PAPAKURA.

New Zealander, Volume XIX, Issue 1973, 15 September 1863, Page 2

PAPAKURA.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESI'ONDENT.] Campbell's Redoubt, Monday, Sep. 14. The detachment of the 65th who have been stationed here under command of Lieut. Tabuteau, numbering twenty-five men, were relieved on Saturday by the same number of the 18th; they marched for the front about 2 o'clock. Thirty of the Colonial Defence force marched for Pukekohe during the night. I hear that they are all under orders for Mauku. A party of twenty men are to go out to the ranges this afternoon, to ascertain if there is any truth in the rumour of a Maori stockade having been built in that direction. lam very glad to sec that, after a proper enquiry had been made into the conduct of those volunteers who were uuder arrest here on the alleged charge of desecrating Maori graves, that they have been entirely exonerated from all blame. The flag has not been hoisted yet. I think it is quite time we had it up, all the other redoubts are before us.

DRUIIY

[from our own correspondent.]

Monday. Lieutenant Lewis has been ordered from Waiuku to take charge of the Pukekohe Volunteers, nnd is now on his road; but Captain Moir, with 25 of Pitt's Volunteers, is also proceeding to Pukekohe thi s morning.

It is reported that after the Cameron Town affair a body of the same natives crossed the river, and sent to demand the persons of the Ven. R. MauDsell Mr. Stewart, Mr. Ritchie, and Mrs. Spargo, but were at the time prevented from going to extreme measures by Waata Kukutai and his party. These Europeans, it is said, have left. Be this true or not, can it be wise for tham to hazard their lives with a people in whom so little confidence can be placed? Let them retire while their lives are spared.

A rumour also came in this that on Saturday some severe engagement hac| >obell gjace in the neighbourhood of Tuakau, in which \tives had been killed; but this has not been authenticated, and I can therefore merely give it as it came to me.

The enemy now seem spread over a wide extent of country, and are bent on doing what mischief they can; but I fully believe before very long, if the right steps are taken, that they will weary of their work, and be obliged to retire from the bush.

Bnsu Fighting.—As this will evidently be a bush war, we may as well direct our greatest energies and our best appliances to that species of warfare. It will not do to say the Pakeha is " lord of the Fern" but the Maori is " lord of the Bush." We must show ourselves alike the lords of the two—and we can do so. But several impediments must first be removed. One great stumbling block is the inequality of pay to men engaged in exactly the same work. The "Forest Rangers" receive Bs. per day, rations, clothes, &c. ; the " Wairoa Rangers," the " Mauku Rifle Rangers" and the " VVaiuku Volunteers," receive 4s. per day. Now I do not wish to say one word respecting which is the proper pay ; but merely to suggest that in some way they should become more equalized. Still I trust that money is not the grand moving principle of action in the Volunteer movement ; in fact I know it is not, for I could name men receiving but 4s. per day, and some even less, and without rations, who, if they lfked to throw up the objer.t for which they were specially embodied, could at once receive the larger pay. Then, again, there can be no palpable reason why our soldiers should not be as good " Bush Rangers" as

any other body. Of course those who have but just arrived in the country are not likely to be as good at bush work as those who have been years in the colony and none are likely to do well without competent bush guides, and these they can have-if a Civilian's hint will be taken, and a " Corps ol Guides" formed. Again, all engaged in bush work must be provided with short rifles, revolvers, and a suitable outfit ; this is quite incumbent, and many of the men suffer in the bush for want of this being attended to. Monday, 1 o'clock.

Pukekohe .stockade is attacked, and a detachment of the 18th have just gone out. Capt. Moir, who went early th.s morning with twenty-five militia volunteers to Pukekohe, escorted two carts of stores, ammunition, &c, one of which, unfortunately, broke down on the Way out, in a bush road about four miles from Drury. A bodv of men from Martyn's farm immediately went out to support Capt. Moir in ease of attack, which was expected, as the rebels seem strong in that bnsh. It will be some hours before we shall have any further results.

MAUKU AND WAIUKU. Mr. Ft-rguson left his place a few days back with twelve head of cattle, and came down the Waipa and On to the Watkato Heads, where he crossed, and came Irito Waiuku with theuiy two natives helping him. He was told that the natives could not be allowed to proceed without a pass; but it seems they did so until they came to the Mauku, when the volunteer body there detained them, and refused to allow them to proceed—which was, I believe, strictly in accordance with ordeS 9 / and a very proper precaution. Nothing 'fresh at cither of the above places up to yesterday.

