THE AUCKLAND 'HERALD ON THE OHINEMURI DIFFICULTY.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 738, 10 March 1877, Page 3

THE AUCKLAND 'HERALD ON THE OHINEMURI DIFFICULTY.

The natives now assembled at Ohinemuri with all the pomp and ' circumstance of glorious war—with flags, and muskets, with breastwork, ' scarp, counterscarp, and glacis on the land side, and with booms across ! the river—although they do much warlike speechifying, have not failed to let it be known that the whole dispute could be settled very easily, and that after all it is only a question of utu, or payment. The hapu who have erected the Ohinemuri fort is the Ngatikoe, and they are enraged at the Ngatirabiri for having fired over the head of their chief, Rapata, when he wanted to go to Waikato. This is'the deadly offence which they must avenge or be paid for. The insult must be washed out in blood, or in rum. They will kill twenty men, or take twenty bottles of waipiro. They are not particular who they get the compensation from, and we suppose the end will be, that tha Government will have to pay them. To drop down from what' abstract justice demands to what can be obtained, is not by any means a new feature in Maori tactics. A runanga once " sat upon " an erring member of the tribe who had been guilty of that crime which constitutes about eighty per cent of the oSenees brought before Maori runangas—viz, puremu— WW** 1 * men call gallantry and the gods adultery—aud after a long trial he was found guilty, and sentenced to undergo <* seventy ' N years' imprisonment. Practical difficulties, however, immediately arose. Where, was he to be confined? Who was to take charge of him ? Who was to feed him 1 After fully considering all the circumstances, the runanga resolved to commute the punishment to four bottles of rum, to be procured at once by advances made by the Court and jury, on the .security of the prisoner, and to be consumed by all parties, including the delinquent: .If the 'Native JMCinister would go up to Ohinemuri, and

■imply ■«'sshot"'veryu t"'very loudly for the two crowds, this great Thames question, which threatens the peace of the colony, would disappear.