THE MAORI PRISONERS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 804, 14 July 1870, Page 3

THE MAORI PRISONERS.

[Evening Post, July 2.J The Maori prisoners, 30 in number, found guilty at the recent special Criminal Sessions of the Supreme Cou't, of levying war against the Queen, were brought up this morning for sentence, in the same order in which they had been tried. His Honor, after they had been asked in the usual form if they had anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced on them according to law, said, the punishment provided by the law of England for such offences as they had been proved, and confessed themse ves guilty of, was death ; but the same also allowed the Queen to alter, that sentence, and he might tell them that he believed the Government would change their sentences into as light a punishment as was consistent with the demands of justice. The Government would also take the trouble to enquire into their different degrees of guilt, and regulate the punishment accordingly. He especially dwelt on the case of Tamati Tarapau, whom he considered to be most culpable. His Honor then passed sentence of death on them, at the same time expressing his satisfaction that a new act, passed by the Legislature, enabled him to pass sentence without the addition of the revolting barbarities which were attached to it under the old la w. The prisoners were then re moved. As will be remembered, two of the prisoners were discharged by the jury, evidence of their complicity in Te Kooti's crimes being very weak, and, iu the case of two others, both very infirm, the attorneyGeneral entered a nolle prosequi.

[Evening Post, July 4 J As the world is at present constituted it seems impossible to avoid mixing a large amount of utter humbug with the most serious business of life. The Maori war has been a serious and a tragic business for the Colony, and yet even it has its shades of the ridiculous. The 30 prisoners, captured by Kemp and Topia, who were tried the other day at the Supreme Court, could not, perhaps, according to our laws and mode of proceeding, have been dis» posed of in any other way than being arraigned for high treason, and sentenced to death the prisoners themselves, and everybody else, knowing that the whole affair was a farce, and tne sentence a mockery— noblesse oblige. But there seems to be a special providence which, in the in terests of common sense and plain dealiug, always ordains that such solemn shams should expose themselves. When the Maori prisoners were brought up for trial oj (Saturday, the Judge, after explaining that they would be let olf with a light punishment, and that the sentence of death he was constrained to pass was all a humbug, asked them in turn what they had to say why it should not be pronounced on them, at the same time telling them that they having spoken before he could not hear them Ail went well, and the Court was not interrupted by reiterated speeches, until it came to the

J turn of the last prisoner, who, on being asked what he had to say, nodded his head, and replied in the most pleasant manner, " Tenakoe," evidently showing that he fully understood the whole affair—*' Salutations, O Judge 1" Could there be a more corollary to the monstrous farce—the last of the kind it is to be hoped we will ever see played in New Zealand. j Evening Post, July 54 The thirty-four Maori prisoners, recentlydisposed of by his Honor Mr Justice Johnston, have been placed in some rather strange positions, and have led a .most eventful life since they first joined the standard of Te Kooti. They have been conquering warriors, sweeping the East Ooast with terror before them, and leaving desolation behind; anon they have beeu hunted fugitives on the mountains, then prisoners to their countrymen, and afterwards to the Europeans; cramped in the hold of a steamer like cattle, again fattened and carefully tended by the " demilitarized," elevated to the rank of state prisoners, and, after undergoing a trial for high treason, at length treated in the saino manner as men convicted of larceny, and sent to work on the roads. All this was well known, but we have no doubt the public will share our surprise at learning, on the authority of the Independent, that they have been subjected to another process—that of being "docked." The expression is rather vague, their being two kinds of docking in use —one applied to young horses' tails, and the other to ships when their bottoms require cleaning j but, as Maoris are certainly not adorned with tails, it must be the nautical docking that is referred to.