THE TWO TE KOOTIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 931, 2 October 1869, Page 9

THE TWO TE KOOTIS.

The following letter by Captain E. Take", who formerly commanded the Chatham Island Guard, appears in the Hawke'a Bay Herald :—

Sir— Oan you inform me if there is a reward for the capture of Te Eooti. the Second? i.e., if the original Te Eooti was killed at Mohaka, whether the oaptor of the man bear* ing his name would be entitled to the reward of LIOOO offered by Mr Richmond for Te Eooti the First, dead or alive ? Having been for eighteen months in charge of the prisoners at the Chatham Islands, I am well acquainted with the personal appearance of Te Kooti. .He is a middle-sized man, with a sinister expression of countenance, and has a slight squint. His name "Te Eooti Ririrangi, is tattooed on Mb left breast. He has also a mark on his right posterior. He was apparently about 35 years of age. When at the Chathams, Kooti was employed as steer-oar in the Government boat. He suddenly became ill, the doctor returning him on the sick report as consumptive. The natives thinking he was going to die, asked for leave to remove him to a small whare in the bush ; in fact he was put there to die. It was there he dreamt d i dream that he should be the founder of » new religion, which was a mixture of Judaism, Christianity, and Hauhauism ; T« Eooti, like all founders of new doctrines, gaining many converts, but mott of the chiefs holding aloof. He was looked upon as a man risen from the dead, for when natives are put into whares by themselves to die they seldom recover. Runangas then became the fashion j for the slightest offences punishments were inflioted-— at one time even smoking was fortidden. Their religious services were carried to that extent that tho authorities were obliged to interfere, particularly, as they were informed by a> young ohief, Wi Muhika, that Hauhaa practices were creeping in. On this information, Eooti was ordered to leave off preach* ing. He wrote a very humble letter to Captain Thomas and myself, stating that if it was our wish, ho would not proaoh again. This ho kept to ; Herewini Punairangi. killed at Ngatapa, one of the Bishop of Waiapu's former teachers, taking his place, and returning again to their old doctrines. Whon I loft the island in February, 1869, Eooti's fanaticism had vanished. One; of the greatest errors committed by the late Government was releasing the) chiefs, and from whioh, in my opinion, emanated the many evils whioh followed. Whon these chiefs were re 'eased, all authority amongst themsolves was gone. Te Kooti started their fanaticism again, and all, with tho exception of throe, joined him. The rest of tho story is an oft-told tale, as to tboir csoapo, tco. Te Eooti, the second, Eoranama to Ngonga, is a tall burly savage, well tatoood on the face, about fifty years of sse. and partionlar'y woll versed in soriptureu Ho was taken prisoner at Hungafaungataroa. Ho fought against uo at Orakau, Waiknto, and Tar\naki, aud belongs to tho Ngatiporoa tribe. This man was ono of tho worst, characters amongst tbo priiooors—in my opinion a greater villain, if poisible, than To Eooti Ririrangi. -»*""•

Tho private dotcotivo system and its abates aro shown up in tho New York Times. It so«ms that thero aro sevoral firms and a largo nurabor of individuals in their employ who mako it a business of studying the habits of young man in responsible positions, for tho pnrposo of reporting thorn to their employers or partners m basinets. This ie technically oallod ♦•shadowing." Ths officer, after getting a "spot" on thookrk (coeiog him for tho Erst tamo), take* up a position near the Jatter'o place of business shortly before oloeingun timo, and when the dork comes oat, ho "shadows" him till ho retiree to his homo for tho night. When thttolerk oaten a billiard room or restaurant, it is the doty of the "shadow" to follow him in, if he oan do so withoak being "dropped on" (noticed by the olork), to see how raaoh money he aptnds, if aay \ if to, finds out with whom, whether they •» follow-olerks, or more disreputable and dangerous aseociaka of either tex,

