RIHAKA AND THE PLAINS,

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 87, 12 February 1881, Page 4

RIHAKA AND THE PLAINS,

FROM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Pungarehu, Wednesday.

The fire at Parihaka started in the bush the back, where the new clearings are ng made. A rata tree was set alight ne time during the month of November t, and subsequently the neighboring ih was fallen, and the trees, limbs, and inches left to lie until dry in the usual unor ; the present long spell of dry ather soon withered up tho leaves and all twigs ; fire from the burning rata ling on these, set them alight, and the

) run quickly over the ground, and ight hold of the standing bush, which

tnmuuicated the blaze to the trees left ,nding in clearings of recent years, rich are at present cropped wiih pota)s, &c. These trees being dead and rfeotly dry, quickly caught and fiercely rat, the fire passing from one to the her ; each one a mass of blaze, which ntinued fiercely flaming until the trees tl to the ground, where they lay, still irning and rapidly cooking the young ops of potatoes. One of the cultivations (longed to Titokowaru and Hauwhenua, >d the other to Tapa Te Waero, of Waitara; and these two are the only cleargs whicli have suffered, so that the fire not of such consequence as was anticiited. Natives speak of the quantity of owing crops at Parihaka as something lormous, and say that if all the tribes 1 this side of the island were oongreated at Parihaka, they could not conlime the whole. Titokow<u-u and his' people are again ending flour and sugar to Parihaka for ie meeting on the 17th. The threshing lachines belonging to the natives are at resent engaged with the wheat in tho eighborhood of Waitara, and when that i finished, the Parihaka wheat is to be ireshed. It is not expected that any ary large gathering will collect at Pariaka until the 17th March — the great day f the year. Te Whiti generally gives >me intimation from which we can idge of his policy for the next six tonths, every half year— in March and eptember. Great things are expected lis March, but as this has been the case rery succeeding March for many years, ) great reliance oan be placed upon the ltives* expectations. Some days ago it was suggested to the stives on the Plains that Wiremu Manaia tould be made a kind of trustee for the iceipt of all money paid by Europeans r the purchase of the right to kill pigs iroughout the whole of the Plains. This c natives objected to, and said that each dividual should sell the right to kill on c portions on which he had been accusmed to feed his stook. Between Inaha id Waingongoro was uufcil lately one rge pig run, and the porkers were regurly fed at different stations. Near Eangifo and the sea, Taukei and Paraha (lately sad) owned the pigs ; further inland near aremae, Te Iki (now in prison) fed his vine ; and inland of that, at and about angapirau, was owned by Tairaakana ; hilst Tapuarau, in the inland crossing of laha following the stream to the bridge i the main road, was the pig run of Pene. be natives fail to see why Manaia should ceive the money for killing pigs on land here he owns nothing, and it will be a atter of no difficulty to deal with the oper owners. The singling out of one an from the tribe with whom to deal, bother in property or land, is a mistake, id has led to much misunderstanding, id worse, in the past. European inclinations lead them to your the Maories most willing to sell, id some Maories are most anxious to sell ything, whether their own property or at of others, especially the latter. From ese natives spring the men who have td as much land as they could find purasers for, whilst the owners are at ribaka biding their time for an investition. A late Civil Commissioner once narked to your correspondent that it is a fact only to be expected in the tuial course of events, that the worst ition of the Maories sided with the tropeotia.