PATEA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue XXII, 21 November 1867, Page 5

PATEA.

Thb following items of Patea news are extracted from the Wanganui Times of Saturday last : —

The men under Lieut-Colonel M'Donnell's command were paraded last week, and informed that instructions had been received to enrol two sub-inspectors and, one senior sergeant, three sergeants, three corporals, and»sixty constables. None but unmarried men between the age of twenty and thirty years were admissable unless under peculiar circumstances, and those enrolled would, of course, be sworn in for three years under the terms of the Act. The exclusion of married men has shut out many of the most steady and respectable men in the company, aud we believe that up to the present time not more than seven or eight eligible men had consented to serve. Others may eventually do so, but the exclusion of married men, and men over thirty years of age, is about as unwise a oourse as the Government could adopt. On Monday last the Hon. Mr Richmond arrived at Patea where he met Tahana, and thence proceeded to Opunalri. Some small pieces of land at Putahi, Oika and other places have been restored to the rebel natives, but the quantity in the aggregate is not so much as we expected it would be.

On Wednesday last about 120 men, women, and children met Colonel M'Donnell, Captain Cummins and Mr Booth at Mangamanga, Waihi. JNTone of them appeared subdued or had any appearance of being so ; but assumed rather a defiant air and said they hoped that the fact of their having consented to meet Colonel M'Donnell on the day appointed by him would not be attributed to fear, or that they had in any way been influenced by past events. The fact was, that their god had appeared to them and. told them to go and see the pakeha, and they had obeyed his word ; if he had told them not to go, they would have remained at home.

They then went on to say that they intended to live in peace for the future ; their god wished them to live in peace and they would do so. They talked about ambuscades, and the time that they used to require no longer to beat a party of pakehas than it did to boil a kettle of water. Colonel M'Donnell told them that things were reversed now, and that although they talked of peace lie could not trust them, as they had acted treacherously in laying ambuscades, and he had only followed their example. They said but little in reply, but regretted that our ambuscades had been more successful than theirs. Ahitaua, Matanga, and To Ika, the chief men of the tribe, did not put in an appearance.