The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-19 00:00:00

RENEWAL OF WAR IN NEW ZEAL .ND.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
MELBOURNE, June 26.
The last mail will have put your readers i a pos-
session of the fact that a party of Maoris had made
an attack upon a military escort at Taranaki from
an ambuscade, and, after a successful volley, had
rushed in and massacred with the tomahawk eight
of the nine men of which it was composed, including
Lieut. Tragett and Dr. Hope, all officers and men
of the 57th Regiment. This is very naturally cha-
racterised as a cold-blooded murder, but the ex wes-
'lion is inadequate, It is a murder and something
more, and it is in that something more that the sig-
nificance lies. It is a studied defiance, an indication
that the tribe at least which perpetrated the savage
act and all associated with them intend war. The
natives have none of the means of indicating a state
of war in use among civilised nations. They have
no ambassadors to withdraw, no demanding pass-
ports, no formal declarations. It would have been
idle on the part of the Government to treat this
savage slaughter as a murder, inasmuch as in all
probability evidence of the identity of the perpe-
trators could not have been procured. The Govern-
ment, therefore, could only treat it as it was no
doubt meant, and it is satisfactory to find that both
the Governor and the General have acted with
promptitude and vigour, and, aided by the courage
of our troops, severe punishment has since over-
taken the natives. In the last war there was, un-
fortunately, an element of injustice, which has since
been admitted, which divided the sympathies of
the European population. In this the natives are
wholly in the wrong, and the more conspicuously
so as the last act of Sir George Grey, almost at the
very moment of the massacre, was to abandon the
claim of the Government to hold the Waitara. Un-
fortunately, however, the announcement of the
intention of the Government was published
at Auckland just after the massacre, and
the natives may possibly delude themselves at
first with the notion that the successful attack
brought about the concession ; but it was not so.
The concession was fully determined upon some
time before, and the natives are quite sagacious
enough to comprehend this on examining facts and
dates. A private letter from Auckland affords me
some information as to the giving up of the Waitara
before the massacre. It says—
I send you herewith a copy of the proclamation giving
up the Waitara block, and, as you will see, it was donewith
the advise and consent of the responsible Minister. of whom,
as you know, three—namely, Messrs. Domett, Bell, and
Russell—belonging to the war
.party of 1861, and two of
them—namely, Messrs. Domett and Russell—to what was
considered the extreme section of that party. It is under-
stood that, before coming to this determination, Mr. Bell
himself conducted some sort of inquiry into the matter on
the spot, while there with the Governor and the Chief
Secretary (Domett), and he fully satisfied himself and them
that it would be useless to enter into any further and public
investigation, and that it would not be worth while to pro-
secute the Government claim any further."
The New Zealander, on the same subject, says_

" Governor Grey, who, since the military occupation of
Tataraimaka, has remained at Taranaki, has applied himself
to the investigation of the validity of the Queen's title to
Waitara; and it was very speedily discovered that the native
land-sellers of Taranaki had no right to dispose of the
Waitara, and that, though we went to war to maintain our
right to this land, which we supposed to have been acquired,
we had neglected to go through the ordinary form of paying
the stipulated price of what was declared to be duly pur-
chased, and to belong to the Crown."

Here, then, we have at length an authoritative
declaration that the irritation of nine years—a long
course of diplomacy, several expensive investiga-
tions, from that of Mr. spain in 1844 to that of Mr.
Bell in 1863, the printing of several bulky folios,
a bloody and costly war, and a ruined settlement,
have all proceeded from a mistake, and that mistake
not remedied early enough to prevent a new crop of
evils, of which we can scarcely as yet measure the
extent.

I now return to my private letter :

" Unfortunately, the proclamation(giving up theWaitara)
came out after the recent surprisal and slaughter of some of
our soldiers by a party of the Taranaki tribe, who have
hitherto held the Tataraimaka block (that which Sir Geoi ge
Grey has lately occupied) as a material guarantee,' as the
Emperors of Russia would say, for the restitution of the
Waitara, or rather of the land taken possession of by our
troops outside the Waitara block, for that more than the
block itself has been the sere point. But although the Pro-
clamation came out afterwards, it had been agreed to befoi e
by all the Ministers—though I am told that one of them
hesitated for some time before he could finally make up his
mind."

