The New-Zealander. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27, 1847.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 147, 27 October 1847, Page 2

The New-Zealander. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27, 1847.

•• • Bejiistahd fear not: Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God*, and Truth's.

The'^tables ate turned upon us at last Auckland) whioh hid been so long proud o\ its own comparative security, has now become the scene of a tragedy, more frightful, if possible, than any of those which have stained the other settlements. The Wairoa massacre, horrible as it was, and widely felt, front the nutober of the sufferers, was, af least, unpremeditated, and more in the nature of , a conflict,- open and hand to hand, than of a murder, i/ttle more can be said of it, than , that the, usages of civilised warfare, sparing j those who,have thrown down their arms, weie not respected, and that cruel revenge was taken, for , the death of a chieftainess who had fallen in the fray. The murders of the Gil- „ lespi.es, in the Hutt, and of the Gilfillans, at s Warigariui, "took place at a period of high excitement,''^ahd l ih a 1 time of war ; a war of 4 doubtful justice; on tour pa£t, and in Which, if primal causes be alone considered," we ourselves are confessedly to blame. _; .Supejrstitiott; too, which has carried more enlightened nations greater lengths before now, is supposed to have caused the latter crime ; the wish i for) a favourable omen, the belief that a first blow successfully struck, even upon defenceless people, would betide .' good luck for Ihe rest of the campaign. The murder of the Robertons, at the Bay, by Makatu, would certainly appear to have been prompted by mere appetite of blodd in the savage who committed it ; even that, however, was unaccompanied by such circumstances of additional atrocity, as, in this case, we have too much reason to fear. We felt some hesitation in giving details of this catastrophe, as they are at present known, . for 'two- treasoni. In the first place, we are unwilling to; pamper that craving forexcitement which is growing fast upon us, that vitiated modern taste which finds its most jdo'rigeriiai food in records of crime and misery ; ' And in the 'second place, we are not Unmindful of the reserve required in speaking of a matter, which, th&re is every reason to hope, will 'yet comeibefore a jury. ' ' ' Oh' after thought, however, we have considered it'mtfre advisable at once to prevent those garbled' and exaggerated statements to '•which' 'mfef 6 • oral relation must always give v rise, 1 by 'jire'sen ting, without note or comment, an account of so much as has been already ac6urately ascertained; as well as to escape the accusation, 1 which would certainly be • thfowti in our teeth elsewhere, "of having en1 deavdufed.to hush up. ah' Occurrence which -'haa done aw ( ay Wiih one, at least, of our claims of advantage over the other New Zealand settlements. ' It'a'ppeais'ihat 6n Saturday morning, be- ' twfeen twelVe* 'and one o'clock, the attention 1 bf r a '^ar^rth'aster ot ft. M. Ship Dido, was b'y 1 a lig/it'in Lieut. Snow's house. Th'd Circumstance being unusual at that time of night, he was induced to keep his eye upon •it/urftil he suddenly saw,, flames break out, He immediately went aft, and' mentioned it to Lieut. Gougft, the officer of the watch, who , irep*6rte l d'it; to Captain Maxwell. -Orders 1 were instantly given to lower the cutter, and to "render alL.assistance possible; in less than twenty minutes, the boat's crew were on the spot, bu% owing to the house being constructed of raupo, the roof had. already fallen in. It should be^her« mentioned, that two canoes were observefji/to steal out front underneath the shore, seen, though hardly njbticed by the crew of the cutter, who had no suspicion at the time of foul play, but which were watched from the ship. They parted company, one of them crbs'sing ttife water, as if- for the Oraki, the. other being in a short time lost sight of behind the, north head. Lieut, Gough, supposing at first that the family had escaped, proceeded to the house of a person of the name of Oliver, who was in charge of the cattle that were upon the run, and to that of Duder, the signal man, but hearing no tidings , of , them', concluded that they must be buried ! underneath the ruins, where his men were already engaged in extinguishing the flames. .The spot where he might expect to find the sufferers, if in bed, having been pointed out to him, he ordered the ashes to be shoveled ; away from thence, with great care, and after | a little while, the' foot of the man appeared. 'Near bim.vlay the child, (the other daughter ] had fortunately been left behind in Auckland, under the care of , Mrs., .Cooper),, and the; body of Mrs. Snow herself, but all three apparently, across, the bed. They were much I burned) particularly about the lower ex.tiemJties, but. still easily to be identified. On examination of, the corpses, it became only too clear that all. was not right. The wounds observed ,were' such .a* could not have been , inflicted by the fall of the rafters, and although a fereat portion of the clothes had been r~ •- <oed, it was evident that the man w^ ' ytlressed, An armed party was ira-

