WAIKATO.

Otago Witness, Issue 626, 28 November 1863, Page 6

WAIKATO.

[from the daily times correspondent.]

[The following letter has been delayed owing to the communication being interrupted, and although it ireats of subjects which have assumed a very different shape, it contains a good deal of interesting matter, and for thia reason we publish it entire.]

Waikato, 15th October. The inaction at the General's head-quarters, the want of a move on the part of the troop 3at tbe front, is telling greatly to their disadvantage. The cause of it I must presume is enforced, and General Cameron does not go on because he is not in a position to do so effectually. Large reinforcements have just arrived to the rebels, bringing immense quantities of proNisions and ammunition with them. One hundred of one single tribe the Uremera, whose locale is the mountainous region betwixt the Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay, have justjoined the rebel head qua-ters. Each of them brought a cask ot gunpowder on hi* back, and each was accompanied by a woman bringing a load of food for the commissariat. Thus the % \ had travelled for two hundred miles over a road, to which your diggings roads would compare with vast superiority. They are a simple people and have long been storing powder which they do not use profusely at home, preferring rather the ancient method of snaring birds and other animals, at which practi3e they are exceedingly expert. Those who know the Urewera well, say that they are the tribe which has least of all been tainted with civiliza'ion. Even missionaries, not to speak of the law, had but a slight acquaintance with those children of the wilds. They have been appointed to a post on the Waikato where they nre expected to maraud or forage without C3mpunction. Some tiibes vvould not take such a post, and I give one instance of the refractoriness of the elements with which the rebel QuartermasterGeneral has to deal. It tells favorably for the parties concerned. A party of two hundred from the West Coast lately joined at Meremere, and their chivalrous leader asked what he was to do. " With your leave." said the General or his deputy, '' your people may join those who are now in the mountains." "What are they doing there 1 ?" asked the newly joined chief, while ill disguised anger beamed from his eyes. "They are harassing and vexing the Pakehas and they bring us lots of food," was the rejoinder. Whilst the conversation was going on, one of these marauding parties arrived at heud quarters. They had been away for a fortnight, and after supplying their own wants they had but a scanty store left, consisting of a few poultry and household uten sils ! Our friend took his cue from the arrival of the-e things, whilst he contemptuously exclaimed " Yes, I have heard of these doings— these people just now arrived, have brought a plate, a fowl, aside of bacon, and a woinaa'9 gown. Now I have not comp here to fight for a plate, a fowl, a si c of ba^on, ami a woman's gown, which things I have at my own homp. Nor did I come to murder white people on their own hompsteads. What is there more lor me to do V " Ther* are some of th tribes waiting here to fi^'ht the G neral when he iare.dy." "Well, 1 can understand whar that means but if I had been told to go an rob and murder in the bush, I should just have turned en my heel and gone off to my o vn place." So sa\ing he took up his quirteis at Meremne. Poor fellow, such sentiments thow a noble though mistaken spirit, and merit a b fer fate for its posse'eor, than that of a rebel. The Ngalipora tribe from Ahutiii district have also cmc, to the number oi nr-arly one hun.irel. The large tribe of the Ngatiwhakawc in the Bay of Plenty, have not sent any to the rcbul lion, beyond perhaps a few stragglers. They have lone had chiefs staunch for the Queen, and have several coasting vessels in their po«*es4on. Their cbief Goverujsent officer also, Mr Civil Commissioner Smith, who was for along time' Mr Maclean's eoidjutor in the Native Department, is a highly popular man with them. Of couise it ia not the same qualities that make a magistrate respected amongat M aoris a* would do so amongst law fearing huropoans; but rather such qualities as would make a popular Highland chief of the pHen time— hospitable, kind, but withal firm and d.'gnified. This it is which entities such as Mr Smith to r.espect and makes them powerful for good. Of course a rr.an who expects to influence Maoris most sympathise with them, and talk to them in their owa way, overcoming (heir prejudices, and defeating them -with the,ir own weapons upon thfir own ground. On the whole it may be safeiy asserted that the numbers of the rebels in arms and ia the field, amounts to four thousand xaen.

A good deal has been said about destroying the canoes of the rebels, and a good deal also been done in that way, At the commencement of the war the Government commenced very vigorously to smash all rebel canoes, expecting thereby to prevent the rebel* from crossing waters over which they hai been driven. Such work on ,the Manakau waters was gooil and effectual, but to dream of exhausting the rebels' means of crossing the Wajkato or any other river by simply smashing tb*ir canoes (even supposing ajL could be found) simply argued an jgnoranpe on the side of the doers, of that fertility of resource which appertains to the Maori, in common with all savage races. In the late raids across tbe Waikato to the " Front," as General Cameron's head-quarters are termed, if the rebels poujd not find canoes ready to to tlieir hand/3, they cpuJd mats them or they could make rafts, as I pojuited out in my previous letter. The public at large seem to have made up their minis that the rebels had been supplied yiiih Canoes by the friendly natives on tlje south side of the liver, but I have it from the best authority that such is no); tlie case. On the other h.and, news has reached ua here that these very friendly nativos had been busy at work smashing rebel canoes ; one tribe having smashed about twenty, and that, too without provoking any attack upon themselves. It would be a pity were these friendly iiatives to be despised and insu'ted by the European public, as they might thus he driven into rebellion, if their allegiance were at all shaky. Surely ifc is better to keep them o 2 ut cjf active war, and thus show both fcbem and their rebel cousins that we can beat the Maori without assistance from some of own race. There is plenty of work for the friendly natives to do ; let them be encouraged to plant lqrgely, and thus they wjll both make themselves comfortable and be of real service to ithe body politic. A good deal has been also 3aidot (Lhe rebels having refused tbe ministrations of their own missionaries, but the fact is that they have never had a real offer. They have indeed had flymg' visits since the war began, from one or more of the ministers living ainong&t the troops. It is .hut natural that tjity should look upon such as spies, in fact rumor says that a reverend gentleman was once surprised while 'on his way to preach" to the rebels, with a spyglass busy at work upon the enemies lines, himself at the_ same time concealed purposely from view. The natives who found him thus gave him a good lecture for his curiosity, and told him to go back to preach to General Cameron, and not to come again to them with a telescope on the pietence of preaching to the r souls. t They happened to know him personally, and told him that lud some stranger or rowdy natiyes have found him at such work, it might have gone hard with him to i aye his life by reason of the color of his coat. No doubt his reverence would retail his adventure out, as " a providential deliverance " Had a civilised peop c engaged in national warfare found an enemy in such a case, perhaps they would not have been inclined tn look upon him as other than n spy and informer. I give you the rumor as it reached me, but if the facts are so, we need not be astoDkh d at the rebels politely declining the " spiritual" ministrations of the reverend gentlemen in general.

Tlie March of Refinement.—" You know, madam,', said a gentleman, " that you cannot make a purse out of a sow's ear!"— "Oh! please fan me!" exclaimed the lady ; " I have intimations of a swoon. When you use that odious species of vulgarity clothe it in refined phraseology. You should say, 'It Is impossible!to fabricate a pecuniary recptacle from the aunculrv organ of the softer ccx of the genus percine,"