The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 16, 1861

kau having been determined upon, something induced one
member of the Ministry to alter the whole arrangement,
and to place arms and ammunition in the hands of these
natives. The public feeling, however, was too strong to
permit such an act—looked upon by the people as suicidal
—to be proceeded
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ential body of citizens waiting upon the Governor to remon-
strate with him upon the impolicy of the act, This led to
the summary disarming of the Maories, who did not appear
much to relish the loss of their Enfield rifles and ammu-
nition.
On the 17th July, the first encounter between the natives
of Waikato and her Majesty's forces took place, and curi-
ously enough, two attacks were made on the same day, one
by each party. On the Sunday before General Cameron
had pushed his advanced guard across the Maungatawhiri
Creek, which runs into the Waikato River, and may be said
to be the boundary line between the native and European
country. The advance was not made a day too soon, as it
has since been ascertained that in a few hours, had he de-
layed so long, the natives would have taken up such a posi-
tion as would hays rendered an advance a work of great dif-
ficulty, as the landing on the native side of the Maungata-
whiri Creek is a very difficult and slow undertaking. Hav-
ing crossed the creek, the troops advanced a short distance,
and threw up redoubts on a commanding position. Here
the 14th Regiment were encamped in some force, and on the
morning of the 17th they observed large bodies of natives
advancing as though to attack our position, Col. Austen at
once ordered his men to be in readiness, and was about to
march out and attack them, when Gem Cameron arrived
from the camp at Pokeno, and having ordered up more troops
to the support of the 14th, advanced along the ranges to
meet the natives. They, however, fell back to a position of
some strength, where they had prepared lines of rifle pits for
their protection ; and it became necessary to storm the chosen
position which they had carefully selected and fortified some
time before. having detached a considerable body to cut off
the retreat of the Maories, the General led the remainder—
between 200 and 300 men—against the rifle pits. The ad-
vance was up a rather steep hill-side, and the concealed
enemy saluted our force with a very heavy fire, which for a
moment delayed the advance, but upon the General's tak-
ing the lead in person, the soldiers carried the pits with a
run, and drove the native warriors out of them and over
the crest of the hill. The rout was now complete, and the
two divisions of the military force acting in harmony sue •
ceeded in inflicting a loss which was very heavy, for Maori
warfare, upon the flying natives, who were pursued as far
as another creek, flowing also into the Waikato, called the
Marmarua creek, about six miles from Kohiro, where the
battle took place. The loss sustained by the troops was but
slight, there being only one man killed and 11 wounded
upon the field of battle, although one of the wounded has
since died. The general had in the field nearly 500 men, but
owing to his being obliged to detach so large a number to
cut off the retreat of the rebels, not much more than half
of these were ever actually engaged. The Maori force num-
bered nearly 400 men, of whom it is ascertained that about
one-fourth were killed and many wounded. Of the killed
seven or eight were chiefs of distinction, and among them
an uncle of the Maori king.

An attack was made on the same day by another body of
natives, upon an escort of our troops on their way down
from the front to the camp at Drury. When about a quarter
of a mile from any clearing a sudden fire was opened upon
it from both sides by natives concealed in the thick forest,
where it was impossible to see them. Their numbers must
have been large, probably outnumbering that of the escort
of 50 men, as five to one. The first discharge of the am-
bushed enemy wounded several men and some of the wag•
gon horses, so cutting off effectually for the time the van
from the rearguard of the little party. The soldiers at once
endeavoured to reply to the fire, but it was evident that
while at best they could only hope to shoot their assailants
by some fortunate chance, the Maories were marking them
down at their ease. The van, at this time reduced to 10
available men, now began to retreat, and the enemy seeing
this, and thinking to cut them off entirely, attacked them in
force, as many as 60 men joining in the charge. Seeing the
danger, the gallant young officer who ccmmanded gave the
word to fix bayonets and aarge ; this was done, and the
astonished natives broke and fled once more to the bush.
Captain Ring finally succeeded in withdrawing his men and
convoy to the nearest clearing, and there awaited assistance.
This soon arrived from both sides, as the firing had been
heard both in the direction of the Pokeno and the Drury
camps. Our loss in this engagement was four killed and 10
wounded, while, in spite of their generally keeping well
under cover, the loss of the natives is believed to have been
considerably greater.
Although the number of the troops in the provinces is
now considerable, still, from the fact of the southern fron-
tier of Auckland extending over a length of nearly 50 miles,
bounded for the most part by forest country, and so liable
at any moment and in any place to an irruption of natives,
it is evident that a very considerable force must be posted
in various places to prevent the communications from being
cut off and the country ravaged. The settlers are manfully
doing their part of this work, there being now between
3,000 and 4,000 men of them engaged in various ways in
the protection of the country; but owing to the fact of the
large number of natives now engaged in the struggle, not
less probably than Irons 4,000 to 5,000, who have an abso-
lutely free choice of the point of attack, it is evident that
the General has not, nor can have many hundreds of troops
ready to march into Waikato.
Since the two attacks on the 17th no general action, if we
can use the expression, has taken place, although partial
fighting in the forest has been of frequent occurrence. In
these encounters the 18th and 65th Regiments have been
principally engaged, frequently assisted by the Militia and
Volunteers, and in every case our arms have been successful
in putting the natives to flight with lose, upon their own
ground.

These encounters, however, although keeping the enemy
in check, and very useful, as showing the English soldiers
are quite as good as natives, even in the dreaded forest
warfare, have not in any way cleared the forest of these
marauders, who hang upon our flank, and take every op-
portunity of murdering, sometimes with savage barbarity,
any settler or settler's family that may come within their
reach. In this way we regret to say a gentleman named
Cooper was murdered while driving in his cows in his own
field, and the house of Capt. Calvert was attacked by a party
who fired through the 'wooden partition, killing that gentle-
man's eon, a young man of 18 years of age, before Captain
Calvert succeeded in putting them to flight, which he even-
tually did single-handed, having, it is believed, killed one
and wounded another of his murderous assailants. A man
named Hunt also fell a victim to a large party, who sur-
prised him, in company with three other settlers, cutting
wood at the edge of the forest. His three companions escaped,
but he, having fallen from exhaustion, as he ran,
was shot
through the heart by a gun held so close to his body as to
burn his coat. These outrages will, we fear, never be put a
stop to until some vigorous measures are resorted to ; and,
as we can scarcely make reprisals upon the natives, the only
way open to us seems to be to endeavour by the most active
measures to clear the forest of these marauding bands, and
so drive them back upon the open country on the Waikato,
where the General may deal with them to some purpose.
The plan which naturally suggests itself for curing this cry
ing evil is the old one of having
the settlers of each district
formed into corps of forest rangers to scour the woods in
the;r immediate neighbourhood,
and allow no native to exist
within their district.