AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 654, 11 June 1864, Page 1

AUCKLAND.

(VliaX THJy-DAILT TIMES OORRBSPOIfSHKT.) Ja^lt . 27mi Mat, 1864. The ws^^^t making much~-I might say any — headwajMifiere at present. The unfortunate Taursnga expedition appears to' hare been relinquished, in despair of being able.tb keep up the transport luring the printer months j'of the troops inbvea far inland ; and the news from NapieV, Taranaki, and Wanganui seems to 'have been Considered of sufficiently grave importance to make necessary the weakening, of the force at Tauranga, for the aake of reinforcing these places. In the Waikato, there seemi to be no Important movement of any kind contemplated— not even the common-sense employment' of the Colonial forces, in beating 'up the quarters of fche natives, so astj prevent their cultivating for next tummer'a campaign. The men are highly dis- ■■ contented at this, as is but natural, when they find themselves shut up in redoubts, up to their . knees in mud, and* without anything better thin - 'teats to oorer them. This dissatisfaction ft peculiarly strong amongst the Forest Bangers, fho can't stand winter quarters in stockades at all. Nodonbtthe General will follow his own ideas and disregard all this ; but his so-doing is fast' losing aim the confidence of the colonial foroes, tad of the people in this Province, who believe . that his plan of operations, in an utterly faulty i «ne. The colonial foroes complain, moreover,— -' md with a great show of reason— that he keeps ■. them back from a chance of distinguishing themselves as fa* as possible, although they have con- ■ fessedly done so beyond any others when in the field. Some improvement, however, there is even • in the state of things in Waikato. The most important seems to be the improvement in the mode -of transport ' This, which' has been all along the '•'most shamefully bungled of anything connected „ with the war, was necessarily conducted in a very v- Complicated plan, until the navigation of the river was improved upon; and more suitable vessels could be, made to do the work. A transport ■■ <sorps, numbering some 1600 men drawn from -. the Waikato Militfa, was the plumsy device which ' has 'been employe^ in taking provisions np to 'the front, for about three times that number to live upon, during .the past five or six months'. , Now, various things have conspired to make an plan easy. JFhe upper . part of the river has in a great inea • sure been cleared of snags, and even through the submerged the workmen havjs, cleared a channel, which enables all the vessels, howeveTmuch water they draw '" of our river sham-boat fleet to go up „ and down at pleasure. • The rama also which have set in very heavily in the Upper Waikato oountry have had the good effect of making the river rise between two and three feet, : and thus affording: abundance of .water for the steamers. The resultis that the new plan of transport has been at last adopted of placing . the mass of ; the. goods on boara .pants down at Port' Waikato md . ooaveying them up, towed either , behind or alongside of steamers as 'far/ as Te Bore; doubtless when r • the' wet weather gives stUkmere ' * ' water,' as far as Te Awa muujpP'he 1 , ; steamers .at present employea^this way are the Pioneer, the Avon,. and theKohuna. . The latter is the ', best in -one or tw« respecta, but >- the is only fit for a tug.\ She is not decked except a little way. aft from the bows, and is so small that pas- " «engers standing in her look over her sides from their breasts up- " wardsV" Bhe tows wtll, ! however, and although very slight, and conse-'•-quently. shaky, does her work rt a ly 'well. . The Pioneer is », beautiful f- boat, and now that she is disen- . conxbered of her cupolas and other lueless .rear •is very serviceable; Neither of the sternwheel boaU have the, advantage, however, of taming easily and* quiokly, and consequently the Ayon if best for . the narrows of the Horatiu. She ■ therefore usually runs from ' Waruawahia up the river, The new city of Ngaruawahia baa -been hud put in gn&d style, and will, no doubt, be one day a fine plaofe. It haa^tupf been sold £st, but. is understood to be shortly in the mar* et, at lewt, inlpart. Port Waik&to. which has also been surveyed on 8 f^Uer scale, will. be a t formidable rivj|f; in. the <ps of capitalists,' and , until »the railway reachei >' the river from Auckland,will, so donbt, have greatly the advantage , <rfit.,fivery one speaks in high praise of the en- ' trance over thebar atr one of the easiest possible, vtmd itsays much ia Its favor, that white about fifty vessels hate been at Port Waikato since the ; 7MV- 1 oomaenced, besides the tiH&efrwvJi no one ; jocident hasoconrred either in poming in or 'out. - The raflway plans are being gone into extennTely by both tlie General and Prorincial Go. venmunte now, and two. years can scarcely ftapse before Auckland will have a railway touch'lag the Waikato rjvor. The* Drury part is all - ttrtiyea>apd,< planned most carefullywith its Omehunga branch, and great exertions are being -. made : to,put,it in snoh shape that the dontractors, whoever ttiey may be, will be able to^o on with tMtWprk m the beginning of spring. • JBeyond Drury the Qeaeral Government have employed an experienced engineer to make a ' SPWful preparatory examination of the country, for the purpose of selecting the best Una to the , nven, tie seems to have made up bis mind on . tbattxnht, and the, survey will, I understand, _** J^yoommenoed. The line will, I hear, •pike the river near Tuahauj and as I men- . «°nea before,, works are in progress between Manngatawhiri and Rangiriri, on to which the MM to Tuahau could easily be joined, thus bring* J«« »Kteuawahia. by raU and steam, SSL ■fWRt seven hours' journey of Auckland. Ipre-l

