NEW ALARM ON THE EAST COAST.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 163, 13 March 1869, Page 5

NEW ALARM ON THE EAST COAST.

The following extracts from telegrams received by the Government contain whatever is of importance in the reports from Napier, which were creating some anxiety in town •yesterday : Captain "Withers, Adjutant of Militia, says :—“ An orderly from Wairoa late last night reports 30 Hauhau prisoners brought to the Mohaka as he passed, by Toku, the pilot at Wairoa, and his people, who gave them over to the people at the pa. Some report here that Rewi and followers are coming through the Ngaruroro Gorge.” The report referred to by Captain Withers was communicated as follows by Mr. M ‘Lean on Tuesday, March 2 : “ Sullivan, a half-caste in defence force, has returned from Te Whaiti, Taupe, and states that Rewi proposes to join Te Kooti with 700 men. Matutaera talks of attacking Titokura. Government natives propose to fight, but are too few in number. An attack on this district is proposed by way of Patea (in Taupo), and Nguroro Gorge. This, Sullivan says, is decided on. Great sympathy expressed by some of the Taupo and other tribes for prisoners.” Mr. McLean further reported yesterday : “ A letter just received from Captain St. George, Taupo, dated 26th February, states that Ihaia te Warn returned from the Urewera country, where he had seen both Te Kooti and Nikora since the fight at Ngatipa. Te Kooti was not wounded, and says that he lost very few men. Ihaia reports that Te Kooti has returned to Ngatipa. The Ureweras are not likely to join Te Kooti at present. St. George had only just returned from Tauranga, and could give no more news.” The accuracy of the above information may be tested by the fact that a head, believed to be that of Nikora, was brought into camp at Ngatipa, recognised by Mr. F. E. Hamlyn and many natives, tangied over by his sister, who was a prisoner. His wife, Peti, who is among the Ngatiporou, was present at his death. A reward was paid on the strength of this evidence. The Government have a nominal list of above 100 killed at Karetu and Ngatapa. In a telegraphic conversation with the Government, Sullivan says he hears Kooti is at a place called Waiokete, with 250 to 300 men from his own tribe and Ngatihineuru. Of the latter, Mr. Locke reports on the 10th Feb., after a visit to Taupo, from which place he had returned a day or two before, that the Ngatihineuru are almost extinct, having suffered severe losses, at Omaranui and elsewhere.— lndependent. Under date Opotiki, February 6th, we have the following items of intelligence : No further news has been received of Te Kooti, probably owing to the fact that heavy rains have swelled the rivers, and cut off all communication. Pukurakuhad returned from the unsuccessful pursuit of the Mahurehure in consequence of the weather, but intended to start again in a few days. He reports that an armed party of Hauhaus from the Waimana had been down as far as Puke Ti; they were 30 or 40 in number, and came with the idea of burning ot the Whakatane mill; on their return they looted a number of horses.

Eopata and his people were on their way to Te Kaha to a feast and tangi over the remains of Timoti, a late chief. Eopata said that should he hear anything of Te Kooti’s whereabouts, he will pursue him immediately.

Upon hearing of Te Kooti’s proximity, the King came up with forty men, and offered his assistance to Major Mair, the officer commanding the district. The Church Eedoubt at Opotiki is garrisoned by 25 Armed Constabulary under Sub-Inspector Travers, and 50 militia under Captain Mair. —A dvertiser. The Tauranga correspondent of the Southern Cross, writing on March 2nd., says : —War rumorS still continue to leach us from Eotorua. The latest news from that place, received from a reliable source, is that Rewi’s party, exasperated at the determined stand taken by the natives at Taupo and elsewhere, in not allowing their district to become neutral ground, has signified his intention of invading the Taupo district, taking the Arawa settlements in his course. This information, coupled with the fact that Te Kooti being in the neighbourhood of the Arawa frontier

with, it is said, five hundred followers, is certainly sufficient cause for apprehension. I am aware that a feeling is prevalent that the late reports, touching the danger the Arawa frontier is in of being- infringed upon by hostile tribes, are mere canards, got up by the A rawas themselves, to alarm the Government, and get themselves placed on pay but it is only right to state that everyone with any knowledge of the subject thinks them serious and well-founded. That Te Kooti and the XJ riwera will sit down quietly under their losses, without seeking utu, no one acquainted with the usages of Maori warfare for a moment imagines ; the law with them'is “an eye for an eye,” a chief for a chief. We may be sure Te Kooti’s mischief-planning spirit has not left him, and the results of his cogitations will doubtless soon be apparent. It is said that the councils of the invading army are divided, the Ngaterokou being in favor of attacking Rotorua, and the Waikato inclining to make Tauranga the first place of assault. “ The people of Tauranga are pakehas,” say they, “ and are our natural enemies,jwhile those at Rotorua are of our own race, and many of them blood relations.”