REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 6

REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

Vol. -2. Ciiai-. XIV. T.uiAXAKr, the seat of the war, takes its name from the lofty, snow-clad tiiountiiiii, called by us Egmont, and by the natives T.iranaki. Tradition says that the first Maoris who lauded iu New Zealand landed in a bay between Tarauaki aud ilaiigonui,, named the Witikau ; that the chiefs jia-ne was Turi : that they came from Hawaiiki, an island in the South Seas, iu a canoe named Aotua, aud Turi it was who cave the names to the rivers ami mountain's in this part of Xew Zealand ; that soon after another or second canoe, named Tukomam, arwved from the same island, commanded by a chief named Manaia, wiio had to iiy his country on aceouut of a murder he had committed. That they found Xew Zealand inhabited by an unwarlike race, whom they easily subdued (called Moiries) and took possession of the country. The first Kuropan wlio ever beheld Taranaki was Tasman, in December, 1042 (the Dutch navigator), and on the 10th January, 1772, Captain Cook sighted Mount Egmofit, just one mouth before the French uavigator. M. Marion du Fresno, ma<le the land. From that tune to ISS'J Taranaki was only visited by whaler;. Iu IS:!!) a company was formed iu England, called the Plymouth Company, to establish a colony in New Zealand, and this company invested £10,000 iu the purchase of oU.OOO acres from the Xevv Zealand Coinpaiiv at the Waitara, Colonel WaketieUi acting a≤ ajent for them iu negotiating the purchase. "He rirst arranged tor the" purchase with the fugitives residing on the shores of Look's Straits, who had been driven from o;: the lauds iu question, the dread of whose foes preventing their return. About the c-.ul of the same year, tiie company's naturalist, Ernst DutVenbach, found 'a handful of wretched natives living at Taranaki, oh obscure plantations, hidden deep in the recesses of the forest, anil succeeded in purchasing their right to the soil. Alter tiiis. the head chief ot Waikato who had cuaqiieiva these tribes, sent a subordinate named Te Kaka, with -200 men, to demand pavmeut for the Waitara land, it bem- his i.y eomjU-.-st, and to satisfy him Governor llobson iyve him i'l.'iU in cash, 2 horses and saddles. - bridles, aud 100 red blankets, and further, entered into an agreement, that for the future onc-teuth of 'the land purchased shodi lie reserved to the natives, and su as to expedite their civilization, these reserves should be in the midst of the lands s.-lected by liie Europeans. Consequently, a village was'sooa formed about eigiit miles from the present township of Taranaki, on a heautitul Mil level tract of land on the banks of the Waitara, and tlie settlers had hardly taken possession of the dwellings they bail erected, when a number of retunu-d "slaves, the original owners of the district, wlio had beea set atliberty through the influence 01 the Kev. John Whitelev, became in their turn most insolent and tvraunic.il, demandin- the laud back a-.u,. And to settle the Home Government sent out a Cominissioiiit, by the name of Spain, who liavin: heard all the pros and cons, j. svd hi* decision against the retiuued sl;?.vs, auJ eontirmed the purchase, but as this decision rather increased the feeling of discontent, liovurnor Fit/roy, to avert unpleasantness, reversed the award of the Imperial Commissioner, declared the settlers trespassers, and abandoned the settlement already twice purchased to the returned slaves, with this proviso, that the dispossessed settler should re-enter on his original selection whenever the native titleshoaU Lβ extinguished. It was this imprudent at: of Governor Fit/.roy that iir-st gave the natives a knowledge of their power over US, wlucli they did not forget iVoin that moment to exercise it, and laid the foundation of a future war ut races, which was staved oil from year to year only by expensive jjifts aud re : peated acts of humiliation on the part Ot the Government up to the arrival of Governor Browne. It was also a death blow tc the new settlement, inasmuch as man; vmigranis immediately kit for Australia, others were induced by the Government to go up to Auckland anil work a newly-dis-covered copper and n:angancse mine, while those who remained were compelled to g-] into the heavily-timbered laud at Xarauakl and hew out for themselves farms with the axe. T. "\V. G. [To bo continued.]