il i__ WELLINGTON;: r "i HVJfoyi OTTE' dWNCOdRBBSPOBTOIKrr.) ,'«'( , , • "September 22nd; , Sir George Bowen does not appear to possess^ the art of gaining men's affections. Almost every day of' his residence [here seems to add to, his unpopularity, and yet that unpopularity cannot be traced io any particular "source.* Few people here have a j good 1 word to. say for his Excellency, but Btill fewer are able to state anyprecise cause for the dislike they entertain. In fact, Sir, George Beems to be a kindred spirit to that well known victim'of unreasoning prejudice yclept Dr Fell. At least this was the , ,case until a few days ago ; but now those who openly speak in uncomplimentary terms of his Excellency take as their text recently published despatches between the Governor and the Secretary for the Colonies, and those between the Admiralty and Commodore Lambert, with regard to the removal of the 18th Regiment. Commodore Lamberb has , made himself exceedingly popular here, .both privately and publicly, and of his official actß none could have been more generally approved of than the one for which he has just been censured by h|s superiors at the Admiralty. The circumstances of the case were briefly these. In anticipation ™of - the arrival of the Himalaya, orders had been given to concentrate the 18th Regiment at Auckland, and . the Airedale "had" been chartered to convey, the companies stationed 'at Tara- ( naki to headquarters. The Airedale had actually left this to perform the service, before the Himalaya arrived. When the Himalaya did come, in Captain Piers ntonce reported that he had received a telegram from the Admiralty directing him not to go to New Zealand, but that General Chute not having received orders to leave the 18th Regiment here had ordered him to carry out the original plan and bring the Himalaya here to remove the regiment. On receipt of this news the Cabinet at once met, and as the presence of the troops in Taranaki was fust then a matter of vital importance, the Government telegraphed to the Airedale at Nelson to remain -there until there had been time to considar the whole question and decide as to what should be done. The Commodore, and the Governor and Ministers were in constant personal consultation about the matter if the conBultation was not offioial, and as it was known that the Commodore considered that Captain Piers had been guilty of a breach of naval etiquette in comint? here at General Chute's orders, iv opposition to the Admiralty telegram, the Government refrained from taking any decided action in the matter until the Commodore had decided what course the etiquette of the service demanded from him. This point was not decided haßtily. The Himalaya arrived on a Saturday night, and it was not until the middle of the day on Monday that it was announced that the Commodore had censured Captain Piers for ignoring the Admiralty telegram, and coming here at General Chute's orders, and had ordered the Himalaya to immediately proceed to Brisbane. This deci/sion, on a mere point of naval etiquette, saved the Governor and the Minißtry the trouble and responsibility of taking any action in the matter ; and I know that they were exceedingly glad that it did. Had the Commodore not acted as he did, the Governor would have been forced to have taken the responsibility of refusing to allow the 18th Regiment to go ; and I have reason to believe that Ministers ■were quite prepared to have advised such a course under the oircutnstances, considering the critical condition of Taranaki, and change of intention on the part of the home authorities, which woa apparently indicated in the telegram from the Admiralty to Captain Piora. The Himalaya, however, at once wont baok to Auatralia, and the Governor waa not called on to act. The Admiralty, however, have cenaured the Commodore for having acted in the matter without tho concurrence of tho Governor, and contrary to tho orders of tho' General Commanding ; and it aoema that the Govornor, in his despatches to the Colonial Offico, rather went out of hia way to tlirow tho whole reaponaibiKty of the proceeding on the shoulders of tho Commodore, and was cßDOcially careful to say that he himeelf had no hand in tho inattor. This waa atrictly true— at lonat literally true— but tho terms of tho statement were such aa to almost imply duapproval of tho Commodore's conduct. It » felt here that, under tho well-kuown circumstancea of tho case, common justice, not to apeak of generosity, demanded that the I Governor should have expressed in unmistakeable torma Ms foil approval of and absolute oonourronco with tho Oommodoro f s action, and havo at lenatiotimat«d tho course which ho would havo himself boon obliged to follow, had not tho Commodore acted as ho did. Hii Excellency loft her© yesterday in the Sturt for Wangwroi, intending to fitittha* dintrlo*, ™*h iadTinaaU,