sume that the lines undertaken by the General Government, are meant to supply labor for the first of the immigrants who arrive on the Government's invitation. Possibly the Government is wise in thus diverting road moray into the more modern channel of railroad money, and it may probably pay better in the end. I should fear it will cost a good deal more to begin with, although the Waikato Valley offers rare advantages for it through its level oharaoter as far as Rangiriri, and even on to Rahuipoheka, where the steamers get their eoah The Third Waikatos, who were ordered to Tauranga, were afterwards conntermanded, and sent np to the Waikato. Their head quarters are at Meremere, and- they occupy posts on either side for some distance. The , First Regiment is still occupying the South road and Thames line of redoubts, with its head quarters at firury. The Second is at Kibl Kihi and Raglan principally. Its. land is surveyed, and the Regiment is gradually, stop by step, moving up to a junction on its allotted land The disbanding of all the men of the Transport Corps up the Waikat from Mangatawbla to Kawamata, will have swelled the ranks of the first three regiments once more by the addition of about 600 men, -who were drafted from them for that service. Bach reeiment will now be of a full strength of about 1200 men, besides officers. When full they nnmberlSOO each. The Otago takes about 840 men of the 74th South to Wanganui and Taranaki tomorrow morning, and the Alexandra takes 3l>o of the 14 th Regiment to Napier, where there are already some companies of that corps. The rest of the 14th are to occupy the inside line, this whiter, and ' are even now gradually marching down. Their head quarters will probably be at Otahuhu during the wet weather. Business has been 'very brisk lately in Auckland, and there has seldom been such a quantity of shipping as there now is in the harbour. The North is quiet, but hot at all so safe as the newspapers' silence would lead you to suppose. This does not arise from want of knowledge, nor even from a misconception, but rather from the fact that they do not wish to alarm any one unnecessarily. The more because the scattered settlers of the North are far more in' numbers and far more unprotected than they were to the South of Auckland, so that 1 any panio might be most disastrous. The idea of war is' so delightful to Savages that its very existence for a length of time in the South makes

the. Ngapuhi tribe* restless, and it may be feared that unless we employ them in some way to fight for> us, as the Arawas and the Wanganui contingent are doing, we shall have them fighting with, all their might on the other side. The Maori houeewarming which I, think you copied into your paper, was a curious instance of the state of feeling in the North. When a native! wants to go to war, he sounds his friends on the subject by building a house, which he calls by a significant name veil understood by his countrymen aa pointing to the object of his war party. .Those who enter, are willing to consider the project. '.Those who use certain utensils (also Marine symbolical names) pledge themselves to the enterprise. Marsh Brown's housewanning 1 was in this sense a failure. Many went inonly one or two were ready to engage. '•

Reinforcements of about: 800 troops of the 67th had arrived at Wanganui from Taranaki, and the same number of the 70th Regiment had beep sent from Auckland to Taranaki to replace them. It is generally considered tbat a winter campaign Ts to be commenced, very shortly along the Ngatirunanui Coast, by seeding troops.simultaneously from Taranaki and Wanganui. The "Wanganui Chronicle," of the 28th May, says :— " It seems to be understood that field operations will not be immediately commenced on the West Coast. Only such a force if to be left in the Waikato as will suffice to hold, the posts in that country^ and, tlfem troops will receive supplies by the river, no that the land transport service there will not 'be needed, and the service of 1800 men employed is it dispensed with. It is understood that s6,soon as these sjrrangmnents are completed, and a' force of 1500 or 1600 men is collected, it will be , brought down south, to form a flying column, and that operations will then be commenced, even though the winter should not have passed. There Is.nothlng, however, as yet certain,' so many contingencies may arise either to delay or hasten the. projected campafem." His Honor the Superintendent left this forenoon for Wellington by the overland route. RBiNFOBOBMBita. — Ou Thursday afternoon 150 of the 67th Regiment arrived here by the Prince Alfred from Taranaki. They were under the command of Brevet-Major Shsrtt, with Lieutenant Mills and-. Ensign Powyar. We understand that ISQ-.niord are coming, together with Major Butler, and Captain Russell, &c These additions to the garrlsb.U will • make its' strength up to about 700 men. The headquarters of the 57th will' be here ; but Colonel Wane, beiner on the staff, will remain at Tara naki. The 70th Regiment comes to Taranaki. The Hon. Mr Box arrived on Thursday afternoon in the Prince Alfred. Thh Waitotaba. — At a meeting of the Magistrates yesterday morning, they resolved to withdraw their recommendation of a military settlement on the Waitotara block, and to substitute an expression of their sense of the desirableness of having such a settlement formed north of the Waitotara River. , The same journal of the Ist June contains the following items :— ' / The Hon. Mr Fox left on Monday morning for Rangitikei and Wellington. . ;