AGAINST THE COLONY.
15
8.-No. sa.
Tataraimaka, which were situated, respectively, 7 and 12 miles South-west of New Plymouth. The Oniata block was occupied by a force under Colonel Warre, on the 12th of March, without any signs of opposition on the part of the rebels, and on the 4th. of the following April, quiet possession was taken of Tataraimaka. But this seeming acquiescence in our movements was but of a very temporary duration, for on the sth of May you report to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, that on the preceding day a most terrible and shocking murder was committed by the Natives on the land between the Omata and Tataraimaka blocks, in which two officers and 6 soldiers of Her Majesty's service wore kiUed. 80. Reverting now to the supposed original cause of the first overt act of rebellion, viz., the purchase of the Waitara block, Your Excellency remarked on the 24th of April, 1863, to the Duke of Newcastle, that after twelve months of a disastrous war, such difficulties had arisen that the matter was left exactly as it originally stood before any disturbance had taken place, the Government having tli en notified "that the investigation of the title, and survey of land at Waitara was to be continued and completed," and "You mentioned in a Memorandum to your Ministers of the 22nd April, that the Natives will not agree to any investigation of the title, but demand " an enquiry into the whole affair, in order, that it may be shown who is really guilty of the evils which have sprung from the late war," and then, after a careful review of the whole subject, with the additional evidence which had been discovered, and considering that "if we had not peaceably entered into possession of the European lands at Omata and Tataraimaka, it would have been difficult to have abandoned the intention of purchasing the lands at the Waitara," you recommend the issue of a notice giving intimation of such intention. Your Ministers, in their reply of the 30th, received by you on the 3rd May, while they express their agreement to waive the claim of the Crown to the site of the Pahs occupied by William King and his people, and other land intended to be reserved, observe, with respect to the abandonment of the remainder, and, keeping in view the aggravation of evils which would be produced by their opposition to any course which you might feel compelled to adopt, and also to the established relations between yourself and them with respect to all matters of Native Policy, that they would be justified in leaving the decision of that part of the question entirely to Your Excellency. Thus matters stood on the ord May, the day preceding the murderous ambuscade above related. Immediately following this, on ttie 11th of May, Ministers expressed their concurrence in the withdrawal of the troops from the Waitara, on the ground that they had engaged to assist in carrying out Your Excellency's proposal to abandon the purchase, and such withdrawal was a necessary consequence. On the same day a Proclamation was issued declaring that the purchase of the Waitara block was abandoned, and all claim to it on the part of Government was renounced. 81. Having thus sketched out the course pursued by the Governor and Ministers in this troublesome affair, it only remains that I should indicate the view taken by the Home Government. The Duke of Newcastle writes, on the 25th of August, 1863, expressing his approval of the measures which it was proposed to adopt, and his conviction that, had Governor Browne been in possession of the facts which had lately been elicited he would not have committed himself to the purchase. He then observes —"I have said so much as to the propriety and prudence of the Waitara purchase, but I must add, on the other hand, that my view of the justice of exerting military force against W. King and his allies remains unchanged. That chief's conduct from first to last still seems to me to have been inconsistent with any degree of submission to the Queen's authority over New Zealand. In short, he never assumed any attitude towards the Governor but one of defiance; and, to use the language of Chief Justice Arney in the Legislative Council, never made any intelligible claim of right to the land, or any other declaration than a declaration of war." Nor was such an opinion a merely transient one, for, on the 19th of December, 1860, we find that His Grace stated to Governor Browne, that "without at present pronouncing on the prudence of your policy in committing yourself to a land purchase at Taranaki under such circumstances, I cannot doubt that the disloyal and defiant conduct of that chief when his claims were denied by the Government, was such as to leave you no alternative but an appeal to arms." 82. Whatever, then, may be the view taken of the prudence of effecting the purchase of this particular piece of land, there is abundant evidence to show that, in the opinion of the Imperial authorities, both as regards the original outbreak and the subsequent murders, the natives at Taranaki and their allies were guided by motives utterly inconsistent with even, a nominal submission to the Queen's sovereignty, and which therefore compelled a rosort to arms in vindication of the law. 83. Bearing in mind, then, the instructions of the Duke of Newcastle in his Despatch of the sth of June, 1881, to the Governor, in which he declares that "it would be better even to prolong the war with all its evils, rather than end it without producing in the Native mind such a conviction of our strength as may render peace, not temporary and precarious, but well grounded and lasting," it is not to be surprised that military operations were at once commenced at the Waitara. His Grace recognises the existence of the war, the still defiant attitude of the rebels, and the necessity of decisive measures to assert the supremacy of the law; and in furtherance of these views General Cameron was not long before he struck the first blow by a successful attack on the rebels, on the 4th June, at Katikare, in the Province of Taranaki. 84. Subsequent events and disclosures clearly proved that the murders committed on the 4th of May were parts of a general plan, closely connected with the King movement; for, Your Excellency informs the Duke of Newcastle on the 4th July, 1863, that "it has now been clearly proved that some of the chiefs of Waikato ordered the recent murders at Taranaki, and that being responsible for them they have determined to support the people who carried out the orders which they issued. For this purpose they are quite prepared to attack this populous district (Auckland J and eTen to commit similar murders here." AVith a view to prevent the possibility of such occurrences, the initiative was taken by General Cameron, commanding Her Majesty's forces, who crossed the Maungatawhiri in force on the 13th of July, and commanding the navigation of the Waikato Eiver, which flows forty miles south of the city of Auckland, placed the northern British settlements in a state of comparative security ; thus, in a measure anticipating the Native attacking forces, which were already in motion, and whose leading parties had already turned the flank of the British advance, and were operating in small bodies on his communications.
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