e» rcmte for AucHand^ Sl^^wSs.te T^aWen^6*^oi^7^angßratdratid*^ill*ac-» WnpanyrHis Excellency,' as fat-aa^Patea,,. Where he -will stayußome* time '< to .perfect' ;the arrangements for the re-occupation of t thatand the Waitotara districts . on the; terms decided upon by the Assembly. There was no gaardor public demonstration on the occasion of the, Governors departure,., and ( his embarkation was witnessed only by a few t Government officials and some small boys. , ,It is understood i that .the i Governor will, not return here until shortly before the opening of ( the next session, by which time it is expected that the new ' Government House will be ready for occupation. When Mr Fox returns from Wanganui it is understood that Mr M'Lean will go up to Auckland to try and negociate with the natives for the opening up to diggjersof the Ohm■emuri or Upper Thames district. The United Stateß s. Kearsarge did not remain very long in our port, as she only put in to coal, being under orders to proceed to Cuba with all possible despatch. She arrived late one evening, was engaged coaling the next day, and sailed at one o'clock the day following, greatly to the disappointment of the people here, who had intended to ask the officers to a ball, &c.', arid not a little to the disappointment of the officers themselves, who had beenlooking forward to a much longer stay i in New Zealand waters. Their great disappointment, however, was in not visiting Otago. Many of them have friends in your province, and when the Kearsarge was leaving America for the Pacific station a good deal of interest was used, and used' with Bucoess, to have Otago put in orders as one of the places to be visited. Shortly before leaving Sydney, however, orders to proceed to Cuba (in consequence of the insurrection there) were received, and as Wellington was less out of the direct route from Sydney to Callao, Captain Thornton decided to come and coal here instead ©f in Port Chalmers. As soon as coaling was over, Captain Thornton threw open his ship to the public, and up to the moment of weighing anchor, she was visited by crowds of people. His Excellency the Governor and the Ministers went on board, and were very hospitably received, although there was no salute fired or special ceremony shown. The men and marines were, however, drilled and put through various evolutions for their visitors' amusement. The Kearsarge (usually misspelled Kearsage) is a long, low, ugly looking craft, not at all like a man-of-war. She is said, however, to be a very fast boat. Her crew consists of 240 officers and men, the extreme youthfulness of both at once striking the visitor. The oldest officer on board (the doctor) is only 42 years of age. The uni- 1 form is decidedly French, none of the | officers wear epaulettes, but the marines 1 wear heavy yellow woollen epaulettes on a blue uniform, and with a French peaked cap. The naval officers wear tight fitting blue coats, very long, and plentifully besprinkled with brasß buttons. The American eagle is worn in front of the cap. The discipline appears very lax to any one at all acquainted with the interior economy of an English man-of-war. A much j greater feeling of equality amongst the officers themselves, and between them ; and the men, seems to exist, and very little touching of caps goes on. One thing which strikes an Englishman as being very strange is to see the captain j and his officers smoking and Bpitting on the quarter deck even while on duty. Such a thing would bo deemed profanation on a British quarter deck. The small arms drill of the marines dif • I fers greatly in motion and in word of command from the light infantry drillj or indeed, any drill known in our aomce. The big Dahlgren guns are the things best worth aoeing on board. Thero ' are two of them placed on pivots, one aft, and one amidships, and the bnlwarks are made with hinges, so as to full down and allow tho guns free range. Those guns are smooth bore, and throw a thot or shell eleven inches in diamotor. The moans for elevating and turning these big guns aro very clumsy as compared to tho moana of working the equally heavy guns on board tho Galatea and other ships of ours. In tho Koorsargo it is all dono by main strength, the guns working on rails, but in the Galatea, for instance, a child can movo tho largest gun, as thoro is mochinory for tho purpoae. The other guna of tho Kearsarge are small smooth boroa, except ono small rifled gun. Tho enginos are admirably constructed and beautifully kopt. A patch on the funnel is pomtod out m covering a holo made by one of tho Alabama's sheila in tho memorablo engagement in the Channel. One or two other alight dents are shown m marks of that affair, but sfcaudtng on the dock of tho KwCreargo ifia difficult to believe that the really reooivod 321 shots from tho Alabama, boforo ono of tho shots from her after big rum aunk that vessel. Of tho crew on that occasion only two are now on board, Captain Thornton and the M«UMLt-»nns, Captain Thornton was

