THE WAIRAU MASSACRE; ARBITRARY INTERFERENCE WITH "THE DUE COURSE OF LAW."

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 29, 26 April 1845, Page 4

THE WAIRAU MASSACRE; ARBITRARY INTERFERENCE WITH "THE DUE COURSE OF LAW."

[From the Colonial Gazette, Nov. 9.] It is a pity that Messrs. Dandeson, Coates, and Beecham do not publish a treatise on the laws of evidence. They would undoubtedly propound some very original views. At least in practice they do seem to be satisfied with evidence which would be satisfactory to no mind constituted as men's minds usually are. Let us take, by way of illustration, their efforts to prove that Rauparaha and Rangahaeata are perfectly ! justifiable in the maesacre at the Wairau. j The Rev. Mr. Beecham, on the 7th of last ! March, transmitted to Lord Stanley four letters, j received from Wesleyan Missionaries, contain- j ing statements regarding the massacre, which, he says, constitute " a body of evidence res- . pecting the Wairau tragedy, distinct and complete in itself." This body of evidence, when examined, is found to consist of two letters from j the Rev.Mr.Whiteley, stationed some hundreds of i -miles distant from the Wairau, who retails the j gossip he has picked up from wandering natives; and two from the Rev. Mr. Ironside, who, though he was stationed at Cloudy Bay, heard nothing of the affray till it was all over. Mr. Beecham sets these two hearsay testimonies in , oposition to the mass of evidence collected by I the magistrates from parties (natives and Euro- ' peans) who were present and took part in the | affray, or who, like Mr. Ironside, gleaned their j information on the scene of action. And he ' expects that the hearsay evidence of his two i missionaries is to be conclusive against the Europeans who fell. The way in which Mr. Beecham has arrived at this startling conclusion is evident. He says :—": — " In this unhappy affair the committee (of the Wesleyan Mission) are specially interested, as its immediate and sad effect has been the breaking up of a flourishing mission that was under their care." In other words, the mission have an interest in having the affair hushed up without inquiry, in order that their pupils implicated in the massacre may take courage to return to them. It is' curiously illustrative of the footing on which Mr. Beecham stands with the Colonial office, that his volunteer communication of hearsay evidence, accom- , panied by his unblushing confession of the i

motive in sending it, is received with thanks by Lord Stanley. Had the New Zealand Company, or any private lay settler, sent his lordship the best and most conclusive evidence in the world, the reply would have been a sharp remembrancer" that it ought to have been transmitted through the Governor. Mr. Dandeson Coates is quite as luminous in his practical exposition of the laws of evidence. In the postcript to his letter on "the New Zealanders and their lands,"* he quotes the story told by Rauparaha to Governor Fitzroy at their interview, and the Governor's declaration that there was to be no judicial investigation, and adds :—": — " Such was the deliberate judgment of Captain Fitzroy, after a careful examination of the whole matter on the spot, with every advantage for a full and searching investigation into all the facts connected with it. His decision thus pronounced must therefore be considered as setting this very painful question at rest, and as exonerating the natives from being the aggressors." Beyond Mr. Dandeson Coates' assertion, that Governor Fitzroy instituted " a careful examination on the spot," there is not a shadow of evidence that this was done. The Governor merely said, " Now I have heard both sides." How he heard the native side our readers and the readers of Mr. Coates' pamphlet know. He allowed Rauparaha to tell his story, did not ask him a single cross question, and examined no other native. How he heard the settlers' side we know (and Mr. Coates knows, though he suppresses it) from the narrative of Mr. Fox, published in the Appendix to the Fourteenth Report of the Directors of the New Zealand Company :—": — " The Wairau affair was gone into, but chiefly by himself (Governor Fitzroy) ; and he told us as much as that his mind was made up to have no judicial inquiry, partly because satisfied of the injustice of the proceedings of the Europeans, and partly because it would be impossible to take the offenders without giving rise to a war." Governor Fitzroy did not examine the whole matter on the spot : — he went there with his mind made vp — made up without " the advantage of a full and searching investigation." The exoneration of the natives rests upon Rauparaha's story alone — upon that deliberately-prepared special pleading of the party accused — contradicted as it is both by native and European testimony. But Mr. Coates, like Mr. Beecham, has " a special interest" in having the question hushed up. That interest, too, is something more tangible than a " flourishing mission :" it is the hundred thousand acres (and upwards) of land claimed by eighteen missionaries. The object which the Colonial Office had in communicating the unimportant letters forwarded by the Rev. Mr. Beecham, and the object which Mr. Dandeson Coates has in Tfiew in publishing Rauparaha's story as conclusive evidence of that murderer's innocence, are one : and that one is pretty obvious. It is to justify Governor Fitzroy's illegal interference to prevent the judicial investigation of a murder, or manslaughter, or justifiable homicide. A court of justice alone is competent to decide on the question. The friends and townsmen of the parties killed demand a judicial investigation, but the Governor — the executive officer — usurps the judicial function, declares that he is satisfied, and forbids the trial to proceed. Let us suppose that the Church and Wesleyan missions had sent some of their preachers to the gipsies who frequent Ascot races, and that these gipsies had killed the missionaries : suppose that Sir R. Peel, without making any inquiry, when it was proposed to try the gipsies for murder, had said, " Now I have heard both sides," and ordered the prosecution to be suppressed : what would Messrs. Beecham & Coates have thought of such conduct on the part of the Premier ? This could not have been done in England : it remains to be seen whether it will be tolerated in New Zealand — whether Governor Fitzroy will be allowed to screen bis pet cut-throats by interfering to prevent the court of law from doing its duty. The inhabitants of Nelson have appealed to the Colonial Secretary and to Parliament, claiming redress for so flagrant a violation of their constitutional rights. The petition to Parliament is signed by 597 adult males, the adult male population of Nelson being estimated at 730. The residuary 133 consist of 30 persons * in Government employment, who dared not sign for fear of being dismissed, as the magistrates had been before them; 50 Germans, arrived since the massacre, imperfectly acquainted with the English language, and totally ignorant of English law ; and the straggling settlers who could not well be got at. The unanimous population of Nelson demand justice against Governor Fitzroy at the hands of Ministers and Parliament. Will Government dare to refuse it under such circumstances ? Surely the transparent fallacies of Messrs. Beecham & Coates will not reconcile the British Parliament to the idea of their fellow-subjects in New Zealand holding their lives, not under the protection of the law, but of the arbitrary pleasure of a Governor. * This is a misnomer ; it ought to be, " the New Zealand missionaries and their lands."