The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 5TH JUNE, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 5, Issue 274, 5 June 1865, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, STH JUNE, 1865.

A communicated article on the subject, of the illegal occupation of the Heretuunga Plains will be found in another part of our columns. At a time when the Provincial Council is called together for deliberation we know of no subject so essential for the people of Ahuriri to combine to express their convictions aud desires upon, as this. For ourselves we have raised our voice until well nigh weary, because we find that so powerful are the influences adverse to our efforts for the public good that no end seems to have been gained by them. Precisely the same is to be said on the part of the public, though there are som e who profess to consider that the people are callous or indifferent to the subject. This, however, is not the case; but a result is desired. People tire of fighting against the wind, and when nothing is seen to be effected by their labors, they are too apt to yield to what it seems they are unable to resist. Of course we know that this is wrong. We know that evils mightier than this have been overthrown by the efforts of a people — we know, in fact, that the popular will is irresistible in its effects, and our aim on this occasion is to convince our fellow-townsmen that they are able to recover those portions of the Ahuriri Plains already illegally occupied, and to prevent their further appropriation by selfish, unscrupulous, law-defying men. We are well aware that thisis no easy task —that the law on this matter has become to be considered as a dead letter, and is now defied wilhont fear of consequences; but happily for our argument there have been quite a sufficient number of instances of its execution,.to prove that it is a reality when it is thought expedient to enforce it; aud the time is come when the people must insist du

its being enforced, not in one or two solitary instances only, but against all the illegal occupiers of native land throughout the province. Our Superintendent ishimselfatthe head of this fraternity according to popular belief,* and of course there are uo prosecutions, nor will there be any, until the present state of things is ended by the appointment of a person in every way independent of the squatter to prosecute in every known case ; and this will not be done until the people unmistakeably show their resolution to place public rights above private inte rests, and assert the majesty of the law by its impartial execution. We take this ground because we feel that it is quite impossible to separate the question of the plains from that of the rest of the provincial lands. It is quite true that the interests of the public lies more closely in the preservation of these from private appropriation than those; but the latter is no less illegal than the former, and if people find that laws may and can be broken with impunity by others, we cannot wonder if in the pursuit of their own interests they go aud do likewise. Moral considerations are by the nature of the case excluded: they will not stay to enquire whether their acts will be of injury to the public or not, as while they are doing so another will step in before them. Our views on the question of direct deal, ings with the native for land are well known. They were plainly expressed long before the passing of the Native Lands Act. And its operation in those districts where it has been tried, has not in anyway tended to alter these views. We regard the pre-emptive right as the most wise of all ike conditions of our treaty with the natives—as the only redeem, ing point in what but for it would have been an absurdity—and to relinquish it is little else than madness. The time may be at hand when direct dealings with the natives may be legal within this province, and if the public action in this matter be delayed, ail hope of the recovery of the lands will be lost. It is sad to think of the evil that has been inflicted upouthecouutry by the culpable negligence of the authorities in permitting private greed to swallow up the public property as it has done. None can be so blind as not to perceive tbatthe uou-enforcement of the law has, by giving a revenue to the native, deprived Government of the opportunity of extinguishing the native title, and of adding these to the Crown lands of the colony. Now we suppose that a cry of vested interests will be raised—a cry about as worthy of notice as if raised by a gang of coiners or smugglers—on measures being taken for the suppression of their illegal occupation. Our correspondent places the question in its true light:—“ In the rapid extinction of the native race the squatter thinks he has a chance of becoming a freeholder.” A Government that allows the illegal possession will be powerless to enforce an ejectment against them, and they believe that they are, by a simple process, laying the foundation of a landed aristocracy for the colony in the persons of their immediate descendants. It remains then, before it be too late, for the public of the province to take action in the matter, not such as is implied in a simple protest that is signed, presented, and heard no more of: but by frequent public meet* ings, the formation of an anti-squattsr’s league, properly organised, and supported by voluntary contributions, to enquire into all cases of illegal occupancy, to bring them before the notice of the public, to enforce them upon the attention of the Government Prosecutor, and watch the legal conduct of each case, guarding, as far as possible, against the escape ef any guilty party. By means such as these the sore can be cared, and by nothing short of it; for when private interest is so so strongly in favorof an evil, and it has been so long wkked at as this has been, nothing short of a powerful combination will avail for its removal.