E—No. 4.

OF THE NATIVE INSURRECTION.

(and exclaim), Alas! this is a new proceeding on the part of our Queen. But we think that the Governor must have been deceived by Teira and those acting with him, and the Land Commissioner of Taranaki, and that is why he was so hasty in sending his soldiers to Waitara to frighten the men and women who turned his surveyors off their own pieces of land, and land belonging to us, in order that he might seize those lands. For instance, Mr. C. W. Richmond writes, Taranaki, March, 1860, (which lias been heard by everybody), " Teira's title has been fully investigated, and is perfectly good; there is no one to deny his title." Yes, his title is good to his own pieces within the boundaries of that land—two or three pieces. Our title is equally good to our own pieces—some have one, or two, or three, or four within that block. William King stated this; but what he said has been misinterpreted by the Land Commissioner of Taranaki, who asserts that William King said the whole of the land was Teira's. It was his determination to take the land by force, and his ignorance of the Maori language which made him pervert what William King said. From this statement put but not proved by Mr. C. W. Richmond, we conclude that the Land Commissioner only inquired of those who were on Teira's side of the question—even when they inquired at Queeu Charlotte's Sound, they did not seek for information from any who were on William King's side ; nor would they even listen to what they had to say, for William King writes —" He (Mr. Parris) says the Pakehas willjnot hear what I have to say ;" but I did not believe what he wrote last year, for I did not think it possible the Government could act iv this way. Information was not sought from us. If inquiries had been made on both sides of the question, if what they (W. X.'s party) had to say had been heard, and their inquiries had likewise extended to us (at Waikanae, &c.) it would have been evident that Teira and his party were in the wrong (had such inquiries been made, they must have exclaimed) Well ! their pieces are dotted about amongst those belonging to persons who refuse to sell, and amongst ours who dwell here. William King writes again— " This is what I blame the Pakehas for—Mr. Parris, Mr. Whiteley, and the Governor, they say the land all belongs to Teira. No, that land belongs to us all—to orphans and to widows." His letter is here. If they had sought for information, the Governor's Land Commissioners would not have falsely represented to him that after full investigation they found the land belonged to Teira. When we first heard that there was so much as 600 acres in the land claimed by Teira and his party, we thought it could not be the land at Waitara, but some new land that Teira and his party had discovered. The reason why William King and his party objected so strongly when Teira first offered the land for sale to the Governor, was because they found that their lands and ours would all be included in the one block ; and what they found, has come true. William King wrote and told us that—"The Land Commissioner of Taranaki said that though only one man wished to sell the land, the pakehas would at once assent to purchase." Now we deny the following statements which have been put forth—That the land is Teira's, that it belongs to his tribes, to Ngatihinga—and that they allowed William King to live on that land after his return from Waikanae—that his occupation of it was unjustifiable, and that he had never before occupied it. Do they mean to say that the land did not belong to William King, and that he had no right to object to the sale ? Listen. This statement would only be believed by pakehas, and tribes who are strangers to the facts of the case ; but we of Ngatiawa, who live at Waikanae and Wellington, Queen Charlotte's Sound and Massacre Bay, we will never allow Teira's title, or say that William King has put forward an unfounded claim. Only tliose members of Ngatiawa who are deceiving the Government and the pakehas, will deny William King's claim or uphold Teira's. The Land Commissioner of Taranaki seemed to imagine that Teira and his party are the only members of the Ngatihinga and Ngutituaho ; they did not seem to know that Wireinu Te Patukakariki is the chief of that hapu. Besides Nopera Te Kaoma and others who are of those hapu, who did not consent and whose objections were not listened to by the Land Commissioner at Taranaki. Listen. It was Wireinu Te Patukakariki's wife and their two daughters with some other women of that hapu who turned the Government surveyors off their own pieces of land. Now this land was not divided into different portions for the different hapu for Ngatihinga and Ngatituaho, and for Ngatikura and Ngatiuenuku and other hapu, holding within the block which has been purchased by the Governor. No, they were all intermingled ; the boundaries of each individual's land having been marked by stone-posts by our ancestors ; besides these hapu are not of two different tribes ; they are all of one tribe. All of these different portions of land have names given them by our ancestors : the name of William King's is Te Porepore. One portion of land belonging to his son and daughter, which was the property of their mother, is that on which Te Hurirapa's pa stood, which was burnt by the soldiers. Another portion of land is at Orapa, to the south of where their old pa stood. All fliese portions are contained in the block asserted to be Teira's ; and have all been taken by the Governor. All the portions of land belonging to us and those who opposed the sale —Ngatikura and Ngateucuuku and sonu , of Ngatihinga and Ngatituaho, besides portions which belong to the hapu, have all been included in the block of land which the Land Commissioner of Taranaki asserts to belong to Teira alone. What can be the meaning of this expression—" William King was permitted to live on that land by their consent, when he returned from Waikanae ?" Who can venture to make such an assertion ? It was no such thing ; each man knew the portion of laud inherited from his ancestors. \Vas it by their assent that Te Porepore became the property of William King when he returned from Waikanae ? Was it by their own permission that Te Hurirapa became the property of his children when they returned from Waikanae—which has been taken away by the soldiers ? Was it by their permission that our lands inherited from our ancestors, became our property —which lands have all been taken from us at the point of the sword ? In my opinion, such an assertion is like deadly poison. According to the opinion of the Land Commissioner of Taranaki, Teira was quite justified in assorting

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