Recent Miscellaneous Intelligence.
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NEW ZEALAND.
Church Miss. Soc. --The communications of the Committee from this Mission come down to the 24th of March. They convey the very painful intelligence of a collision, between Her Majesty's Naval and Military forces and the Natives, in the Bay of Islands. It was brought about by a Chief in the neighbourhood of the Bay, named John Heke, who has always been adverse to the cession of the sovereignty of the Island to the British Crown. He had cut down the British Flag staff erected at Kororarika, in the Bay of Islands, at three different times; and the collision which has taken place arose out of an attempt on his part, in which he eventually succeeded, to cut it down a fourth time. This occurred on the 11th of March. The British Force was withdrawn, after a severe conflict with the Natives; in which about 12 Europeans were killed and 20 wounded. Of the Natives, it is said that about 40 were killed and 60 wounded. Captain Robertson, of H M S "Hazard," who served on shore with a party of seamen and marines, was severely wounded. In the afternoon the town of Kororarika was evacuated; the inhabitants were received on board the ships in the Bay, and subsequently taken to Auckland. The town was plundered and burnt by the Natives. The Mission Stations and the Missionaries were untouched and uninjured, shewing, as one writer remarks, "how safe, even when battle rages at their door, are those whom our
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Heavenly Father has promised to protect." Archd. H. Williams had been branded as a traitor, in an Auckland Paper, because he had expressed an opinion at Kororarika, on the day before the conflict, that the Natives would not advance on the town, and the event had proved otherwise. One of our Correspondents says--"These vile calumnies, the offspring of pure malice, may have a pernicious influence at home, and many, even here, will try to believe them."
The Committee wait further information in refutation of these calumnies. The writer proceeds--"Rebels though the Natives be, it is due to them to remark, that their triumph was unaccompanied by any of those fearful acts of cannibalism which would doubtless have marked their course in past years; nor can they be accused of cruelty to the living, or insult to the dead." Another writer remarks -- "Heke's conduct, during the battle and afterward, was noble. All declared that no civilized power would have used their triumph with so much humanity. He has commanded respect from two of the greatest nations in the world [this country and the United States]. No barbarism was seen; but a chivalrous conduct not excelled in the history of our own country. Two officers of the "Hazard" were made prisoners, their swords and pistols returned, and they sent back to their camp unhurt. A flag of truce was sent by each party, and respected, to bury their dead. The Europeans were given up to be buried, and the Natives were carried off for the same purpose."
"The Bishop [who was in the Bay of Islands at the time], and Mr. Williams, were indefatigable in making the misery of the scene as light as possible, for which they have received no small share of abuse."
One of the Auckland papers assails the Bishop with slander and vituperation for the part he took on the occasion, equal to that cast on Mr. Williams, and, it is scarcely necessary to say, equally groundless.
The testimony borne to the good conduct of the Natives, both in the battle and after their victory, by the Governor and the civil and naval authorities, is equally strong. Captain Fitzroy, the Governor, writing to Sir G. Gipps, March the 20th, says-- "No vindictiveness was shewn: many of the Settlers ventured back among the houses, and recovered property, even from the Natives, whose conduct has elicited praise from their opponents."
To the same effect he wrote to Lord Stanley, March the 26th-- "Justice to the Natives, misled and rebellious as they are, requires me to state that European Troops would not have behaved better, nor shewn less vindictiveness. Acts of a chivalrous nature were performed by them; and their forbearance toward the Settlers, especially the Missionaries, after the conflict, was remarkable. No Missionary, no Mission property, known to be such, was injured intentionally."
One very remarkable circumstance was thus reported to the Governor by Mr. Beckham, the chief Civil Officer in the Bay of Islands, on the 17th of March-- "About 12 o'clock the Natives hoisted a flag of truce, and Mrs. Tapper and child, who had been taken in the block-house early in the morning, were sent to the stockade without being injured."
Lieut. Phillpotts, writing to Captain Fitzroy on the 15th of March, thus notices the same fact-- "It is but justice to mention an instance of noble conduct on the part of the Natives, in their sending, under the protection of a white flag, from the first block-house, the wife and child of John Tapper, signal-man at the flagstaff, who was wounded whilst bravely working one of the guns."
Whence this wondrous change in the conduct of the New Zealanders, so strongly contrasted with that which characterized them thirty years ago, before the Christian Missionary boldly threw himself among them? Whence, but from the Gospel of the grace of God ministered by the calumniated Missionary? This conduct of the Natives, even during the battle and after their victory, demonstrates, in the absence of all other testimony, the mighty and salutary influence of Christianity over them. And this, it is to be remembered, is the conduct of a Chief who has sadly declined from his Christian Principles, and of Natives who are in a Heathen State.
The causes of the late deplorable collision are thus adverted to by Capt. Sir E. Home, R.N., writing to his Commanding Officer, Sir T. Cochrane, R.N. -- "The utmost efforts have been used by designing men, chiefly foreigners, to render the Natives dissatisfied, and to persuade them that we shall ultimately take away their lands, and make those whom we do not kill our slaves."
The prospect for New Zealand is painful in the extreme. The question is not one of disputed land claims; but a direct and persevering assault upon British Sovereignty. That sovereignty must be maintained. In the maintenance of it the better part of the Natives will probably side with the Governor, and the disaffected and ill-disposed with Heke. A Letter before us states--"The Northern part of the Island is internally convulsed with Native against Native. A large body have espoused the cause of the Governor, and are threatening Heke as the cause of all the calamities which they plainly see must ensue."
Another Letter says-- "A party of well-disposed Natives at the Northward have already taken up arms against Heke, and there is every probability of its resulting in a civil war."
May it please a merciful God to avert so dire a calamity!
