THE KAWAU PRISONERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 309, 8 November 1864, Page 5

THE KAWAU PRISONERS.

To the Kditor of the New Zealand Heuald. Slit,- —The settlors at Mataknnn. have enjoyed a comparetive calm for the lust two weeks, but always !ift<• r a visit of otlicials or friendly Maories there seems to be a ferment r.t the pa. It wis visited by Mr. T. While, Dr. Sam, and another oilieial. They are no sooner gone than the thing is all altcreu by the ll'ithi;/ ycir.l. Mr. White reports—a better behaved lot of men he never saw, and that the natives deny having stolen any cattle. Mr. White saw the feet of two on his iiist visit, before he reached the top of Mount Hamilton, and one of them (the Maori parson) told him that his party killed three sheep. The last time Mr. White was lip they admitted to having killed three entile belonging, I believe, to a settler named Micklejolin, who lives near the pa ; and a large one taken out of n paddock was tracked, but lost ; there were the bare-foot prints after it. There we.ie, 1 am told, about oU head in the paddock at the time. How, sir, it is very hard for the settlers hereto lose their cattle, and it is nothing else than the fear that the rest of the settlers in the North would pay for tlle loss or we would have utu v.-ith a vengeance. It is with the greatest difficulty 1 restrain myself. If Mi\ T. A. White, or any other friend of the Maori, were in the place of those whose cattle have been stolen, they would very soon sing another song. The number of Lite rebels varies from 200 to 800 and upwards. They have been joined, on Saturday, bytwo armed parties of natives. One from Kipara, and another from Wangarei. They go about with'gims and cartridge boxes, and have made some 'women polish them like looking-glass. If the man is from the house they will demand bread, and will not go without it. ii' there, is not some alteration we ail will have to leave. Men eannot stay always at home to watch -what, the Govermcnt should do. I freely ailmir that no man can live on the wind, and whit men in (lie same position would require food as well as they—and no small amount of it neither, which they would help themselves to before they would want it long, but this would soon be stopped by law, and for a few settlers to have to bear the burden is not very I'ritish like. The English journals call the colonists blood-thirsty and greedy of the Maori land, but if were living in Matakuna, they would try the boot on the other leg. They would hear the Maoris boast that their little boys could and had killed soldiars. Whether jt is true or done to intimidate I ilo not know. One thing Ido know, and that is, I am ashamed of the country. On Tuesday they had an excellent haul of fish. Their money is all done. Surely the Government or their particular friends in Sliortland-street might supply them with Hour and sugar to eat with the fish and the settlers' cattle. A Skttlek Matakana, November 5, 1564.