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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 263, 17 October 1884, Page 2

We publish in another column a translation of a petition which Wiremu Katene is endeavoring to have forwarded to England. Wiremu Katene, is a respectable chief of the Ngapuhi Tribe, and at one time sat in Parliament. The petition aims at so much, that its ultimate fate need hatdly be questioned. What the Natives really require is something to occupy their minds. If not directing their attention to what is good, they will tend to what is evil. What field of thought is' opened up to the Natives. The sole subject to occupy their mind is land, and not having a wider range, they brood over what they consider their wrongs, and the longer they brood the further they retire into the past, even to the period, when land was purchased with iron hoops. They possess a superabundance of mental activity, and it is a pity their attention cannot be better directed, than in the vain pursuit of the Treaty of Waitangi. Mr. Katene puts his case pretty clearly. All he apparently seeks for is to obtain a distinct replyfromthe Government, as to whether or not they will consent to have his petition forwarded to the Queen. Hitherto the Home authorities have, as a matter of course, told the Natives who have applied to them that their petition to the Queen should be forwarded through his Excellency the Governor, and Katene is evidently desirous of pinning the authorities to a definite reply one way or the other. He is entitled to a reply as his action is perfectly legal.