NATIVES.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume IV, Issue 314, 10 January 1844, Page 2

NATIVES.

To the Editor of the " New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator." Sir. — A letter which appeared in your last paper from a settler at Wanganui, full of truth in his description of the relations now existing between the Colonists and the native; has induced me to make public some circumstances strongly confirming the same views. Moreover, they are circumstances which, in . a country protected by a Government and ruled by laws, I should have communicated to tbe Police Magistrates ; but which it is more fit to lay before the public, who are left, it seems, almost entirely to protect themselves. About a fortnight ago, some rumour having reached Rauperaha and Rangihaeata, that I was stopping at Otaki for the purpose of watching them, as a guide to a body of white men who were coming to capture them, the latter threatened to burn the house in which I was sleeping, and drive all the white men from Otaki. On .going down to the pa, to repudiate the accusation, and trace its origin if possible, I held a long conversation with Rauperalia, who took pains to impress upon me his power, the care which he took of his own people, and the accurate information which he constantly received of everything that was going on in the neighbourhood of the white men's settlements. • To prove the latter assertion, he instanced two cases which, he said, were perfectly well known to him, of murders committed by natives in the neighbourhood of this place, and jpf which we have never had any sign or suspicion. The first he stated to have been committed up the Hutt by a native now alive, whom, however, he would not name. He asked repeatedly whether any one had been missed up there, and upon my answering in the negative, said that showed how little care we could take of our people compared with that which he took of his. The second murder he described as having been committed among the hills at the back of the town,, by the native who was shot by another at Pakuao some months since. He* described the whole affair circumstantially, and stated as a proof that the adze with which the deed was done remained, with , the father of the murderer at a settlement on the main opposite Mana. He then spoke about the natives living in the town and neighbourhood'; . and declared that there was not a single one sincerely friendly to us, except Epuni. He named Etako and Moturoa as at the head of an extensive and well arranged plan, organized at the time of E Waho's, trial, for attacking the town, should his sentence have seemed to them too severe, and said that messengers from this tribe had been in constant communication with him as to their proceedings. With his 1 usual treachery, he betrayed .the, plans of the Ngatiawa tribes, his old enemies, but only after they had been, unsuccessful, and too late for them to be thwarted had they been carried out. He ridiculed the idea of the 53 soldiers resisting such a combined attack as they had planned ; and still more the belief entertained by many people that

they were christianized- and therefore averse to such doings. He said that the mihingere was only used as a cloak ; and that in private they swore at the Missionaries as the principal cause of their disasters ; and were perfectly ready at any time to sing the war-song with their old fury. Rauperaha has himself pretended to be a Christian since he arrived at Otaki from Wairau, and has attended chapel day and night ever since. It is easy to appreciate his sincerity after hearing his account of the whole tribe, at. least as attentive to the forms, and as instructed in the doctrines of the Christian religion^ as himself. After the relation of these circumstances, can we doubt the fact asserted by your correspondent, that moral influence among the natives is •at an end. The murder of Milne, that of the native at Pakuao, the two described by Rauperaha, and others on which it is unnecessary here to dwell, — unpunished and almost uninvestigated by the proper authorities, have, not been without their effect on the native race. They have no more tespect now for a Kai Wakawa or Police Magistrate than for a private settler, who lias proved to them that he is ready to defend himself, and they consider the Queen and Governors as ' mere ciphers, invented to amuse the native children in the Moari Gazette.

I must join with " Alpha," in protesting against any opinion being formed of the natives from the passing visit cf a Bishop, or Judge, or other person of high station, whom the natives are always ready enough to cajole, and whose report derives authenticity from the very station which causes the changed deportment of the native in their presence. I do nob imagine that Rauperaha, when the Bishop .shook hands with him the other day at Otaki, boasted to him as he did to me, of the 1 unpunished murders committed by natives on white men, or asserted Missionary customs to be a mere cloak. ' It is impossible to suppose that he would have given him the same particulars which he did to me, and that he should not have made them known here.

I have no wish to excite unnecessary alarm ; but I wish to make people understand as far as in my power lies, the real position in which they stajid .with the natives, and not let them be deluded by the idea that they are Christian, or civilized enough to abstain from their old and favorite pastime of war, and to raise my humble -voice in proof of the necessity of a strong display of physical force in order to re-establish that moral influence which is now at its last gasp. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, E. Jerningham Wakefield.

To the Editor if the " New Zealand Gazette and - Wellington Spectator." Sir, — In order to add to the sports in commemoration of the founding of the colony of Port Nicholson, I wish with due submission to inform you, that a Donkey Race is in contemplation, the Asses to be bona fide the property of the Lawyers ; and the following members of the Legal profession have kindly consented to ride their own animals. The Doctor will ride that well known Ass Consistency.

The Crown Prosecutor will ride, with his usual judgement Plilanthrophy . The Senior Notary Public will ride his own celebrated crop tailed Ass .... Vox Populi. The Junior Notary Public will ride that vicious animal Blackball. Several other Practitioners are likely to enter their animals, but I am authorized to state that Mr. Ross declines entering his own Ass. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant. Jenny.

To the Editor of We' "New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator." Sir, — If any gentleman could inform me, through the--' medium of your much valued Journal, the cause, prevention, and cure of the Smut in wheat, and also if the smut once gets into the wheat whether it endangers, the whole crop, he wouli confer a great 1 favour on myself and neighbours who are great sufferers by it. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, W. Moody. Wellington, January 8, 1844.