WAIROA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1033, 23 March 1869, Page 2

WAIROA.

t&BOM OUB OWK OORaBSPOJTOSHT.J ; „." March 18. Felix GrotJLßT's story has met with sad confirmation. The party of friendly natives sent out returned after having discovered and buried, the b,qdies of two... out , of the three.victims to the enemy's attack. . The canoe was found bottom , upwards; in. the stream ; the four bales of wool on the shingle close to the water's edge. The body of Bikimona, stripped of everything save one sock, was found close at hand, lying in the river, pierced by bullets, and,, a little above, the horse he had ridden, shot, and also lying partly in the water* Te Awo was found lying as he fell, at thefoot of the track ascending Tukurangi hill. Curiously enough, they had in: noway molested the corpse, even his^ green*; stone and money in his pocket being untouched. Te Warehi was not to be seen i probably he had fled some distance beforebeing overtaken and slain. It must beborne in mind, that Te Warehi and Te Amo were armed ; the former with a breech-loading carbine ; and, from Felix's account, it would seem that they fought for their lives. Simultaneously with the movement of this party of marauding murderers, another lot had gone by the hill track to Maru Maru, and after taking such observations as were needful to them, retired again to the hills, leaving evidence of their visit in ihe shape of bones of slaughtered pigs and fowls, and a scrawl written with charcoal on the side of Flint's house, setting forth their contempt for the paltry efforts made to put salt on their tails, and saying they were to be found "at home" at Waikare Moana. These are the ruffians upon whom we have wasted our time writing pacific letters, and hoping all sorts of things from the superior amiability of some chief a greater scoundrel than the rest, who, in addition to his villainy, added the deeper dye of hypocrisy, and kept us in a string by fair promises whilst cutting the throats of our emissaries. " . ' ' .• There is not much, however, to be gained,., by growling under present circumstances.. We have need of every care to save ourselves from sharing the fate of those who have already fallen. Europeans and natives alike look with even more of simple expectancy than fear upon the gloomy prospect. We must, it seems, wait the murderers' knock at the house door ; and nothing but the fractured skull will be accepted as proof of the presence of the foe. I frankly admit that the case is difficult in the extreme, and it appears almost ■- ungenerous to return to the charge that all this need not have been — that all this has been brought on by folly and madness, — yet so it is, in sober earnest ; and the verdict of the historian will, in placing the finger on the one, point out also the true source of the disease. We can but deal with the emergency as men repolved to combat the worst with a spirit and endurance worthy of our ancestors ; but woe to those who would hoodwink us and throw a specious coloring over evils . which can only be battled with successfully in the light of God's day and in the " Palace of Truth." Despatches may be the proper form wherein to proclaim the results of military operations, but they need not be. Te Kooti was not defeated at Ruaki Ture ; he was " scotched but not killed" at Ngatapa ; and it is better to say simply, "we have done what we could, but the day's labor is but commenced," than by arrogant assumptionand grossly unfounded assertions lead the public into the mire, and provoke execration where ' trustful statements would meet the just meed of praise due to modest worth. The enemy is doubly dangerous from having adopted a line of policy which leaves us scarce any defence, and which will speedily ruin the community, by forcing every settler to forego all other occupations for the one purpose of keeping watch over his life.