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Evening Post, Issue 236, 9 November 1865, Page 2

(Hawke's Bay Herald, November 4.) By the arrival of the Sturt, yesterday, we are in receipt of late advices from the several military stations on the East Coast. At Walapu, Captain Fairchild seems to have had some difficulty in waking up the garrison, and was obliged, ultimately, to come away without letters or despatches. An officer, however, who boarded the vessel on her first arrival — 3 a.m. on Wednesday — reported that nothing further had been done, and that no change had taken place. From Poverty Bay the news is of a very different kind. There, matters would appear to be in a critical state. An influential party of natives were known to advocate war to the knife ; and the storm which has been brewing for some time ma}', from what we hear, burst out at any moment. Some cattle and sheep belonging fo ( , the Europeans had been killed ; fences, arid other property had been destroyed » and hostile pas were rearing their heads in all directions. All the outlying settlers but one had come into to Turanga for protection; and it was the universal 'opinion that a crisis had all but arrived. We hope soon to learn that reinforcements are on their way to this district ; and the public, we are sure, would be glad were it possible for Mr. Biggs to take part in the war which is so evidently impending. It is by means of men of " dash" that such petty insurrections are most promptly and most economically trampled out, and Mr. Biggs we think, has fairly earned that character as an officer. We learn that Henare Potae has reinforced the Europeans and friendly natives at Turanga Nui with a band of seventy fighting men. The news from Opotiki is very barren Major Stapp is now the officer in command, and was about to preside over a court martial for the trial of Te Hura and the other prisoners who had been brought from Matata and elsewhere, charged with participation in a greater or less degree, in the murders of the Rev. Mr. Volkner and Mr. Fulloon, the latter more particularly. A Jarge body of evidence against the bulk of the prisoners has been collected ; hence it was believed that a conviction would follow in many cases and sentence of death he passed. Unfortunately all sentences of death have to be approved by His Excellency, and we confess to fear that ill-timed mercy may undo the great good which has sprung out of the judicious severity of late proceedings. The fighting at Opotiki was supposed to be nearly over. Only one section of the natires held oi\t against the government when the Sturt left. Their numbers were small, but their pa was in a place very difficult to get at. Patara was believed to be with this party. Major Brassey, who ii on his way to Wellington, is a passenger by the Sturt ; also,

Kawana Paipai, one of the chiefs of the Wanganui Native Contingent, now stationed at Opotiki. Kawana was yesterday engaged in giring the chiefs of his distriot a full account of the proceedings of the expeditionary force ; and, judging from the elated manner in which he seemed to describe the various incidents of the war, his audience must have been greatly tntertained. The success which has attended operations on the East Coast has been such as to remove much of the feeling of doubt and apprehension naturally entertained by persons resident in the vicinity of the scenes of war, and to lpad them to look more hopefully to the future. It might have been expected that the successes already achieved by the Colonial Forces would have shown the misguided natives the utter hopelessness of the struggle they have heen carrying on ; but, unfortunately, the Hau Hau fanaticism has taken such a hold of their minds that its in* fluence seems to obliterate every other con sideration. Witness the case of Poverty Bay, where the superstition has latterly taken deep root. The natives there have all but seen with their own eyes the fate which has overtaken the fanatics of Waiapu and Opotiki, yet they seem bent upon following their footsteps on the road to destruction. We do trust that, in the interests of humanity, the government will persist in their efforts to put down the insurrection on the coast, in such a manner as may effectually prevent any future outbreak. November, 7. In our last we printed the letter of a correspondent, describing the extremely critical aspect of affairs at Turanga. Scarcely had we gone to press than the schooner Tawera arrived from Poverty Bay, one day's later intelligence* having been sent down by the officer commanding expressly to communicate to the authorities at Napier the increasingly menacing attitude of the Hau Hau forces und the depredations they had began to commit in open day. From being some little distance off, they bad made an armed demonstration in front of the redoubt, had driven off considerable numbers of sheep, had destroyed .the homesteads of settlers, and it is said, had interposed between two of the latter and the only place of safety' left to them in the district. The picture is a gloomy one, but it would be far more so if the government was unprepared to repress outrage with a high hand. Fortunately, it was never better prepared fur such an emergency. The news had not been many hours in possession of Mr. M'Lean, before, in H.M.S. Esk (which, through the forethought of His Excellency, had been despatched from Wellington) he was on hii way to the seat of war. He was accompanied by the colonial steamer Sturt. laden with ammunition and stores ; and it is not improbable that, while we write, that smart little vessel is on her way to Opotiki for a detachment of the colonial forces. Meanwhile Henare Potae, with a reinforcement of a hundred friendly warriors, had arrived at Turanga, and there is little doubt that the Hau Hau breakers of the peace will speedily be taught the severe but wholesome lesson inculcated upon their brethern of Waiapu and elsewhere. Indeed upon vigor and promptitude of action depend the speedy ending of a war which if prolonged, could not fail to be disastrous. One severe blow after another would speedily quell disturbance, while dilatory measures would but tend to fan the flame of rebellion. This, however ia now well understood, as well at practised, by the officers and men of the colonial forces, and we do not think that anj pressure on the part of the press is needed to. make them do their duty. — Havrke's Bay Herald 7th November.