A Te Kooti Scare at Home.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4978, 10 April 1889, Page 3

A Te Kooti Scare at Home.

Tire London correspondent of the Neio Zealand Times, writing on February 23rd, says : —New Zealanders in this country are pestered out of their lives this last few days for information with regard to the reported trouble in Poverty Bay district. The first intimation we had was Reuter’s telegram dated Auckland, February, 18th, which said “ Serious uneasiness prevails in the Gisborne district, Cook County, owing to the approach with a large following, of TeKooti, the leader of the Poverty Bay massacre in 1836 (sic), when 33 Europeans and 39 friendly Natives were killed. The settlers are arming, and the relatives of the victims threaten to take revenge of To Kooti. The families of tho settlers have been sent into the town of Gisborne, and the Government are preparing for an emergency. Tho news has caused general excitement.” To us who know something of the colony, it is very amusing to read of tho massacre taking place in 1886. People here arc asking if that was a second massacre, as they have an idea that one took place over bo many years ago. I sec in one or two papers some one has taken*tho trouble to correct the date. The nows has put a damper on W. B, Bees' Cooperative Colonising Association, to despatch a lot of settlers to tho Gisborne district. The friends of those who loft here by the Aorangi lately are half scared out of their wits, and imagine that general massacres in Now Zealand are tho order of the day. The trouble with Te’Kooti will have the effect of retarding the progress of the country to some extent, for it gives an impression to many people that the colony is over-run with half civilized aomi-gaumbals,