WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 171, 17 August 1897, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[ritOM OUR OWN COBRESrOJfDEXTj. Weluxc.tox, August 10. EATING HUMBLE PIE. . "BRAG is a good dog, but holdfast is a better." This is a homely old proverb that Acting Premier Mckenzie, of Bushy Park, is digesting just now m connection with his long continued persecution of Sir Walter Buller and the poor little freehold of 12 acres he gave £lO per acre, for beside a pretty little iake on the Horowheiiua Block. The various ways in which the Minister has used his powers and set up a Koyai Commission, and moved the courts, have cost the colony thousands of pounds, and had his opponent been a poor man or one not endued with more than average fighting instincts, lie must have abandoned the unequal contest long since. But Sir Walter Buller has not only fought sturdily for his home and his tents, but he has had to compel the Minister to stand up because a specially scandalous act was passed by which his property would be confiscated if his persecutors simply sat still and did nothing. Now, after all the twistings and turnings, the Counsel engaged could avail themselves of have failed, the Crown lawyers have chrown up the sponge, thus acknowledging that the abuse heaped on Sir Walter Buller was unmerited, and that he had done nothing in any way improper. It is a long story and cannot well be told in a brief notice. It arose out of a partition of 55,000 acres of the Horowhenua Block. Major Kemp, the chief of the tribes, who had claims on it was, according to Native customs, entitled to a large slice. Hunia, another chief, was also a beneficiary ; there had been, as is usual with Native lands, a deal of litigation and the cost of this became a charge on the land. Both Kemp and Hunia had contracted debts. Some of the money went in law, some in payments to members of the tribes, some in feasts, and in other directions. But as the chiefs were more in the nature of heads of the hapns than legal trustees, no accounts were kept, and in the course of years when Kemp and Hunia fell out and accounts were demanded, no one could furnish them or tell within a few thousands how the revenues and borrowed money had been spent. A Maori who kept a set of books and furnished a report and balance-sheet of his transactions periodically to each of the parties interested, is a figure in history not even imaginable. Both Kemp and Hunia got in debt to different people. The latter owed a large sum to Mr Douald Frazer, who in 1593 intended to stand for Parliament in the interests of the Opposition. He happened to take a journey in the same railway carriage as Premier Seddon one dav, and, 10, he became a convert. Shortly afterwards it transpired that part of the Horowhenua block held jointly by Kemp and Hunia on behalf of the natives bad been purchased by the Government for a State farm for £2OOO, notwithstanding that there was a cavcut of the Supreme Court registered forbidding the sale. Mr Donald Frazer's debt was paid and he was defeated in the contest. To validate this illegal proceeding Mr J. Mckenzie introduced a Bill, and what took place on the debate on October 25th is thii3 told by the Ministerial Morning paper. THE HOROWHENUA BLOCK. "During the consideration of the Horowhenua Block Bill last evening the proceedings became rather heated. Mr Bell waxed wroth at what he considered an attempt by the Government to override the decision of the Supreme Court by Act of Parliament. It was a scandal and a shame, lie said, that this should be done, and by a Bill that it was attempted to smuggle through in the dying hours of the session. The Minister ir. charge of the Bill (the lion. J. Mckenzie) retorted that it was a scandal and a shame, but not upon the Government. Since he had been a Minister he had come across some disgraceful doings, but never to equal those in connection with this block. Sir Walter Buller was a man knighted by Her Majesty, presumably for good conduct, and who ought to be "in jail for his dealings with the natives. He had assisted Major Kemp to rob the natives by getting them to sell parcels of land, and, with the meney, fighting each other through the legal profession." Sir Walter Buller wrote the tame day to the Minister and invited him to repeat the charges made in some way not covered by his parliamentary privilege, so that he might have an opportunity of justifying himself and falsifying Mr McKenzie's statements. The Minister did not reply, but in the safe shelter of Parliament he said the letter was a challenge to him to bring him into Court, and said he had had to admonish Judge Connolly, and he went on: *' When a Judge has gone out of his way to assail me from the Supreme Court bench, what would he do if I bad to go before him after I had admonished him from the public platform ? " A member : "Do justice." Mr Mckenzie: "I am astcn'shed to hear the lion gentleman. There are men walking the face of the earth that ought to be hanged. I was attacked because I said I was not likely to get justice from a special jury in Wellington. 1 know what is said about me in the Wellington Club—the scat of the Conservatives. Jt Is that I am not fit to be a Minister. . I have 100 much Scotch caution to tpend my sovereigns in a lawsuit," and 60 on. A couple of nights aftciwards Sir Walter appeared at the bar of the House. Jt was a memorable night. Every gallery was crowded, and when Sir Walter began there were probably nine-tenths of the audience who were of opinion that he was in the wrong. When he had finished his history of the transactions and had been severely crossquestioned as to the part he had taken, not only in Horowhenua, but in other land dealings, the vast audience rose with the unanimous conviction that he had completely cleared himself of all imputations. He never hesitated or prevaricated; his answers came out frankly and decisively, and impressed all present with the conviction that lie had been grossly slandered from the Ministerial benches. The Minister did not apologise as was expected. He said : "I have no intention of expressing regret. I am justified in every word I said, and 1 do not intend to withdraw.'' Then after the session, he set up a Royal Commission—one of those institutions which find verdicts to order. It sat for many weeks, heard scores of witnesses—Maoris, land jobbers, Native Court officials, valuers, experts, surveyors, and so on—cost thousands of pounds and filled an enormous Blue Book. And when Parliament met another Horowhenua Bill was introduced to oust Sir Walter from his 12 acres and the obedient dumb dogs did what they were told. It also provided that Major Kemp's land—land held by him under a land transfer title for ten years without question in his own name should be taken from him and to confiscate his 1200 acres to the Crown and give it or the value of it ta people who have never established a right to an aero of it. Crown titles that had been issucd.and decrees of the .Supreme Court were all stt aside by this Bill. Mr Button, one of our ablest lawyers, described it thus : "It is really asking the House to issue execution upon judgment passed by the Minister ot Lands." The only saving clause was one by Which Sir Walter Buller was compelled to establish his title within six months Of the passing of the Bill in an action to be brought by the I'kl.lie Trustee, and here again the Minister showed an aptitude for finesse which would bs admirable if practised in some more creditable direction. The defendant could uot move. He vas compelled to

wait for a writ to be served on him. But as the months rolled on and no action was taken, he through his Counsel moved the Court to compel the Government to serve him. They had the writ prepared but did not serve it. Then the Court was again appealed to and ordered the case to go on. The Government askedfor time, and was granted two months. When that was nearly up they gave notice they intended to discontinue the action. Sir Walter opposed this and demanded that it should be heard and the Judge ordered it so. One of the most important witnesses, Judge Wilson of the Native Land Court, was subpronncd from Auckland. He wis on board the steamer last .veck on his way when a telegram from headquarters ordered nun back. Finally, when every excuse for delay or dodging was exhausted and the case within a couple of days of the trial, the Government threw up the sponge. Here we have had a couple of years of turmoil, an enormous expense, a reputation for ignoring the rights of property which has done infinite damage to the colony, in England and all for what? Merely that a Minister of the Crown should vent his spleen and endeavour to wrong a man who differed from him. Between Horowheuaa and Bushy Park there is a wide gap.