The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-12 00:00:00

THE 7gEW ZEALAND WAR,

(From the Times Correspondent.)
MELBOURNE, Nov. 20, 1863.
The Maories have effected their retreat from
Mere-Mere apparently without the loss of a man.
They escaped by "the back door," as they had done
on other occasions, and all the General's precau-
tions to prevent this have proved abortive, no doubt
to his great mortification ; but, as it appears to me,
owing to a circumstance—the peculiar condition of
the river, which no one could have anticipated or
provided against. For some time past the General,
while concentrating all his disposable forces before
the great stronghold of the natives at Mere-Mere,
was understood to be waiting for the completion of
the repairs to the new iron steam gunboat lately
built at Sydney, and since called the Pioneer.
Towards;the end of October, after a short delay by
rough weather, she steamed out of Manukau, and
entered the Waikato Heeds, ascending the river,
and. taking her position in front. This was effected
not without some fire from the natives, and the few
guns in their possession were worked in such a way
as to generate the suspicion that they were directed
or that the Maories had been instructed by Euro-
peans. Knowing the aptitude of the Maories as I
do, I do not think the mere fact of their skill with
great guns warrants the suspicion that they are
aided by Pakehas, They have had plenty of oppor-
tunity, any time these 20 years ,of observing the
firing of battery guns in Auckland ; and, having
obtained a few guns, they would soon learn to re-
duce their observation of birthday saluting to ball
practice. It is said in one of the accounts that they
also fired a rocket with precision, and the only sur-
prise I feel is as to where they obtained the round
shot and where the rocket. However, neither
round shot nor rocket made any impression on the
ironclad Pioneer. Now, as to the operations.
About 18 or 20 miles higher up the Waikato than
Mere-Mere is another native position called Rangi-
riri (literally, angry heavens or angry sky). As our
troops and gunboats had the entire command of the
river, and also of the lower part of the small stream
Marama-run, which flows into the Waikato below
Mere-Mere, it was anticipated that the natives
would rely on this way of retreat, as a native path,
and perhaps more than one, leads from Mere-Mere,
to Rangiriri, the more especially as the swampy
ground in the rear (east) of Mere Mere was believed
to be impracticable even to Maories. Accordingly,
on Saturday, the 31st of October, the Pioneer, with
600 troops on board, was ordered up the river about
nine miles higher than Mere Mere, where the troops
were to land, and prevent the possibility of retreat
in that direction. The natives must have perceived
and appreciated the effect of this movement, for on
Sunday morning, before daylight, they made a fierce
attack on the troops before they were well in posi-
tion. Firing continued to be exchanged for about
two hours, but with very little result, except that
the Maories were driven off, and retired upon Mere
Mere, while the troops retained their position, and
thus all hope of a successful retreat upon Rangiriri
was taken from the natives. The troops thus landed
from the Pioneer were to face the north and advance
towards Mere Mere on the Sunday, so as to be ready
to moin in the assault on the Monday morning. The
plan of attack was admirable. HOW was it defeated?
How was it that, after so much preparation, a door
for escape was left open to the Maories, of which they
so effectually availed themselves as to get clear off
without, so far as have yet learnt, the loss of a
man? The swampy ground north, north-east, and
east of Mere Mere was considered impracticable,
and so, perhaps, it was under ordinary circum-
stances; but the extraordinary event which seems
to have beflhd calculation was the swollen state of
the rivers and swamps, which made the latter prac-
ticable for canoes. I am loth even to suggest that
this was a blot in the General's tactics, which the
natives hit, and I have no doubt that when his
further despatches are published we shall learn why
that contingency—namely, the flooding of swampy
ground—was not anticipated and provided against.
One account states that the natives " escaped across
the swamps in 18 canoes, that they were seen and
watched, but that the distance was too great to fol-
low." I fancy, however, that it was the nature of
the country and the want of shallow boats capable
of taking the swamp which proved the source of
safety to the natives and disappointment to the
troops. The Naval Brigade took possession of Mere-
Mere with the three pieces of cannon, but not a
Maori was there. The place is of great importance,
and it is difficult to conceive how the natives can
hold any part of the country between Mere-Mere
and Rangiriri. Indeed, it is said they have sepa-
rated and gone eastward. Other accounts say they
have " dispersed all over the county." The truth
simply is they aro gone. and no one can as yet guess
where they will be next be discovered. The proba-
bility is that we shall have a total change in the cha-
racter of the war. Repeated and rapid attacks by
small parties of natives is the course in which they
have best succeeded. They must kn ‘vre by this time
that they never can hold a pah against our imple-
ments of warfare. It has always appeared to me
that the natives over-estimated the value of the guns
which they possessed, and that was the cause of
their delusion as to the possibility of holding
Mere-Mere. The Pioneer undeceived them. The
General's tactics must now be in scme degree
modified by those of the enemy. His "Flying
Column" and "Forest Rangers" will most
likely be augmented, and when we consider
the native difficulty about their commissariat, and
the acquisition of skill in bush warfare by our troops,
it seems impossible for the natives to sustain the
war for any length of time. They must suffer from
the diseases incidental to scarcity and bad food to a
far greater extent than from our weapons, and
therefore it is to be lamented that Mere• Mere was
not captured after some resistance with such marked
superiority on our side as to reduce them to sub-

mission.
If the troops and volunteers had taken the pah ,
by assault, the officers in command would have had
great difficulty in compelling the men to give much
quarter. The appalling list of murders in a single
month is enough to create great irritation in the
breasts of the Europeans. Here is the list :—On
October 14 a settler named Hamlin was shot, and a
boy named Wallis, who was with him, was wounded;
on the 16th Mr. Jackson and a lad named Suther-
land were attacked while at work fencing—the
man shot and the lad tomahawked, but not kil ed ;
on the 16th John Fahey, a pensioner, and his wife
were attacked ; the man was severely wounded in
his head with tomahawks, and the woman killed ; on
the 24th two lads named Trust, while escaping from
a house attacked by the natives, were shot; on No-
vember 2 a settler named Droomould was toma-
hawked. I have omitted soldiers from thislist, which
must show that to treat these savages as wild beasts
will soon become an instinct with the troops and
volunteers. It was just the same at Taranaki, even
children of very tender years were not safe from
their tomahawks. The settlers call it murder, but
it is not murder, nor can it be dealt with as mur-
der. It is the native mode of warfare. They have
no fine-drawn distinctions between military and
non-military, and these savage butcheries can now
only be checked by the most severe and exemplary
punishment. I am, indeed, inclined to view these
savage slaughters as designed by the natives as a
deadly challenge.
A change of Ministry has taken place in New
Zealand, which, according to all accounts --z. e.,
judging from certain speeches in the House of Re-
presentatives and from the tone of the principal
newspapers north and south —promises a very
vigorous prosecution of the war. It is, in fact, a
coalition between the War and Peace parties of
1861, the latter being now convinced, as indeed
every one must be, that the vigorous prosecution
and successful conclusion of this war is the only
security for future peace. The Ihmett Ministry is
said to have fallen to pieces by internal differences.
Mr. Fox, the leader of the party which adhered to
peace in 1861, and which thought that war unjust,
was sent for, and he united with Mr. Whitaker, the
Attorney-General in Mr. Stafford's war Ministry of
that day. Mr. Whitaker is Attorney-General and
Premier, with a seat in the Legislative Council, and
Mr. Fox is Colonial Secretary and leader in the
House of Representatives. When the formation of
the Ministry was announced Mr. Stcerford, the war
man of 1861, expressed his entire satisfaction with