mediately sent from the Dido, to secure some canoes, which were lying in a small adjacent bay, with the Natives, twenty-two in number, to whom they belonged. They were found asleep, but were taken prisoners, and brought on board. Upon their extraordinary subsequent liberation — which we believe that even the Governor himself would not have had power to order — and that in presence of a magistrate, we offer no comment. It suffices to say that a clergyman who knew them, pledged his word for their re-appearance on the day of the inquest, and that he was afterwards as good as his word, having produced them all. Still such interference was not the less unwarrantable. ,„ j^ There can be no doubt-^but that natives were perpetrators of the foul deed. Our native police pronounced the wounds to be Maorie handiwork at once. But the mutilation of the bodies, from all three of which large pieces of flesh had been cut with knives* and the part from whence they were cut, is conclusive evidence. What was done with that flesh, we leave our readers to suppose. We hope most earnestly that we may be still shewn to have been mistaken j but, for the present, our conviction js firm. It now remains to be ascertained whether political grievances, ,or motives of private revenge, hav6 given cause to this frightful act. No one can tell, as yet ; we are ourselves inclined, pei haps because we wish it, to lay it upon the latter agency. The deceased gentleman, was known to have had two scuffles with natives ; one*, with a party that insisted upon lighting a fire near the powder magazine, from which he finally drove them away, and another, with one who attempted to take a loaf of bread by force fronl his house. This man, when ejected, shook his fist at Lieut. Snow, and threatened, in the jargon that passes current between the two races, to make a " pakaru" of him " tihoa." But, if the matter be political, this act, according to Maori custom, is a declaration of war. And, if it should so prove to be, it is Lord Grey, with his mad instructions, that we have to thank. To our knowledge, that poison has been working aud spreading in the country, from the hour that it was first poured out ; and we confess, that We should have looked upon any sudden outbreak, which might have proved a mere flash in the' pan, with less uneasiness, than upon that settled deliberation of purpose, and deep seated feeling about the subject that is now manifested by the natives on every side* There is yet much to be seen here, and, perhaps, a lesson to be learned beside*.

The bodies of Lieutenant Snow, of his wife, and child, were yesterday committed to the grave. The coffins were borne by a party from the '* £)ido/' and were followed by a long train of Naval officers and of the inhabitants of Auckland, anxious to pay a last tribute of respect- to a family bo long known and esteemed among them.

! By the Factor from Tahiti, we learn that the new French Governor Monsieur | Levaud, seemed to be much liked by all ! classes. Queen Ppmare was residing quietly in her old domicile, and perfect peace prevailed throughout all the islands. Some natives of the JPumata Islands had been brought down by the French Authorities to Tahiti, and were in course of trial before a French tribunal on a charge Of piratical seizure of a Schooner. It was much feared that the social habits of the French occupants of the isand would undo much of the moral reform that had been effected by the British Missionaries* It .may however be presumed that when the French Government discovers that the lax; morale of its soldiery destroys every industrial tendency of the natives, from which alone it might expect any revenue in aid of its large expenditure, it may, were it only for financial reasons, enforce a change in its garrison regime. .