THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1880.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3610, 20 March 1880, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1880.

The news we publish to-day from the North Island is of a serious nature, and the purport of it is that Te Whiti, who claims to be the apostle of peace, has surrendered the direction of affairs to Tohu, the war chief of his tribe, and therefore we may not be long before " the battle of Armageddon," so frequently alluded to in the past by Te Whiti, will have to be decided by force of arms. Throughout the whole of Te Whiti's speech it is evident that there is a furtive appeal to arms, with an attempt to impress upon the assembled natives an idea of the superiority of the Maori cause, and an implied threat to the European. The prophet says that the whole thing resolved itself into two words — "Fir3t, that the floods have subsided ; secondly, that no one shall step outside of that which I have measured," and this secondly was the gist of his discourse. Tohu was more decided, and said : — "The floods have subsided ; formerly the ground was measured out for us, and we are living upon it. It was not given for two people to stand on the measurement, but was settled by former generations, and no man shall take it frcni us." Again says the war chief,— "ln the struggle for dominion always going on, it was arranged that evil should be judged, but now the G >vernment has twisted and turned about from one side to the other, until at last one is to decide." The language is significant, and points plainly that the Maori mind is made up, and also that it has been inflamed for party purposes. The native difficulty is a costly one, and to the solving of it a large portion of the revenue is being diverted. Over the Waimate Plains question the cost cannot be less than from LSOOO to L6OOO per week, and this has been going on for months, and aeema likely to continue. Therefore, if the blow is to come, it would be cheaper to come quickly. Intemperate newspaper correspondents and meddling Government officials connected with the Native Department, who fear the abolition of their offices, have much to do with the present aspect of affairs, and the sooner the Native Department is swept away the better. There may be some excuse for the Maoris in the course they are adopting, but none for tbe Pakeha- Maori, who is as guilty of sedition as many of the prisoners now lying in the gaols.