then fire(t)Lieutenant,(and it was he who -n>edrtheßhotwhichßunkthe,Confedorate. ) , P?he officers as a body are.nice gentlemanly fellows, and many of them sa^.. a, good, deal of service both 'afloat and ashore during the late oivil, war. ', „ Mr James Osgood-— well-known in Dunedin as the first originator of the City Express system there, and as mine host iof ! the Empire both there and here — has |left* Wellington for Auckland,' where it is said that he intends to found a "new Empire (Ho'fcel). " During a residence of some [years in this town, Mr Osgood has earned the reputation of an honest, straightfor}ward man of business, and a useful pushing and liberal: citizen. , Prior 1 to his departure, he was presented with an address from the Wellington Fire Brigade— of which body he was one of the founders— and he was also entertained at lunch by a number of the leading men of the city. The' members of the joint-stock company, formed for the purpose of raising the wreck of, the Taranaki, are now in [high spirits at the success which has already , attended their labours, and the more complete success which they, have every reason to expect will shortly crown their efforts. A numbeif of the shareholders went over in the Ahuriri the other day on a special visit to the scene of operations, and on their arrival there were welcomed with a salute from the Taranaki's gun and the ringing of her bell. The forecastle is now above the level of the sea, and with the exception of a few, soft planks the timber is found to be uninjured. The hemp rigging' is completely gone, but the hull, wire rigging, and machinery are very little, if at all, injured by submersion. , The poop is still under water, so that the state of the cabin fittings cannot be . ascertained, but it is expected that "they are not much injured. The Taranaki will be brought here to discharge her cargo and to be refitted. The shareholders are sanguine of Beeing her alongside k the wharf within a ! fortnight. ' The great state trial for high treason was commenced on Monday last, and will probably last for the remainder of the week. As everything said or done had to be translated or explained to the i prisoners, the preliminary proceedings occ upied a good deal of time. The AttorneyGeneral, assisted by Mr Izard, conducts the prosecution, and the task of defence has fallen to Mr J. G. Allan. Mr Travers waß selected by the prisoners sb one of their counsel, and was asked by the Crown to take a brief for the defence, but he declined to do so, in consequence, it is said, of some difficulty between himself and Mr Allan on the question of precedence, each of them wishing to lead in the case. The prisoners are named Matene Te Koro, Rewi Taraanui Totitoti, and Hetariki Te Oikau. Matene is a ferocious looking young savage, of vety dark complexion, and of a negro rather than a Maori type in features. Ho seem^ to have been a most willing agent in cxc'- r cuting Te BLooti's murderous commands, but he did not join the rebels till some time after Kooti and his band had landed from the Chathams. The other two prisoners were amongst those who escaped from the Chathams. Kewi is a man of about 30 years of age, and but little darker in Bkin than some Europeans are. He is not at all tattooed, and wears a close -cut moustache and small whiskers and beard. There is something very senßual in his countenance, and he seems to have suffered a good deal in health by his late campaign ; indeed, it has been proved that he was ill during a great portion of it, and had to bo left behind on ono or two occasions. Hetarika is a groy headed old savage^ thickly tattooed, ami with small, twinkling, cruel looking eyes. His lips often assumo a most villainous grin, and a'iogetber ho looks a man who would dolight in tho work he is proved to have been engaged in — murder and rapine. Ho was a man of considerable importance amongst tho rebols ; was ono of Kooti's runanga, or counoil, and is strongly suspootod of having been tho actual murdorer of Mrs Biggs. Tho crimo with which they aro charged is that " Not having tho fear of God in their hoart, being moved by tho dovil, they being armed with divers weapons, that is to say, guna, pistols, and swords, did levy war against Our Sovereign Lady the Queen." whon called on to plead they said tho orime was To Kooti's and not thoirn. This tho Judge ordered to be recorded as a ploa of not guilty. Tho Attorney-General opened tho caao in a brief and very quiet apcoch, in which he first drew tho jury* attonlion to the law rotating to treaaon, defining what constituted the crime, and then gavo a oleav conolao narrative of the various aoti of treason which the ovidenco ho was about to oall would prove the prisoners to havo boon engaged in. Tho first witness was a Maori woman named Riria Kai Jtfaro, one of tho women who had osoaped from the Ohathams, had aooompanied her hnaband during tho campaign, until he wu killed by our troop* at Makftttu, and had [thtn accompanied the

