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New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6750, 6 July 1883, Page 4

The news that the surveyors have been cleared off by the natives, acting under the ordera of Tawhiao, from the Aotea and Kawhia road, is discomforting and troublesome at the present time. There was no resistance to the taking possession of the township of Kawhia, the land of which was the property of the Government, and it was thought that there would be no resistance to the construction of a road from Aotea to Kawhia. Mr. Bryce, indeed, clnimed a right to connect the township by road both with Alexandra and Aotea. and a party were sent to survey and construct a road from the latter place. Up to the return of Tawhiao there ■ was no appearance of any obstruction. The surveyors and -workmen on the Aotea road have now been stopped, and this has been done under the immediate orders of Tawhiao. The chief of the party who pulled up the pegs -was a man named Tikirahi, one of the Nt»atimahuta, the tribe to which Tawhiao himaelf belong 3. The Ngatimahuta, it may be mentioned, own most of the land between Aotea and Kawhia, so that probably the pegs hfure been pulled up as aD assertion of ownership, rather than as a protest on behalf of the Maori Kingship. Bnt it will be seen that Tawhiao asserts that he has the right to order Europeans away from Kawhia if

he afaposw, and that, of course, is done \in virtue of tig claim « King. * The obstruction is on the native side oij the confiscation line It will be remembered that when Kawhia was taken possession of Tawhiao hid started onhia Southern tour with his immediate followers, so .that the native 3 who have now obstructed the survey ana the road-making, were not those who were present when Mr. Bryce took possefision of the Government land at the township. The Ngatimaniapoto have taken up the position that they are willing to come in under certain conditions and since the meeting at Whatiwhatihoe' Tawhiao has been ignored by both parties' He now, however, stops the construction of the road to Kawhia to show that he is not yet quite "ont of it," and that he has still to be reckoned with as a factor in tha arrangement of native aflairs. Mr. Eryce cannot omit to take cognisance of this latest outrage, which may bs said to have been done by Tawhiao himself. He will not, however, be able to do anything himself while Parliament is sitting, and when the session 13 at an end he has his journey to London to undertake.