NEW PLYMOUTH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 808, 13 June 1879, Page 2

NEW PLYMOUTH.

The following letter has been received in Gisborne, addressed to a gentleman at present residing here ; — ... June 6th, 1879. '^3)baK^— , '-■' -W^hat" a pretty .rkettle of : fish 1 Things are upside down in earnest. Wars, and rumours of wars, and general arming going on. Between four and five hundred volunteers have been enrolled,* but we want .really, about two thousand at 1 least to do things properly. There is little doubt but that the flame •wilUbust 6"ut soon, and it will be serious, indeed for the first few days, on account of the wide-spread and sparse settlement, but a, lot of niggers will go down as the 'blood is getting up.' As far as we can hear, Natives are congregating from all parts, and small mobs are discovered In different places.- What is the Government doing? 4s the cry of everybody. They stated here the other day that they were prepared, and 200 men were*"to be here ; instead of that, 45 1 came' by the Stella to-day, which' is very significant. It is to be hoped that they will use every effort to have -an .army here at once. It will take at least 1200 to rout out Parihaka and its: surroundings, and in the meantime, the settlements as far as the country ,is concerned will be destroyed. . . . . Between forty and fifty Natives were found in a totore in the Bcrub near T. Bayley'spat .Waitara, yesterday, rolled in their blankets ;no arms : fco be seen, but the ; an6st curious pa\'fc is, that no one knew of their presence, and possibly would not have done so had it not been by accident. J. Eliott and one of the Bayleys state that they are all strangers, and they do know a single face. The consequence, not was that the Volunteers were' on guard there last night, and a party under arms atPenipgtpn's*sfore. £ party of twenty ■more" were' seen near Waiwakaiho yesterday as well, so that you see things do not look very well. The suspense that the out-settlers especially are under must be terrible. 1 like Atkinson's speech to the public meeting at InglewoocJ, when" he told them that we were to be " the hunters this time, and not the hunted. " This is no dqubt the intention at present, and I have but very little, doubt will' be carried out.