PUKEKOHE. The Maoris still hajjg about this neighbourhood, and came suddenly < who had gone but a »hort distance from the stockade on Sunday, two of whom regained the stockade, and the other two took to the bush, and are doubtless by this time safe

again. There sully requires some proper head of the force in this district, and more strength, which it now is likely to have it seems. Statements reached town late last night confirmatory of the attack on the escort on the Great South Road. Mr. Watson's family, who were residing at Mr. Burtt's farm, had been chased by natives from Pukekohe on yesterday. The three sons had reached Drury in the afternoon, but their father and mother had, it appears, not been able to accompany them, and remained behind. It is said that one of the young Watson's had been wounded. It is also said two of a party who had gone into the bush on Sunday, near Mr. Rutherford's farm, are missing.

WAIIIOA. [from our own correspondent.]

September 12th, 1863.

There is little doubt that the time-honoured principle of shutting tli- door after the steed is stolen will be fully carried out in the matter of protecting the Wairoa district.

We have had a long period of inactivity, a period which would have seemed just the fitting one for extending and strengthening our defences, yet nothing has been done. No additional force has been sent—no new redoubts built.

Now, the danger which has so long been threatening, overhangs us in real earnest. The natives are in great numbers in ihe Hunua ranges, where they before menaced us, and there are also larg: bodies of them in the neighbourhood of Urungaheuheu, on which side we formerly had only natives of a professedly friendly character.

Last night Major Lyon received a letter from a friendly Chief, one of the very few who can be looked upon as truly and sincerely friendly, informing him that large numbers of natives, from the Thames, were concentrated in the neighbourhood of Urungaheuheu, and were determined on making an attack on the Wairoa, probably on the blockhouse and redoubt simultaneously ; that the attack would very probably be made last night, but certainly within a week. This Chief had gone, ; n the first instance, to Major Peacocke, at Howick, had been by him referred to the Governor, and by the Governor directed to communicate with Major Lyon.

Is it out of place to remark, sn passant, on the way in which a Chief of high character, and carrying tidings of the uimost importance, was bandied about from one to another, and at last c ompelled to take his horse and ride out to convey the tidings to Major Lyons ? Here was a man in whose good faith and probity the most perfect reliance could be placed, yot it was left entirely to himself whether or no the settlers and forces at the Wairoa should be warned of the imminent danger ; nor were any steps taken to ald to their security.

This letter, coming so immediately after, and confirming so thoroughly that received on the previous night, served to render those who were previously on the alert still more vigilant, and at the blockhouse double watches were set, and all hands, as yesterday, wore under arms at 4 o'clock in the morning. As to the officers, both at the redoubt and in the blockhouse, it would be impossible for men to bo more alert and vigilant than they were before, but the alaim certainly made the men in the blockhouse more wakeful than usual.

The night, however, passed off without any alarm, with the exception of that caused by the report of the rifle of a sentry who was stationed a little way outside the redoubt, and who fired at some object which he landed he saw moving, but which appeared on exami. nation to be only a black stump.

It is, however, certain that we are very insufficiently supported here, considering the extended line we have to protect, and that the enemy in large numbers are now menacing us from two points at once. It is very doubtful whether our numbers are sufficient to defend our own redoubt, blockhouse, and the farm-house on the road to Papakura, at which a large proportion of the Wairoa Rifles are stationed. Certain it is that our forces are utterly unequal to the task of preventing the passage of huge bodies of s through the district who, after pillaging fawg&fieH soon render real some of the numerous p3arma which have occurred at the St. John Redoubt and-elsewhere. The writer of the letter I have before mentioned also especially recommended that the troops should not be sent in pursuit of any scattered Mao'ries they may see, as it is part of their intended tactics to put forth small detached bodies as a lure to lead the troops into an ambuscade.

