Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1275, 14 February 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1883.

The astounding intelligence published in last night’s issue that the Hon. J. Bryce, the Native Minister, had promised Te Kooti a pardon, has raised a howl of indignation throughout the community. There were many incredulous, and felt convinced the whole affair was a hoax, but, as will be seen by our telegrams to-day there is confirmation, true as Holy Writ, that a ruth’ess murderer of women and babes, whose name throughout the length and breadth of Poverty Bay is cursed by men, women, and children, has received a pardon. Neither Mr Bryce nor any member of the Government were in this district on that awful 9th of November of 1868, when this foul fiend with his bloodthirsty followers attacked the defenceless settlers—nor did they have their wives, sisters, and children murdered in a most brutal and horrible manner. If it had so happened Te Kooti would never have been pardoned, but each Honorable in the Ministry would have felt a thirst for the wretch's blood. A Government that can condone an offence such as Te Kooti’s is unfit to hold office and we feel assured that the public throughout New Zealand will protest against the action the Native Minister and the Government have taken in connection with the blood-stained miscreant who is by proclamation to be cleansed of his sins, and go forth once more pure and innocent. Out upon a Government which will so act, or rather out with it The groans of tomahawked mothers and the cries of mutilated infants should ever ring upon the ears of those in whose power it appears to be to forgive the crimes of one of the most demoniacal wretches that has ever trod in New Zealand Let the public en meme petition our new Governor, Sir William Jkrvois, to withhold his consent, and, as representing Her Majesty the Queen, re fuse to be a party to so unwarrantable an act on the part of the Native Minister and his colleagues. It is monstrous to think of a pitiless scoundrel like Te Kooti having his blood-stained hands washed by Ministerial soap, and wiped by Act of Parliament It is humiliating and degrading to think that a merciless brute should be treated with so much consideration, and that the Hon. J. Brice, asNative Minister, should shake hands with him. Had Mr. Bryce seen, as many of our old settlers did, sixty-three dead and horribly mutilated bodies of men, women, and babes lying by the side of a large grave, with sobbing friends and relatives standing around, would he have shaken hands with the brutal savage who was the instigator of the massacre ? If so then he is no man. By the side of that grave stood men who solemnly vowed that whenever or wherever they met Te Kooti they would shoot him down, and they were men not likely to break the oath they took, and should Te Kooti venture to come to Poverty Bay he will never leave it. The blood of the victims cries out for vengeance, and these cries can only be stifled by the blood of the ferocious murderer. Is it because the great land grabbers wish to secure large interests in the King country that the present puppet government dance when the strings are pulled, and by removing obstructions of the Te Kooti kind ease their way, that the people are to have let loose a fiend in human form? We say no, and sav so feeling convinced that dissension will be spread amongst the Natives who already regard Te Knorr as a prophet, and the present action taken, instead of lessening the Native difficulty, will increase it fourfold, because it will be thought that the Pakeha is afraid to enforce the law.

[Since the above was written, a telegram which appears elsew’here states that Gazette has appeared containing a a proclamation, signed by the Governor that the Amnesty Bill shall apply to all Natives. We shall have something more to say on this subject.]