The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 784, 26 June 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or ' political # # .# * *

Here shall the Prcsi the People's right

maintain, Una wed by influence ami unbribed by gain

TUESDAY, JUNIS 26, 1877.

We are somewhat surprised, that so well informed a journal as the Herald undoubtedly is in matters political should have written as it has done, "in its issue of Saturday, with inspect to the Native Land Court. With a stroke of the pen, it would do away with tha Judges of the Native Lands Court (Le), with the Lands Court themselves, and throw this most important jndioial work upon the Resident Magistrates, reserving a right of appeal lo the Supreme Court. Now, without lying any Undue stress upon the fact, it must be admitted that dealing with native matters is a specialty of itself, perfection in which can alone be attained after long experience and a certan intuitive comprehension of I Maori character, and habits. A

man to deal successfully with natives ransb be en rapport with them. A poet is born not made and so is the successful European diplomatist in Maori affairs. Our Native Lands Court. Judges are all men inora or less possessing this peculiar idosyncrascy in combination wiLh other qulifications of a higher order. The services of such men are difficult to obtain, and we should look in vain for them in the average Resident Magistrate. Such 1 a change woiild be as ridiculous as to reject skilled handicraft for common labour in, the execution of a particular work which required the perfection of nicety of finish. Ib has been the wont for years past of a certain section of the Assembly itself to declaim against the monopoly of the management of native affairs, and to ridicule' the periti in native matters as though they were a priestly cralt working on the ignorance and credulity of the people for the perpetuation and advantage of their own particular order, bnt the history of the colony will only too truly show that whenever this party has succeded in its object, and the so called periti have, been thrust aside from the management of native matters, those have been thrown into endless, and in some instances, the most disastrous confusion. And so it would be were we to substitute the Magistrates for the specially appointed Judges in the administration of the Native Lands Courts. We make bold to say that wero such a changa effected, the instances of appeal from such courts would' not be the exception, but . tho rule. Our sontemporory, indeed, must feel this himself, br he would not lay the stress he has done on the fitness of the Judges of the Supreme Court to administer the business of the Lands Courts. He is, moreover, most nnhappy in the one instance he "quotes, of. the aptitude shown by a certain counsel iu. mastering the intricacies of Maori law and custom. " Let us," says the ' Herald,' " instance the Te Aroha case, in which his Honor Judge Gillies, then Mr Gillies, at a Court in Waikato, appeared for the Ngatihaua, and by the force of his arguments in support of his case, got a judgment for his clienta." It were well for the argument of our contemporary had he stopped there, but with charming naivete he goes on to say, " which, hy the way, was afterwards reversed on re-hearing." And why reversed 1 Our contemporary does not tell us, but ifc was doubtless because the first decision due to the passionate eloquence of the counsel " was, on calmer and more deliberate consideration, perceived to be faulty at law. Meantime we would ask, What is to become of the loca] courts when the Kesident Magistrate is engaged week after week in the business of of the Land Court? We all know, how these latterdragtheirslow length along ; how difficult it is to get the various parties together ; how difficult to keep them to business when

got together. Bat all this tirno the ordinary business of the courts would have to be laid aside, not, as wiß have said, for days, but for weeks togethei. The .'Herald' recommends, also, that the Resident Magistrates, or some of them, could act as district officers and see that every native interested might be made aware of what was intended to be done. Why, this is exactly the ordinary mode of procedure. This duty is under the existing administration of the courts performed through the --Resident Magistrate's office. The truth is, a very great deal is being" written and said upon a matter which at present very few who undertake to discuss it, really understand. Criticism at the present moment is, we believe, premature, and this is why, as our r contemporary in setting forth on its remarks states to be the case, it " has hardly as yet more than began,"