RETURN OP NATIVES TO WAITOTARA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 1091, 24 May 1871, Page 2

RETURN OP NATIVES TO WAITOTARA.

To the Editor of tlie Tahanaki Hbiiaxd. Sut, — We are informed in yonr issue of the 17th instant, by Mr. A. C. Fookes, that on the llth instant, a meeting of over a hundred settlers assembled in the Government blockhouse at Wairoa, and, having voted Mr. A. C. Fookes into the chair, proceeded to pnss sundry resolutions. There seems to have been some tall talking. So long as the present Ministry conforms its native policy to the wishes of Messrs. A. G. Fookes & Co., so long it may reckon upon their enthusiastic support ; this is their ultimatum ; an; infringement of its very simple terms will, 1 presume, entail the overthrow of the Ministry, as Mr. A. C. Fookes. and the hundred and odd will at once withdraw their sapport. Certainly the Fookesiun native policy is admirable in its simplicity, — no native is to be permitted to live in the district. If only all the other districts in the Colony would give in their adhesion to the principle involved and act accordingly, peace would eventually flourish between the two races, — purchased by the utter ruin of the Colony, the slaughter of hundreds, perhaps thousands ot'our fellow-settlers, and the extermination of the native race — for their peace would be the peace of death. Mr. A. C. Fookes and others also expressed "most violent indignation and disgust at the traitorous proceedings of the Superintendent and others in New Plymouth" — said traitorous proceedings consisting in not advocating the adoption of the Fookesiau principle in the Patoa District. The Herald of the 17th, also, contains a letter from Mr. A. Cracroft Fookes, bearing date the 10th May, i.e., the day preceding the meeting, and from this we may obtain some idea of — I will not say the reasoning, the term would be incorrect — but the stylo of declamation which stands in lieu of this faculty with Mr. A. Cracroft Fookes and the hundred and odd settlers of Wairoa. Mr. A. Cracroft Fookes (funny man!) says that he supposes you have some reason for advocating the location of friendly natives on their own land, but what on earth that reason is he can't make out, and he recoin meads you to mind your own business. But considering that these now friendly natives are unjustly driven from their district and thrust upon us, and are iv a fair way of being converted into rebels, I rather think that you are already doing what he recommends — minding your own, i.e., the Province's and Colony's business, and a most important piece of busiaess it is too! Mr. A. Cracroft Fookes (clever fellow!!) next proceeds in ten lined to expound what he calls " the true situation" for your information, telling you that he and his fellow-settlers cannot make peace with the natives until they have had utu for the late war ; aud Mn A. Crucroft Fookes (plucky follow !!!) recommends the Colony not to meddle iv the affairs of himself and the Wairoa settlors or " another and (terrible fellow!!!!) a more bloody war than any yet seen in New Zealand will bo the result, fur it is quite an understood

thing among us (i.e. the hundred and odd at Wairoa) that for the future only one race shall live in the district ; time will show what colour that race shall be." Bravo Monsieur Parolles ! for this is who I take to be the great prototype of Mr. A. Cracroft Fookes. How lustily he beats his drum ! and yet I thought that our modern Parolles had lost Tits drum somewhere about the time of Te-ngutu-o-te-manu. Has he recovered it ? or — « hich is more probable — has he borrowed one for the occasion ? I am happy that so far I have been correct in my surmises that the Taranaki portion of the Patea settlers will not swell the whines of Wanganni; at a meeting held in Patea, lam informed that the settlers, while acknowledging that it would be a bitter pill to swallow, yet owned that in strict justice no attempt should be made to prevent the return of loyal natives. In conclusion allow me to call your attention to the extraordinary character of the so-called meeting at Wairoa. Some astonishment has been expressed at the large attendance at this meeting, which will vanish when the circumstances are explained. On the 11th instant, says my informant, two companies of militia (or volunteers) were paraded at Wairoa ; it came on to rain, the men were broken off, took refuge in the blockhouse, and there, to pass the time, resolved themselves into a meeting, (for. none had been, summoned). They then voted Mr. Fookes into the chair, made incendiary speeches, and carried the singular resolutions reported in yonr paper. Mr. Fookes, I hear, holds a commission as officer in the Colonial Service ; is it consistent that the chairman of such a meeting, the writer of such a letter, should continue to hold such a commission ? He actually threatens the Ministry of the Colony that if they determine on restoring friendly natives to their land, he and his men at Wairoa will wage war against the Colonial Government. Dire the threat ! But even at the hazard of precipitating civil war between the Fookesites and the Colonial Forces, would it not be advisable to relieve Mr. Fookes of his commission? thereby pointing this moral : That the Government does not allow its armed servants to attempt to impose terras on it by threatening to employ their arms against the Colony, however insignificant the offender, and how absurd so ever the threat. — I am, &c, C. D. WIiITCOMBE. New Plymouth, May 22, 1871.