The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, October 29, 1887. THE PRESS AND TE KOOTI.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 60, 29 October 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, October 29, 1887. THE PRESS AND TE KOOTI.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The Wellington Press is one of those vigorous, well-written papers that any journalist or general reader must admire, but the Press does not always succeed in grasping a subject with tha t justness of tone which a better knowledge of the surrounding circumstances could not fail to enforce. In reference to the Te Kooti affair our contemporary has the following article :— We hope the Government are not going to give any countenance to this nonsensical agitation at Poverty Bay against Te Kooti re-visiting that district. The man is a free snbject to the Queen, and is just as much entitled to the protection of the law as anybody else. If his friends choose to invite him to Poverty Bay and to make a fuss about him when he comes, that is their affair and nobody has any right to interfere with them. Some of the people there, natives, we suppose, are said to have threatened that they will shoot him like a dog. They ought to be given to understand that if they do they will be hanged like dogs. The Poverty Bay massacre was a horrible business ; but it is hard to say who is to blame for it. At all events, it occurred twenty yaarc aga, and it ra high time for the vendetta to be at an end. The absurd part of the thing is that on the West Coast, Titokowaru, who committed quite as bad atrocities as Te Kooti, without one tithe of the provocation, is not only allowed to go about wherever he pleases, but is made rather a pet of by the Government and the settlers. For our part, we do not think anybody would be much the worse for it if all these bloodstained savages, and all the rest of the race whose savage instincts are so near the surface that they are eager for an opportunity of murdering somebody, were to perform on each other the celebrated exploit of the Kilkenny cats. But the time is past for that sort of thing, and we hope the Government will put their foot upon it once for all.

Advising the Government not to countenance the “ nonsensical agitation ” 1 If he should come and there were a bloody massacre that would send a thrill of horror throughout New Zealand, would the fears of our settlers

then be countenanced ? It is all very well for an editor in a nice snug billet in Wellington to sit in his chair and tell the people in our outlying districts that they are acting in a silly manner 1 If he would change the circumstances and put himself in the position of one who perhaps has seen father and mother, sister and brother, tomahawked and their brains bespattered before his eyes—ugh Iwe cannot continue: the revolting details never will be fully known.

We cannot imagine that Te Koot' will dare to re-visit this district—the action of Mr Bryce in permitting the possibility of such a thing has already been denounced with sufficient bitterness. But if he does come here it is not natives, as our contemporary ignorantly assumes, who " threaten to shoot him like a dog," Many of our law-abiding and esteemed settlers, when they beheld the revolting scenes, took solemn oaths before their God that if ever they got the opportunity they would shoot the fiend who had perpetrated such horrible deeds.

We do not in the slightest degree sympathise with those who contend that such an extreme action would be justifiable, but we are all human, and much allowance must be made in thi s case. Though Mr Bryce may have secured Te Kooti’s pardon in the hope of getting a little political capital, the feeling here is of a firmly looted nature. Let the human butcher die in peace at his own settlement if they will; we object not to that,

But it is more than is to be expected of human nature to assume that those who have suffered so much can sufficiently restrain themselves to keep peace when they see this blood-hound marching triumphantly back to the scene of former atrocities. Twenty years even cannot efface such sad blots as have been branded in the memories

of many of our settlers. “ Forget and forgive ” is a noble maxim, yet it is not fair to apply too strong a test, and rankle old sores in this way. If it were thought that the relatives oi those who have been brutally murdered could control themselves, there would be no cause for anxiety. However, it is not what may happen to individuals if Te Kooti were shot. If a shot were fired and should Te Kooti come this would be almost certain—the miscreant’s followers would retaliate on those who are unable to defend themselves, and their blood would be on the head of those who permitted the possibility of such a thing. It was the fault of the authorities that the terrible massacre was not averted, and it is best that the Government should be made aware of the plain facts. If they will not recognise the matter in its true light the responsibility rests on their shoulders. It is astonishing to us that a newspaper with such pretensions to veracity as the Press maintains should labor into a subject in this ignorant manner. The matter is too serious to be trifled with, and comparison to the Kilkenny cats is hardly applicable to a case in which the possible butchery of women and children has to be considered. It might afford a few sensational articles for an editor with such frigid feelings but the contemplation is repugnant to those who are constituted with a less brutish nature. If Te Kooti comes we should like that Wellington man to also pay us a visit, and he might be suitably entertained, j