ARRIVAL OF THE WONGA WONGA FROM AUCKLAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1901, 30 July 1863, Page 2

ARRIVAL OF THE WONGA WONGA FROM AUCKLAND.

WAR IN WAIKATO. DEFEAT OE THE REBELS, WITH GREAT LOSS. THREATENED CONFISCATION OF THE REBELS LAND. [The following appeared in an " Independent Extra" published yesterday.] The Wonga Wonga, Captain Cellera, from Auckland via Napier, arrived in port last night, bringing the important intelligence that war had broken out in Waikato, and that an engagement had taken place between H.M. forces and the rebels, the troops having achieved a most brilliant victory. A New Zealand Gazette of the 15th instant, gives the following official account of the engagement: j& Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, July 17th, 1863. j His Excellency the Governor directs the following telegram from Lieut. General Cameron, C.8., to be published for general information. Alfbed Domett. From J ieut.- General Cameron, C. 8., to His Excellency, A sharp engagement on the Koberoa this (Friday) morning. The enemy began collecting at an early hour on the open hills opposite our camp. Advanced against them with the 14th, and detachments of the 12th, and 70th regts. The 14th led. The enemy disputed the ground with great obstinacy from successive positions fortified by lines of rifle pits, which were charged with great spirit. Enemy driven in confusion about six miles, to the Maramarua, which some crossed in canoes, others by swimming. Action began at 11 a.m., and ended at 1 o'clock. We have had one man on our side killed and several wounded. Colonel Austin slightly in arm. Enemy about 300 strong. Twenty of them counted killed ; seteral more, no doubt, killed. We extract the following from a Hawkes Bay Herald Extra, of the 27th iustant: — [from odb own correspomdnntV] Auckland, July 22. The sudden arrival and departure of the Wonga Wonga, does not leave me time to send you more than a very few lines at the present time. The news, however, is the most startling that has ever been sent from one province of New Zealand to another, not even excepting the case of Taranaki. We are fairly plunged into a great war — great, that is, for New Zealand, — and one which must now be fought out to the last. This province is now having a taste of what Taranaki has so long endured, and it is to he hoped that, while feeling its unpleasantness, some of us may repent, in some degree adequately, of the abuse and misrepresentation which they heaped so unsparingly upon the settlers of that unhappy province. The determination of the Government to remove the seat of war from Taranaki to the Waikato, was manifested clearly nearly a fortnight ago, by the movement of the troops in that direction, followed almost immediately by the warning conveyed to the natives around Auckland that they must swear allegiance to her Majesjy and give up their arms, as a condition of remaining in the neighbourhood of the capital. This was the one spark required to ignite the train so long laid in this province, of native revolt. Six men and six only, so far as I can hear, have given in their anus and allegiance, while the mass of the natives have revolted in the most unmistakeabie manner, refusing to move until threatened by armed force and then taking to the bush. The immediate results of this step on their p:irt, which ought, I believe, most certainly to have been prevented by the surrounding them in force before making any demands, were the murder of two persons, an old man and a boy, who were quietly fencing on their own land between Drury and the Waikato. These persons were barbarously murdered by the tomahawk and, as it would seem, without making any resistance. Before the discovery, however, of this murder the mask of quietness was almost thrown off by the greater part of the natives round Auckland, who, having very injudiciously been allowed to assemble in force near Papakura village upon the ranges at .a place called Kirikiri, refused either to move or to give up their arms. From this position they were at last moved only by a body of troops who, having received orders not to fire upon them unless they should fire (irst, only suficeeded in scattering" a large body of some three hundred men in all directions over the country, when they ought most certainly to have been captured or killed and not one armed man of them allowed to escape. On Friday, the 17th of July, the first serious hostilities took place, which reduced Auckland from a state of peace to one ©f war. On that day the General having advanced his troops across the Maungatawhiri Creek 'on to the native land, was met and opposed by about three hundred maories of the Waikato tribes. These he attacked with about n've hundred men, and carried, after a sharp right, the ranges on which they had taken position and where they were strongly entrenched by means of a succession of rifle pits. The loss inflicted upon the natives was probably more severe than on any former occasion in New Zealand, as fifty bodies have been recovered by the military, and many more are doubtless among the killed and wounded. Our troops pursued the rebels about five miles until they escaped over the next creek or over the Waikato river. They state, I hear, their own loss at one hundred men, which is not improbably near the truth. Our loss in the engagement was trifling, amounting only to one man killed and eleven wounded, including Col. Austin of the 14th, whose promptitude in preparing to make the attack without orders is specially commended by the General. Ou the same day a weU planned and murderous attack was made upon an escort party coming down the Great South road from Pukeno to Drury, consisting of about iifiy men under Capt. Ring, of the 18th regt, A large number of the natives had collected evidently on both sides of the road which, here only two chains wide, runs through bush of the densest description. The stiuggle was evidently a terrible one, the greatly overpowering force of the maories emboldening them to leave cover and attempt to cut off one part of the escort from another; this attempt was foiled by ten men gallantly charging and driviug before them sixty natives into the forest. Capt. Ring at length succeeded in bringing off bis small party with a loss of 4 killed and 10 wounded men. The loss of the natives is not known but is conjectured on various accounts to have been severe. The whole available strength of the Province is now being got ready for action, and. we have now about 1000

"olutfteers and tbe same number of Ist class militiamen actually on service — some at Druiy and* Wairoa, others at the camp at Otahuhu, while a few are still in town. The second class have been called out and are now being drilled; their number cannot possibly amount to less thin 2400 men of whom 1400 are in the city. It is not intended to move those in the town but merely to use them as guards and patrols, while it is not intended at present to call out, the third class at all, although they ha#e been invited to assist. in the guard and patrol duties, which, owing to the fact that about two hundred are on duty pach night round the city, will come heavily upon the men of the second class. The spirit of the people is all that can be desired at this crisis, and panics have been comparatively unknown among us, owing, it may be, to the fact that this has long been looked for, and latterly even hoped for by some among us who were tired of the constant foment in which native threats kept tbe out-distvicts. The war will assuredly be vigorous, and I trust it may be short. Tbe Gorernrneot had issued a proclamation — the propriety of which will commend itself to every colonist in New Zealand — declaring to the natives of Waikato thut, in the event of their rebellion assuming any more active form than that which it then presented, their lands would be held forfeited by the act, or to use the words of the proclamation itself, " they must understand that they will forfeit the right to the possession of their lands guaranteed to them by the treaty of Waitangi." The Assembly, it is said, will meet almost immediately.