The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5760, 15 September 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1879.

The Maoris “ were within ten yards of “ me before they fired,” said the wounded man McWilliams, when asked to describe what happened at the Pukehanga outrage. The first shot took the tops of his fingers off; the second wounded him in the thigh. All the Maoris then fired a volley after his mate, who ran away, and as good luck would have it, they all missed him. There were about fifteen Maoris in the party, and they were evidently all equally determined to kill the European surveyors, and thereby deter others from coming to survey their land. This murderous cold-blooded assault was planned and executed on the 29th of August, by a handful of Maoris who fancied themselves aggrieved by a decision of the Land Court. We are almost ashamed to record what has since happened. A party of volunteers was at once organised to pursue the murderers, but the expedition was ordered not to proceed, and personal government was once more trotted out, to distinguish itself in the same way as it had done on former occasions, i.e,, by a disgraceful failure. Mr. Sheehan went up to the village where the murderers, reinforced by a lot of sympathetic souls from Piako, had entrenched themselves. They looked so formidable that Mr. Sheehan thought it advisable to let them severely alone. An open declaration of war would no doubt have been very injudicious, just when the elections were going on. Reports to the effect that the Maoris did not mean to hit any one, that they only wished to “ assert their title,” and simply wanted to frighten some other Maoris away, were industriously circulated. This gained time. The next little move was that Mr. Sheehan should consent to allow a new and utterly illegal tribunal to try the murderers. Of course they were sure to bo given up, that was an understood thing. This Maori Court was only a flattering concession to the chiefs; it would provide an opportunity for them to show their loyalty by giving up the murderers, as Tb Whitx ought to have done with Hieoki. However, the Maoris have preferred to follow Te Whiti’s illustrious example. They have warned the offenders not to shoot any more Europeans at a ten yards’ range, and have let them go. A Maori war is not to be entered upon lightly, but we maintain that it were better to have a Maori war at once than that such Hn outrage should be allowed to go unpunished. The Government have given these offenders every possible opportunity to escape. No precautions whatever seem to have been taken to ensure their capture if the “runanga” should happen to acquit them—a by no means improbable eventuality. What would Mr. Sheehan have done if the Hauraki chiefs had sentenced the offenders to a week’s bread and water, as an ample punishment for a murderous assault upon innocent and unoffending men ? The tribunal had no legal jurisdiction or authority, and it was most unseemly thus to set aside the law of the land in favor of a biassed lot of judges, whose notions of right and justice are of the very haziest description. Te Whiti’s sayings and doings may perhaps he disregarded as being but the outcome of a disordered brain. But this is not the case either with the fifteen Ngatihako murderers or with the Hauraki chiefs who pretended to inquire into their crime, and were even allowed to examine European witnesses with a view of passing sentence upon the culprits. Now that the offenders have had an ample opportunity afforded them of taking refuge in the King Country, and now that the elections are over, there will probably be an immense fuss made over the matter. We shall hear of search parties, and wounded fugitives ; a price will be put on the murderers’ heads, and all the old farce which was so excellently rehearsed when McLean was murdered by Hiroki will no doubt be acted over again.

The Government have carefully prepared this outbreak. The Government lamd purchase agents paid a deposit on the block to the Ngatikoe, but within the block at Pukehanga a number of theNgatihako have been living on the land. The latter tribe is believed to have a good title to the land which was bein o, surveyed, but the recent Lands Court did not recognise • the claim. The Ngatihako are connected with an influential chief named Pi.veha at Piako, and evidently made up their minds to murder anyone whom they thought was trying to dispossess them. The action of the Native Department has, in every case where a difficulty has arisen since the present Government came into office, been such as directly tended to lower the pakeha in the eyes of the Maoris. First came Tukukino’s outrage at the Thames, when ho took away the tools from the workmen, tore up bridges and culverts, &c., and the Native Department ordered the county authorities not to execute the warrants issued for the arrest of the offenders. Then came the miserable and degrading negotiations with Tb Wuiti about the delivery of Hikoki up to justice. Then there was the unresisted turning off of the surveyors from the Waimate Plains. Next, the “bogus” advertisements were inserted in almost every paper in New Zealand, as well as in some of the Australian papers, of the sale of the surveyed portion of the Waimate Plains, only to be withdrawn after a week or so. Then came the insulting and contemptuous treatment of the uninvited Ministerial party at Te Kopua. Then came more outrages at the Thames, the stoppage of the railway survey, seizing of the gear from the snagging punt, &c. ft was soon followed by °the wanton destruction of property by the ploughing parties at Hawera and Taranaki. This ploughing business went .on without the Government doing anything to stop it, until the County of j£ e nt telegram roused the ire of every setti’er in the district, and they carted off the intruders, and showed the Government t. here was no danger to be feared—-

a hint the Government were only too glad to take advantage of. Meantime, a Maori on the East Coast tried to wreck a train and murder the guard, but the authorities were afraid to deal with him' or keep him in custody, and let him wander about the town under arrest, but the fact was carefully concealed from him, and when tried he was let off with a caution. Now at last a band of fifteen murderers have shot a white man down in cold blood, and the law has been set aside and ignored. A fortnight afterwards they are quietly allowed to escape, and no precautions whatever have been taken to secure their arrest. No doubt this is a highly satisfactory form of personal government : the Maoris evidently think so. They have returned three Greyite members out of four. They have also ousted Captain Morels and one or two other members. If we were Maoris we would do the same. When the inevitable Maori war breaks out, which is being so carefully prepared by the Ministry, the eyes of the country will be opened. Not a Maori concerned in any of the above named outrages has been punished. Even the men now in custody are being treated like gentlemen, and fed up like fighting cocks, and admit they wish for nothing better than a continuance of prison fare, and only hope that their wives and families may soon be arrested also.