NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1343, 21 May 1885, Page 3

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Mr Ballance paid a visit to Parihaka on Monday, and saw all the principal people residing there, including Te Whiti and Tohu. Te Whiti, who was in his house, was reticent and mysterious at first, and complained that the Native Minister had not visited him when passing through on a previous occasion. He, however, soon became friendly. Tohu received the Ministerial party, and welcomed them with great cordiality, and afterwards presided at a dinner to which the Native Minister was invited. The attitude of all the Natives of the village was most friendly, and the Native Minister left convinced of the gross exaggerations of the reports made regarding them. Inspector Pardy, accompanied by a mounted constable, arrived at Pangarehu on Tuesday morning, to inquire into some cases of petty theft. It is intended to give Inspector Pardy the charge of the police cf the Taranaki province. The Whangarei Natives complain of the excessive charges made by the Public Trust Office, and many of them decline to take their rents in consequence. Mr Ballance has promised to bring the matter under the notice of the Government on his return to Wellington. Several settlers from Pungarehu, mostly Constabulary men who bought land there, took occasion at Mr Samuel's meeting at New Plymouth last Tuesday night to deny the correctness of the telegrams sent from Wellington re the deputation to Mr Ballance, They repudiated the assertion that Europeans are committing the robberies. They say the settlers have lost sixty head of cattle, the bulk of which have been traced to the Maoris. One settler says Mr Ballance acknowledged to the deputation that he had received a letter from an influential chief warning Government of the native feeling in the district, and saying that the Maoris intended taking possession of the land, and they were now marching overland to secure their mam (right) to it. The settlers contemptuously repudiate the assertion that they want A.C.'s for their expenditure. They say the A,j.'B have all their stores, etc,, from Opunake, and spend nothing in the district, They want at least twelve men stationed in the district to check the lawlessness of the Maoris, and one speaker said if Mr Ballance adhered to a "one policeman policy "if anything happened the blood would be on bis head. The settlers are very incensed at the telegrams recently sent from Wellington respecting them, and they intend holding a meeting and forming an armed Vigilance Committee. The Press' Wellington correspondent states that the genuineness of the published accounts of the state of affairs on the West Coast ia much questioned. They are said to be all written by Mr Ballance's Private Secretary under his dictation.