MAKETU, BAY OF PLENTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4487, 31 March 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAKETU, BAY OF PLENTY.

The surrey of Te Puke land is still in abej r ance. The objecting natives have invited Sir D. McLean and Mr. H. T. Clarke to meet them, and hear their reasons for hot allowing the survey to go on. There is no prospect of this invitation being accepted. The East Coast native troubles are of toe complicated and serious a character for any department of the Government to be willing to ventilate the matter until after the next session of the New Zealand Assembly. The native meeting at Paeroa came to nothing, in consequence of tribal jealousies. Another meeting of the same natives is to be held towards the close of the year. The Governor's visit has no political significance. The natives are very favourably impressed by his kindness and attention whenever they approached him. His Ex cellency was bothered with complaints against magistrates and other officers of the Native Department; but that is only a natural consequence of' the misrule or neglect of the Native Office, as represented in the Bay of Plenty. The native school here bids fair to be an exception to the general rule. Under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Pinker the attendance has .increased from an average of five to a regular attendance of forty. The children shew a marked improvement in knowledge during the last year. Mr. Pinker has also earned the thanks of the whole community for his successful and gratuitous services as a homceopathist.

It is my painful duty to record the death, at Ohinemutu, on the 22nd March, from general dropsy, of Miriata, the wife of "Rotohiko Haupapa. The deceased -was noted for her hospitality and kindness to travellers through the Lake District when there were no hotels or places of accommodation. ' She wa3 highly connected by birth and marriage with many of the leading tribes in the jSorth Island. Her death has cast a gloom over the whole district, and both Europeans and natives deeply regret her.

The report that tho murderer, Winiata, was in this district, as telegraphed to the Auckland papers, is absolutely false. He knows better than to trust himself this side of the Waikato river.—[Correspondent.]