TARANAKL

Star (Christchurch), Issue 283, 10 April 1869, Page 3

TARANAKL

The Taranaki Herald of March 27th says:— A mounted native rode into town yesterday morning, and "was the bearer of a despatch from Colonel Whitmore to Major Brown, in which he requested that a force might be sent from this district to assist in cutting off the retreat of Titokowaru. We are informed that in his despatch Colonel Whitmore states that he has Titokowaru nearly surrounded, and that with a reinforcement from this direction, he will succeed in entirely crushing him. The Colonel also states that the rebel forces were never before so entirely at his mercy ; that they are without provisions or ammunition, and from their position he believes the rebels cannot escape, if their retreat is cut off on this side by our forces. The present position of Titokowaru, as far as we can gather, is by the siJe of a large swamp — at a place called Te Ngahere or Te Ngaire — which lies between tlie Patea and Waingongoro rivers (about twelve or fourteen miles inland, northward from the coast). The rebels, therefore, cannot escape, unless Colonel Whitmore is mistaken as to their whereabouts, or Titokowaru manages to give him the slip and get to the Ngatiawa country. Major Brown, the officer commanding, has accordingly collected as large a force as possible, which will leave early this morning, under the command of Major Stapp, and will consist of four companies. The Armed Constabulary, under the command of Captain Gudgeon, and Lieutenant Davis ; Militia, under the command of Captain M'Kellar and Ensign Carrick ; the Cavalry Volunteers, under the command of Captain Wilson, Lieut. M'Guinness, and Cornet Bayly ; and the Bush party, under the command of Captain Kelly, and Lieut. Hursthouse. From the well-known efficien y of the Taranaki corps, and the bravery of the officers who go with them, we may expect to hear shortly of some decisive action being taken against Titokowaru, if he ia in that part of the country which Colonel Whitmore has stated. The only fear we have is that Colonel Whitmore will spoil all by his unbearable temper. It is no secret that he is trying the patience of all who aro in any way connected with him, by his intolerant conduct. He might he a strict disciplinarian, in fact a martinet, and no one could find fault; but we believe that Colonel Whitmore goes beyond this, and censures his officers and men when there is no necessity for it —or the blame rests solely with himself. The Wanganui papers assert that there are numbers of people who make out that the fight at Otoia was neither so decisive, nor so well managed as it was represented; but whether it was so or not, there can be little doubt that Titokowaru's force is now broken up, and that he is attempting to make It's way by the back of the mountain to the Mokau" ranges, to join Te Wetere. We understand that Colonel Whitmore, after the fight at Otoia, offered a reward of £1000 for Titokowaru's head; £15 for any of his chiefs; and £5 for any of the rebel Maoris' heads. Major Kemp, and several from the native force, together with some Europeans belonging to the Armed Constabulary, volunteered to go on an expedition and to bring in, on these terms, as many prisoners —or their heads—as they could get. They started accordingly, and succseded in secur ing three chiefs' heads. More would have been brought in, but the Europeans who accompanied Major Kemp, not being equal to the task, the force had to return sooner than they otherwise would have done. Colonel Gorton arrived here on Tuesday last, to make arrangements with the officer commanding for provisioning any force that may be sent from this district to assist Colonel Whitmore. Having accomplished that object, he again took his departure for Patea on Thursday. The Wellington Independent of April 8, has the following : — We have some very strange intelligence from Taranaki concerning the war. It seems that a hitch has arisen between the Taranaki friendly natives and the local authorities. Colonel Whitmore had followed up Titokowaru, and wished to surround him completely, so aßto cut off all chances of escape. We presume this intelligence, as given in the Auckland and Taranaki papers, refers to the position lately occupied by Titokowaru, as we have information that Colonel Whitmore had come up with him again. At all events, we learn from the Auckland Herald that Colonel Whitmore, requiring more troops to invest Titoko's position, sent messengers to New Plymouth for assistance, and that a force turned out under the command of Major Brown. Then arose the hitch. It appears, according to the Herald," that the Taranaki friendly natives have entered into a treaty with the rebels that the people of one district shall not pass over into another to fight," so that when the force is about to start to Colonel Whitmore's assistance, " the aforesaid friendly natives come forward, make known the treaty between Titoko and themselves, and declare that they consider it equally binding on Europeans as on themselves, and finally threaten that if the Taranaki forces go to Whitmore's arsistance, they will go to that of Titokowaru. The authorities, whoever they may be, decide that it is unwise to run counter to the wishes of these friendly natives, and the force, actually in marching order, is called back and dismissed. The consequence of jthis is Titokowaru again escapes from Colonel Whitmore, and is now, it is said, endeavouring to get round by the mountain to effect a junction with Wetere—the White Cliffs murderer—and his band in the.Mokau radges. Thus is the West Coast campaign, in the moment of fruition, rendered abortive by the threatening attitude and treachery of these so-called friendly natives and the

- imbecility of a Government whose responsible s officers allow the whole of the fruits of a pro- - tracted and expensive campaign to glide from them in the very moment of victory. Were Colonel Whitmore an Edwardes or a Napier, he could not, hampered as he is, contend against such odds as these." It appears that thia affair has created a ' feeling of much iv Mgnation in Taranaki, and i a correspondent of the Auckland Herald i writes: — t "An indignation meeting was held on ' Saturday last, at which his Honor the I Superintendent was present. He stated s that the reason of tho forces not being > permitted to go was because it might have caused the friendly natives to the south ' of this province (Te Witi tribe) rising. Some I agreement, it appears, had been made between i Titikowaru and the friendly natives previous " to hostilities commencing, that one tribe • would not interfere with the other, but let ■ each district fight its own battles. The Native • Department has just discovered that the ' Europems have been mixed up in this ■ treaty by the natives ; and, therefore, if ■ our forces had gone to assist Colonel Whirmore, the friendly natives considered • that they were at liberty to go and assist ' Titokowaru. The following resolutions were i passed at the meeting: — Resolved: "That ' an application for assistance having been : made to Major Brown, the officer command- ■ ing the Taranaki Militia, by Colonel Whiti more, who stated that with such assistance it might be possible to effectually crush Titoko- . waru, we, the settlers of Taranaki, most I indignantly protest against withholding such assistance by those in authority, particularly ■ as it does not represent either the wishes of , the men detached for the service or the views of the settlers themselves." Resolved: ' That this meeting is of opinion that the present system of divided authority in this province in native and military matters is prejudicial to the attainment of peace, is productive of indecision in action, and will it is feared, interfere with the willing efforts of the settlers in future." We think it was a great blunder not to send off the force, whether the so-called friendly natives objected or not. It is very bad policy even to truckle or make concessions to natives, because they simply regard such acts as a confession of weakness. Moreover, it is humiliating in the last degree to think that our policy with respect to this war should be influenced by any natives whatsoever. We almost blush to think that we dare not send out a force of our men to fight the enemy, because our so-called Maori allies object. When it has come to this, our glorious British flag is but a sorry piece of bunting after all.