South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10, 1879.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2096, 10 December 1879, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10, 1879.

It must, we think, be satisfactory to everyone concerned to find that the injudicious intermeddling of a few representative gentlemen who desire to let loose the discontented Maori prisoners on the colon}', has not been successful. There is no doubt that from a strictly Maori point of view it is a most iniquitous thing that these men should lie incarcerated for months for endeavoring to assert what they considered a moral and legal right. But the dusky ploughmen who are now deprived of their liberty have only their own foolhardy and law-disregarding conduct to thank for the position they occupy. The punishment of restraint and detention is under the circumstances the mildest that the most extreme lenity could dictate. Having adopted an illegal method of rectifying a fancied grievance, they must put up with the consequences. It is not a very profitable thing for the country to have to maintain them in durance vile for months together, but it is the most expedient and merciful way of dealing with them. If they object to imprisonment they should have thought of that before they put their hands to the plough. Their case differs from that of ordinary prisoners, and hence it is that their trial has been delayed. They are detained, not simply for committing a breach of the law, but on the ground o*

expediency. The position of these Maori prisoners demands special legislation, and we are glad to find that both the late Native Minister and the present holder of the office are quite agreed on that subject. They are both convinced that it would be dangerous in the extreme to liberate them at present. The colony has plenty of difficulties to contend against, without making matters worse by precipitating a native disturbance. It is better for themselves — better for all parties that these energetic ploughmen should be detained if necessary in the custody of experienced gaolers and warders for years, than that the public peace should be jeopardised. The measure which the Government introduced, and which will probably be passed in a few days, giving special powers in dealing with these prisoners, will, we believe, have a beneficial effect on the Maori character, and will do more to teach submission to authority than anything that past wars have ever accomplished. In this instance, the policeman and the gaoler have superseded the fire-eater and his rifle, and humanity and civilisation have been the gainers.