The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

The latest advice; from New Zealand being ac-
counts of fresh eanffiets between our troops and the
Maoris,. In one of these twenty or thirty of the
natives are said to have been put hors de combat,
and Captain Swift, of the 65th Regiment, was killed
In another encounter one of our offioers and several
privates were severely wounded. At the latest
dates General Cameron was endeavouring to bring
on a general engagement at hieremere, but it was
feared that the natives, who were reported to be
2,000 strong there, would evacuate the place, and
so prolong the struggle.
The following account of the events above referred
to is from the Auckland Daily Southern Cross :
Oa Monday, Sept. 7, an attack was made upon the escort
of friendly natives, who, under tbeldirection of Mr. Armitage,
the late magistrate of the lower Waikato district, were em-
ployed in conveying in canoes, from the store ship
City of Melbourne, at the mouth of Cie Waikato,
large quantities of stores, principally bone forage
of various sorts. It appears that these natives had •
small fortified enclosure at a place called Cameroatown,
which was by courtesy termed • posh, although of no
strength to resist soy attack. Here it seems they were
about to stay the night before going further up the
river, and Mr. Armitage and one of the two Europeans
who were with him landed and prxeeded quietly
in the direction of the aforemeatiooed stockade. They
had not gone far when they were fired upon from an
ambush by a number of concealed natives, one of the
shots wounding Mr. Annitage in the arm ; be immediately
made for the refuge of the pah with what haste he could,
when • fresh ambush fired upon the unfortunate gentleman
and brought him to the ground, when he was taken prisoner
by the Maoris. It is known that he wee afterwards barba-
rously murdered, the natives say at his own request, to put
him out of pain, which seems improbable, but may of course
be true. The wont part of the transection, however, was
the desertion of the remaining Europeans by the so-called
friendly natives, who made off, no one keows exactly in
what direction, leaving the white men totheir fate,which was
murder at the hands of the natives, committed in cold blood
upon defenceless men. On the following morning new.
of this reached the general's bead-quarters at Pokiest', by
some of the friendly native fugitives, who professed that
It of their own men had fallen io the combat. which is
since proved to have been totally false, as no single Dative is
miming. lie reoeipt was at once followed by an order sent
to Tuakau, where part of the 65th Regiment were @tattooed,
sod which is considerably nearer Cameroutown, the scene
of the murders, that a force was to be sent to ascertain what
could be done, or whether the natives still held the place
Captain Swift, one of the moat promising young offioers of
the forces here now, was placed in command of a body of
50 men for this service, a number which, as the
proved, and as common sense might we think have sug-
gested, was greatly below the number that should have
been considered requisite for such a service. The event, as
we have said, showed this, and the evidence of heroic daring
which oar men exhibited was dearly purchased by the loss
of the truly gallant young officer who commanded them.
The country through which they had to march is entirely
covered with dense forest, and the only road being a mere
broad track, no precautions could by soy possibility have
presented a surprise, had one been attempted by the natives.
As it was, Captain Swift found out that he waa in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of natives before they themselves
seem to have been aware of it. He could not, how-
ever, succeed in drawing them into an ambush, as
he attempted to do, and so was at length obliged
boldly to attack them. This was done with the
greatest gallantry, and although the natives numbered at
least four to one, the attack was at last successful, as he
drove the ;enemy before him, and eventually, fitter some
hours most severe fighting, succeeded in making them re-
treat, having inflicted on them a loss estimated by eye.
witnesses at thirty men. Our own loss was by oo means so
heavy in number, although by the death of Illiptain Swift,
who fell mortally wounded at the very beginning of the
actin, the gallant 65th. and indeed the whole service, has
suffered • severe Ices. There were two private soldiers killed,
while lieutenant Butler and another soldier were severely
wounded. The detachment, however, held the ground, al.
though it was not until the next day that the arrival of •
larger force under Colonel Murray enabled the dead and
wounded soldiers to be removed from the field of battle.
It was now evident that a large force of natives had taken
possesnoo of the wide extent of dense forest Led which
borders upon the Waikato, below the south road, aid
extends about twelve miles to the settlement of Waiuku.
One thing which rendered this certain beyond a doubt
was, that on the same afternoon on which Captain Swift's
party were engaged, another engagement, although not
nearly so hotly contested, took place about seven miles off,
between • party verging on one hundred Maoris and • body
of fifty of our local ritle ranging corps. The local corps
came upon the natives a, they were shooting down settlers'
cattle, un • clearing deep iu the heart of the forest. The
natives retreated into the forest, where they were unhesi-
tatingly followed by the civilian troops, who were as well
accustomed to forest travelling as the Maoris could be. A
very sharp engagement followed, which lasted for about
half an hour, when, despite the superior numbers of the
Miter* they fled with • rapidity which Defiled pursuit, as
tracts are very difficult to follow in the New Zealand
forest. The plunder, however, which the natives had evi-
'tautly been most industrious in collecting, fell into their
beads, as also the huts which they had erected for their
convenient* during their stay in the neighbourhood ; these
latter were burped down, and the plunder removed to the
stockade at Mauku. Since then there have been a great
number of small Aim ishiug attacks in almost every direction
along our lines, in every one of which, happily, the natives
have been repulsed, generally with heavy loss, even when, as
at the Waiora, the force with which they had to contend was
composed of volunteers so young as to be scoffingly stig-
matised by the natives as children. The most considerable
of these affairs was that which took place at Pukekohe, on
the 14th September, and which, whether its length or its
severity be considered, was probably the most important
engagement of the month. On the morning of the day in
question the small party of volunteers who formed the
gsrnson of the Pukekohe stockade were fired upon from the
nest which approaches the stockade very nearly on all
sides, whilst they were engaged in their ordinary avocations
uuiside the defences. They at once retreated under
cover, zz.d returned the fire of the large body of natives,
who had evidectl.; come with the idea of cutting off the
garrison. The heavy and coutiouoes firing soon attracted
attention at the nearer posts on the eocth road, and each ,
scot out • small party to proceed to the scene of action
through the forest. The soldiers, who are rapidly getting
used to bush warfare, began to strive early in the afternoon,
in detachmenta of El or so at • time. The support encou-
raged our men to leave the stockade, and the fight was con-
tinued on the open cleared land aid along the edge of the
forest. The force of the natives was not far short of 300
men, if indeed it was not fully that, and in the afternoon
our own force reached about 150 men. With this force,
and our vast superiority both of weapons, and, much
more, of skill in their use, it was not long before the
natives made off, taking with them, as usual, all their
wounded and killed that had fallen, under cover,
so that they could be removed with a comparatively small
risk, but leaving the others The native loss must have
been heavy, as our men buried nine bodies which were only
left on account of the exposed positions in which they lay.
A moderate calculation will give their loss at certainly not
less than 50 men. Our own loss was three men killed and
seven wounded.
The following is a list of the killed and wounded
iu the engagements above deacribed.
Killed—Captain Swift; Privates S. Grace and R. Bell-
ringer. Wounded—Lieutenant Butler, dangerously ; Pri-
vate F. Powell, severely ; and Private sl'Lean. Captain
Swift was • brave and dashing officer, and much respected
in the 65th, to which he had not been very long promoted.
He was previously iu the 80th and 81st, serving with the
former iu the Burmese war of 1852-3, including the expedi-
lion to the relief of Kampen in August, 1863, for which he
received • medal ; Ensign P. K. Powys, seven ; Sergeant
Samuel Harvey, seven ; Corporal Fdwiud Rea, dangerous ;
Drummer Dudley Stagpool; slight ; Private William Reeves,
dangerous; Private Patrick Burke, dangerous; Private
Thomas Finn, modal; Private Michael Foley, severe;
Private Henry Cain, dangerous.
' The Otago Daify Times of Oct. 17 says, with
reference to the war, " Every day proves more and
more the wily nature of the foe, and it is impossible
to foresee the duration of the war."

