THE STANDARD. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1873.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 86, 10 September 1873, Page 2

THE STANDARD.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1873.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

That a severe check has been given to the prospects of this district by the unfortunate turn events have taken during the last month, the most casual observer must have noticed. At no period of its existence, has Poverty Bay been so well known and favorably quoted as during the past year. The remembrances of by-gone misfortunes, were fading into the dim vista of the past, and we had ceased to think that such things had been. Men, with capital and enterprise, from other parts of the Colony, were attracted hither by the voice of the charmer ; and, under troublesome, and trying circumstances have evinced at once their courage and their faith in the resources of the new home they wished to make their own. We refer now snore particularly to those who are victims, so to speak, to their own dogged perseverance and persistent energy, and the Native Land Laws of this part of the Colony. Month after month ; year after year, passed away; but, nothing daunted, they held on to their purpose, with a steadfast hope that the obligations of the Government would be fulfilled, and that the engagements of the natives, based upon those obligations, would be ratified also. It is not our purpose to defend the action, or plead the cause of those who may have merely made bad bargains, with either quasi proprietors, or with men whose moral code (such as natives have) is too lax to be relied on. If one man negotiates with another for, and advances money on, land the title of which is doubted, he must take the consequences ; the solitary satisfaction he has is in knowing that he bargained with his eyes open. But it becomes quite another question when the

non-ratification point is reached through the fault, and almost criminal neglect of the Government. The proceedings of the past few weeks in Gisborne, culminating m little short of an open riot, are but the result of the last four years’ delay in settling agrarian disputes with natives who, chafing under the penalties of rebellion, were not likely to be appealed when they saw the fiat of confiscation being literally carried into effect Against them. It was doubly culpable then in the Government, after having nursed these troubles into maturity, to let them have an unobstructed sway ; and to have paid no heed to the signs which had been put forth of an increasing band of repudiators and leaguers. The consequences of what the Government have not done, but have permitted the natives to do, are the exact sum of our complaint. During the long somnolence which fallowed the sitting of the last Commission, the settlers have been pushing to the front; extending the border lines between peace and danger; carrying the ploughshare and reaping hook, instead of the sword and rifle, into the enemy’s land ; lessening the distance between civilization and barbarism, and. opening up a back and new country before unknown. Those who remained, induced others to come and for what? Each was an appreciable addition to our population, for he represented capital: he brought wealth, and thews and sinews, its great progenitors. The present of Poverty Bay had shut out the past to such as these; and they found that exceptional circumstances required special treatment. What the Government should have helped them to do —to open up the land again, and plant peace and plenty where blood and carnage once held dominion—they have done for themselves, and with what result ? Whisper softly, ye that know ! Speak gently, ye that feel! But the record is known too well. Already an exodus has begun, not, indeed, of many men, but of much capital, —that which can make, and unmake.

Several steamers lately have borne past our settlement men who would willingly have cast in their lot with us, even in the present state of affairs, if the Government could be relied on ; but the present read by the past gives little encouragement in the future, and, reluctantly, they are compelled to leave the soil where troubles grow so freely and so thick. It is, therefore, a matter of some considerable importance to this district, that the business of the Cession Court should be put through successfully and definitely. On the peaceful solution of our present difficulties, and the title of certain native land claimants being permanently settled, depends the question of our progress. If the country is to be held by lawless desperadoes, then good by to any hope that until recently may have been entertained, that unfortunate Poverty Bay has seen the last of its troubles.