LATEST FROM TARANAKI.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 8, Issue 707, 9 December 1865, Page 6

LATEST FROM TARANAKI.

" ATTEMPT TO SURPRISE THE WHITE I CLIFF REDOUBT. I By the s.s. Ahuriri, which arrived last evening from Wanganui and Taranaki, we (Advertise^'.; Dec. 4) learn that a most treacherous attempt , was made to surprise the redoubt at the i White : Cliffs. From what we have been enabled 'to , learn, it occurred in the following manner, r'A large number of Maories.had congregated > about the wreck of the steamer Alexandra,' b which called the attention of the troops, and . upon their going unarmed within range of the i natives, the Maories, opened fire upon them, dispersing them in all directions. One man- ' jumped over the cliffs when there wag below ■ him a precipice of 120 feet, but he was after- ; wards picked up, having only suft^ed a fractuife v of the knee; he luckily fell on the soft sand below, and, although the fall rendered him insensible, he is now doing well. . : '"-■' The natives, as soon as they had produced) the panic described, among our men, rushedat the redoubt, being assisted by another party of > rebels, who had lain in ambush on the other > side of the redoubt, while the. attention of the troops was attracted by the firing party near the Alexandra. As soon, however, as the ■; troops regained the redoubt and' took up their arms, they beat the rebels back, and defended, the redoubt until the Maories finally retreated. < Captain Messenger, who was in command of the redoubt, sent into Taranaki for assistance, r and the Taranaki cavalry were immediately sent to their oid. * •'-"■; '"-.,; Further news was hourly expected, but had not arrived up to the time of the Ahuriri sailing. - ■ >^