The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, OCT. 22, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2385, 22 October 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

SATURDAY , OCT. 22, 1887.

Kqual and exact justice to all men, 01 whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

In’ the general scheme for retrenchment which is at the present moment engaging the close attention of the new Government, it is fully conceded on all sides that the public expenditure cannot ho effectually and completely economised without making a clean sweep of the Native Department. Dor some years past public opinion has been steadily leading in the direction of a thorough reorganisation of the pernicious system by which legislation and intercourse with the Maori people have been hitherto controlled. From the direct personal and paternal practice of. directing native affairs, which reached its culminating point under the regime of Sir Donald Maclean, the responsibility has fallen away more and more from actual Ministerial influence, and has become centralised in the permanent head of the Department. At no period has this been so painfully evident than during Mr Dallance’s tenure of office, with the result that at no other period have such confusion and irregularities in the execution of the business of the Department existed, nor such a careless and unsystematic expenditure of the public money. The Native Land Court lost its individuality and independence because no important duty, whether the hearing of the native causes, the sittings of the courts, or the appointment of •I udges and responsible officers can be effected without the fiat of the autocratic Under - Secretary being first obtained. Commissioners or agents in charge of native districts are no longer allowed the discretionary power of tried and trusted officers, but they must apply to the Under-Secretary for even so little a matter as leave to absent themselves from their head-quarters when circumstances require their presence in other parts of their districts. They are simply reduced to the level of mere clerks. The Under-Secretary has appropriated to himself the direct control of the Land Purchase Department, by which ho found ostensible pretences for constantly travelling over the country at the public expense to perform functions for which he has no special aptitude, and by which ho has been led to make wild purchases of great tracts of worthless land at fancy prices. The Minister being for a great portion of the year absent from the seat of Government, and with the actual ruler, the Under-Secretary, also frequently kicking his heels all over the country, the affairs of the Native Office and the Native Land Court wore thrown into a state of chaos, irritating to the practised officials, and demoralising to the natives. In witness of these assertions there is the effect of the late reckless reductions in the number of the judges, without making any previous provision for carrying on the accumulation of unfinished work that has si ill to be dealt with by the Land Courts. In saying this much we have only pricked the skin of a few vulnerable parts in the Native Office to support our desire for the total deletion of a corruption in the public service of the colony. Our contention docs not rest at this point, for with the abolition of the native office it is also imperative to amend the constitution and procedure of the Native Land (burls. It is not possible within the space at our disposal to give full consideration to the subject, but we will advance a reason or two to demonstrate the necessity that exists for making some important changes with regard to those courts, nn the score of economy and public convenience. The time has now fully arrived when the peripatetic character of the courts should cease, and in place of despatching judges with their stall'of assessors, clerks, and interpreters, with boxes of valuable papers to all manner of out-of-the-way and semi-barbarous

places, wherein to hold sittings of so important a description, fixed districts should ho delined to he placed in the custody of a duly appointed judge, who, with his stall, shall establish his headquarters in the most central position, when; Ins shall hold Ids courts permanently, and hoar all causes affecting the native tribes living within the boundaries of his jurisdiction. Now, it is a fact that cannot be gainsaid, that courts are constantly being ga/etted to sit in places within a reasonable distance of eacli other that more or less interest the same tribes or hapus who have to attend each of them. Judges arc sent from Auckland to preside at these, taking with them their complement of officials, who are generally drawn from distant parts of the province ; their sittings last a few weeks, or sometimes only a few days; then the court and officials return whence they came, all at the cost of the country. We have it on good authority that some of the judges, owing to the great proportion of time they are moving about from ore court to another, have been able to live off of their travelling allowances clear of their salaries. We do not say the fault is theirs, hut it certainly is the outcome of a faulty system. The Native Land Court Act, 1886, provides for the division of the colony into districts ; but if clause 12 and 15 were amended so as to create them judicial in place of recorders’ districts, the benefit aimed at above would be secured ; and in order also to do away with the power of moving courts about, from place to place and from time to time in that nomadic fashion, clause 53 of the Act would need to be amended or deleted. The temporary presence of a Land Court in a native district has never been an unmixed blessing; on the contrary, it has a vory baneful influence upon the minds and habits of the aboriginal people. As long as the sittings of a court lasts, the natives entirely neglect work on their cultivations, are allured into wasteful expenditure at the stores, and abandon themselves to many excesses, from which they suffer irremediably. The more thoughtful and intelligent amongst them have often expressed their antagonism to Land Courts, a.nd we have lately observed a disposition amongst them to avoid the courts altogether. They look upon the presence of the courts in their districts as assisting to impoverish them, by compelling their attendance in large bodies at the expense of their homes.

If, for example, a judge was permanently established in the most central position of . the Waikato (our arguments are, perhaps, most applicable to this part of the North Island), where he would hold his Courts at stated intervals for the adjudication of cases for partition in any one block at a time, as well as for the hearing of other causes according to Maori usage, the facilities offered by railway, river, and road communications from all parts of the native districts in Upper and Lower Waikato, Waipa, the King Country, Raglan, Piako, Taupo, etc., would render the attendance of the representatives of the interested tribes or hapus, not the people in large numbers as at present, an easy matter and inexpensive to them; would not intefere with their cultivating, and would also be expeditious for the disposal of the business in hand. We are aware that the natives would approve of this course, particularly as they would have ready access to the courts records and be enable to register their deeds in the Waikato, without the trouble and outlay, which they can ill afford, of making the journey to Auckland, where they often fall into the clutches of the legal fraternity.