PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1880. MAORI LAW.

Patea Mail, 13 November 1880, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1880. MAORI LAW.

The shooting of a pakeha by Maoris in the Tuhua country, up the Wanganui river, is an event which carries no political significance. Moffat is a man who voluntarily went into native territory remote from any pakeha settlement, and the colonial Government could not be expected to ensure his safety against any accident from native fanaticism. Moffat appears to have acted with criminal rashness in defying native reverence for things that are tapu. Ho went on land which natives regarded with superstitious awe as tapu, on which no white man had sot foot; and he having trespassed, the natives resolved to kill him as the only atonement. One native, who had been Moffat’s companion in his wild life, tried to save his pakeha friend. When the natives levelled guns at Moffat, the friendly Maori placed himself in front and said they must kill him before they touched the pakeha. But that did not suffice. The friendly native was pushed aside, and Moffat was shot dead by two Maoris. Ho is the less entitled to sympathy because the colony has had to punish him with imprisonment for assisting the Maoris to make powder, and so prolong the last war. If this tragedy had been enacted in any settled district, it would, we think, have become a colonial duty to vindicate the law by arresting and punishing the offenders at any cost. As the case stands, we cannot sec any obligation on the Government to interfere.