The Standard AND PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 299, 18 August 1875, Page 2

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1875.

“We shall sell to no »m> justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right."

Mr. Wiiaon’s letter in this morning’s issue, may be the means of bringing the attention of the Government to one of the great inconveniences that crop up now and then, in a district like Poverty Bay, and, we may say, the East Coast generally, where the Native Land Act is in active operation. Among all the impracticable clauses of that Act, none is more opposed to a business-like and expeditious settlement of land transactions than that which enjoins that all deeds and documents conveying land from Natives to Europeans shall be attested by a Judge of the Land Court, or a Resident Magistrate, atleastit becomes so since the Legislature has imposed the duty, without furnishing the Government with the means of carrying it into effect. It is simply absurd that any Resident Magistrate, with a duty to perform which would represent the value of the salt he eats, should be detached from that duty for the purpose —as our correspondent aptly puts it—of “ hunting up signatures to a Maori deed. We recognise the necessity of imposing some such strictness, and trdCeaWeness of procedure as that embodied in the Native Land Act, in order that the validity of the signatures of Natives who sign away their land may be accurately attested, and authoritatively supported in the event of future dispute; but there can be no necessity for dragging gentlemen, charged with periodical judicial duties, from their post to travel like official Nomads up and down the country for the mere purpose of verifying a Maori’s “ pot hook and hanger ”/ to a Native deed. A more empty headed, uncomplimentary, and undignified duty we have never known to bethrust upon Resident Magistrates, and the wonder is that they do not endeavor to throw off the incubus by bringing the incongruity of their position prominently before the Government. Mr. Wilson makes a very good suggestion. As it is very proper that there should be some recognized authentication of the signatures to native deeds, why not charge that duty to the Interpreter who "is specially appointed under the Act ? He has to explain and certify the contents of the deeds to the Natives, and to deposit certified copies in the District Land Court. Surely, one would think that if a petty officer could be entrusted with so responsible

a function as that involved in th© task of Making Natives understand the contents of a deed, it would not be held to overcrowd his brain if he also had to perforin the super-incumbent duty of attesting their signatures. Or, if there must be independent testimony, let the officer who negotiated the pur-chase-do so ; or, failuigjdie acceptance of that, fafl back on thehuggegSgn to which we have alluded, and appoint an official—dub bixn Jfegistrate if convenient, "a handle like thatrwould go a great Way towards salary with some —and let him hangon to the Interp ceter, who clingsTW die take the cost of his dv£ty ,\O|it of the fees —■ — ■ —■ ■■■- - Du. NekbW»J and: enforced abWntb'fToni-XJistißfriifr 1 for four or five days, has been as useless in view of the consummation of the task allotted ti» fim, as f it has been fraught with ‘tricbn’Vefai'eiice to the branch of the service over which he presides. The dirty ‘of “ signatfire-? hunting ” is and will‘last so long as the Native Land .Act remains unaltered. What the Resident Magistrate has done, kfe repeated, unless land transactions are to cease, and what he could not do, must be-, attempted againe'ther by himself or, some one else. The good that he is supposed to do in virtue of this new duty, is calculated to be largely counterbalanced bj< official obstruction in the business of the Police Court, while as District Medical Officer ( and Coroner, his absence, ipay be creative of great annoyanep jto the general public. Indeed, we have an illustration at blind, for "6U lust neither Coroner non Magistrate, could be found to preside,at an inquest,, urgently demanded by’ a circumstance' little thought of when Div Nesbitt left the town. We hope that this matter will receive the attention it requires at the hands of the Legisla- 1 ture, and at the instigation of the Government, who mtiitiby'- this time have had ample proof of the unworkableness of the. law, as ltjiow stands. —ESSfiSSTHSSfebosnJ 1