedying at once ; and it is a pity our good Bishop could not send up a real Christian minister to attend to their as well as the Europeans' spiritual wants. No minister has been seen here since the Rev. Mr. Lanfear left this district. Mr. Grace has certainly visited the mouth of the river occasionally, and that is all. Mr. Grace doesn't possess the proper qualification for a good Hauhau preacher. Te Hira is getting a large house built ; it will be used as a church and meeting-house. From the fact of the natives building such good houses, I think it shows ,they think we shall have a lasting, peace." Mr. Maniag is reported by our Bay of Islands correspondent to be holding a sitting of the Native Lands Court at Paihia. Considerable difficulty has been experienced in proceeding, with the busiuess of tbe Court, from the numeious fictitious claims set up by Maoris to Government land, aud blocks sold years p»sfc to Europeans. In the early part of September a cutter was seized by the natives at Pukorokoro, ' about thirty miles from Auckland, on account of the Europeans on board having taken two pigs which the natives alleged belonged to them, but which the Europeans thought were_wlld. The crew of the vessel had to walk to Auckland. The- matter>was; investigated by Mr. Mackay, Civil Commissioner, who' abtjuitted the Europeaps of the charge of -'stealing the pigs. The natives'restored the ves_sel. Two parties of surveyors engaged on the Te Puna block,' near 1 Taitranga, have been stopped by, the natives, and their instruments taken away. . 'After the .battle at Te Ranga, when the Ngaiterangi tribe submitted to the Governor, they gave up 50,000 acres as payment forethg offences of the tribe. It was then understood by the % natives that ' the boundary would be tHe Wairoa, but it seems.that,' to include 50 f o,oo.'acres, it has been found necessary to> go over the Wairo^. This has been the cause of th -

stoppage. It is to be hoped that the matter may be amicably arranged. Tire* latest news from the "West Coast, where the operations of the colonial forces under Major McDonnell were carried on, is to the effect that the war was dying out. The natives seem inolined to let us alone if we will let them alone. Mr. Mackay, Civil Commissioner, recently made some payments on account of land bought from the , natives by the Provinoial Government at Tauranga. Amongst those to whom payments were made was the famous ohief Taraia, wno, when satisfied, offered to relieve the Government of their difficulties with the tribe who occupy the land, by clearing them off, vi et annis. A native was, on September 25, brought before the Resident Magistrate at Russell, Bay of Islands, charged with having oommitted burglary, a most unusual crime. He was committed for trial, but the Maoris assembled, and offered to pay four times the amount of the articles stolen, which were of trifling value. They then offered to pay £100 for the offence, and when the police would not agree to this the natives took the prisoner away by force. They, however, used no more violence than was necessary to effect their purpose. The Rev. Jj T. Riemanschneider, missionary to the Maoris at Otago, is dead, to the great regret of the natives who had been under his teaching.