Lary OCT IN THE COLD.—The Costemporarenn
believes that his Majesty the ex-King of the Two Sicilia., and
him Imperial Highness the ex-Grand Duke of Tuscany, al-
though they h►ve not received an invitation to the congress,
have written to the Emperor of the French a courteous letter,
aooompanied by more than 1,600 documents. They call the
attention of the Emperor to the situation of toe Two Sici-
lia@ and of Tuscany, remind Napoleon 111. of solemn pro.
arises, and conclude by asking him to be their advocate be-
fore the sovereign Areopagus which was to assemble at
Paris.

EDITORS AND DEPUTIES AT MADRID.—A serious
dispute has broken out between the President of the
Chamber of Deputies at Madrid and the editors of the
twenty-two political journals of that capita. The
latter, feeling their dignity offended by some
orders given by the president concerning the
journalists' tribune, abstained from attending the sit-
tings. and the orders not having teen modified, all the
journal. have published the following identical declara-
tion : —•• The President of the Chamber having
adopted measures which affect the dignity of the
representatives of the prow in the tribune which
is assignol to them, the director. of the politi-
cal journals of Madrid hive decided-1. Not to
enter the said tribune until the measures in question shall
have been revoked. 2. Not to publish any report of the
sittings or to express in any way their opinion. on the said
sitting.. 3. Not to publish in their columns anything more
than the official account of the sittings published in the
Ga:ette." Several deputies have aonmioceil their intention
to make proptaitioos to obtain a satisfactory /elution of the
to
grisoroursis FEU HINIPITAL, DEVONSHIRE-
RQUAZI, CITT.—Ths aggregate number of patients relieved
daring the week ending Dec. 12 was—medical, 984 ; sur-
gical. 514 ; total, LUZ ; of which 530 were new asses.