I never heard till yesterday that, at the time when the boat was sent up by the government to remove Maori property from Otau, and when consequently a sort of armistice was accorded to them, a number of Maories were seen by a settler, ft man in whose veracity the most perfect confidence may be placed, conveying a large portion of the products into the Ranges. The way in which the matter was managed was this : -At the back of the settlement is a small belt of bush, through which a well beaten truck emerges into another patch of open land. In this opening, and screened from the view of any casual observer by this belt of bush, were a lar;*e number of armed natives, to whom the Otau natives were bilsily conveying the produce, which the former speedily carried ott into the Ranges. This shows the complicity of the so-called friendly natives at Otau with the rebels, and it also accounts for the small extent to which the natives at Otau availed themselves of the services of the boat scut by government fjr their accommodation.

These natives have still a considerable quantity of their favourite delicacy—patrid corn—remaining at

Otau, which, I presume, they are reserving as a bonne bouche to be enjoyed when the Wairoa is conquered. Yesterday the Wairoa rifles had the clothing served out to them with which they have been supplied by a paternal governmei . They had been previously told that the watch-coats were second hand, but even with this information were hardly prepared to find themselves made such a set of ragged scarecrows as these coats will make them. Were they all assembled in their coats they would well represent Falstaff's ragged regiment, and, in fact, many of thcra declare themselves ashamed to wear their coats. The blankets are tolerably good, the boots most of them very good, and the blue shirts, and trousers, and leggings, new, are very passable; but certainly the coats are no credit to those who have sent such things out for the use of the force.

[from a correspondent.]

Wairoa, Saturday 12th

No attack yet on the redoubt, but the prospect of one is drawing closer. Last night we had a false alarm, at any rate, and though the disappointment was pretty general, yet it proved one thing, namely, that the whole of the men turned out and were at their posts in exactly one minute —a very satisfactory state of things, and so much so to Major Lyon that, finding he had so zealous and efficient a set of men, he did not put us, as on the previous morning, to the unpleasant necessity of standing at our posts under arms from 4 a.m. till daylight. We have slept in our accoutremeuts the last two nights. The object seen and fired at by one of the sentries was a pig, and he was quite right in doing so, as our sentries have orders to shoot anything alive which comes near the redoubt, if the Challenge is unanswered. It is becoming quite a Maori trick to sneak up to the sentry on all fours, like a pig. This alarm took place about 1 a.m.

Another and more serious alarm, but which led to no actual turn out, as it was only reported to the officer at the time, occurred last night also, just before the sentries were relieved at midnight. One of the sentries posted about twenty yards outside the redoubt, saw a Maori, wrapped in a blanket, pass along the edge of the bush about forty yards from the redoubt and twenty from himself. At the third-challenge the Maori disappeared. The same appearance was seen by another sentry ten minutes afterwards on another beat, and there also the figure was lost sight of at the third challenge. Our sentries would fire at once, but there are several men ill of the diarrhoea, who pass out of the redoubt at night. In both cases, however, it was ascertained that none of our men were outside; and as during the night the sentries saw matches struck in several directions, there is little doubt but that we are surrounded, and an opportunity for making an attack on us is waited for.

Major Lyon received another warning letter yesterday from a friendly native, cautioning us not to stray *rom the camp.

Speaking of diarrhoea, there is a general complaint here against the— coffee I had almost written, I should say ground biscuit and chicory. The contractor will put me right if I am wrong, at any rate that point will be settled by and by, for I am saving a packet which I have direct from the Quartermaster-Sergeant, and which I intend to have analysed on my return to town, and the analysis shall be published that it may be seen what stuff the Government allow contractors to supply for the use of the men. At Papakura and St. John's, during the last campaign, the coffee supplied by Mr. Hill was, the men say, excellent, and why should the present contractor be allowed [to afflict half the camp with diarrhoea, besides supplying the men with a tasteless insipid stuff instead of coffee, just for his own profit and others perhaps. The 65th will be relieved to-day, we hear, by the 18th, who are expected this afternoon. They will probably not leave, however, till to-morrow. On Saturday, after the long expected detachment, consisting of twenty-five men of the 18th, under the command of Lieut. Russell, 18th regt., arrived at the Wairoa redoubt, and were quartered for the night in the Episcopalian church, a short distance away. On Sunday morning, at nine o'clock, the detachment of the 65th, twenty-five men under Lieutenant Chevalier, marched from the Wairoa for Drury, and on their departure were loudly cheered by the Auckland Rifle volunteers, who turned out to bid them good bye. A mutnal good feeling between the volunteers and 65th quartered here has always prevailed.