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house, stole the printing press, and drove
away its inmates? Were those natives
right who forcibly took away the wives and
children of the pakehas? Were those natives
right who by threats of violence
forced many of the settlers at Raglan to
abandon their homes and take refuge in
Auckland? Were those natives right
who formed a plot to murder all the
settlers at Patumahoe? Were those
natives right who within the last two or
three weeks have murdered in the province of Auckland five or six unarmed
settlers? Are those natives right who
openly avow their intention to kill
every white man, woman, and child they
can lay their hands on? These are
questions to which though Wi Tako and
Heremia evaded them yesterday, I expect to-day plain and decided answers.

I will tell you what that great chief
Renata said about these things, at a great
meeting held the other day at Ahuriri.
Renata said that these were foul deeds,
and that the perpetrators of them ought
not to go unpunished; that he would
not allow any one to justify them in his
presence; that he separated himself and
his people from such miscreants. And
now I tell you plainly, that such deeds
bring discredit and disgrace upon the
King movement, and that the Queen’s
Government will not allow parties guilty
of such crimes to go unpunished. If
such outrages could be perpetrated with
impunity, there would soon be no safety
for the lives and properties of either
maories or pakehas. The whole island
would soon become a scene of anarchy
and bloodshed; would be a prey to bad,
lawless, blood thirsty men. I say therefore, that in this war the Governor has
right and justice on his side, and the
natives wrong and injustice—and be
assured that the just cause will prevail.

It is to punish these murderers and
plunderers; it is to protect the lives
and properties both of white men and
maories; it is to establish law, order,
and peace in districts where no law,
order or peace at present exist, that
the military preparations have been
made, and operations already commenced
against the Waikato tribes. And I will
not conceal from you, that whatever
number of troops and ships of war may
be required for this purpose by the Governor, will be readily granted by the

Queen. There can and will be no peace
until this rebellion is completely crushed
and put down and for ever extinguished.
But some of you have said to me, “There
is war at Tataraimaka, there is war at
Waikato, but there is no war here; we
have lived with the pakehas in terms of
friendship for more than twenty years;
though there has been war in this Province between certain tribes and the Government, there never has been war between us and the settlers; why then are
you making preparations for war here;
why are you increasing the force of
armed men; why are you arming and
training the settlers?” It is quite true, my
friends, that we are making these preparations—we are arming and drilling
our settlers. We are increasing our
armed police force, and I will tell
you why. We are taking these
measures, not for the purpose of making
war, but to prevent war—in order to
preserve peace in this Province—in order
to protect maories and pakehas. I do
not believe that any maories of this Province would attack the settlers; and you
know that no pakeha can lift up his
hand against you without the certainty
of being punished; but I am not so certain that some of those natives who are
committing murders in other parts of
this island may not some day do the
same here, in the hope that it may
embroil us in war. You know that the
maories who commit these deeds are
above all things anxious to bring about
a war here. We are doing our best to
prevent them. We are taking the
measures I have mentioned as the best
means of guarding ourselves against such
treacherous attacks—of deterring these
bad men from making any attempt to
disturb the peace of this part of the
island; and if any body of our natives
were attacked by these marauders they
would be supported by the whole force
of their pakeha friends. Instead therefore of viewing our preparations with
suspicion you ought to regard them with
satisfaction. There is one fact which I
only learned yesterday at Waikanae,
which you must admit fully justifies us
in calling out the militia—in arming the
settlers—and in increasing our police
force. I allude to the fact that King
Matutaere has written letters to Wi
Tako and Heremia calling upon all the