TE KOOTI’S PARDON.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1276, 15 February 1883, Page 2

TE KOOTI’S PARDON.

TO THB EDITOR. Sir,—No Minister ever perpetrated a more illogical inconsistent or disgraceful act than Eryce when he pardoned Te Kooti. Te Kooti pardoned- Winiuta and the Native who killed poor Miss Dobie, have been foully murdered, and a gross outrage was perpetrated on Te Whiti and Tohu and the Natives at Parihaka. If a Native who has actually massacred in cold blood (not in war) dozens of innocent European women and children, is to be pardoned, why should Natives who merely threaten to massacre be deprived of their liberty and their rights as British subjects ? But then the one set of events concerns the West Coast and pampered Taranaki, and the other set took place on the East Coast, hence this distinction. Of course, Sir William Jervois has to do as he is told by his Ministers, but I should think that he must have blushed as red as the glorious uniform he wears, when he signed a pardon for this blood-stained savage, after refusing to liberate the innocent Longhurst, One thing is quite certain. Pardon ob no fabdon, Te Kooti will venture into this District at the peril of his life. He will die so surely as he sets his foot within this town, and the Government will have to face a white rebellion if they seek to enforce that law, the first principles of which they themselves have broken. This outrage on humanity makes one disgusted with the very name of Englishman Would such a wrong be tolerated in the United States ’ Not for a day 1 The consequences as regards the peace of this Coast of this ill-judged levity can only be disastrous, whether Te Kooti venture among us or not, when times get bad, the Natives up the Coast will agree together—“ Let us make a row, half of us will get pay and rations, and the other half will enjoy the fun, besides being made heroes of and pardoned and handshaken by any meanspirited fellow who may bappen to be Native Minister, and have an axe to grind.” No sooner said than done. Two or three white men are wiped out to show that business is meant, and if a white woman or two and a brood of helpless babes can be tomahawked, so much the better; and then the mixture of tragedy and farce will be played over again. For let it be well understood, the

law means one thing on the West Coast, m 4 quite a different thing on the East Coast. I shall probably recur to this subjeet again, with your kind permission,— I am, etc., JUiTIIIA. [We shall esteem it u a favor if our valued correspondent will follow up the subject. Ed. P. B. S.]