NATIVE DIFFERENCES.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 23, 8 November 1845, Page 2

NATIVE DIFFERENCES.

It is mucji to be feared that there will be a collision between the tribes of Waiteri and Katepa, in consequence of some dispute respecting their several land boundaries. A short time since, Waiteri and Jabez Bunting, went to the disputed spot in their canoes, and their men dug a trench to mark their boundary ; then had their parting tangi, in anticipation of battle. Katepa, Kaihau, and Abraham, with their men were in the neighbourhood ; the Rev, Mr. Maunsell, of the Church Mission, exerted him&elf most strenuously to counteract their warlike propensities, but they danced their war dance, and notwithstanding the judicious remonstrances of the. Rev. gentlemen, rushed down on Waiteri and his tribe, in three columns, in most perfect order. The Rev. Mr. Buddie, of the Wesley an Mission, who had gone to Waiteri, in order to preserve, if possible, peace, persuaded Waiteri and Jabez Bunting to remain sitting quietly in their huts, and for five hours they submitted to the taunts and jeering insults of Katepa, and his tribe. It was the object of Katepa, to instigate Jabez Bunting or Waiteri to some overt act, which would be plea, according to their customs, for immediate attack by him and his people. Finding that n othing could irritate the peaceably disposed natives, Katepa, despite the remonstrances of Mr. Mauns?ll, ordered his people to fill up the trench again, which would but for the strong interference of the Rev. Mr. Buddie, have created instant collision between the tribes. At night Katepa and his people departed in their canoes, for the Waikato, to settle some dispute with another tribe on that river. As he has not planted this season, and having left his own district with such strong force, it is supposed that he is gone on some predatory hostile excursion into the interior.