TELEGRAPHIC.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1312, 24 February 1883, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC.

UNITEO PBESS ABSOOIATIONJ • FIREATRIVERTON. ■ Wellinston, this day. Information has reached hero that a fire destroyed Robertson .Bros.' Store at Riverfcon.- The Colonial Co., had a line of £3OO on the'stock,"and the N.Z. Co., had £1000 ; 6n the stock, and ;£ioo on the building. .! The damage is estimated at',£3oo. ; The Japenese man-of-war, Rinjio, left for Chili this morning. THE AMNESTY'BILI,' ' Invercargill. February 20. The" Southland News"; to-night has the following:—-"Mr Whifcely King, Editor of the 'Mataura Ensign,' and grandson of the late Rev John Whitely, murdered at the White Cliffs in 1869, has wired as follows to the Native Minister, with reference to'the pardoning of Te Kooti and the Amnesty Bill —'According to telegraphic reports you have formally pardoned Te Kootj. You, a Minister of the- Crqwn, ljave publicly shaken hands" and fraternised with a murderer of your fellow countrymen, and of helpless women and children. Your satellites; will laud you for. having- advanced the settlement of the Native difficulty yet another step, but those \ylio know that such a difficulty exists only in imagination of a few whose interests are best served by that belief will not beblinded by.the efforts your hirelings are, making, to immortalise you''as the liberator, of theiivcqijntry, from the bugbear.kn.own as tjje' Native difficulty,' and to'tnein you appear to-day as a traitor to all known principles of British law and justice, and as a man who has humiliated and degraded his fellow<coloniststo secure the adulation of those whose fingers five itching to' possess the Native lands, men who would even pardon Maori murderers 'to 'achieve their ends. You will doubtless next proceed to pardon those concerned in the White' Cliffs massacre of 1869. I would remind you that for several years I have urged the New.Zealand Government'to arrest and place those murderers upon their trial, but my request has never been acceeded to.' Indeed your Government distinctly refused to take any steps in the matter. I sought then to put the law in motion myself, and you defeated my purpose by bringing down your prescious Amnesty Bill—a Bill for the better protection of Native murderenrof British subjects. The House was misled, and .the Bill was rushed through and became law before the country knewits object. I would remind you that there was no mention of the Amnesty Bill in the speech from the throne. 'lt was introduced', deliberately to defeat the ends of justice. You'have refused to allow the law to take ifcs.course, and the murderers of those who fell at White Cliffs will > probably. fee the recipients of your gracious pardon, as Te Kooti has been. But I would ' haye you consider before 'faking'that ; step. You"have aroused- the vendetta 'spirjt" bj 'action in muzzling justice, and whatever the consequences, the onus rests'with r you, the provisions of the Amnesty Bill I notwithstanding, and pardoned or'not pardoned, those concerned in the White cliffs massacre- shall suffer fqr -their . crimes.; If you Weteje Te Rerenga and his followers under the i Amnesty, I who have tried to bring ,' them legally to justice, .will take ,my, '} own way to ayenge;the massacre ioi) a< English mother and her babes, and ; thpse ;. who fell at the White Cliffs on the 13th February, 1869. D« es the amnesty ( include Europeans wljo.were 'political i offenders'.with 'Maoris,' apd if not, why I is not Cockburn; who it is said assisted i in the butchery at the White Cliffs, 1 arrested?' An: administration., un- | scrupulous enough to bring '-down a [ special Bill to stop the machinery of ( the law and' to fraternise ; witb; as'sass- , iris, will have ne compunction, in ■ sacrij ficmg;a'Eiirop)eanrW ;save the|noble \ savage?!;' .'•' -f-: K "' : : ■■'■ " : :;"V : : ■ "