THE OBSERVER CASE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 610, 11 October 1913, Page 5

THE OBSERVER CASE.

ALLEGED CONTEMPT OF COURT. |.BT TKLEGIIAWI. —I'KKSS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Thursday. The hearing of the case agains William Blomfield, of Auckland, and William John Geddis, "of Napier, for aliened contempt of uourt. was begun to-day before the full bench of the Supreme Court, consisting of their Honours the Chief Justice, Sir Joshua Williams, Mr Justice Chapman, Mr Justice Cooper, Mr Justice Denniston, and Mr Justice Sim. The action v?as a motion by the .Attorney-General (the Hon. A. L. Herdman, Minister for Justice), for an order that William Blomfield and William John Geddis, both printers and publishers and proprietors of the New Zealand Observer for publishing in the Observer of September Gth, 1913, certain insulting and offensive pictures or cartoons entitled respectively "Experience" and "Justice is Not Blind," and referring to the Honourable Worley Baaseit Edwards, a judge of the Supreme Court, and imputing to him partiality, bias, corruption, etc. This Day. Argument was continued throughout yesterday's sitting of the Pull Court, and was not concluded when the Court adjourned till Monday.

partitions of blocKs it no cnought the should bo partitioned. Another altera tion was in regard to the purchase o native land by the Crown, revertin; back to the old system of the Crow; being able to purchase individual in teres':.-:, and do arc ay with a meet in? of assembled owners. Mr Ngata pointed cut lhafc first class native land was rapidly bein; alienated from the native. He de sired to see ample restrictive provi si on made so that Maoris would not b r left landless, Mr Buxton contended the Maor required protection against the European trader. If titles were individualized under the Bill the Maor would be tempted to sell recklesslv, and then become a burden on fno community. Mr Ngata demanded legislation tc rectify the injustices to Taranaki natives under the West ("oast leases. The keynote of the Bill was no; compulsion, but insidious temptation. which was worse than compulsion. The temptation to the Maoris to pel 1 lands'was greater now than twentv years ago. Knowing the weakness oi their nature he viewed the effect with considerable anxiety. The weakness of all our legislation was that no provision was ever made to induce the Maori to farm his own lands. The Bill was in some respects worse than the worst introduced by the Liberal Governments. Mr Mac Donald said the Bill was a clear declaration oi the Minister's indidious intention to open the door more widely to allow the European to acquire Maori land?. Mr Buddo advocated a system of financing natives so as to enable them to farm their own lands. There was imminent risk of the. natives becoming landless and a burden upon the State. Mr Parata quoted n series oi early purchases form trio natives to Hiovr they never had a square deal. Ten years ago the natives of both Islands held six million acres. Within that time they had sold two million acres, and the whole of the money received therefore was being dissipated in hospitality. It was not the Maori nature to conserve money. What he wanted was protection. So far as he could gather the natives now owned four million acres, an average of 80 acres per head, or of tirst-ciass land only 2o acres. Compare these with pakeba holdings. See bow much land of the Maori could be taken for settlement. The Bill was read a second time pro forma and referred to the Native Affairs Committee. THE LAND BILL. In the House in the evening the Land Bill was further considered in Committ e. A loaf- discussion ensued on ilause IS, providing for residence conditions being dispensed with in certain ?a?e i. Sir Joseph Ward endeavouerd to imand the clause in the direction of liaising exemptions controllable by ■egulaiion «nd not by the boards. The iroposai was lost on the voices. j Atl 11.00 clause 23 was reached. This provides for the granting of the j :ee simple in lespect to Ilauraki nining leases. HAURAKI LEASES. FREEHOLD OBJECTED TO A MEMBERS' HOLDING. After the telegraph oilico closed the ilausa providing for the conversion of rlauraki lease U'O freehold \va? further lehated. The Opposition took strong excrp;ion to the suggested provision, and illeged that a member of the House iwned 2000 acres of H aural; i land. The Hon. Mr Herries stated the Government had no knowledge of the substance of the allegation. Mr Poland stated that he owned -irq) icres on a Hauraki lease, but if the ansa passed he would not avail hiin- ■ elf of the freehold, so the statements lid not apply to him. He would not vote against the clause, and moved i-.i additional proviso that compensa- j don on resumption should not exceed j he price paid by the owner to the j Jrown. The Minister said he could not ac:ept the suggestion. Mr T. W. Rhodes said ho owned

At 4. r. 0 rum. '< |||. copied Mr Mnvsi-y'.. pone the c l;:i;:-x «-c ' Mr Massoy tvporiinj: )«v Jl[sg9B|m Thir the Pri'i;r Mini.-" arte? nro'i.cFW':! ihr.f. ;iri v :!••! t r were boiivr nn-erir-ii to. At S o'clock !bc? ileum- adjourned for break fa?!.