AVENGING A MASSACRE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1001, 23 February 1883, Page 2

AVENGING A MASSACRE.

(per PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

INVERCARGILL, Feb 20. ' The Southland NevJS to-night has the following :—Air Whitely King, editor of the Mataura Ensign , and grandson of the late Rev John Whilely, who was murdered at White Cliffs in 1869, has sent a telegram to the Native Minister with reference to pardoning Te Kooti and the Amnesty Bill,, strongly denouncing ; the proceeding. The telegram concludes as follows: “You will doubtless next proceed to pardon those concerned in the White Cliffs massacre in 1869. 1 would remind you that for several years I have urged the New Zealand Government to arrest and place those murderers upon their trial, hut- that my request lias never been acceded to ; indeed your Government directly refused to take any steps in the matter. I sought then to put the law in motion myself, and you defeated my purpose by bringing down your precious Amnesty Bill—a Bill foi* the better protection of the native murderers of British subjects. The House was misled, and the Bill was rushed through and became law before the country knew its object. I would remind you that there was no mention of the Amnesty Bill in the Speech from the Throne. It was introduced deliberately to defeat the ends of justice. You have refused to allow the law to take its course, and the murderers of those who fell at the. White Cliffs will probably' be the recipients of your gracious pardon, as Te Kooti lias been ; but 1 would have you consider, before taking that step, that you have aroused the vendetta spirit by your action in muzzling justice, and whatever the consequences, the onus rests with you, the provisions of the Amnesty Bill notwithstanding, and pardoned or unpardoned those concerned in the White Cliffs massacre shall sifffer for their crimes. If you include Tererenga and his followers in the amnesty I, who have tried legally to bring them to justice, will take my own way to avenge the massacre of a young English mother and her babes," and those who fell at the White Cliffs on the 13th February, 1869. Does the amnesty include Europeans who were ‘ political offenders’ with the Maoris ; and, if not, why is not Cockburn, who it is said, assisted in the butchery at the White Cliffs, arrested ? There is your loophole of escape. An administration unscrupulous enough to bring down a special Bill to stop the machinery of the law, and to fraternise with assassins, will have no compunction in sacrificing a European to save a noble savaged’