EXECUTION OF KEREOPA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 50, 6 January 1872, Page 12

EXECUTION OF KEREOPA.

The murderer of the Rev Mr Volkner yesterday paid the last penalty of the law. The retribution in this case if long delayed is not likely to lose any of its force upon the native mind. Indeed it is probable that the long lapse of time that has occurred since the tragedy at Opotiki will add to the moral effect of the ultimate punishment of the chief offender. The execution of Kereopa is not a hasty act of vengeance. Had he been caught in flagrante delicto and at once shot, without so much as a drum-head trial, his execution would have been divested of the calm and deliberate circumstances which import to legal proceedings their greatest elements of impressiveness and influence. A summary execution would have failed to convey to the natives any conception of the absolute unforgetfulness of the law or of the certainty of retribution against its violators. Years have passed since the wretched criminal —outcast even amongst his own familiar

people—committed the offence which he expiated yesterday with his own life. He might probably have been captured long ago, but although political reasons might have rendered it undesirable to hurry his arrest, Justice had not slept. Driven from one hiding place to another, half starved, and worried by the half-heartiness of each tribe with which he sought refuge, he wandered about the land, and was finally captured by one of nis own race. He was calmly and deliberately tried according to all the forms of law, counsel urged every available plea on his behalf, but lie was convicted on the clearest possible testimony. And the ordinary course of law has been followed. It is impossible that this example cannot leave some serious impress on the native mind. It must teach them that the oft quoted accusation that the Government of New Zealand does not execute its laws is unfounded. It must teach them that if we choose to allow Justice to slumber for awhile we are only making Time our ally, and waiting patiently for the inevitable retribution. The total absence of all passion or excitement with respect to Kereopa’s trial and execution will argue strongly for the majesty of the law. The natives will see and understand that there is no wantonness in our actions against them, and they may perhaps discover that we are guided by some principle intelligible even to their minds. The sentence in Kereopa’s case seems to have received the approval of the natives themselves as to its fairness and justice. He was a mischief maker and misleader, and the crime he committed had not even the excuse of revenge for some imagined grievance. It was unprovoked and cruel even in Maori eyes, and he does not appear to have had the sympathy of any one of his own race. If he has found apologists, it is amongst those mawky sentimentalists we occasionally meet with amongst Europeans. Such men as Mr Colenso, whose influence, luckily for the is now extinct. Those who on the other hand would hurry the Government into what they call the “ prompt punishment” of Maori offenders, should see in the case of Kereopa that when the fitting time comes, the Government is quite prepared to enforce the law. No doubt the capture of Te Kooti and Titokovvaru will occur sooner or later—-probably the Maoris themselves will be the instruments, and we have no hesitation in saying that the Government will allow the law to take its proper course in both cases. Deliberate legal action is far more likely to exercise a wholesome influence on the native mind than that kind of “ promptness” that would appear most like warlike vengeance.