LATEST FROM THE EAST COAST.

Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 575, 7 April 1869, Page 2

LATEST FROM THE EAST COAST.

TE KOOTI SURROUNDED AT

TAWAROA,

HE ESCAPES IN THE NIGHT.

The correspondent of the Southern Cross writes as follows:—

Matata, 21st March

Te Kooti has again escaped. With a very few followers he was pursued and overtaken at Taweroa, and surrounded there but managed to get out of the pah away into the scrub. The horses were shot but he has nevertheless given his pursuers the slip. Some time before daylight cries of murder were heard in the pa where he was, and the Arawas were impatient to make an attack, but they were restrained by the officer in command, who told them to wait till daylight, but they broke through rules, and found a poor fellow of the Ngatimanawa, wljo had been invited to join Te Ktfoti, with his hands tied behind him, and chopped to pieces. Te Kooti and his followers got away during the charge.

As a specimen of the tender mercies of the wicked, a woman taken away from the pah of the Ngatipukeko was interrogated by Kooti as

to the, number of'its defenders, she replied they were very few, and in consequence he was > induced to charge-the pah,,which was obortive, after which the unfortunate woman was chopped into small pieces by his orders. . Another woman taken from the potato field, was asked by him what property she had, to which she replied " nothing." The question was repeated twice,' and, the same answer being- returned, she was cut in pieces. The force in the field'will fall back on Paparakeke, and renew the search aiter Te Kooti, though it is to be feared with small chance of success. 21st March. Since writing the foregoing1 another messenger has come, in, .confirming most of the previous intelligence. Te Kooti was hemmed in the pa by our forces, and finding- himself outnumbered, retreated 'in the nijrht. The Arawa wanted to attack him under cover of the darkness, but the attack was ordered to be delayed till da3'lig-ht and then till after breakfast, and when it was made—as usual—the pah was empty. Te Kooti had 70 followers, received reinforcements on his march. Pokiha (Fox), with the Arawa, are staying behind, to tempt him to attack them, and the remainder of the forces are expected here to-night. Some will probably go to Opotiki, in the Clyde, this evening. The only man killed during- the expedition was the one at Kg-atimanawa, already mentioned. There was firmg1 on both sides the night before the proposed attack, but no loss was believed to have been sustained. It was proposed to continue the pursuit, but dissatisfaction arising, on account of the difference in pay of officers and men, the expedition broke up. Te Kooti is now at liberty to join Titokowaru, or the Waikato tribes, in which ease the consequences will be more serious than before.

Tauranga, 26th March The steamer Clyde arrived here from Opotiki about noon to-day. She brings intelligence of the destruction of Eukaruka's pah by our own forces, but matters otherwise were not in a state of violent agitation.

There is a story on foot that at a place called Oropi, or Europe, in this immediate vicinity, a space of ground has been cleared by the natives, in expection of Te Kooti's arrival, and a stock of firewood collected to make a bonfire when he comes, so that all the natives near may flock to join him. The sittings of the Lands Court at Taupo was not completed, and was adjourned in consequence of the unsettled state of affairs, and the threatening aspect of the natives there.

On Tuesday evening- thirty of the Tauranga cavalry went on an expedition to Maketu, with six pack horses carryingl provisions. They started about six in the evening, crossed the Hairini ford,- and took the route past Maungatapu, at the foot of the hills, and reached Maketu —a portion at three o'clock, and the remainder with the baggage, at five o'clock in the morning-. The object of the expedition was to have intercepted Te Kooti, then supposed to b.9 on his way to Taupo, but they learned that he had gone before they arrived.