THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY. MARCH 1, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2543, 1 March 1877, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY. MARCH 1, 1877.

It takes two to make a quarrel, but very often both parties are to blame, one, perhaps, in a greater degree than another, yet still bothblanieable. The sympathies of the onlookers are not always with the one that has most right on its side—right meaning here legatl right—but with that which seenis to''have had most prorocation to act in the way it has done. Like Captain Bunsby's remarks, the bearing of this observation lies in the application of it, and the application is this: There has been a quarrel, or, to put it iv a milder phrase, a difference of opinion

between the Church Missionary Society and certain Maoris about a piece of Jand said by the one party, i.e., the latter, to be tapued, and by the other to have no such barrier to cultivation existing upon it. Moreover, the Maoris assert that it was never paid for- by the C.M.S. Into the merits of these statements and counter statements it is not our purpose to enter here. The case has been set forth pretty plainly in the | papers, either party having a good long j say in the matter. Whether legally right | or wrong mauy who consider the matter j will side willi" the Maoris in wliat they j have done. It will of course bo said ; that no one hns a right to take the law into his own hands, and that Mrs Turipona and her friends by doing this have placed themselves in the wrong. Buc it must be remembered that this is one of those, cases in which action, if is to be of any use at all, must be taken at once, or the harm which it is the object of such action to prevent will have been done past remedying. The Maoris objected to a certain piece of land being ploughed up, as some of their kindred were buried there, and in the process of ploughing their bones might be disturbed. Had they had recourse to the law to prevent this it is quite obvious that long before the law could protect the land for them— even supposing they were rightwould : have been: ploughed up, and what, they wished to prevent done. Thf-y therefore took the remedy into their own hands. We are not saying they were right in . doing this, but they were at any rate not doing what was bo much in opposition to human nature as to permit of their being called " viragos," &c. Wq doubt much if there are not many Europeans, who, placed in circumstances as similar to these as is possible to have them, would not have acted in the same way. Suppose, for instance, a man who had, or fancied he had, a private right to a certain portion of a churchyard where his relatives were buried—and these private rights are not very uncommon in .England, especially in the north-r and without any notice being sent to him, or his consent asked, he was to see this identical piece of ground ploughed up, the family vault broken into, and the bones of his friends; scattered over the soil, the placing of which under culture was to benefit some man whom he neither knew; nor.cared for, would he not be likely to act in a manner similar to thes» Maoris, and .lake upon himself to stop these proceedings before it was too lateP There is a::good deal ofa fair parallel between -our hypothetical case, and the affair at Parawai. Few would blame an Englishman situated as we have "described acting-in the way we hare supposed; why then judge the Maori too harshly whose veneration for. tapued ground is t,o say the least as great, probably much greater; than ours ; for bur grave yards ? This seems to, haVe been the sole reason why they have acted as they have. They regarded the land as apiece not to be disturbed beneath its surface.: They were quite willing to allow it to be grazed, or to have; a church built on it, and this shows that it wks not so much a.desire to re-possess the land which actuated them in what they did. Why theG.M.S. should have acted in the way they have we cannot say. Assuming; that the.land is theirs it surely is more: in accordance: with the opinions they profess at home when they want money, to. allow* the land to be used for the erection of a church at Parawai, where one is much needed, than to attempt to raise a trifling extra sum by offending the prejudices of the Maoris. ..We should have thought that the C.M.S; I would only have been too glad to see a church erected there, as there are many who, by reason of the distance, cannot get to Shortland at all, and more who would go more frequently were it not for the same cause. Of course, if the ! Church Missionary Society merely wish to acquire laud here jo as to enable them to spend larger sums elsewhere they are right in what they are doing, but this has not certainly been the professed object of Lord Shaftesbury or any of hiS followers.