EQUAL JUSTICE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 5, Issue 268, 22 May 1865, Page 3

EQUAL JUSTICE.

(From the Southern. Cross, May 12.) We hear a great deal about the oppression of the natives, and injustice being done to ihem by the Europeans, but although English Humanitarians, and political writers in the mother country enlarge upon that very telling point, we who live amongst “the noble savages” know it is all pure romance. There never was a case in which injustice was done a native or natives by Europeans, for which they have not had legal redress;, and it so happens, that, owing to the very peculiar relations subsisting between natives and settlers in the North Island, few eases of even trifling injury have actually occurred. The natives have never sustained grievous injuries to their persons or estates from the colonists ; but not so the colonists from t he natives. Ever since the foundation of the colony the North Island settlers have lived on sufferance. The Government stood in the broach between the two races, and thus prevented a collisou between them taking place. The Government negotiated with the Maoris, bought from them and resold to the settlors; and by that means no great complications ever arose between the natives and settlers, as might have been anticipated from the daily intercourse of men of different races, instincts, habits, and laws. The peace was preserved ostensibly between the settlers and aborigines; and the conflicts that have since arisen have been in respect of the Crown, and a very mild application of the principles of English law to the Maori race. We do not say that if the European colonist and the Maori had been brought into direct contact from the first, there would not have been war and bloodshed, crime and the lawless exercise of brute force, for the attainment of personal objects. Very likely this would have been the case. The habits and instincts of the New Zealand aborigine arid a civilized man are so different, that it would hare been impossible to avoid collision between the two races, so soon as the strangers began to about equal in strength the aborigines. No doubt the evil day would have been postponed by concessions to the superior force of the natives; but the settlers would ultimately have refused to pay black mail, and this would have been a sufficient cause to begin the war for supremacy in the country. This is the issue now raised, but it has been submitted to the arbitrament of the sword from a different set of causes; and it has, moreover, been dealt with in a far less summary manner than if the fate of the colony had depended on the resolute will of the settlers themselves. But it is not our present purpose to consider this. As we have said, the Government stood in the breach between the settlers and the natives. They endeavored to govern the native race, not by a firm and equittable administration of the law, but so framing the machinery of the courts of justice as to gratify every whim, and accede to every extortionate demand the Maoris might prefer. In former times a Maori desiring to become possessed of what belonged to some one else was compelled tofightfor its possession. He ran soma risk in this. He was liable to lose his own life and property, and to sacrifice the lives and properties of many of his tribe. This risk was an effectual deterrent except on special occasions. But the Government, when standing between the races, contrived a way by which the Maoris Could rob and plunder those who alone possessed property worth having—Viz., the settlers—by a simple process of law. The resident magistrates’ courts in 1 native' districts were, and still are, the media of this crying injustice and wrong. The resident magistrate usually is a man chosen from' the class who have been trained to believe that the natives are our natural masters, and whatever they say or do the settlers must not contravene. They are associated with a' number of native assessors, whose fitness for a seat on the judicial bench appears, on a review of the appointments, to be determined by the amount of rascality they , have been known to commit. A decent native is sure to get nothing from the State, or if he does, it is because he is personally so influential that they pay a tribute to bis rank,

and not on account of bis good conduct. The bench so constituted is instructed not to administer the law in an impartial manner. The native suitor is to have judgment in his favor, whatever may be the merits of the case, whenever a European is the defendant; when a native is the defendant and a European the suitor, the instructions and practice are to throw every obstacle in the way of justice, and if a judgment must be recorded in favor of the suitor, to take especial good care not to put the warrant in execution. From this court there is no appeal; and thus the European is robbed and plundered under color of law. The Government pay black mail to the natives by granting salaries to native magistrates and policemen, giving the whole non-official native population permission and encouragement to pay themselves by fleecing their European neighbours m the courts of justice. A flagrant instance of this kind is reported in to-day’s paper. The facts are simple, and as the Native Minister is in Auckland, he had better look into the case. The settlers in the North are becoming extremely restless, and may not be inclined to put up much longer with such a partial administration of justice. The case of Mr. Clarke is likely to be brought before the House; and we trust the native courts will be abolished, and evenhanded justice dealt to both races.