WAIKATO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VI, Issue 1753, 26 August 1869, Page 4

WAIKATO.

TK KOO'l'l ATTACKS THE KRIEXDLY NATIVES NEAJi TAUPO. In!(iii.m.vtii>n was recoivi-tl from Tc Ivooti liy llic Kia.i; :it on Tliursilsiy hist that he, To Kooli, who was tlit'ti nour laupo. linii fallen upon tho Iriciully natives and ilcleatinl tliLMii, killinij; i'nll one hundred. Te iCnoti did not state wluit was his own loss, but it is supposed to have been between twenty and thirty. Though said to bo near Taupo, lie may at at anv moment bo at. since lie was not, when at the lake, more than two .itiil si half d-iys jonniev irom Alexandra. Louis llcltet, who senilis to be ntrangelv in J'e Ivooti's and liewi's conllihiuee, sends word to Mr. Searaneke, that Te Kooti is near Taupo, and as a consequence tlie armed constabulary are ordered down irom Te Awamutu —where ilioir prc.suucu is a safeguard to the settlers--to Nf»:irii:nva.liia, I where, lor all purposes of active defeneu, j they are little more unetul than they would i be in Auckland. Jf tho country is to bo j saddled with tho expense (if an armed constabulary—and we do not see how tiiis can j be avoided—let us, at any rato, keep them j where their services will be of value, and not follow the Imperial regulation of keeping them stationed in the centres of population. If they arc to keep back the horrors of war from the Waikuto, to prevent war. in fact, they must be stationed at Alexandra, Kibikihi, and Te Awamutu. if it is merely intended that they shall drive. Te Kooti out of the Waikato after ho has ravaged and plundered it, why then Nganuuvaiiia

will be the place for them. If Te Kooti makes Taupo aucl the East Coast too hot for him, he will doubtless return to Tokaugamutu, aud if when there he finds no force ready to prevent an attack, who can say that he may not make a raid upon the settlements? That he did m>; do so when near Tokangaumtu lately is owing, we believe, entirely to our preparedness to resist him. He did not deem it advisablo to join issue with an armed force of threehundrod constabulary, thenatationed on our frontier. Such a. force posted at the stations we have mentioned would, so long as there is no general war, preserve the peace in Waikato; and if that force is to be maintained in the district we may as well retain it where it will best serve to make sure the end aimed at—security to life and property.