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offers to go and demand the murderers of Tawhiao. But we learn from a telegram of Colonel Lyon, commanding the Armed Constabulary in Waikato, that on the sth May a large and influential meeting of Natives came off at Tamahere, convened by Ngatihaua, at which many of the Waikato chiefs (Kupapa) were present ; that the meeting was unanimous in denouncing the doings of the Hauhaus ; and that six of the most influential chiefs had been chosen to proceed to Te Kuiti, and demand from Tawhiao the murderers, the chiefs thus deputed asking the Government to countenance their proceedings and give them time for carrying out their object. Since that date a telegram has arrived from three of those chiefs, in the name of the komiti (committee), proposing to act accordingly, but asking that a year of time be given to them to carry out their scheme. In a former Despatch I adverted to the deliberation with which Natives act; and your Lordship will notice that, if the Government of New Zealand have felt the importance of moving in this business with caution, their Native allies do not think the object one that can with any certainty be effected on a sudden. In the Tauranga district, also, at a recent meeting held for another purpose, at which 500 Natives were present, when all was very orderly, where no spirits were allowed on the place, and only political matters were discussed, general indignation at the Waikato murder was expressed, all admitting it to be a "kohuru," or murder in the criminal sense of that word. Meanwhile, the settlers on the Waikato have demeaned themselves with moderation and forbearance, ready, if necessary, as expressed in one of Mr. Mackay's telegrams, "to have a stand-up " fight " with the King Natives, rather than live in uncertainty whether an outrage of this sort may not at any time be repeated with impunity, but anxious that the Government should mature their plans for action, rather than risk, by undue precipitation, a settlers' war. In conclusion, I desire to assure your Lordship that the Government, while thus feeling their way, are yet conscious that decisive action must ultimately be taken, in the interest no less of the Native than of the colonist, to vindicate the law. It is supposed that Purukutu, one of the leaders of this Hauhau gang, has established himself for the present, with about sixty armed companions, in the Maungatautari Ranges (being a range of hills which the Natives chose as their last strong stand-point at the close of the Waikato war), in the hope, possibly, that the Government would accept this outrage as a challenge, and proceed to attack him in warlike array. But it is, I think wisely, resolved to treat the outrage upon Sullivan as an ordinary case of murder, to be dealt with by the Courts of Justice, and I am yet sanguine that, with the aid of Native chiefs themselves, these offenders will be tracked wherever they may be, and will be, all or some of them, at length captured without further disturbing the peace of the Waikato settlements. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. G. A. ARNEY.

No. 4. Copy of DESPATCH from the Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand to the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. (No. 40.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord, — New Zealand, 3rd June, 1873. By the last mail it was my duty to inform your Lordship of the murder of Timothy Sullivan by a party of Maoris, of whom Purukutu was and is reported to be the leader; the scene of the murder being the farm of Messrs. Walker and Douglas, in the district of the Upper Waikato. I also informed your Lordship of the course which it had been deemed prudent to adopt. 2. Since I last wrote to your Lordship no active measures have been taken, in so far that an armed force has not been sent into the King district to apprehend the murderers, but all the information we have since received satisfies me that the importance of the event has not been over estimated, while the course pursued by the Government has not merely been the wisest, but has been the only course which has yet been open for them to adopt.