IMPORTANT FROM TARANAKI.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 8, Issue 607, 6 May 1865, Page 5

IMPORTANT FROM TARANAKI.

SURPRISE OF A PARTY BY NATIVES AT - • STONEY RIVER. (From the " Taranaki Herald " April 29.) Intelligence was received in town about 9 o'clock on Sunday morning last, that one of the ' •Mounted Corps, Joseph Hawke, had been shot by the natives at Stoney Hill the previous afternoon, 7 and that another man named jury* private of the -'. 43rd Regiment, was missing. The circumstances j are these : -On Saturday last four of the Mounted I Corps (Hawke, Reynolds, Clements and Badderly) with four soldiers of the 43rd Regiment, started under orders to fetch in cattle for the Commissariat. One of the soldiers (Jury) was on horseback, but the others were on foot and unarmed. One of the latter got hold of a calf, and having , made fast was driving her in before him. The other men were all scattered. All at once a " cooey " was heard, and Hawke rode to the spot it proceeded from. A nativeon horseback appeared from a bush at a distance of some six^or seven yards, dropped the bridle on the neck of the horse, "and, a. observed by the others, took a deliberate aim at Hawke, with a double-barrel gun, firing both barrels at the same time, when ha fell. His companions not knowing the number of natives that might be lying in ambush, made ;..;. oil towards the camp, but were pursued arid ; driven into a swamp. Reyuolds and Clements were compelled to leave their horses in it. They succeeded in reaching camp, as also Badderly'. and three of the soldiers— one (Jury) being missing as well as Hawke shot. The surprise waa made about live p.m., at a distance of some four or five miles from the post. The next morning Major Colville with a party of the 43rd went out to reconnoitre the place, when they found the body of Hawke, shot in several places and with the left eye gouged out. His horse was also found shot, as well aa that of Jury ; which led the party to thiuk that he had also been killed. No trace, however, could be found of his body, aud no natives were seen.

An expedition had been sent by the Phoebe to the White Bluff, and, in lauding, some of the boats had a narrow escape, and one .boat load of men had to bo left ashore for a night without provisions or shelter. The result of the expedition is thus given in the Southern Cross ot the 2nd instant : — By ■ the s.s. Wanganui, which arrived from Taranaki and the White Bluff yesterday, we learn that the troops, consisting of part oi the 43rd. and 70th Regiments, also some Mounted Rifles and Bush Rangers, had taken possession of the . Pukearuhe Pa at the White Bluff, and that William King and Adam Clark, both rebel chiefs, had come in and sworn allegiance, Colonel Warre is at Opouuaki, about ono mile south of Namti. It was said that the troops would march on the 2nd of May (this day) from the'Warea, where they are stationed, overland to Opounaki,