Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1869.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 741, 6 December 1869, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1869.

One of the first results of the late " eminently satisfactory " interview of the Native Minister with the rebel chiefs in the Waikato has been the pardon and release of the murderers of Volkner and Fulloon. It,will be remembered that these wretches, under circumstances of almost imparalled barbarity and treachery, committed the diabolical deeds, first of the murder in cold blood of a minister who had devoted all the best vears of his life to their benefit, and afterwards that of the unprepared and unsuspecting crew of the cutter Kate while in the very act of hospitably entertaining them. It will also be remembered that after a fair trial before Mr Justice Arney they were found guilty of the crimes and condemned to death, but. with the weak vacillation which has ever characterised the riding powers of this Colony in relation to native criminals, their sentences (except in the cases of four or five) were commuted to penal servitude for life This, however, has not proved leniency enough. The arch-rebel Rewi, during Mr M'Lean's celebrated interview with him, expressed a wish that Te Ilura, the head of these murderers, should be pardoned. Mr M'Lean, doubtless feeling the extent of the honor done him by the audience of so great a chief, readily makes the promise that it shall be done for him and his partners in guilt, only stipulating that Rewi should promise tor his good behaviour; and the next act in the melodrama is the release of these murderers, and their excursion, at the public expense, by Messrs. Quick and Co.'s coach, to Waikato, where, doubtless, they have been welcomed b}' the "'great King party," who, of course, regard it, in the words of au Auckland contemporary, as "an earnest of our friendly intentions" towards them.

Another result is the virtual pardon of the wretch Te Kooti. All that is required of hira now is tliat he shall quietly go and join his friends and protectors in the King's country. During the progress of Mr M'Lean's? negotiations he very mildly suggested that Rt:\vi should "assist" the Europeans in "arresting this bad man if he should escape the troops then pi;ioiiiiig him," because, he sail, with well-chosen flattery, "it is not right nor proper that murderers should be harbored among quiet and well conducted men " ! ! ! however, would not listen to it for a mo ment : " If you allow him to escape the fault is wirh you. If he comes to me I will make him be quiet. I have already fifty of his followers, and you must not interfere with them." Mr M'Lean assured him that he had no such inteniion, and quietly yielded the point. Bince then we learn that Rewi himself has gone to seek Te Kooti, and give both him and Titokowaru a safe conduct to the Waikato country, where, it is said, they will be treated as slaves—a statement we take leave to doubt. The above, then, are the results of the famous meeting between Mr M'Lean and the chiefs of the King party. It is to he observed, by the way, that Tawhaio himself did not deign to see Mr M'Lean, but deputed, (if, indeed, lie did that), one of his men. On our part, we have pardoned rebels, promised to cease fighting those still in arms against us, virtually proclaimed the Waikato country a city of refuge for native murderers, foregoing any right to interfere with them after they get there, and, beyond what was the wildest dream of the most violent philo-Maori, suffered the two leaders of the past rebellion—the men who have desolated our districts and our homes both on the East and West Coasts, who have spread inin over some of the best lands of the North Island—to escape scot free. No one, we will venture to say, ever dreamt of this. At the least it was supposed that Mr M'Lean would stipulate that " the heads—the cause of the distractions under which we are now suffering " —should be giveu up; but no, poor man, he felt his

weakness, and, submiting to all the demands of the cunning Rewi, simply said, —"Retain those 50 men to plant food"; and, as he could not make his tortus respecting the two leaders, wisely (?) let the natives have their own way with regard to them.

And now for the per contra. What have we got for all these concessions on our part ? Literally nothing. Rewi was far too diplomatic to yield a point—not that there was anything to show that Tawhaio would have been bound by any conditions he might have made. For aught that appears to the contrary, Rewi saw .Mr M'Lean on his own responsibility ; he did not show that he was deputed, nor that anything he might say or do would be con as of authority ; still, as nowas promised —beyond the statement that he would make Te Hura and Te Kooti be quiet for the future —the nature of his credentials matters but little.

There is, however, another question intimately connected with the letting off of the murderers, and that is the execution of the solitary vie tim of the law, Hamiora Pera. Why, it will be asked, was this man alone selected for death before all his copartners in guilt 1 Was he more guilty than the murderers of Volkner and Fulloon, or even than those who, exiled for a short time to a southern' province, are treated so gently that, poor souls, they must not be deprived of their tobacco? In the benevolence of the heart of the Fox-M'Lean Government it was decided not to deprive the poor prisoners of that great essential to their happiness, until it was found to be an illegal indulgence. Yet even this was a difficulty that was easily over come. If it could not be granted as a part of the daily rations of prisoners in health, it might as a medical comfort to them in sickness; so, presto, they are at once pronounced as sick, and needing tobacco ; tobacco, therefore, is henceforth to be supplied to them as a medical com fort—and they have the further hope held out to them that their exile fhall be hue of short duration. We fear that some of the friends of the poor Maori will be found to say con cerning these and of those who have already been set at liberty,—"They are no less guilty than was he that was hung; to bang him and set jtho.se free is to hold the scales of justice with an uneven hand."