OLD TIME HONESTY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5047, 3 November 1926, Page 1

OLD TIME HONESTY.

STOLEN SADDLE RETURNED.

WITH A HORSE AS COMPENSATION

In an interesting comment on the honesty of the present generation as compared with that of about sixty yeaijs ago Mr Andrew Kay, of Parawqra, records some of the conditions of those pioneer_ days—the days following the Waikato war, when the natives had retired southward across the Punui and the Imperial tr°op* had left New Zealand. He sates : — “The Maoris in the King Country were left severely alone and were allowed to manage their own affairs’, just as they thought fit. Our policemen were forbidden to cross thq confiscation line to issue a summons, to arrest a prisoner, or to execute a warrant. For nearly twenty years I lived on the boundary—just a line dividing the Maori from the white—and during all those years we never locke/1 a door. Our. effects, or stock were never pilfered, stolen, or even interfered with. I have sometimes thought in the years' since that if, instead' of some .thousands, of uncivilised people, uncontrolled by judges; magistrates, or policemen, and with no gaols or lock-ups, there had been the same number of Scotsmen, or .even Irishmen, for my >vould life and property have been as safe ? Of course, there were a few instances of petty thefts, by natives. For instance . Te Awamutu hotelkeepers in thos.e days provided a pen, or y ar d> wherein travellers or visitors to the town could leave their horses while shopping. A young Maori, in patronising this horse pen, by mistake took a white man’s' saddle and bridje. When I was informed of thq matter I reported the theft to the natives of the inland setlements, knowing full well that the .thief could not well hide the saddle frdm his Maori brethren. Soon, by invitation, I interviewed Purukutu, at Wharepapa, who told me that the saddle and bridle would be located and returned to the owner—and a, horse would also be given, by way of compensation for the theft. Purukutu mentioned that he had been deputed, or that it was his duty, to see that his people committed no offence against their white neighbours, and as 1 was residing on the boundary he desired that I should try to’ restrain the pakeha to obey the common law of right and wrong. Fair wasn’t it ?”