The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1876.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 38, 9 February 1876, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1876.

Our relations -with the Maoris in the North Island are ol the most unsatisfactory character. We boast of the higli state of . civilisation we have attained, and make much ado about the progress the colony has achieved of late years, and we have good cause for doing so, but all this is but as a gilded framing to one dark blot iv our midst. In the Province of Auckland murders of the foulest description may be committed with impunity, provided the criminals be .Maoris. The names of Todd, the surveyor, and Sullivan are still fresh in our memories. Both were murdered by natives, who escaped into the territories of the Maori King, where the arm of the law cannot reach them. To them has now fled another blood stained wretch. Hare Winiata Btruck down and murdered in the most cold blooded manner a quiet inoffensive man, named Packer, in the neighborhood of Auckland the other day. Hare gJViniata then eluded the vigilance of the police who were in search of him, and succeeded in reaching the King country, and there, unless his Majesty chooses to give him up, he may remain at large .without the slightest fear of being brought to justice. This is, not a pleasant state of things to prevail in a civilised country, but so it is, arid to time alone can we trust to work its cure. It may be that if King Tawhiao is communicated with upon the subject, he will, seeing that the crime has np political significance, give the murderer up, but it is somewhat' humiliating to a community of Europeans to feelthatwhether justice shall be meted out or not depends entirely upon tbe view this old savage takes of the matter. It is not long since he set his sigh manual to a code, of laws, amongst which it" is ordered -that .. henceforth murder and theft shall cease, and in this category are included Winiata's crimes. The Waikato Times, in commenting upon this affair before the murderer had reached his " City of Refuge," says : — "The late proclamation of Tawhiao. was either a reality or a sham, a piece of genuine good intention or of hypocritical deceit— he is either a king or a pnppet — which of all these is, or is not, will be seen by the action he may take in the matter, should the murderer Hare succeed in reaching . the King territory."