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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 383, 7 June 1866, Page 3

Like Frankenstein, the corrupt and timeserving Government of New Zealand, and particularly of this Province, have made for themselves a monster, —have imbued it with a terrible vitality, and, again like Frankenstein, finds it a burthen that it cannot, though it would, shake off. Its creature has become its master, and having attained gigantic proportions, defies all control. This monster is the illegal squatting system, which has been worse than winked at —■ more than fostered in its growth, notwithstanding sundry pretences of opposition that have from-time to time been made to it. Those in high places have engaged in the practice—have enriched themselves by it. Those who were pro forma deputed by the Government to execute the law' and protect the public estate from individual greed, have taken advantage of the knowledge and influence obtained by means of their official position to occupy the foremost place in the ranks of the law-defying clique, and have not scrupled to make the barefaced assertion that the law could not be enforced against its violators, and this notwithstanding the fact of its having been often done from motives of a questionable character against certain political opponents and men of humble station. As might have been supposed, those who have successfully defied the law so long feel confident that they may continue in the practicS, and eater into fresii engagements, without fear of the result; while others who have seen them grow rich through their illegal practices are tempted to engage in the same, thinking that they too will be able to escape all evil consequences from their illegal acts. It matters not that the Government have issued another brutum fulmen, in the shape of a paper proclamation, warning all and sundry against entering into engagements with the natives of Poverty Bay district, under penalty of being brought within the provisions of the New Zealand Settlements Act; for the value or worthlessness of these proclamations are unfortunately too well

known to be feared now, and accordingly we find in the very face of the new proclamation that these illegal engagements are every day being made, and that sheep in large numbers are shipped in vessel after vessel for the forbidden pastures. It is not too much to assert that to the illegal occupancy of unalienated land is primarily due the evils under which the Colony now lies, and that the responsibility of those evils rests on three parties—the law breakers in the first instance; the officials who, instead of checking, encouraged the practice, in the second; and the which weakly permitted it, in the third; for had the law been brought to bear against offenders as it might and ought to have been, the lands of the island would have been gradually ceded to the Crown, affording by their sale ample means for the introduction of a constant stream of immigration, and and an almost inexhaustible fund for public works. We regard the late attempts at experimental legislation which the New Zealand Government have made under the piessure of the land-sharking fraternity, resulting in the new Native Lands Act and kindred measures, as gigantic errors which will in due time enforce their penalties upon the Colony, as indeed they have already begun •to do. We have no reason to suppose that the Government intend to take action against the new embryo race of law defiers who have commenced their practice with the Poverty Bay natives and on the Poverty Bay lands. We wish we had; but unfortunately there is no criterion for us beyond the former examples we have had, and they are many. The proclamation will be regarded as a scarecrow to deter the weak and benefit the unscrupulous; but we fear the former class will be found to be but few, as the cry of wolf has been too often raised to cause further alarm. The worst possible effect is produced upon the minds of the native race by the nonenforcement of this and kindred laws against their violators. They see day by day these laws openly and shamelessly broken by their pakeha neighbors, and acquire a contempt for all law's, as being an engine of oppression for one class, and an obstacle that can be readily set aside by another in every case where it interferes with their interests, instead of that due respect for it they ought to have, and would certainly gain, if they saw it promptly and effectually brought to bear against its violators. It is absurd to expect them to become loyal and obedient subjects while they have examples such as at present exist before their eyes.