SPECIAL TELEGRAM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4773, 10 July 1876, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAM.

(from our own correspondent.) Auckland, Saturday. The following article appears in to-day's Cross. The non-apprehension of the murderer Winiata appears to have taken up a considerable amount of valuable time with the members of the House of Representatives. Sir George Grey has stated that if he had “ been placed in control of the Auckland police, as he ought to have been, he could have captured Winiata with the greatest ease.” If this statement is correct, and we would not wish to cast doubts on the veracity of the knight of the Kawau, why did not he, in the interests of the human race, telegraph to the General Government, stating his knowledge of the whereabouts-of Winiata and the method (so easily described) by which he could have caught him? Many persons in Auckland gave such information as they had obtained to Mr. Jasper Broham or his subordinates, and several settlers aided in the search for the delinquent. We feel quite certain that if Sir George Grey had given the clue to the police force, they would at once have followed it out. Sir George Grey has ever been ready to find fault with others. He has, however, before this alluded to the 'maintenance of “ peace, order, and good government” among the 60,000 or 70,000 persons of whom he is the elected head. Why then did he not give the police the “ office,” and let them know how to arrest Winiata with “ the greatest ease.” Sir George Grey takes up, and is entitled to assume, the position of chief elected magistrate of this province, and although the police are not nominally under his control, he well knows that he had

only to suggest any reasonable and wise course of action to the Inspector of Police, and it would have been followed out with vigor and promptitude. Sir George Grey and Dr. Pollen were in Auckland when the crime was committed; Sir Donald McLean was at Napier. Why did not Sir George, as Superintendent of the province, communicate with the Colonial Secretary, and lay before him the plan by which Winiata could have been captured? Anyone fan be very wise after the event, for ex post facto wisdom is very cheap, and “iP is a very s'lort word, but is often very significant. If sir George Grey were.’asked why he allowed some 180 rebels who escaped from the Hawaii, and took up a position on the hill behind Omaha, to remain there when he had a large military force in the country, he would have to t dve a very long explanation of the circumstances, and use a considerable number of “ ifs in addition. We might suggest that if the natives had been foolish enough to have embarked on board a certain vessel chartered surreptitiously, in order to entrap and convey them from-the neighborhood of Omaha to the Hauraki Gulf, when certain meu-of-war were instructed to lie in wait under the lee of the island in order to capture the vessel, then we should have heard very little of the matter. If our memory serve us aright, Sir George Grejr tried very hard, after the escape of the prisoners from Kawau, to prove that some of their number, perhaps Tapiahana himself, were murderers, and endeavored to show that his Ministers had done wrong in not bringing these men to trial when confined in the hulk at Auckland. That the Maoris who had been guilty of murder knew that sooner or later they would be brought to trial if they remained in confinement, was an irresistible conclusion, and therefore they considered it advisable to make their escape on the first suitable occasion. We would refer our readers to the blue books of the period, and the celebrated memoranda which marked that era of New Zealand affairs known as the memorandumiad. If Sir George Grey did not know, or had not heard that Taipahana was suspected of murder, he must have used much less detective power than he has since exercised in the Ohmemuri, Tairua, andPiako questions. He was then the head of the Native department, for the colony had not at that time taken over responsibility in native affairs, and the Native Secretary (Dr. Shorthand) was much more under his control than that of the Colonial Ministry. He could thus have obtained by his own action all the Information possessed by the Government departments. But he did not deem it necessary to ask for this information until after the event, in the same manner as he now states in Winiata’s case that he could have arrested him easily if, &c„ &c. It is very easy for men who hail from Otago, and who entered into possession of ,a valuable landed estate purchased for a few pence per acre from the natives, who have lived in piping times of peace and never heard a shot fired in anger, to declaim against the action of Sir D. McLean, who has to consider the position of our settlers scattered along the frontier on confiscated lands in the provinces of Auckland and Taranaki ; but will those eloquent new-fledged politicians agree to place their Southern laud fund at the disposal of the North to carry out those military operations which would have to be undertaken to capture the murderer Winiata and other felons now located in that portion of the country held by the Maori King party ? If necessary, we will add another. “ Had Sir D. McLean demanded the murderer, and . Tawhiao refused to surrender him, what then would have been the position of the Government? Are we prepared for war ? Have we the means ? It may be said we would get the land now in the hands of the natives. If, again, their territory does not exceed two million acres of good land, and it costs us five millions of pounds to conquer it, and the contingent ruin of half the frontier settlers in the colony, we would ask our Southern members to consider whether this is worth while, and we are further prepared to guarantee that Sir G. Grey, if he were to step into Sir D. McLean’s shoes to-morrow morning, would, as Native Minister, strongly advise the Government of which he would then be a member not to attempt the capture of Te Kooti, Nuku, Winiata, or other notabilities of that genua, unless the House was prepared to sanction a war loan. A question of proportion suggests itself. If'Sir George Grey could not, with 10,000 British troops under his orders, capture 180 escaped prisoners on Omaha Hill men who had no supporters—how can Sir Donald McLean, with less than 200 constabulary, capture Winiata, who is said to be protected by the whole force of the Ngatimaniapoto and Waikato tribes ? We do not wish to stir up hostile feeling between the two races, and we know, in despite of a recently packed meeting at Alexandra, that the Waikato settlers will bear us out in deprecating the Armed Constabulary being marched over the frontier to capture Winiata. We hope and Relieve the day will come when Tawhiao will be recognised as the chief of his own people, and he and they will be subject to the same law as ourselves; but meanwhile we urge the exercise of moral suasion and forbearance, in the hope that our erring aboriginal brother may before long become amenable to reason and, yielding to the inevitable,perceive the necessity of the Queen’s ■writ running throughout the colony. If Tawhiao shelters murderers, who not “ aukati ” him, and let him and his people have no communication with Europeans, and be debarred from trading at the towns adjacent to the frontier. This would be a cheaper method of reducing our native neighbors to submission than the expenditure of blood and treasure in the old style to which Sir G. Grey, judging from his speech as telegraphed, appears desirous to revert. The member for Auckland City West says if he had had the control of the police he would have captured Winiata with the greatest ease (we presume near Orakei). Will he promise that when he becomes Native Minister he will procure the surrender of Winiata forthwith, without causing any trouble or bloodshed 3