E—No. 9 Sec. ILL

Reihana and his soldiers in an expedition to Kawhia, where they nearly came to blows with the Ngatihikairo, whom they nicknamed the NgatihiAa/iro, i.e., " the cowards." He gave us a detailed account of Reihana and his army, from which I imagine that a system of law and order of a very vigorous character is organised at Wataroa. Reihana has an army of 80 drilled men, clothed and equipped partly by the Taranaki mail money and partly by Court fees and fines. The culprits whom Reihana tries are not allowed any time, but have to pay down their money on the spot. When a man has no money, two days are allowed; if the money is not forthcoming on the third day, the fine is increased. When a man is too poor to pay, Reihana levies the amouut on his kinsmen. All the proceeds go to the soldiers. This is all very tyrannical, but to me the news of any authority whatever in the district is cheering. Moreover, Reihana has some sense of justice; his soldiers, he says, shall drive away no European Magistrates, nor rescue any Europeans from the Courts of law; he does not say a European Magistrate is a good thing or a bad thing, but he shall let him alone. A short time ago Reihana was applied to by the King to let his soldiers go to Coromandel to take care of the gold. He replied, his soldiers would take care of the King, and that was all; the people of Coromandel might take care of their own gold. Tamehana Te Rangitupu was here in the afternoon to ask what was to be done in his case against Hetaraka. I handed him over to Mr. Clarke, to whom he expressed very great indignation because Hetaraka was not pnnished or made to restore the money which he took away. Monday, May 19th.—I rode with Chittam and his son to Arowhenua to enquire into a sheep case. It appears that Chittam has had sheep running on land of the Ngatiraukawa for some two years; by the advice of the Natives they were put under the charge of a Native shepherd named Rata, which they said would prevent all disputes. Some months ago Rata took about 100 of the sheep off the run to his own village Taupaki, entirely on his own authority. Chittam lately determined to remove the sheep to a run between Maungatautari and Peria, which he has leased from the Ngatihaua. The people of Taupaki seized the opportunity of the sheep being mustered to go to their new run, to carry off the whole of them to Taupaki, where they are detained until the sum of £200 is paid for trespass. We met the Natives in the evening. The ostensible claimants are an old man named Poutunoa, Rata's father, and a slave from Otago named Hohepa, but of course all the Natives are probably accessories. By my advice the old man was asked whose fault it was that the sheep came to Taupaki. It was with great difficulty that an answer was extracted; Hohepa kept breaking in and refusing to let the old man speak, and the old fellow himself evaded the question in every way; among other things he said it was the fault of the sheeps' four legs; at last, by dint of asking over and over again, he was brought to confess that it was his son Rata's fault. Next they were asked why no payment had ever been demanded before; they could give no answer. Lastly, they were asked what damage the sheep had done; this question made them very angry; they said it was a very bad question, there was no occasion to allege damage; if the sheep had gone where they had no right to go it was enough to give a claim for compensation. Chittam said they had no right to take the sheep, and they knew as well as he did that they had none, but he would give them £10 te let them go. They replied that they would take nothing less than £200. Not the slightest pretext was shown either for the demand itself or its enormity; they had got the sheep and meant to stick to them. I said nothing myself; there was no use. A Ngatiraukawa chief named Kerei went with us; he behaved very well, told the Taupaki people they were thieves, and offered to give up all his own claim to rent for the run in order to satisfy them if they would let the sheep go. While I was away to the south, Mr. Clarke rode down to Ngaruawahia to ask how they were getting on in the task of doing justice to the Europeans. From all he could learn they were not going to hurry in the matter, but were rather turning their attention to raising a revenue. Tumuhuia informed him that they had settled to lay a tribute on all Europeans within the king district; the northern boundary was at Mangatawhiri and the southern was not yet settled. All Europeans without exception were to pay; those who refused would not be allowed to stay. Wednesday, May 21st.—I saw Wiremu Toetoe at Mr. Morgan's. He started last week to carry the mail to Auckland. At Ngaruawahia he was stopped and told that Taati had made a law that none but his soldiers should carry the mail, for they had to earn themselves coats and uniforms. Finally the mail was taken from him and given to one of the soldiers. Mr. Clarke asked about this wheu lie was down; they said what did it matter to us who carried the mail? we paid our money and our mail went, and that was all we need concern ourselves about. The Kihikihi natives have already stopped the Ahuriri mail, at least the public conveyance of it; the last went concealed in the Tarawera mp_il-bag, and the one before that was carried by the Rev. T. Grace's school-boys via Taupo. The Tarawera mail-man received notice last week to come no more. Ngata of Kihikihi says:—" We are much worse than we have ever been before, it is the exhibition of our independence (te whakaputanga oto matcu mana)." Toetoe also told me that George Gage was tried by Reihana last year, aud that he then claimed exemption from Maori jurisdiction as a European; when he was summoned by me he went down to Kihikihi and said he could not forget his mother and the Maoris must save him froHi me. He is a legitimate son. Thursday, May 22nd.—Mr. Clarke and I rode down to Ngaruawahia to try to fetch some chief who might have influence enough to rescue Chittam's sheep out of the hands of the Ngatiraukawa. When we got there, we found that all the king's Runanga had gone to Whaingaroa to a "tangi." There were about forty young soldiers in the place, some doing nothing, and some making paddles. One of them was persuaded to go with a letter to Takerei, who was at a villiage sor 6 miles up the Waipa, and to pledge himself to bring Takerei back with him next morning. We went on to Taupiri. Friday, May 23rd.—On arriving at Ngaruawahia we found that Tumuhuia and some others had returned, having turned back from Whatawhata; Patara and the rest had gone on to Whai-

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