Now, I have no doubt that this decision of the
Government will be accepted by a large proportion
of the natives more or less well disposed towards
the Government, and the improving influences of
the Europeans, as a decided mark of the Pakehas
sense of justice, and this feeling will be—indeed
already is—much strengthened by the fact that the
Taranaki natives have now put themselves in the
wrong, whereas in the war of 1861 most of our
native adherents believed them to be right. This is
really a very important consideration, because there
is a very marked " public opinion" among the
natives of New Zealand, kept alive by their Runanga
or deliberative meetings, and which the late events
will greatly influence. The two great nations of the
north are the Nga Pai and the Waikato—names
with which the English reader must be familiar. Both
of these have condemned the massacre, have orga-
nised a party to maintain peace, and some of the lead-
ing Waikato chiefs have announced to the Governor
that they will prevent war and protect all the
European residents in their country. A chief, who
adopts the English name of Naylor, has written to
Auckland announcing this favourable condition of
opinion, and the measures which he describes for
securing peace he states to have been agreed to at a
Runanga attended by 400 natives. He adds that
the mana (influence or authority) of the King move-
ment is gone. The southern natives have also de-
nounced the massacre. At the same time, it should
not be concealed that -Waikato is not unanimous.
There is a considerable party in what is called the
Lower Waikato who continue to be hostile to the
Government, and will sanction, and perhaps aid in,
any warlike demonstration. It is said that they
have lately constructed a strong pah at Rungiriri,
near the Waikato river, "with that engineering
skill and eye to position for which the Maoris are
remarkable." But this hostile party will be
weakened, and perhaps be kept mute and inactive,
by the events subsequent to the massacre which I
°hall presently describe.
I ought here to mention another circumstance
which will lend material aid in confining the war
to Taranaki, and 1 do so because, as it is patent to
every one on the spot, is not likely to be alluded
to in recent neseept
oppers. I allude to the means of
transporting troa to
miles from
heart of the Waikato
country. Abouatn2dOviiiingeromf Auckland is situated
the township
eadamoisedDrury, which is now
reached by a good ma
From
__coach-road, on which
stage-coaches ply daily.
river
a military road
has been made to the Waikatolthe
end of
a distance of
not far from doro,futlhis road is a
about 14 miles ;
troops
river bank
redoubt, called the Quefeonr'sc,o"vaenrciteg
offensive
embark-
is a small fort or battery
ing on the river and other purposes,
fensive. If " moral force" be at all correctlyve
definedlis the 4‘ fear of physical force," we need not
doubt that this road and the redoubt and battery
mat
have during the last 18 months worked some moral
effect on the mind of Waikato. Before the road
l
was made the country was very favourable to native
ambuscades, now troops can be moved from Aaek-
hnd to the river in a day without any risk of sur-
prise, and with the certainty of prevailing over any
native force in case of surprise.
General Cameron has now about 2,000 troops
under his command at Taranaki, and I believe this
number does not include Volunteers, who are suffi-
cient in number and Efficiency to garrison the town.
Applications have been made to India and Austra-
lia for reinforcements. Victol is had before fur-
nished nearly all she had, but New South Wales
has sent some. It is said that one regiment is ex-
pected from England and another from India, with
the addition of two native Sikh regiments, but this
may be doubted.

The first skirmish with the natives took place on
the 18th of May, near the camp on the Tata-
raimaka block, and it gives indications of a policy
different from that of General Pratt. Parties of
tnelied under experienced troops had been (IP
officers to act outside the Camp in different
directions, and, of =no, acting independently

