THE LATE ENGAGEMENT.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2014, 19 October 1869, Page 3

THE LATE ENGAGEMENT.

The Northern journals are jubilant about Colonel McDonnell’s defeat of Te Kooti. The Evening Post considers it a great victory, and that its importance cannot be overstated, because the pftect of it will lie to lessen the archtebel’s influence oyer his followers. Jew are aware, says our pon temporary, of what Te Kooti really has been doing these jast few mouths. The general impression is that he gained nothing by his visit to Tokangamutu; that the King party gave him the cold shoulder, and that he retired on Taupo with very considerably less importance than he previously enjoyed. It has been almost impossible to make out the quarrel between Te Kooti and the King party, and the presence of Rewi and a following of the Ngatimaniapoto has greatly increased the difficulty of the solution. Whether the King’s immediate party really were at variance with Rewi and Te Kooti, or ■whether it was a ruse, has been wholly in doubt; there was the fact that Rewi and 350 of the Ngatimaniapoto did accompany Te Kooti to Taupo, and that Te Kooti was acquiring over them considerable power. On authority which cannot be doubted, wo learn that Te Kooti has been by no means idle lately. He seems to be just one of those men whom circumstances first make, and who then control circumstances. He assumes to be inspired, and acts in a manner that convinces the men around him that he is so. At a great meeting at Tokangamatu, he spoke for five hours to an assemblagelittle short of 3000 men, women, and children. He pretended to read every now and then from a jarge book carried by an attendant, and so excited the “ haughty Waikatos,” that at the conclusion of the oration they cried out in the words of those of old “ it is the voice of a God, and not of a man.” The same letter from which we quote mentions other instances of the influence which he has been extending and consolidating, but of several of them we have b(«n requested not to make use at present. On one occasion, at Taupo, there was a 'strong party of'the Ngatetuwharetoa, slitting theipselvos iVp in'their pah, refused tp have anything to do with his demands, In imitation of the attack on Jericho, he marched his followers seven times round the pah, and then drew them up in front of the gate. The inhabitants refused him entrance no longer, and received him with loud shouts of welcome. The crafty fanatic had the ball at his feet, and demanded to be welcomed not with the voice of man but wilh thunder. The people thundered with their guns, and Te Kooti, bolding up the head of a pakeha in one hand and that of a friendly Maori in the other, told them—“ Choose for yourselves. I am sent by God to destroy the worshippers of Baal. If you follow me you must wage war both Europpar}sj anq meudiy natives j but if you fight against me I will pierce your bodies with swpvds, and make you food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.” The natives joined him immediately. The writer of this letter mentions that the influence of Te Kooti was extending like magic—converting ncu-

trals and dispiriting friendlies. Although the letter was kindly placed in our hands a few days ago, we scarcely liked to make use of its contents while the promised fight was impending. We knew not how long it miglit continue to impend, and we felt bound to refrain from prematurely publishing information which might disspirit without doing any possible good. But now we feel bound to do so, that our readers may understand somewhat of the value of the defeat which Te Kooti has suffered. His loss of prestige is worth more than we can estimate.