"MOHI V. CRAIG."

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1135, 2 October 1871, Page 2

"MOHI V. CRAIG."

[from the daily southern CROSS."!" The .cause "Mohi y. Craig " wiii probably long hold a prominent .position among les causes pelehres pf JSTew Zealand ; but if it result in compelling such attention in law as is clearly necessary, its occurrence may afford grounds for gratification. Probably few will have gone to the trouble of following the intricate windings of this case, and the somewhat involved transactions in con nection with the lands and logs in the neighborhood of Mercury Bay; and a perusal of the pamphlet on the subject recently published vyill in most cases leave but a vague and undefined conviciion, which is is difficult tq throw off, that Craig has been singularly the victim of smart transactions; and tljat under pakeha tutelage Mohi Mangakahia, whom from his blood we should expect to be unskilled in the wiles of a European, has developed a good deal of that character immortalised recently by an American poet, in connection with the "heathen Chinese." For in ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, the Celestial, in manipulating the cards, does not appear to have exhibited more surprising skill than that exhibited by Mohi in working the machinery of qur law courts. It is not our purpose to go into the intricate details of the case ; but to the most cursory reader the extraordinary manifesto- issued subsequent $o the trial by the twelve jurymen who for nine days hac| been engaged investigating the various transactions must bring home the conviction that there, is a wrong that needs righting. Here we find twelve intelligent citizens impelled by a sense of fair play to ti-avel so far from the ordinary path as to issue a declaration virtually to the effect that they had been compelled by the state of the law to deliver a verdict contrary to justice. They declare in effect that the oaths of the plaintiffs were not woithy of credence, and yet they are compelled to give such a verdict that defendant is saddled with heavy costs. T"he words of the jury with reference to their own verdict pre sent the most remarkable commentary on the administration of law in modern times that we have ever read. " |n our opinion," say the jury, " the action was a most unrighteous and vexatious one; and instead of Mohi being entitled to damages for the pretended wrongs complained of by him, ve consider Craig to have in the whole matter the injured party ; and if it had been in our power in that action, we should certainly have awarded substantial damages to Craig as against Mohi and his accomplice, C. A. Harris, jun., for the wrongs he had sustained at their hands." And the jury further added : " Being satisfied, therefore, that the law has in this case been made the instrument of spoliation and oppression which shocks every sense of natural justice, we should be highly gratified if the Legislature would devise and cany into effect a measure calculated to repair such an intolerable wrong.*' That such a protest should issue from a jury, so strongly declaring a miscarriage of justice, is not tq be ignored; and we trust the Legislature now in session will not only once and for ever end the legislation of robbery at the hands of natives, but by retrospective action re pair the grievous wrong that has been done under sar.ption of law in the transactions between Mangakahia and Mr Thomas Craig.