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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1333, 24 July 1883, Page 2

ThF last mail to Wellington, so we are informed, conveyed a petition from 285 of the Natives of Poverty Bky to 'the Legislative Council, praying that a Royal Commission be granted to enquire into many Native land traiisacti<JUe-.tha.tr have 'takes place >in:-tpii» district during the past few years. Fraudutrusteeism, and . otimr .iniijuitious .pro-, beddings are openly alleged. The petitioners, amongJ3to«r-’lhiiigß, state ><hat.they are greatly alarmed at the powers the Company* seek- ■to obtain, from •= Parlia»neent. . ; VV# dojnot understand,” say the Natives, “the meaning of thp-gceatf love arid phiUnirophy thf Pakehas of the Company say they haf.ec for? the Maoris. We belive of -their hearts is at work, and that if we w4ro a poor hmalees-pCbpltplike some oftoe Maoris in the North, the Pakehas of the Cdmpany would not travel on the same road Jjjr,- tjie-; face' W the , startling accusations made to ij’i'ljat; m|nt by several hundred Natives' tn th?B various jjf&tfony already fob presentation, manifestly ho oimer cosrss. is'open, in justice to the parties accused, Brit ’ foi’ the. Qyyernmeat to grant a sparchyig enquiry'. Such an ehejuirjr, tl&jlMdfir narused do not dread it, should be speedilydemanded. But how do we find the Company’s agents working tofebutthe damaging disclbsures revealed. Their agents are working strenuously in their endeavors to get a cAu n ter-petition; sig ried (Njitifte?about \yaiapu, declaring that they, the Ngatiporou, ufere ignorant of what the petition signed l»y the Natives contained. ' Here is to he observed" the hollow artifice tfiat stamps every act of the Company. Is ifiat a way to mqet grave accusations ? To ebdeavdr'to get Natives at Wabipui ;a hun-r djred miles from Gisborne, to refute, for instance, what the Murewai Natives allege ajjout the Pakowhai .^loQk r m Those. directors, many of whom 'like 5 Mr. Thomas Bussell, C.M.G., have for the first time in their lives, perhaps been dragged into a busiijeas, in which their previous great experience can be of no avail, have a distinct and Unequivocal line of action to pursue, Waive fpr.a-m.onient Company's overdraft with,, tpie at‘ they<lopeptyt; tUmir honor as well as everything'•lse—deliiand of the Government that a Royal Commission be appointed. { A» ft public—not a body—the 4 Comply'is bound to take fhat course, if it be not afraid.