of each other ; in short, to meet the native parties
somewhat after their own fashion of warfare. Thus,
as these parties clear the country of detached parties
of natives, the war will be pushed into the enemy's
country. One of these detached parties, consisting
of about 30 men of the 57th, under Lieutenants
Brunton, fell in with a party of natives early on tree
morning of Monday, the 18th of May. They were
stealing towards the camp, but were still on the
south side of a stream which forms the southern
boundary of the Tataraimaka block. Brunton's p arty
was posted on the north side of the stream, 13 .n d a
small detachment was directed to advance unee 'vend
in order to draw the natives into a premat are at-
tack, the main body being at hand to suppr irt. The
natives at once made their appearance, an?, the first
of them who attempted to cross the street was shot
and bayonetted. As more natives athee need, the
small detachment retired in the rear of the main
body, and then as the natives advancell further they
were saluted by a brisk fire from the teoops. Eight
natives were killed, but, the native force increas-
ing, the troops fell back to the mdoubt without
loss. This slight affair will tend to give the troops
conEence in this mode of we.rfar e, and dissipate
the notion that the bush is not a safe
fighting place for Europeans. I believe General
Cameron and his officers have long been giving
the subject of bush warfare carerfeuelet. onsisdmeraal-1
tion, and this is the first favourable ol
as the affair was, it must therefore be deemed of
importance. This first advantage was followed
paowerdt ofup
by a much more important success on
trhedeotorbootpwshoienhlh'haudrbsday, theeenbuilt sbtyhtohf J e
muanoer, when a
iesonthe
south side of the stream (the Kalikara), was as-
saulted, and carried in about 10 minutes, 27 of the
defenders being bayonetted, and many more killed
and wounded outside the redoubt, so called because
it was constructed in imitation of European earth-
works, and was not a peh as it is called in Berne ac-
counts. The sagacious savages probably adopted
this method to resist our Armstrong guns. On
the previous evening a fence of about 580 men,
consisting of parties of the 57th, 65th, 40th, 70th,
and artillery, marched from the town of New Ply-
mouth to Tataraimaka. Oa the road they were
joined by some more of the 57th, making the
whole force about 650 strong. They had with them
three Armstrong guns, the whole under the imme-
diate command of General Cameron. The march
was silently effected, and the whole force assembled
at St. George's redoubt and waited until daylight.
At 6 o'clock in the morning the 57th, under Colonel
Warre, aavanced towards the river, the 65th and
70th following in support. When they had pro-
ceeded about 400 yards the Armstrong battery was
halted and placed in position on the north or
right bank of the stream and at once opened
fire on the native redoubt, about 800 yards on
the south side of the little river. Oa the right
of the enemy's position were some rifle-pits, and the
57th dashed across the stream and advanced in
single file across the ground beyond the river to
attack these pits and dislodge the Maoris within.
Thie dangerous service was gallantly and effectually
performed by the 57t1ii, under Lieutenants Waller
and Brunton, and the enemy were driven from their
position with loss. This opened the road to the
supporting party, which came rapidly up, though
not without a fire from the Redoubt. They were now
within 300 yards of the Redoubt, which they at once
assaulted with fixed bayonets, killing every native
within. Captain Short and Captain Russell, with
their respective parties, rushed at the redoubt
almost simultaneously, and Ensign Duncan was in
the redoubt at another point just after, as was also
Colonel Logan, who had dismounted from his
horse to join the assault. On clearing the rifle-
pits on the right, Colonel Warre, with his officers
and men, pursued the flying Maoris to the south
and inland, thus disregarding the bugbear of
the high fern and bush, and in this they
were joined and aided by parties of the 65th and
70th. When the Armstrong guns ceased firing,
Lieut. Rait and his party, with their swords and
revolvers, crossed the river and gully in order to in-
tercept the Maoris who might escape from the re-
doubt. The Eclipse was anchored off shore at about
a mile from the redoubt, and threw some shells into
it, and one of the natives was killed by a fragment
of a shell, which was found in his body. The brunt
of this smart offtir fell on the 57th, and the General
publicly commended their gallantry in a few pithy
words which soldiers value and treasure up, " Well
done, 57th ;" and, turning to their Colonel, " You
must be proud to command so fine a regiment."
The affair of the redoubt. was over in ten minutes,
and the loss of our troops was only three killed and
seven or eight wounded. Twenty-four bodies of
Maoris were carried into town—i. e., those killed
in the redoubt. The whole loss of the natives is
estimated at about 40 killed and many wounded, and
one account says 75 killed and wounded. This gallant
assault and its success have taken the natives by sur-
prise. In the last war the policy of the General
commanding was to keep clear of rifle pits, and to
approach pahs by regular sap, and it ought to be
conceded to the gallant General who then com-
manded that he succeeded, and did, in fact, put an
end to the war. The effect was, however, to make
the natives believe that their rifle-pits were impreg-
nable, and this has converted a belief into a delusion.
The Armstrong gun will be an irresistible arm
against the strongest pahs, and the only problem
which General Cameron will have to solve will be,
not how to assault, for that he and his gallant
troops know already, but how to defeat their old
trick of an escape by the back door.