COLONEL HAULTAIN'S RETROGRADE MOVEMENTS.

Colonist, Issue 1165, 4 December 1868, Page 6

COLONEL HAULTAIN'S RETROGRADE MOVEMENTS.

(From the Wanganui Times, Nov. 17.) Some four or five months ago the Defence Minister ordered the outpo3ts at Waihi, and all others north of the Tangahoe river to be abandoned. That order was not then obeyed, and he was told that if the entire force were concentrated at Patea, Tito Kowaru would advance to the Waitotara, and thus compel the Patea Force to follow him. That our " Front" must move to Weraroa, thence to Kai Twi, and eventually to St. John's Bush. In spite of remonstrance Colonel Haultain eventually commenced hit retrograde movements, and although he has seen and watched the result, and finds that it is as .disastrous as he was told it would be, still he pursues it as if determined to hurl ruin upon this town arid surround* ing districts. We do not, we cannot believe that either. Mr* Stafford or the other members of the Ministry, whose entire attentions were engrossed by their parliament tary duties during the late cession of parliament, were at nil aware of the magnitude of the evils,which Colonel Haultain was bringing upon the Patea settlers and the people of these districts. On the contrary we have reason to know that at Wellington he studiously and persistently maintained that the Putea settlers "and the people and press of Wanganui grossly exaggerated the strength of the enemy, and that" the threatened clanger was merely imaginary. Even to the present day we are told that he ridicules the fears of the people of Wanganui, and w.ith the ■fact stnringhim in the face that his retrograde movements have" depopulated the entire country from far beyond Waihi to within half a mile of Wanganui, he still pooh poohs, and deridingly asks.to be shown a Hauhau! • - ■ ■ , Yet, when the Wereroa redoubt was attacked on> Thursday last, and bravely defended by our young Militiamen, he ordered it to .fee abandoned in such haste as to turn our well won .victory into a defeat. At 11 o'clock on Friday morning 300 men moVed out. from Colonel Whitmore's camp to protect -the retreat! ! Troopers rushed into the redoubt 'with orders to " clear out," and before Captain Powell an<3T his men could recover frsm their astonishment, or get, time to remove their effects out of their tents, .the. tents were in flames'and some of. the men's clothes' and blankets destroyed;—not by the Hauhaus, but by ■ Colonel Haultaiu's orders. Then commenced the destruction of provisions!—flour, tea, sugar, coffee, candles, &c, even to three casks of ale, a quantity of - rum and other [property belonging to the canteenkeeper. All this at midday within 4£ .miles of Col. Whitmore's camp and with 300 of our men lying in ambush to cover the retreat. Even two drays; which could be employed to carry that property away were left to the enemy.