LETTER TO MARSH BROWN KAWITI.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 23, 15 November 1859, Page 4

LETTER TO MARSH BROWN KAWITI.

Native Secretary's Office, Auckland, Nov. 2, 1859. Friend Marsh,—Salutations to you. His Excellency has heard with deep regret of the revival of a barbarous custom among a j people who have so lately professed to abandon the «ld Maori usages and to adopt iho j laws of England. His Excellency has hem especially pained on being informed of'tinpan taken by you in the affair, which is 1 shewn by your own letters in which you ! swk to justify the act of your people in put- j ting to death two persons for a crime which j was not proved against them, and for which j they were not even tried. The Governor! cannot but regard this act as one of defiance | to English law, which protects the life of every roan, good or bad, and requires that every one charged with an offence shall be tried before a proper tribunal and found guilty, before punishment is inflicted, and. even when found guilty, permits infliction of j punishment only by the persons appointed to \ execute the sentence of the law. j The Governor feels that to allow you to I retain your office would be to implicate! the Government in an act which defies I alike the laws of God and man, and which ' all right-minded men must deprecate. j By acquiescing in, or attempting to justify such an act, you have shown yourself an ' unfit person to bold the office omrusied in you of administrator of justice among your < people, or to be the coadjutor of au ling-,

lish Magistrate. His Excellency has therefore directed that your name be erased from the list of Native Assessors. His Excellency does not forget the past, nor the professions of friendship and goodwill which he has received from you as a Maori Chief. The sentiment with which you are now regarded by His Excellency is riot one of anger or animosity, but rather one of sorrow and regret He regrets that his friend should have been so misled, but hopes also that he may ere long perceive and repent the crime of which he has been guilty. From your friend, Thomas Henry Smith. To Marsh Brown Kawiti, Te Kawakawa. Bay of Islands. Office of Minister for Native Affairs, Auckland, November ord; 1809. His Excellency the Governor has been pleased lo direct that the name of Mum Paraoke Kawiti, of Orauta, should be removed from the list of Native Assessors appointed under the provisions of the " Native Circuit Courts Act, 1858," for the Bay of Islands. (Signed) C. W. Richmond.