A MAORI RUNANGA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 112, 4 May 1863, Page 3

A MAORI RUNANGA.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Cross. Sib, —I hope you will be so good as to give insertion to this letter, as also to the accompanying document, iffyour paper, as I believe the matters they contain are of public interest. For the last two years a certain petty chief in this distriat has made it a practice to shoot and make use of my cattle, in spite of everything I could do to prevent him. The number he has killed that I know of is fifteen head ; but I believe he has killed about forty bead. I have applied to the Magistrate’s Court without having been able to find redress, or even to extract a promise from my despoiler that he will discontinue destroying my cattle. lat last brought the affair before the Native Eunanga, constituted according to the new regulations, which runanga was composed of all the highest and most powerful chiefs in the part of the district in which I reside, and was presided over Abraham Tao Nui, Thomas Walker, and William Hobson Te Tahua, Native Magistrates. ■ I enclose herewith a true copy of the proceedings of the Runanga Court, taken from the record book, and also an English translation of the same, by which it will be seen that the destroyer of my cattle defies the court, the chiefs, and threatens to continue his depredations on my property. A threat he has tinco fulfilled. 1 wish to make these statements public, not from any wish to embarrass the magistracy or Government, or to create difficulty of any kind, but to afford the Government and the public an opportunity to judge and perceive where the weak point in the present native policy lies, as the first step towards a cure is to discover the true seat of the disease. And I think it will be clearly seen, by perusal of the record of the proceedings of the runanga, that, any system of law which entirely leaves out physical force, and does not provide for the punishment of offenders, must needs fail, and that those who have to trust to it for their protection must needs be ruined.

Thirty years, or five and twenty years ago, the chief who is now plundering me, or any one of his standing, would not dare to think of doing so to the displeasure of such chiefs as the runanga was composed of before which I brought my case; but now the offender defies the new law, and the runanga chiefs and native assessors are unable to enforce it, not being authorised or supported by the Government in doing so. They could soon do it in the good old Maori style, and -would bo quite willing to do so ; but to do this would be, as they are aware, against the wish of the Government, and contrary to their duty as assessors, which is, as they understand it, to take their salaries and settle cases™ between slaves, boys, (old women, and keep things quiet by letting the tough ones alone. Yours, &e., John Maemon. Hokianga, March 18,1863.