A.—No. 3.

20

208. Were you in the Native Contingent? —Yes ; I was a captain in that corps. 209. Were you at the attack upon Pokaikai, and if so state what you know ?—Yes ; I went up with Captain McDonnell. Ido not remember the exact date, but we reached Manawapou on the third day. We remained three days at Manawapou, when a letter came to our camp from Te Ua, who was at Kauae. The letter was addressed to Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell, and that officer having returned to Patea, it was forwarded on to that place. I did not see the contents of that letter, but I believe it was written to inform the Lieut.-Colonel that Te Ua was at Kauae, and that he wished to see Lieut.Colonel McDonnell at that place. Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell returned to Manawapou to our camp, and then he told us what the contents of the letter were. The Lieut.-Colonel ordered thirty of our men and twenty Europeans of the Bushranger Corps to escort him to Kauae, which, is to the north of Manawapou. AYe of the Contingent were under the immediate command of Captain McDonnell. That afternoon the escort reached Waingongoro, and two officers from that post having joined us, the Lieut.-Colonel and I, with»ten troopers, proceeded tho same evening to Kauae. The Hauhaus were in the village. They were of the Ngatiruanui tribe. Te Ua, after a little time^addressed the Ngatiruanui's, saying, "You Ngatiruanui, this is Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell. This is the officer in whose hands it rests to give you peace, or to continue the fighting. I am not authorized to say anything in the matter. If you wish for peace, you must go to him." After he had finished, Reihana and ten other Hauhaus rose up and came over with Wi Hukanui to the side on which Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell's party were then sitting. They shook hands with the Lieut.-Colonel and myself. Before the shaking hands, Reihana made a speech, and said to Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell, " You are a bad man; you are the person who destroys men." Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell then stood up and said, " Explain the evil and tho wrongs which I have done to you. I have n/fc murdered any men. I charge you with being the murderers." Reihana's party had not a word to say in reply. Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell then said, " I invite you all to make peace." Ihakara replied, "It is not good that we who are so few should make peace : rather let the whole tribe come in at bW'time and make peace." I then spoke, " Now is the time for you to make peace. If you will not make peace now it will bo too late." The reason why I said this was that I heard Ihakara suggesting that peace should be made through Mr. Parris. I said " Never mind Mr. Parris. This is Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell, Do you all come, every one of you, and make peace with him to-morrow." Natanahira Ngahina replied, " AVait till I have been to Mr. Parris." Two of us, Te Ua and myself, said "Leave Mr. Parris out of the question. Treat with Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell at once." Natanahira still persisted in maintaining his views, and Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell, Te Ua, and myself, stood up to oppose them. During the feasting which followed the meeting, Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell said quietly to Ngatanahira, "Come with me, and I will send my brother or Aperaniko into AVellington with you, so that you-may see the Governor." Tho talk lasted from the evening till ten o'clock at night, and at length Natanahira agreed to proceed tho next morning to Waingongoro, for the purpose of seeing the Governor at Wellington, and we all returned to Waingongoro the same night. The following morning AVi Hukanui came to AVaingongoro, which is about six miles from Kauae, and reported to the Lieut.-Colonel that Natanahira had gone to Taranaki to Mr. Parris. lat once said to Wi Hukanui, " This is very wrong on the part of Natanahira. He has placed Mr. Parris above the Lieut.-Colonel." The Lieut.-Colonel was just as angry as I was, and AVi Hukanui too was just as anxious as we were that peace should be made through Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell. Ido not remember Wi Hukanui expressing himself that morning as being hurt at Matanahira's breach of faith. The whole of our party then returned towards Manawapou, and every one of us were depressed with tho unfortunate result. The following morning Rangiamohia went of her own accord to visit the Hauhaus. She is the wife of Arapata, who is in the Native Contingent. She proceeded to Pokaikai, where she had relatives, and returned the same day. She complained of having been ill-treated at Pokaikai, that she had been beaten and her clothes torn by her own relatives. [Deponent then, according to the Interpreter, added the word "if" at the end of the sentence, and the Interpreter explained that the addition of that word " if" would now make the sentence run—lf she had not relatives in the village she would have had her clothes pulled off, and she would have been killed.] The men of my corps were indignant at this tale of Rangiamohia for two reasons, firstly, because Natanahira had deceived us, and secondly, because her life was saved only through her having relations in the village. According to her account, all the villagers are related to her. The evening of the following day the expedition to Pokaikai started. We attacked the village about midnight. When we arrived outside the village the villagers were awake. We waited some time, but the Europeans getting impatient, the attack was made before the villagers were all asleep. The Native Contingent was in the rear of the column. We supposed the villagers fired the first shot, but I cannot bo positive, because I was in the rear. When my corps got into the village all the villagers had escaped. I saw Aperahama, chief of the village and also chief of the Ngatiruanui tribe, and his wife. They had been shot in a whare. Another man was killed at the bottom of a descent while he was running away. Ido not know this man's name. Capt. McDonnell stood in a doorway of a whare, preventing Europeans going in, because there were some women inside. Martha then asked the Lieut.-Colonel to help her to look for her children, which he did. A shark's tooth had been pulled out of her ear by a European, who was placed in arrest. Aperahama was buried in the village. We returned, bringing one dead man of our party with us. We also had with us ten prisoners. No children were killed or wounded. One woman was wounded, but as soon as she was discovered by her voice to be a woman, she was saved. 210. Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell.] Do you know whether Hori King or Captain Kemp were annoyed at the Native Contingent accompanying me to Patea ? —Hori King and Captain Kemp attempted to prevent the Native Contingent from going to Patea. 211. Did you not tell me at Manawapou, that Hori King and Kemp had told you to hinder my movements as much as possible, but that you had resolved to do nothing of the kind, and that you would render me every assistance in your power ? —Hori King and Kemp did tell me to thwart the Lieut.-Colonel in his operations, but I resolved not to do so. Kemp and Hori King wanted to get authority from the Governor, but I would not wait for this. I trusted the Lieut.-Coloncl's word, and resolved to assist him as much as I could.

Aperaniko, Continued,