POVERTY BAY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1030, 13 March 1869, Page 2

POVERTY BAY.

P?BOU OXTB OWN COBBEBPONDBHX. | j Tubanganui, March 7. The unauthorised shooting of Te Iho Ariki and Nikora, two villains of the Karepa type, by Messrs. Wyllie, Benson, Suche, Wi Brown, and a native related to the chief Mokena, is an event that will naturally create surprise until the particular causes which led to this display of Lynch law have been thoroughly sifted ; and, in order that an impartial opinion may be formed respecting a very striking episode in the mournful annals pf Poverty Bay, your correspondent has endeavoured, not without success, to obtain reliable information of events to be related from trustworthy sources, including the actors themselves. Such information be proceeds to lay before your readers. On Friday last, sth inst., about nine in the morning, Mr Elston, accompanied by a friendly native lad, was proceeding to Waerenga-ahika. Whilst passing Knkuto, a native -kainga near Patutahi, Mr. Elston was attracted by a white flag flying in front of a native camp, which he reconnoitred and found to contain about 20 people. Not knowing their character and intentions, and declining to give implicit credence to the flag of truce, which might have been a ruse, Mr. Elston very sensibly retired before being discovered, and proceeded to the Constabulary camp at Makaraka, where, 1 without creating an alarm which might prove baseless, he quietly told the commanding officer of what he had witnessed, upon whiph two Constabulary men were directed to accompany Mr. Elston back to Kukuto, to ascertain particulars and report accordingly. Arrived at Kukuto, the two Constabulary at once bolted, leaving Mr. Elston and a companion to do as they thought fit. It was soon found that thu native party com- . prised a numbergf refugees from Te Kooti, : . who had been wandering in the bush since thefall of l^gatap^., Amongst them were seven fighting men, three of whom Mr. Elston -discovered to be scoundrels who .assisted in the murders of Biggs, Wilson, Walsh, Mr. Newnham, Mr. Wyllie's son Willie, and Mr. Benson's sister-in-law, her husband, and child. There were several rifles amongst them, and the party was in charge of Keke, a Chatham Island prisoner who declined to leave Wharekauri with Te Kooti, and who has been living here quietly and respectably for some time past. He had been into the bush in search of fugitives, and was on his way to Turanganui with his prisoners when discovered by Mr. Elston. 'Whilst Mr. Elston was prosecuting enquiries, the two Constabulary had reached Makaraka camp, where they reported the approach of a Hauhau party; and, it is said, horses, saddles, and the whole camp material were at once abandoned, everyone seeking safety in flight to Turanganui, where the panic spread. The confusion was described to me as being discreditable in the extreme : men rushing to arms, women and children bitterly weeping, and a lamentable absence of directive faculty was reported as having been displayed by those who should have been better prepared for a serious emergency. The fears of the community were at length allayed by the receipt of a note from Keke and a message from Mr. Elston. Keke'a note, I understand, was directed to Mr. Wyllie, Government interpreter. It announced that Te Iho Ariki, Nikora, and Peka were amongst Keke's prisoners. As Ariki had assisted to murder Mr. Wyllie's son, and Nikora, after murdering poor old Mr. Newnham, his wife, and their adopted child, had cut off Mr. Newnham's head and split it in two pieces ; and as, moreover, Peka was one of the three guides and present to assist in all the murders : Mr. Wyllie says that, irrespective of his feelings as a father fond of his son, he felt such villains ought not to get off scot free, like Karepa. Accordingly, he waited upon Major Westrup first, . and Captain Tuke afterwards, to whom he related the antecedents of Messrs. Ariki and Co. It appears neither of the officers could be induced to assume the responsibility of ordering the execution of three murderers without trial, and in the absence of the R.M. from Poverty Bay; and Mr. Wyllie retired from both interviews with the conviction, shared in by almost every one here, that, like Karepa and others, three desperate villains would escape unless summary measures were used to prevent it. On Friday night, at 11 o'clock, Messrs. Wyllie, Benson, Suche (a cousin of Mokena), and Wi Brown, a half-caste, whose brother Pukua, was brutally murdered and mangled (his head being beaten to a mummy) on Wbitmore's disastrous Puketapu expedition, by Te Iho Ariki, arrived at Keke's camp, near Patutahi. The prisoners were found sleeping round the expiring embers of their fire. Walking into the midst of the group, Mr. Wyllie said, " Nikora, I know you are here, get up and die." No response, though the demand was oft repeated. Mr. Wyllie next struck a light to discover the murderers. Nikora then got up, and, moving past Mr. Wyllie, made for a low. fence. He was fired at by the European party, but nevertheless scrambled over ■ and was seen reeling into the scrub: It ■was too dark to trace him then, but to-day Panapa, a chief of high standing, and loyal, has been in search of Nikora's body, dead or alive, and with the avowed intention to avenge upon Nikora, if found living, the death of many relatives of Panapa, murdered by Nikora. Panapa has since returned, in grief that Nikora cannot be found, although he was tracked by his blood for a long distance through the dense manuka scrub. I suppose we may account him dead. He must have been riddled ! with bullets by 5 men at 5 yards distance - •—good marksmen too. After Nikora'a departure, in the dusky gloom of a dark night, Mr. Wyllie and friends returned to the camp, and then Hemi te Iho Ariki, the murderer of his son, was in his turn ordered to rise by Mr. Wyllie. He complied at once, and, nearly touching the carbine of Mr. Benson, was shot through the breast by that gentleman —not to expire at once. It is said he confessed his crimes before he was finally despatch^d^by^JMr. Wyllie and the others,, which was done by shooting the wretch through the brain— too good a death for one dyed in the blood of so many helpless women and children, and whose able iiWof, the tomahawk was illustrated at Pipiwhikau by the circle of skull splintsandttessds of hair found strewed thickly: aroun^; the mangled remains of his hapless victims^wKo are at length partially at leaßti?ayenge^|^ Peka, that other fiend in human form,

was to have been executed, but fate willed it otherwise. Three hours previously he had fled to Murewai to seek shelter at what has been hot inaptly styled " the murderers' retreat," and possibly to hatch new schemes of murder with his confrere Karepa. It is satisfactory, however, to have to record that even the natives of Muriwai would have nothing to do with such a blood-stained monster, bufc have sent him, with three other men, to Turanganui, where they arrived yeßterday, and are at present courthouse prisoners. It may even be, that the stern if wild justice meted out to Peka's associates by Mr. Wyllie and his party, may cause Turanga officials to pause before again casting adrift uponthis unhappy district such men as Karepa, and others like him. I am happy to say Mr. Wyllie's resolute conduct is very generally approved here. Of course there are one or twodissentionists, but I am bound to say they are not to be found amongst the settlers. And the military mind can hardly be considered as an impartial one. Let such villains as Karepa and Peka get off from time to time, and war will never cease. This may suit those whose salaries depend upon the continuance of hostilities, but such a state of things will not satisfy Naw Zealand colonists, who do not desire war, and who, we imagine, would prove anything but ungrateful to some able officer, if such there be, who could secure for us an honourable and secure peace, which would enable us to reduce expenditure by the dismissal of that army of officers and officials, which, if actually necessary (but which many of us seriously doubt), are, unfortunately for us, excessively expensive, and sometimes useless. The St. Kilda has just arrived from East Coast with Rapata arid 80 Ngatiporou. They have been collected by Mr. Ferris, who is, I believe, a captain. Te Kooti's movements appear to be imperfectly known; it is thought they refer to future events in Waikato.