THE NATIVE PRISONERS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2041, 8 September 1880, Page 3

THE NATIVE PRISONERS.

[PEB PBBBB ASSOCIATION SPECIAL WIBII.J NEW PLYMOUTH, September 7. At eleven o’clock this morning fifty-nine of the Native prisoners wore brought up and charged on the information of Inspector Gudgeon, that on the 4th of September, 1880, at a certain place, to wit at Pungarehu, in the county of Taranaki, confiscated territory mentioned in the West Coast Settlement Bill, 1880, they wilfully and unlawfully placed on a certain road, being a highway in accordance with the provisions of tho said Act, a certain obstacle, to wit pieces of fencing, with the intention of impeding the full use of such highway in part by Her Majesty’s subjects. Mr Standish, Crown Prosecutor, conducted the case, and stated the facts he would adduce in evidence. Copies of the West Coast Settlement Act had been carefully distributed at Parihaka among tho Natives, and it could not therefore be said that tho Natives had been led into a trap. They were fully aware of the consequence of the acts before they were arrested. His Worship said it was singular that so many men should be called to answer a charge of that description without being represented by counsel. He had presided at Wellington in cases where Maori prisoners were tried, and they had always been represented by counsel. The evidence of Sub-Inspector Gudgeon and Sergeant Grey was given, showing that the Natives had obstructed the main road by erecting a fence across it. Tho Now Plymouth gaoler was also examined as to the identity of the prisoners. His Worship committed the prisoners for trial at the District Court Criminal Sessions to be held in New Plymouth on the 23rd inst.