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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 863, 3 August 1867, Page 2

A Curious Incident has just occurred in the North, which is worth narrating. It seems that lately, at a certain native settlement, various articleshadbeenmissed, and at length tho thieving got unbearable, as, awful to tell, two blankets were missed which had onco been used to contain the bones of a half-deified ancestor, and which, in consequence, were tapued an inch thick. In the midst of the disturbance, a European who was residing at the settlement said thab, by prophetic power, he could tell where the valued blankets wero. Clever fellow thafc he was, he made it a condition thafc. if he told correctly the place he should get a horse. Certain mystic rites were gone through, after which the pakeha announced that the blankets were at the house of a European settler living at some distance from the kainga.. Away went a full taua of the natives, and sure enough the blankets wore found in the house of the settler, who, we believe, declared that he had bought them from ho prophetic pakeha. The violation of tlie tapu, however, was so gross that to plunder the settler's goods would have been but poor utu, so the Maoris took him and his child prisoners. The man himself managed to get out of their hands, and the resident magistrate of the district, to provent mischief, afc once sont him off to Auckland. The child, however, still remains in the hands of the natives, but of courso ifc is quite safe with them. We have not heard that the natives have taken any proceedings against the prophet, but we believe he got the horse in the first in-' stance. — " Southern Cross." Colonel Weark's Slanders. — We aro glad to find that Colonel Wcare's slanders arc to be brought before the attention of the House of Representatives. Mr. Hcaphy lias given notice that he will move today : — " That a Select Committeo of this Houso be appointed to consider and report, either alone, or in association with a Committee of the Legislative Council, on the best steps to be taken to obtain the establishment of such regulations as shall prevent a recurrence of proceedings so injurious to the welfare of both races in JNew Zealand, as those that resulted from the private communications of Colonel Weare, C.8., being received and officially 'acted upon in England. Such Committee to consist of the Hon. Mr. Stafford, Mr. Cracroft Wilson, C.8., Mr. A. do Bathe Brandon, Mr. A. J. Richmond, and the Mover. Three members to be a quorum." " Independent," July 25.