THE NATIVE MEETING AT THE THAMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 549, 7 June 1862, Page 8

THE NATIVE MEETING AT THE THAMES.

From the Daily Sou'hsrn Cross, May 24. From the Thames -we have accounts of a large meeting of natives at the Keripehi, on (he Piako. Fifteen hundred natives of the "Waikato and Thames are supposed to be present, including some delegates from various tribes to the southward. Our informant says (on native authority) that no Europeans or half-castes are permitted to be present at ihe deliberation. The same authotity says that the Rangitake, alias William King, of Taranaki notoriety, was to have been present, hut that, after arriving within a few miles of Kerepehi, he was overtaken by expresses from Taranaki, conveying the information that war had broken out there again, and that, in consequence of this, he immediately returned to Taranaki, without ■ going to the meeting. Large assemblages of ignorant people are always attended with dinger to the cause of peace and order, and particularly when politics and questions of liberty are discussed. We are not justified in looking for a different result where savages rue concerned. It were well that the Government should be able to have correct information of the avowed sentiments expressed at tho?e meetings by the presence of some European agent, however true it may be that the sentiments publicly avowed rarely bear much indication of the determination arrived at.