THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, OCT. 31, 1861.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 18, 31 October 1861, Page 2

THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, OCT. 31, 1861.

Fnoyi our contemporary of Monday last, wc learn that it is, after all, the Hatches Bay Herald that is more to hlame for the evils of the grass-money question than either the rebellious Natives, the lawless squatters, or the ministers of justice who so impartially (?) applied the powers they held to check the growing vice, —for the said paper informs us, in commencing its leader, that “After having, on all sides and upon every opportunity, striven to impress the Natives with a sense of the value of their waste lands, we are somewhat astonished at their turning out such apt scholars, and making such vigorous use of the knowledge thus thrust upon them.’’ We must confess we should have hesitated to have made such a charge against the Herald, and were considerably “ taken” with the confession ; —even now we don’t believe it. Our contemporary is for too pacific to deserve such a charge, and we still think ourselves right in asserting that the true criminals are those who did not use the power which was entrusted to them to check and stay the evil in its beginning. We are blamed for our asserting that the Maori can get justice in our courts, offering as proof that the “ Resident Magistrate will entertain no claim for grass-money.” We do not admit that he ought to do so, —and ask in reply—Can any of the settlers get redress from a Maori when their unfenced lands are trespassed on by Native cattle ? When a wrong is really suffered, for we by no means admit that the Maories are in the same sense owners of their waste lands as the settlers are of theirs which they have bought from

the Crown for use, redress is not refused

It is too well known to need repetition now —that the rights reserved to the Natives hy treaty over the- unoccupied wastes of the island by no means extend to the legal meaning of the term freehold , it is simply the right to occupy, cultivate, and dispose of to the Crown, and to the Crown only. This right they have by treaty, and all who have taught them that it extends beyond this, either by words or by submission to their demands for ulu for trespass on their wastes, are so far traitors to the Crown and to the law. Their right to enjoy all they have reclaimed from the waste, fenced and cultivated, is at once admitted, by us and by the magistrates ; and therefore, notwithstanding the Herald’s assertion to the contrary, they can obtain redress for real wrongs in our Courts of Justice. In taking up the defence of the rebellious Natives, our contemporary has surely used the missionaries’ pen. Mjflr Fox himself could scarcely have said more than that “ the necesssity” of their being the executors of the edicts of self-constituted runangas has to some extent been forced upon them. ’ It is, in fact, just what he does say, and as we have on some occasions been wrongfully accused in the Herald's pages of favoring that party, we are greatly suipiised to find the Herald pursuing this path, especially as all the difficulties the Natives are now throwing in the way of the Government roads and bridges, and which it so justly condemns, are only the natural and inevitable consequences of the admission of their trespass claims, and like that redounds only to the condemnation of the officers of justice who neglected to enforce the law when it was in their power to do so. But we are at length brought to the climax—there is not anything, we are told, alarming in all that has been done, or in anything in progress. Oh no! A triflesomewhat unsatisfactory it may be (how much would it take to satisfy the Herald?), but not at all alarming*. *\\e rather* think the country folk, especially those who yet resist the Maori claims, think otherwise, and also that the Herald itself, if it lived away from the protection afforded by the isolated position of the town and the presence of the military, would not be quite free from alarm. The fact is, the oppressed colonists desire to know how long they will have to wait fertile interference of the “ powers that be.” The patience of some is well-nigh exhausted it cannot be expected to last for ever and submit to everything; some of them feel themselves equal to their own protection, and if a collision is to be prevented, it is now time for the Government to enforce law and order, ere it be too late.