234
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

miles from our posts. During all this time
they have not as a body shown the smallest
symptom of any desire to terminate the war,
nor have made any overtures of peace. On
the contrary, they continue to make the most
strenuous efforts to recruit their forces by
enlistment among the East Coast Tribes,
whom they encourage to join them by the
most monstrous falsehoods, which are circu-
lated by express authority of Thompson and
the other leaders, and by means of which
they have hitherto succeeded in deluding
considerable numbers into a belief that the
rebellion has been successful, and that they
have only to join it to see the final estab-
lishment in triumph of the Maori King.
(See Appendix A).

Governor, that if the rebels would give up
their arms, they would not be made prisoners,
nor be in any way molested in their persons
for any part they might have taken in the
present or any former war. On the 6th
January last, the Colonial Secretary issued
instructions to the Resident Magistrates as
to the course to be pursued towards rebels
who might surrender, and an abstract of
these instructions was circulated, and has
been kept before the eyes of the natives in
every part of the island. The terms have
been generally admitted, at least by those
not actually engaged in hostilities, as ex-
tremely fair, and a very considerable number
of rebels have actually come in under the
terms offered, given up their arms, and signed
a declaration of allegiance.

It is a well known fact that in their inter-
tribal wars, the natives invariably regarded
any overtures of peace as a sign that the
party who makes it is beaten, that it is an
acknowledgment of defeat. It is a matter
therefore of the utmost delicacy to initiate
such negotiations, as nothing could be more
fatal to the prospect of actual peace than
that the rebels should be able to an-
nounce to the distant or non-committed
tribes, that we had placed ourselves in that
position. Such tentative efforts in that direc-
tion as the Government has thought it
prudent to make, have at once been seized
on by Thompson as indications of weakness,
and he has on various occasions encouraged
his followers (and no doubt it has operated
to keep them in arms) by assurance that
"the Governor and General are now suing
for peace." The time, however, has now
arrived, when by the fall of Maungatautari,
the last of the fortified strongholds of
Waikato, the conquest of that district and
its inhabitants is practically complete, though
the latter may, no doubt, still carry the war
into the other parts of the island, as they are
doing at Tauranga. Still, the event referred
to seemed to Ministers to afford a fair
opportunity for making a general announce-
ment of the terms on which the rebellion
might be terminated, by the issue by His
Excellency the Governor of a proclamation,
and Ministers have accordingly advised His
Excellency to issue one, the terms of which
have been settled by them after much earnest
thought and discussion.

On the 30th March last, immediately pre-
vious to the evacuation of Maungatautari,
William Nero, a friendly Chief of the highest
rank, closely related to the leading rebels,
informed the Colonial Secretary personally
and by letter that he had reason to believe
that the rebels were desirous of making
peace, but were deterred by the fear that
the leaders would be hung; and he suggested
that he might be allowed to proceed to the
rebel camp in order to disabuse their minds
of this supposition. The Colonial Secretary
at once acquiesced in the proposal. (See
correspondence appended-Appendix B.)

Nero proceeded on his mission, but entirely
failed, not even an interview being granted
with the leading Chiefs. Two or three men
of rank whom he persuaded to come in and
sign a declaration that in two days they
would bring in all their tribe, left again on
the following day under pretence that they
would return with all their people, amounting
to some two hundred souls. They did not,
however, even return themselves, but very
adroitly contrived to thrust upon us some
sixty or seventy women, children, and de-
crepid old men, who were a burden on their
commissariat and an impediment to their
movements. This was all that was gained
on our side by this well-intentioned but
certainly not very successful attempt to
remove what was believed by some to be the
only obstacle to the restoration of peace. It
should be observed also that during these
negotiations, Thompson, by letter addressed
to Nero, affected a great desire to see peace
restored, yet at the very moment he was
writing such letters he appears to have been
organizing a new campaign.

While such has been the action of the
Government in reference to the rebels as a
body, the door has never been closed against
such individuals as might be desirous of
laying down their arms and returning to their
allegiance, without any personal punishment
whatever. Numerous efforts have been
made by the Government to induce them to
do so. On the 16th December last, imme-
diately after the capture of Ngaruawahia (the
king's palace) a document was sent to the
rebels, in which their principal chiefs were
invited to visit the Governor, in order that
they might learn the future intentions of the
Government towards them, and they were
distinctly assured under the hand of the

Ministers repeat that in their opinion the
very greatest caution ought to be exercised
in pressing the natives to come to terms.
Every one who knows the Maori must know
that, even in the ordinary business of life,
any exhibition of anxiety to get him to do
anything is the certain way to make him
hang back from doing it—his mind, cunning
and suspicious beyond that of most races,
inferring at once that such anxiety is a sign
of weakness on the part of him who shows it,
and that by standing out he can obtain his