The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 287, 7 July 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 1875.

"Weehall 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.”

Im this morning’s issue will be found Judge Kogan’s decision on the Waikanae (Wai-o-Hiharore) and Awapuni Blocks; and, as it presents many features’of much interest, we have given it in extenso. Few, perhaps, of our numerous readers have an adequate conception of the* unremitting earnestness displayed by the many different and antagonistic parties of natives, who lay claim to the above blocks, to the investigation of whose title the officers of the Native Lands Court have assiduously applied their energies for the last two or three weeks. Fewer still can be aware of the copious details that arise in the hearing of such cases as the blocks we have named, involving questions of title which, as in the present instance, have been sources of chronic dispute among the Natives for over thirteen generations. Even in the old country, where no inconsiderable attention has been -devoted to the preservation of

documentary-evidence appertaining to the owndrship of territorial estates, in archives set apart for the purpose, litigation, involving the greatest intricacy, and demanding the keenest discernment, are constantly occupying the attention of the most astute, lawyers. The Maori luxuriates in legends and traditions, the sequences of which, unwritten though they may be, are preserved, together with their sacerdotal rites and mysteries, * by priests whose life-study it is to transmit them in all their purity from generation to generation. At the same time they are a people- whose past history is one of chronic warfare, tribe pitted against tribe, sept against sept; quasi friends, now federating against a common foe, to again become enemies more deadly than before.

It mustbe admitted, then, that among such a people, with whom conquests were ephemeral, dealing with the question of the tenure of their landed estate, is one of'a labyrinthine nature, calling . for a mind of microscopic power to discover the minute particles of evidence bearing upou the equities of the case.

It has .been shown that for ages past this land has had a peculiar charm attached t-o "it ; here- the Maoris migrated at frequent intervals for the purposelof obtaining those delicacies of diet that an inland residence denied to them ; beyond this they, doubtless, attached little value to it; but to the natives of our own time, how far different is the aspect of affairs ? By they have become keenly cognizant of the everenhancing value of land ip this districts They fully discern thp cause of the surprising rapidity of growth of the township of Gisborne, the site of their parents’ village ; they are becoming conscious of the advantages that accrue from the possession of wealth, and they know that land is a primary source of that wealth. Such are some of the circumstances attending the Ticcupation of, and claim to, the Blocks above referred to.

In making these remarks upon the question just now set at rest, wo would observe that it is beyond doubt a matter of surprise that a much longer period was not occupied in the hearing of a case in which the evidence was of so conflicting, and volumin’bus a character, as that which has resulted in what appears to be a clear-sighted and patient investigation, and equitable apportionment of the land, as shown by the judgment pronounced by Judge Rogan which, from all we can learn, has meted out justice (if it has not given satisfaction) to all concerned.

A NICE COUPLE. Verily the two men whom an unkind Providence has inflicted on the settlers of Napier and Gisborne are appropriately chosen as fit associates to do some of the dirtiest work in the shape of journalism it has 'been our misfortune io read of. Leaving the contemptible puppy located amongst us to the contempt he deserves at the hands of ill honest men, we" quote’the following from the Napier Telegraph, furnished by its Auckland correspondent, expressing the opinion entertained in other places of the editor of the Napier paper from which our local slanderer sprung:—

The Star has a severe article on the editor of the H. B. Herald, based on the attack made by that paper on the editor of the Pot& re the DuvaHi Sisters. It quotes the Heralds remarks with the following introduction :—“ We think it will be admitted that none but a biackguard in heart and deed could write and publish the following.” It continiM, “The cowardly way in which this base insinuation is put is characteristic of the tuft-hunting sycophant that does the editorials of the H. B. Herald. He has no pluck to father*? rumor,’ which is solely the emanat ion of bis own brain, and his statement of it produces an irrepressible tingling in toe and boot. When one compares the reputation of pie Post (second to no journal in the Australasian Colonies for honesty, fearlessness, and independence) with the H. B. Herald, and when one compares the honorable position won in journalism by Mr Gillon, of the Post, with the kind of fame the editor of the H. B. Herald enjoys through crawling at the feet and licking the toes of those who are good to him, one feels angry at the impudence of such a fellow presuming to challenge comparison. The closing paragraph in the article of this scum of journalism is more impudent still.” Here the Star quotes a paragraph charging evening journals with b<*ing “ champions of indecency,” and con-. tinu.es to compare in stepng terms the fearless advocacy of right by the evening journals of Auckland, Wellington, Napier, and Wanganui with the character of the H. B. Herald, add adds, “ The best test of thia is tfle approval of the people. The evening journal in Hawke’s Bay has, we believe, four times the amount of circulation of the Herald ; the Wellington Post has at least three times the circulation of either its local contemporaries. We need not refer to our own.

poverty bay*

A new hand in the shape of “ Our own”4rom Poverty Bay has got to the bellows of the Bag of Plenty Times. In the first of his productions, he essays to inform that paper on matters with which the whole colony, except perhaps this correspondent, has been well-acquainted for years. The subject matter of his lucubration may be summarised as follow- Both the Provincial and General Governments have treated us badly; the settlers 4>ave plenty of pluck; the district is different to what it was six years ago when “ Te Kooti and his “ hellish gang butchered in cold blood, “ &c”., the restis known to everybody ; struggling small holders, are to be met with at every turn; we are to experience another wet season before the roads get better; bullocks, horses, and drays are to be bogged; and

“ blocked out of town” ; he laments the delay in erecting the Government Bni filings, and concludes with the following Demostheijic peroration:— If our affairs were fairly represented by the local Press we might soon have a belter stale of things brought about. The leading paper here, the Herald, occasionally has a letter in its “ open column” which touches upon the chief wants, but the milk and water editorials (?) of au inexperienced ex law clerk end bookkeeper's assistant who has half a grain of common sense to every pound of his increasing ignorance, self-conceit, and presumptian, only tend to damn our best interests, and at a time when prosperity depends upon the representation of our just demands as settlers.