THE NATIVE MEETING AT THE THAMES

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1729, 30 May 1862, Page 5

THE NATIVE MEETING AT THE THAMES

From the Thames we have accounts of a large meeting of the natives at the Keripehi, on the| Piako. Fifteen hundred uatives of the Waikato | and Thames are supposed to be present, including some delegates from various tribes to the Southward. Our informant says (on native authority) that bo Europeans or half-castes are permitted to be present at the deliberations. The same authority says that Rangitake, alias William King, of Taranaki notoriety, was to have been present, but that, after arriving withia a few miles of Keiepehi, he was overtaken by expresses from Taranaki, conveying the information that war had broken out there again, and that, in consequence of this, he immediately returned to Taranaki, without going to the meeting. Large assemblages of ignorant people are always atteirded with danger to the cause of peace and order, and particularly when politics and questions of liberty are discussed. We are : not justified in looking for a different result where savages are concerned. It were well that the Government should be able to have correct information of the avowed sentiments expressed at those meetings by the presence of some European agent, however true it niay be that the sentiments publicly avowed rarely bear much indication of the determination arrived '^•~p^ Southern Cross, May 24. _y^"