NATIVE NEWS OF THE FIGHT AT PATEA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 122, 3 October 1868, Page 2

NATIVE NEWS OF THE FIGHT AT PATEA.

We (Southern Cross of the 23rd inst.) have received from t'ae King's place at Tokangainutu, through Waikato, the intelligence that emissaries had arrived there to tell of the victory won by Titokowaru at Patea. Our information is yet scanty, botli as to the particulars of the story told to Tawhiao and his counsellors, and as to the temper in which it was received by them. The; prevailing horror of the fight at Patea — far greater thnn the loss of the men who were., shot dead at onee — was, that all the wounded who could not walk were left on the fltM, and this to anyone acquainted with that* Ngatiruanuls involved a Bcenc of unutterable horror. The Maoris are not as a people, given to torture their prisoners; their method is, to extinguish sensation and life at once by a blow on the head. These people in the Patea district are, however, the most ferocious of the race, and especially the people of Te Ngutuotemanu are notorious for terrible deeds of blood. Those men were therefore fortunate who were shot dead in the fight. On the day after the battle Titokowaru sent off messengers to Tokangamutu to inform the king of the disastrous rout of the European force, and these messengers spread the news in every direction, to Taranaki on the west, and to the Poverty Bay district on the east. On their arrival at Tokangamutu, " they repeated the story to the Natives.who from all quarters are gathered there. The horrors after the fight, as narrated by these messengers, surpassed what we imagined even the Ng-uiruanuis could have wreaked, and we would fain hope that some of the awful stories are to be ascribed to the imagination of the exultant savages. One officer, they stated, was found alive, with his leg broken by a bullet which had struck just over the knee. So far as we can make out, this is the only officer that fell into their hands. He was, the Natives state, a tall man, and was according to their story, the chief of the attacking force. The Maoris seem not to have deliberately set themselves to torture the unfortunate wounded, but to have inflicted such cruelties as savages infuriated at the taking of their land, the destruction of their abodes and their cherished household gods, and the loss of their relations, might be expected to do. They were also, it must be remembered, drunk with the fury of successful battle, and the sight of blood. One of the prisoners, in the mad carnival of blood, was tomahawked on the back of the head, and his scalp torn right over his head till it hung down over his eyes. Whether any of the heads were preserved we are not aware, as the messengers left too soon after the fight. On the point of what the King resolved to do in reference to their affair, we have no positive information, but we judge from certain indications that he has not given his assent to any one going from Waikato to the 6ght. It is well-known that Tamati Ngapora Manuheri, the King's chief and most prudent counsellor, dislikes Titokowaru, the chief of Te Ngutuotemanu, and wishes to keep the King clear of any responsibility in his proceedings. Kereopa, however, who is the recognised head of the most dtsperate section of the people in the Upper Waikato district is mustering a force to go down to Patea.