A despatch has been received by the Directors of the
New Zealand Company, from Colonel William Wakefield, their Principal Agent at Port Nicholson, dated June 28th; which, so far as it goes, confirms the published narrative of the affair at Wairau, but adds some particulars. It is supposed that the hostile chiefs were instigated to break their pro- mise, to await the arrival of Commissioner Spain, by "some Europeans, who, in consequence of cohabitation with women of Rauparaha's tribes set up claims to portions of the land in question "— " Mr. Joseph Thome, [whose schooner we see conveying the chiefs,] for- merly cohabited with the daughter of Nohoroa, the brother of Ranparaha; by whom he has several children, and in whose right he is a claimant of land at Wairau and elsewhere. I have been informed on credible authority, that oft the arrival of the schooner in Cloudy Bay, the chiefs on board were regaled with, spirits, to the use of which Rauparaha and Rangiaiata are addicted, and that much inflammatory conversation took place, and great excitement pre- vailed among the party respecting the object of their visit to Wairau ; but no evidence has yet been taken on this point."
Among the witnesses examined were two Natives, who had been found by Colonel Wakefield's party at Wairau ; one wounded. B Fon, the' Ciiristian chief, attempted, though ineffectually, to save the British pellOtiers. • A correspondent of the Times, "Late a Settler at Nelson," endea- vours to account for the confidence with which the Magistrate expected to overawe the Natives. Some of them had attacked a British party digging for coal, at Nelson, and claimed compensation ; a chief was fined II. for the assault ; and the people then seemed " quite cowed" by a Magistrate and five constables.
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