WHAKATIWAI. – THE NATIVE MEETING.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1886, 8 August 1874, Page 3

WHAKATIWAI. - THE NATIVE MEETING.

(FEOM OUtt OWN COBttESPONDENT.) Tenth DAY.-Wednesday, Aug. 5. [I have read the second lucubration of the intemperate man who signs himself " Phoenix." Ho seems to me to have got Wkakatiwai on the brain. It requires so profound an ass as he is not to have been able to understand that there is nothing to answer in what he advances. One thing alone in his second raphsodyand it is mere imputation, like the rest of his incoherent ravings-requires notice. He imputes that there is private business between me and Mr'Mackay. My reply is that Mr Mackay has no business with me personal to him; and I have no business with him personal to me. I know that this will not be satisfactory to "Phoenix." He is a patriot-"! true patriot he, be it understood; he lefc his country for his country's good,"-though at the public expense, I want him to make another sacrifice. In his first letter he applies to me the term " loafer." I request that he will send his card to the editor of the Thames Advertises, to await my arrival in Skortland. If he will do so, he shall have the honour of an interview, and a full explanation of the conditions upon which he can apply the term to me. I know "Phoenix" is merely the exhalation of a dust-heap, and not the bird that "soars Phoenix-like to Jove;" but there's a chance for him.] The natives who arrived here from the Waikato on Saturday, came into camp to-day. They are some of the late Win. Thompson's people, belonging to the Ngatihana tribe. The usual ceremony of welcome was gone through, there was then a cry, and after that every man and woman put away as many potatoes asthey could stow under their shawls. The arrivals to-day have also included two general stores from Shortland; and it is reported that we are to have a circus. jiiEVENTH Day.—Thursday, Aug. 6. ' All hands have been busy to-day in erecting a flagstaff. The staff itself is a ( splendid kauri rikier 84i feet long, and although the-flag is 20 feet long and 12 1 feet wide, it just looks barely large ' enough. In addition to the flag we have l also two 10 or 12 pounders, bearing the Tower of London proof mark for the year, 1806. Iweifih Day.—Friday, Aug. 7. The following tribes are now represented here :-Ngatipioa and Ngilihaua,

from the Waikato. This contingent, added to the Ngatihaua, already with Tarapipipi, make a large number of Ngatihaua now present. Ngatiwhaunga are close at hand, at Waihihi. A party of men under Hoera > te Whareponga left here this morning to j " wero" or invite them to attend the t meeting. The Ngatimaru, and 1 Tawera tribes have yet to arrive from 5 your side. , A messenger came in the night before . last with a letter from Te Hire te Tairi of f Ohinemuri, saying that he had no boat suitable to come from Kopua, where he " now is, here. A boat was sent away on * the same tide; but I understand Te Hira • is not to come on for a day or two. I 10.30 a.m. -Some five or six boats with 3 Ngatiwhaunga are in the offing. , The war canoe will go to Shortland on this II tide for the ISgatitamatera. We have 3 several European visitors here from r Shortland and Uoromandel. All are now e busy with preparation.