THE NATIVE GATHERING IN THE WAIKATO.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11538, 26 March 1898, Page 6

THE NATIVE GATHERING IN THE WAIKATO.

[Per Press Association.! HUNTLY, March 25. The Hon J. Carroll, accompanied by Messrs' Holland, Lang and Lawry, members of the House, visited the Maori meeting at Wahi to-day. The party was conveyed across the Waikato Eiver in a large war canoe, decorated in the old style and manned by forty Natives. The visitors were received cordially by the Natives with songs of welcome and Bands of music. King Mahuta and Te Waharoa, the Maori Premier, made speeches of welcome, but no busisess was done. Mr Carroll is postponing his remarks to the Natives on the Government policy as to Native lands till next Tuesday, when the meeting/ will have arrived at some definite conclusions.

The Kingite Council evidently wishes the Government to acknowledge Mahuta as king for the Maori people, bub they are too sanguine. The Natives assembled ai'a not at all • unanimous on the question of Henare Kaihau’s Bill. A number of the visitors, including Ngatikahuhunu and Ngatiraukawa, from Hawke’s Bay and Wellington, are in favour of a federated union

of the tribes ruled by a purely Maori Parliament. Hamiora Mangakahia, from the East Coast, is the principal advocate of a Maori Parliament as opposed to the Kingite proposals.