350 
MAMAKU. 
It appeared as though the electric telegraph had found'its 
way to New Zealand, for no sooner had the war broken out 
in the north, than hostile symptoms were simultaneously dis¬ 
played in the south.* A few of the natives who lived in the 
Hutt, and had cultivations there, were ordered to quit without 
much ceremony and favor being showed them. They were 
told the land had been sold by Te Rauparaha; they also claimed 
a right to it, but their claims were disallowed. After much 
disputing on both sides, a military force was stationed in the 
midst of their cultivations. The Governor sent me as an 
ambassador to the disaffected natives, who were then encamped 
in a dense forest, to say that if they quietly left, he would see 
they had compensation given them for their crops. Kapera- 
tehau, the principal Chief, agreed to his terms, and promised 
to leave the following day. Unfortunately, in the meantime, 
a constable set fire to their village, burnt their houses, their 
neat little wooden church, and even the fences around then- 
graves. This wanton act greatly exasperated them : during 
the night, they revisited the site of their late homes, dug up all 
the bones of their dead, and carried them off into the bush. 
The Governor again sent me to speak to them. I found their 
late peaceable feelings had disappeared ; they pointed to a 
heap covered with branches, and, lifting them up, I saw the 
remains of the dead. They told me, there was an end of 
peace. I left, and reported their words to the Governor. 
To make a beginning, Rangihaeata gave a tomahawk to two 
young men, and bid them go and murder some European. They 
obeyed, and killed a poor fellow and his son named Gillespie, 
who were quietly at work when they were surprised. Such 
was the native custom. Before dawn on the 16th May, 1846, 
an attack was made on a party stationed at Bouleott’s Farm. 
The bugler, quite a lad, was struck by a tomahawk on the 
right arm, whilst sounding an alarm. The brave youth imme- 
* When Ohaiawai was attacked, and so many of our brave countrymen fell, 
long before the news reached the settler in the south, I saw in the interior 
several neatly-constructed models of the pa and its defences, made with fern- 
stalks, to show the way they had gained the victory ; these had been made by 
messengers sent from the north, to publish their success to those in the south. 
