MR E. G. JELLICOE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10272, 27 June 1911, Page 5

MR E. G. JELLICOE.

AND THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE. (Bv Telegraph—Press* Association.) WELLINGTON, -Last Night. Mr E. G. JiOlilacoe- ixMiay received the' following letter from His Excellency the Governor, to which he forwarded the reply appended:— "23rd June, 1911.—Sir, —I beg to inform you I have to-day received a telegram from HH.S Majesty's Secretary of State for tihe Colonies, requesting me to inform you that His Majesty received your petition for, .the commutation of tihe death sentence passed on Tahi Kaka, and that His Majesty commands that you should he referred to my Government, to whiich ha si been delegated the prerogative of mercy. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, Islington, Governor." "June 26th, 1911.—Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt "of a letter bearing to-day's Wellington postmark, but dated by you fawn Government House, Wellington, on the 23rd inst., wherein you inform roe that you had that day received frcm tike Secretary of State for the Colonies His Majesty'® command that I should be referred to your Government. If I desired to invoke the prerogative ofmercy for the Maori lad, Tahi Kaka. I assume from this communicatioa (1) That His Majesty could not have been aware, when he communicated his gracious command to you, tihat your Government, on the evry day it became known that I had cabled a petition fof commutation of the death sentence, actually fixed the execution to take place at 8 o'clock on the following morning, or that immediately the execution was s» fixed I informed you of 'the petition, and asked you to delay the execution for, a few hours, to enable the King's pleasure to be known; or that you ignored my request and despatched tithe boy, and never so much as acknowledged the receipt of my communication ; • and (2) , Has Majesty's commands evidently contemplate that your Government, as delegates of the prerogative of. mercy and so3e-> arbiters of life, and death, would afford me. an opportiiihity N o£ applying ' for the exeircise and would consider any proper.grounds I might desire to urge. Row can your Government now allow this to be done, seeing that wi.tSi such very unseemly haste the life of the boy has been taken. And what is the, use,, in the circumstances, of you. to-day, communicating to me His Majesty's commands ? I have the honour to j request that you mil communicate this, my reply, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for submission to Has Majesty, in order that His Majesty may be made aware of the treatment my petition has received, and the manner in wlluich his delegates of the prerogative of mercy exercise that prerogative, in the case of a defenceless child of seventeen years of age, w!ho. was , only one degree removed l flfctar a savage, j and whom the jury on the evidence'! had, in fact, recommended to' mercy. I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, E. 0. Jellicoe."

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