Since that period they have been driven or es caped from owe stronghold after another till they have been compelled to evacuate the whole of the Waikato -proper; they have retreited before our tro.ips to a distance of ]20.iiii!es from Auck land, and Aheir main body is understood to be broken into two or three sections, the princi pal of which appears to have descended upon Tmiranga in the Bay of Plenty, where, with the resident rebels of that district,' they are again defying the British troops a»d throwing up aggressive works, within a distance of three I miles from our posts. During all this lime they have not as a body shown the smallest symp tom of any desire to terminate the war, nor have made any overtures of peace. On the contrary they continue to make th<j moststrenuous efforts to recruit their forces by enlistment among the EJiist Coast tribes, whom they encourage to join them by the raostmemttous falsehoods, which are tf ! rcu ' a. le( ! l>y...expxeW AhOmUJL qflThpmjwon aiid the other leaders, aud by, means" of ""wliicb" they bare hitherto succeeded ill deluding con*

s sidcrable numbers into a belief that the rebellion c has been successful, and that they have only to join it to see tbe final establishment in triumph - of the Maori King. (See Appendix A.) at It is a well-known fact that in their inner e tribal wars, the natives invariably regarded any l overtures of peace as a sign that the party who ) makes it is beaten, that it is an acknowledg r ment of defeat. It is a matter therefore of the 5 utmost delicacy to initiate such negotiations, as. nothing could be more fatal to tbe prospect of - actual peace than that the rebels should be able • to announce to the distant or non-committed } tribes that we had placed ourselves in that po i sition. 