THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 309, 4 July 1879, Page 2

THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY.

The-following very apposite remarks as to our dealings with the Maoris appear in Xho\B^jigiom(Stfndard;: —We hear a great deal of talk' about the "necessity of the P^ep'f,writ.running through the length arid breadth of the North Island, of the desirability of the Natives submitting all differences to .English courts of law and so forth. No doubt all this is very true, but if the Maori is to be led to see that, by laying his case before our courts, he will obtain even- handed justice, things must be managed otherwise th&n they were at Mercer the other day 1 . > v hat is known as the " great Mercer bull •-•" came to an end the beginning of tn month, and the result is instructive, if a

jMaMIIWBIIMIIMIIMIIIIIHIIIjUIMjI WIMIII Wlllll I 111 1 —■■— edifying. The plaintiffs who were Maoris, claimed a hull which the defendant, a . European, said was his property. The judge summing up made-the following observations on the evidence given by tho four Maori plaintiffs:—"Now you."have seen those four men. in tbe. witness-box. you have witnessed their .demeanour, and you have seen their inaiinef j you ,jsaw whether they were excited or eager, you l saw whether they equivocated or appeared to keep back anything. They were examined apart from each other,and youheard them.undergo a most rigorous cross-examination at the hands of Mr flesketh... I. am bound to say that in my opinion, their evidence was quite unshaken." With regard to the de- ' fendant's evidence be remarked :—" On the other side we have the contradiction of the defendant alone. Now you " must apply the same rules as to demeanour and behaviour in the witness box to this .eyi-: dence. You remember, that after great complications as to dates of •' events he admitted . the treacherousness of "his memory." And the learned judge proceeded:—"Well, then, I'put the position, broad!v before you, for I -do' not intend that you shall escape: the responsibility which rests upon you, and. upon jou alone. On orie side you have four Maoris of unassailed character,-speaking with remarkable agreement to events and a. conversation extending over A whole day, examined anart, and mostly ably : cross r examined/ On the other.you have one European, who contradicts,and 1 , gives : a , very different aspect to nearly .everything that- is allegedly the others; and- who has been, as you have, heard-him- state, previously convicted of. cattle stealing." And be concluded:—" If you believe. those four Maoris in preference to the one European, you are bound to give a verdict ior the plaintiff." In the face of the evidence and the summing up, however, the jury, after a short deliberation, brought in a verdict for the defendant, a verdict which entailed the payment of costs amounting to £2GO. If this is the sort of justice that the Maori is to exnect, we can hardly feel surprised if for the future, they air'd the imitation given by well meaning friends to take judicial pot-luck with their white neighbors. The ordinary juryman is not over-intelligent at the best of times, butvhcn to his natural stupidity is superadded an idea Jthat every man with a black skin is a liar and every man with a white one an angel, the result is far from satisfactory. -