rebels to Ngata^where^he was Wianded ,by_»' rocket, ftna afteiwaras^tSKen^pwj «o!n^'Tß&e3S3Hm^ whole of the s sittbg^and-she,* ga^e a wonderfully clear and complete inattative of all the rebel proceedings from the day of I their landing in Poverty Bay up to the I capture of Ngatapa. The minutestcircum- | stances were narrated; and her evidence 'most clearly proved the willing complicity 'of the three prisoners vi the various out* rag^es domriiitted' by Kooti, and their participation in the engagements with our troops. Yesterday Mr Allan very ably and at great length cross-examined Biria, but he failed ,to shake her evidence in the smallest degree, or in any way confuse her facts. The next , witness was an old woman named Wickatoria, the wife of the unfortunate old chief who was thrown overboard the Rifleman by his companions, on the voyage from the Ohathams. Wickatoria's evidence fully confirmed that previously given, and so did the evidence of Mata, one of Te Kooti's wives, who was the next witness called. Ber evidence was of, a more detailed character than thai; ojE the others, . ae her position in regard to jECooti gave, her more abundant means of knowing ,wliat was said and done. ; She swore positively that Matene, the young prisoner, was one of the two men who at Te Kooti's orders shot in cold blood the friendly chief Pakou Paroui. , There are still some ten or eleven witnesses, men and women, |Maori and Pakeha, to be examined, and among the latter is Colonel Whitmore. The jury is fortunately a very- good and intelligent one, and the evidence is so clear,' that a verdict of guilty is most confidently expected. Mr Allan will probably base his defence on the uncertain position of the Maoris as to their being British subjects, and he will also, it is probable, try to get the jury to believe that the prisoners acted throughout under Kooti's compulsion, from fear of him and not from their own free will. Mr Allan can, and no doubt will, make a very eloquent speech for the defence, but no amount of eloquence or argument can well lead the jury to ignore the mass of facts which the evidence for the prosecution has even already piled up against the prise ners. If a verdict of guilty is returned, sentence of death will be passed, and it is understood that the Government will not interfere to prevent the exaction of the last penalty of the law. That the prisoners fully deserve to pay it, no one who has heard the evidence can doubt.

The West Coast prisoners now onboard the hulk, are to be tried at a special Bitting of the Court, under the Disturbed Districts Act of last session. The date fixed ia the 27th, but as the high treason cases will not be over then (there being two separate indictments), the 94 prisoners will not come on for trial till the end of next week. They will then be tried in batches of ten, and will, it is said, at once plead guilty, in which case they will probably be sent to reside for a period amongst you. The Ngatiporou guard, which has so long held watch and ward on board the hulk, has been dismissed, and its members taken back to thoir homes. The prisoners are now fuarded by the first specimens of the new emilitarised constabulary, and judging from the class of men enrolled in the guard in question, the character of tho new constabulary 1b not likely to be found very much superior to the hastily enrolled levies who were first sent to faco Tito Kowara, and who are usually spoken of in uncomplimentary terms. In fact it is said that the now demilitarised constables forming the guard, havo to a great extent been recruited from the same placos as poor Buck's foree — the atreota and the public houacs. The guard is only 14 strong.