THE NATIVE OUTRAGE AT KAWHIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6818, 24 September 1883, Page 5

THE NATIVE OUTRAGE AT KAWHIA.

\ai TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Saturday. oo far as the information yet received by the Government relative to the Kawhia affair goes, it seems merely a dispute between two native "hapus." and no political significance is at present attached to it.

The Kawhia correspondent of the Waikato Times, writing on Friday, gives the following account of the outrage :—" When writing on the 18th inst. in reference to the erection of beacons in our harbour, I did not anticipate that I should in two days have to inform you that they had been pulled up and broken by the natives ; Bueh is, however, the case, two chiefs of the Ngatimahuta tribe, named Tu te Ao and Tihirahi, having on the 19th insst. destroyed them. That they watched their erection by Capt. Fairchild with much apparent anger was quite evident, but I had no idea that they would so soon give vent to their spleen. They are now preparing to sink ibe buoys, and I have little doubt that they will put their design in execution, provided they are able to cut the chains, or make a hole in the buoys. This is, after all, however, the lesser evil, as the property and lives of the European residents are threatened i£ they do not obey the mandate of the Hanhau chiefs, and leave Kawhia within a few days. Formal notice to this effect has keen tendered to them by the Maoris, and they arts now in anything but an enviable situation. But for the firmness already exhibited by Mr. Langley, who is our storekeeper, it is more than probable that his store would before this have been robbed and pulled down. The Hauhau chiefs, more especially those of the Ngatiranhuta tribe, openly declare their intention of doiog all in their power to prevent Europeans occupyiug the sections on the proposed township, as they maintain the land is theire, having never been legally sold or transferred. The stopping of the Kaglan and Kawhia Road has had a good deal to do with the change in the attitude of the natives. Te Ngakau has- been circulating the idea now prevalent Among them, that wheu he told the Government he would not allow them to make that road, they immediately ceased working upon it, thus showing that they were afraid to go on with it in opposition to their wishes, and now that they havo been so succcessful in this instance, they should have courage and prevent the Europeans getting a footing in Kawhia at all. ' Of course we are aware that this opinion of theirs iu regard to what has caused the stoppage of the work is not correct, but still the public must perceive that stoppage of the work on this road, during the existing state of Maori opinion, can be termed anything but a fortunate or judicioue piece of policy. It has been adopted by the Maoris as a sign of temerity on the part of the Native Minister, aud I am prepared to state that if the work had now been going on, our present trouble would have had no existence. The Ngatimahutu tribe are now removing all their women and ebildren from the settlements Oα the west side of the harbour. King TawhiaO is now at Torea, and is watahing proceedings witb a careful eye. The native miadhas not bsen more unsettled in Kawhia for many years."