THE ESCAPED PRISONERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 302, 31 October 1864, Page 6

THE ESCAPED PRISONERS.

Tue Native chief Tirerau arrived in town on baturday from the North, for the purpose of beseeching the Governor to stretch out his hand and prevent the Northern Natives from becoin-" mg involved in the present rebellion. Tirerau had an interview with his Excellence on Monday, and, ire Lear, pleaded linrd for his race witli Sir George Grey. He represents I hut the young men of the Ngapuhis are daily becoming more and more disaffected by the influence exercised over them by the escaped I prisoners'; that as yet the majority of the ■A at jve people in the North are'anxious to escape being involved in the common ruin of their race, but that the inaction of the Governor whom he stigmatises in language which we need not- repeat, is fast drifting them into the rebellion. He entertains the most' ,J gloomy forebodings of the result which , must follow the act of allowing 200 desperate rebels to be in daily and continual communication with the youuc men of the neighbouring tribes and hapus, and declares that nothing but the removal of the escaped prisoners from the North can save that district from "war and its consequences.

• There is no doubt.itit, that Tirerpu, Md this, arid much.ihore* to the [Govternot 6 a Monday J But Jbo, done?. "VVill Sic George Grey allow', the,',Korth,. as he. allowed "Waikato, to drift into war P .'. Will.he sit quietly down Tsrithout.. attempting the solution of a difficulty, as hedid in the ease of Wsiitara, until Mubdek calls him .suddenly to a courae of action which 'prudent measures might hare averted ? A peace, policy, even, means something more than inaction; hut Sir. George Grey sits down, like! one' stupified, ti*der4 diffictdty,and is roused only to. action, when tob late; bf the presence of the veiy dangers •he ought to We hare received to-day a' letter from a Matakrina settler. It evidently shows the feeling of insecurity in >vhieh the .settlers in the North are haW living. " Our tempers," hesays, are not improved by the reception the,several " deputations '"met " with from' his' ExceUeaej-,: "TVe do not, .even know-, whether t 'ire ;,sli?il ".receive cpmpensiition... .fori the trhigit " thefib , Miojis oi'e daily killing, arid if 'thought-we should not be paid ior all the " damage sustained, wo would, at least; have " vengeance "on those who are allowed thus " wantonly, to steal and destroy our property." Our correspondent says that the settlers Lave heart'neither to plant nor sosy, not knowing wlio may reap —that they cannot, sonic of them, leave their houses ;but. that,,ten or twenty of these riilliahS 'tsoiite. i^besiife;wi?eriilSeS_ steal unytiiiiig they take' S''faiity to," i\iid steal from one settler in the liope of selling the Stolen article to others. They' are still, -we learn, killing the, settlers' cattle, having killed two belonging to our informant only on Suijlfljj-. last. The settlers, we learn, are collecting '. their cattle for the purpose of removing tliem froiii the clutches of these freebooters,'-and mant adds that so great is the excitement and under such terrorism dp the settlers live, that ho believes the first family of any note that leaves the district will be the signal for hundreds to gather together their household goods and fly a place of safety.'. TV"iU .Sir pfeorge Grey jio nothing to protect, die property bf ttijb settlers; to save the jSorthern tribes froin, tlie consequences of a rebellion—against the temptation of entering into, which the better ones amongst them are striving, and are imploring him to save their young men ? Has- he no thought for the. womea and little on,es,of. his ownirsee? TV"ill He lei the drift on into war and not wake from his lethargy until women and children have been butchered in cold blood, until the tomahawk has brought desolation to many a family in the JTorth as it has already done in the South? Until the blazing homesteads of the. most thickly populated agricultural districts eff this Province .become ihe, beacons which proclaim tlie coirimeiieeiiicnt of a deadlier fiercer struggle • than any that has yet taken place in Zealand ? ::

TUe arrival of Tirerau in town has caused a most remarkable revelation,'and one which, prepared as most are, to condemn the negligence of Sir George Grey in' leaving the prisoners so whofly Unguarded wheli finally lutndecLofei - ttf his ehafge lit tlie tjie ; feel ; ing of . cohdeiniiatibiil ¥c aire ctedibly informed bjr a gentleman to whom Tirerau is well known that that chief told him, in the presence of a third ui»u xor a period of three vrce'is previously to their" escape from the Kawaa small parties of the prisoners were in the habit of pastsing over to the main land—that tliejf then. selected' the site of the present aiid. made all tlie iieiiessary .dfrSrigeiueiitl ior.&gng assisted ijvfer. Surely the jpurtile yf & of one who, as tlie Times truly ,says, possesses all the ferocity and treacherous sayageness of the lied Indian, and who has not yet, as in the case of the Sgataruanius, igiven.up: the. practice of cannibalism —isiJiofc to fee viewed iii the- snnift light as that of a European officer, the prisoner 'ot war. Events have proved of what value was thisparole—"not'to leave the island without the consent of the Government"—and none should have known its value better than Sir George. It was clearly his office to havetakeu such measures as should have enforced the pledges wice given to' Mr. White dt. the prisoners before they left the hulk.—October 2l>: