POVERTY BAY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1028, 6 March 1869, Page 3

POVERTY BAY.

Lbbom oxra own cobbespondsht.J Tubanga, Jan. 27, 1869. Several refugees from Te Kooti's camp came in to Muriwai pa last night. These people, five in all, have been skulking about some native cultivations near the Arai river, not far from Westrup's out-station at Raka-kaka. They report a perfectly practicable road as existing from Ngatepa to Poverty Bay, by the route they came. This fact is of importance to us, proving, as it does, that another pass into Turanga exists, of which we had no previous knowledge. The track alluded to is masked by forest for the entire distance. 11 a.m. — More refugees are flocking into Muriwai. Singular to relate, not the slightest notice appears to be taken of these villains by the authorities, yet there are,amongst them scoundrels of the deepest dye, notably one individual with the ominous appellative of Kereopa. In vain are the authorities warned of what will most certainly ensue if these wretches are permitted to come and go at will, in order that they may practise murder and treason with impunity. We hazard no uncertain prophecy when we predict they will yet cause infinite evil to the colony, for we know them, and are exactly aware of the extent to which they may be trusted. lam not aware that the settlers of Poverty Bay are vindictively inclined, but we cannot help regretting that Rapata was prevented from completing the good work. Not one of the Hauhaus who were so mercifully spared would have survived to pillage and massacre any time within the next few years if Rapata had been allowed to solve the problem in his own way. Most of your readers may be aware that a great many draught horses were purchased by Government in Hawke's Bay for service here. Those horses came too late to prove of much use. However, they were placed in charge of a Mr. G. Smith, who was formerly manager or overseer, I believe, for Col. Whitmore. Just before the colonel left here he sold all those horses to Mr. Smith for one pound per head, the cost price to Government being an average sum of £5 for each beast. Those horses would most likely have fetched from £7 to £8 all round if offered to public competition, owing to the present dearth of good draught stock. Now I protest against it being imagined that I am induced to make this scandalous job public ftotn. any other motive but that of the general welfare. Ministers are for ever parading their possession of the economic virtues, yet they permit a subordinate thus to squander the public property. Such a profligate system can only be sustained by heavy taxation. By-and-bye an income or other grievous tax, in addition to the severe impositions under which the colony is reeling, will compel the public to declare in unmistakable terms that such iniquitous practices shall not be permitted. 4 p.m.— St. Kilda left to-day instead of yesterday. Examination of Court-house prisoners caused the delay. One prisoner named Matene sails in the steamer for Wellington, the remainder, as I foretold, have got off, at least to the extent of being remanded to the R.M.s jurisdiction — in other worlds,. some will suffer nominal punishment, the others will be discharged. Ail are more or less implicated in the massacre and later murders at Pipiwhakau. The reason these prisoners have not been despatched to Wellington is in consequence of the expense of judicial proceedings. This is how we piay wifch murder. The same spurious economy that eventuated in the escape of the Chatham Island prisoners is still at work for the perpetration of future mischief. Thursday, Jan. 28. £1000 has been offered to Muriwai and other natives for the capture of Te Kooti. I imagine they will talk about it, and the result will be nil. Rapata, who only desisted from his extraordinary pursuit of Te Rooti on account of exhaustion and want of provisions, stated his intention of returning to follow up the enemy, even if the rebels retreated to the impracticable Uriwera mountains, as soon as Ngatiporou had recruited. Now Rapata has retired to Waiapu ; and it would be worth while to enquire minutely into the circumstances which have induced that gallant chief to take his departure in anything but a satisfied mood. Before he left, Rapata was more than once heard to say he would never again fight for the pakeha. There must be "something rotten in the state of Denmark," when men like Rapata, Kawana, Hunia, Kemp, and others, express dissatisfaction in such explicit terms. All the chiefs enumerated have nobly started forward to assist the colony in its great distress, in spite of the dislike each has manifested to serve with a commander who somehow contrives to disgust every chief with whom he comes in contact. Such a state of things could not exist if those eminent native leaders were properly treated. We have seen and watched Rapata narrowly, and found in him a leader at once cool, skilful, and daring. A man of great resources, he is never at a loss. Ngatiporou obey his slightest behests with an-alacrity seldom seen ; for Ngatiporou feel that Rapata was born to command : it was, moreover, a common saying amongsfc the European forces here, that they " would follow Rapata anywhere." It was not for nothing every one, Maori and white man, expressed such an opinion. Rapata knew that he was generally respected by the majority of Europeans, whose goodwill was shown in unmistakable terms. He himself, on more than one occasion, paid a very graceful tribute to our troops and settlers. Rapata is not a capricious man — far from it : he never acts upon impulse, but only after much reflection and firm conviction. Such being the case, whence comes it that Rapata is so dissatisfied as to retire with the declaration that he will never again fight for the pakeha ? The Bishop of Waiapu, who has been here about a week, left in steamer yesterday. Friday, Jan. 29. Another exemplification of the queer way in which Government arrange matters here, is to be found in the fact of a redoubt having been decided to be built not far from Waikanae, about four miles from Turanganui, instead of the four or five blockhouses at first intended, and for which part of the timber has arrived. The proposed redoubt could have hardly been worse placed; it will protect nothing and nobody except a milkman and his hut. The man who chose Waikanae for a defensive post must hare been poking fun at the authorities, or foolish; Such fun or folly, however, is too serious a matter for mirth, when the question of expense is considered.

