SUPREME COURT DEFIED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 81, 26 September 1911, Page 2

SUPREME COURT DEFIED.

/ HV MAORI CHIEF

There wa* *nincfhii:g picturesque and even pathetic in tin- appearance of a Maori chief (in c-.is'.i.iiy) before the Supreme Court hi.' Tii-i!,;,' last (says the Wanganui Chronicle). Pauro Marino, one of the principal owners (according to Maori custom ai.i! .jsage) of the Morikau No. 1 Block, of some 8000 acres, on the Wangainii river, bad been arrested for non-compliance with an injunction of the Sii|nime Court, at its previous sittings here, enjoining him to cease tnspassing on part of the block which the Aotia District Maori Land Board claimed to be fanning—an experiment looked upon with disfavor by some oUthe owners. Mr. Justice Edwards expatiated on the iniquity of defying the law. and the fact that Pauro Marino wai appealing to the Court of Appeal against the judgment of th« Supreme Court was no excuse for disobeying the order of the Court in the meantime. It would be necessary, so as to escape punishment, the Judge said, for Pauro to remove himself and his stock. The Maori, one of the most respected of the natives in the. district, replied that he had no wiA to offend the Court, but. his feelings with regard to the land he believed to be his were deeper than any respect due to the Court. He had been told to go.' but he asked where? He had no other land to live on. If he. went he might have to go into the river. The Judge warned fcim that if he did not remove himself and bis family ibey aK-o might be imprisoned. This. Pa'uio replied, would he what he would wish. He said it was as well for him ami then; to be in prison as to be off the land of the ancestors. He said he understood the Government wanted the. Maoris to become settlers. He also wished to become a settler. He had cattle, and sheep am! wanted to farm his own land, but when he tried to do so he was punished. He concluded by wishing the Court long life and happiness and went back contentedly to gaol.