The old system of broken promises and evaded guarantees appears to be again set in motion against the unfortunate defence corps. Just before Col. Whitmore made a start in pursuit of the murderers— that is to say, after the mur.lcrs of Finlay Ferguson and the three boys — those members of the defence force who for five weary years have waited here "hoping against hope" for the fulfilment of their just expectations, were summoned to an interview with Col. Whitmore. They were distinctly told by him that they would be placed in possession of the long promised sections as soon as the land question was settled. Now, it is said, there is no intention whatever to give the defence force men their land. It . seems impossible to believe that Government intend once more to break faith with those unfortunate men ; but I fear that such will, indeed, be the case. Saturday, Jan. 30. More refugees arrived at Muriwai. They appear to think that pa is a city of refuge for murderers, and make good use of its protection. Some, I hear, already talk of suing Government for compensation. One of the Court-house prisoners affects madness. There is no doubt the man is shamming. Some of the hospital attendants taxed him with the deceit, which he did not attempt to deny, but, in extenuation, affirmed he had been advised by a European to act the madman, in order to escape the halter. I have no doubt the man lies, as the European alluded to has suffered severe affliction by means of Te Kooti and his men, having lost a child, to whom he was tenderly attached, during the massacre. This prisoner is named Pene Hamine, and he acted as one of the three guides to the assassins of Biggs, Wilson, and the others. He was a Hauhau in 1865, but was not exiled to Wharekauri. From November, 1865, up to the massacre, he lived quietly at Patutahi, and was thought to have abandoned Hauhauism. He was employed by the writer to build a house, and to do other work. He was an industrious man for a native, and very willing, and goodtempered ; besides which, he was honest, and a generally sober fellow. Two nights before the massacre he called at our place, and conversed with us a long time. Referring to the Hauhaus and Te Kooti, he scouted the idea of their paying us a speedy visit ; but we know now that he must have been in communication with Te Kooti for at least a fortnight before the massacre. Col. Whitmore's despatches have been read with great interest here, and no one can deny tbafc there is an attraction in his despatches, and other official papers, which such writings seldom possess. Nevertheless, they are by no means satisfactory even upon a first perusal, and become less so the more they are examined. The excessive use of the first person is scarcely in good taste : one would think it was Col. Whitmore who did all the work, instead of Rapata. The slight mention of that gifted chief is obviously unfair ; and the importance attached to Mr. Bousfield's "military survey" struck most of us as excessively ludicrous, knowing, as we do, that there was not the slightest necessity for such survey, the road to Ngatepa being a beaten, well defined one, impossible to mistake, and there being absolutely no other practicable route. Good service has, however, unwittingly been done by Col. Whitmore's mention of this much lauded "military survey," for the colony will obtain from it some notion how the money goes. How Mr. Bousfield really earned his pay may be understood by those -who have read the letters from " an occa- ' sional correspondent" — letters which will not add much to the reputation of their writer, or the Auckland Weekly News. Moreover, the most palpable contradictions abound in those despatches — as where Col. Whitmore says that the left of Ngatepa, being composed of perpendicular cliffs, was left unguarded, and afterwards states the enemy retreated by the least guarded part of the encircling line, which would lead to the inference that Te Kooti escaped with his followers by the left of Ngatepa, whereas everyone present at the seige is aware that it was from the right of the pa the enemy got away, although Col. Whitmore informs us he had strengthened that side by the men not needed for the left. Sunday, Jan. 31. Very heavy rain has set in. No talk of the proposed expedition in search of Te Kooti, which I fear has lapsed. The war-tide having receded for a while from this unhappy district, with the turmoil and bustle consequent upon the employment of a large European and native force, and as the non-arrival as formerly of numerous steam and other vessels must necessarily abridge our future means of communication, I think your readers will agree with me, j that the period has properly arrived for closing this daily journal. In doing so, I gratefully proffer my heartfelt thanks to you and your numerous readers for the interest I have reason to believe has been exhibited in my humble communications, and for the encouragement received by the writer in unexpected quarters. The momentous nature of events related must at any time have excited attention in all but the most callous ; nor am I vaiu enough to suppose that the style or diction used by your own correspondent has been worth the notice of your readers, seeing that it has been the writer's lot to labour all his days in other fields than those of literature. I would wish to add, that if in these communications it has been his misfortune to wound the feelings of those who conscientiously differ from the views of the writer, he asks forgiveness, in consideration of the circumstances under which they were written. When it is considered that we have passed through unparalleled calamities, caused, as history will assuredly relate, by the cruel supineness of those who have been entrusted by providence with our protection ; that we have lived to see immense additions to the burdens of this debt-bowed-down colony, in order that the party in power might frustrate the wise combinations of a high-minded, distinguished gentleman, and bolster up their falling authority • and, moreover, been condemned to witness an immense force kept.in a state of criminal inaction for weeks, whilst murder stalked triumphant at broad noonday over tins afflicted district within sight of those forces ; some indulgence may fairly be claimed for severe expressions, which, there is reason to believe, assisted in bringing about the salutary change that eventuated in the long deferred pursuit of Te Kooti and the fall of Ngutepa. But although events of importance cannot be expected to transpire so frequently as of late, at least until such time as the escaped

chief of the Iwikohuru has largely recruited and increased bis means for another descent upon this district, many subjects of interest will of necessity crop up for a long time to come. The problem of our land question is by no means solved as yet ; the attitude of the Ngauitaupo is anything but reassuring: above all, there looms the threatened irruption of Uriweras. Many other subjects I could refer to which will probably yet engage the public attention. Upon these subjects I purpose to touch whenever they appear sufficiently noteworthy and as long as I am honored with the approval of yourself and readers, unless it becomes absolutely necessary for me to leave the district with other Poverty Bay survivors, to seek our fortunes elsewhere.