MAORI USAGE AND MAINE'S ANCIENT LAW.

Press, Volume III, Issue 74, 11 October 1862, Page 1

MAO RI USAGE AND MAINE'S ANCIENT LAW.

Maine's Ancient Law is Hot the same thing, Maine Liquor Law, and we are not going to ch'scuss upon Total. Abstinence, though,,for tfee matter pi" that we fear that Maori usage neecU.it tout too much. i. We are thinking and writing now jipon Professor Maine's valuable work oil Ancient. Law, and the Wonderful light it; throws t< upon: Maori; μsage. and tenure of land; and! the wonderful lighfcfa knowledge of/Maori usage and law throVvs.iipontfee.vPrflfesspr's views and facts. There,'waft an articde- on .Maine's work, 1 in the Quarterly XReview, not lqng r ago,,in which the writer drew ,the .Professor's*.attention.:,to Sir: William Martin's pamphlet on " ; The Tarauaki Question.," and observed the confirmation that Maori usage, as there stated, gave to Professor's . Maine's account of Ancient Law and Tenure of Land.. ;, If Sir George Grey's plan for,aelf-goyernment and improvement is to be anything more ; a paper scheme, and if the Native; Lands, Bill ia, ever to become the law of the land, there will be>. required; a vast organization throughout the length and breadth of the Northern Island. There must, be a department constituted at once, with an- able adininistrator at.the head, and a etaff^ofJyoutig and Maoris too, being trained for, survey woik, jforjclerkships, for the offices V.o f. Secretary, ■ of Magistrate,, of Assessor, and Bepresentative and Civil.Commissioner. Very little attention seems to have been paid in /the past session to the great 'subject *ofNative education. The Legislative Council did pass a on the subject, expressing anopinion that, larger^ ment aid should be given in the direction oft establishing schools, as welbos maintauiing .t^em* , that the initiative should J be thrownj more:, upoß,, the Natives themselves, acting through This is ai step in the right direction for Native .education. But how w the English, portion of theetafEto be educated for this department ? jWeiehouJfl like to ccc a man ■ like Mr; r Periton, who. Showed; such talent ifor iNative work in the Waikato. District, put in charge 'of such a department. . Hβ would bate the practical knowledge* of the Native xfowaoter,; wpll as a political genius for legMafcion.>;But ftsifar.fts the theore^cal ; part of goea, we: fcejieve every young man aspiring to anysbflioe: above shij) ougat to thoroughly, imbued wiiku principleb of'general ueftgfe;, or. ; .,he will be bluhdering>into all the , pitfal|BHttd waterboles that the old Native department And those that unhappily listened to them. , Such a course of theoretical > instruction is to be foiiind,au Professor Maine's work on Ancient Ikm;s; ■dm . : ,-,<:■<■.; : Hid- first- starting point is as simple da it is edund. Hithertoj men like Eoußßeauhad»n«ew^t//what they call the law of iosature^; , ' andflmen flike Ijpckexliisd borrowed from comparatively, civilised times the idea of a social contract a» the origin of; law. Profesebr Maine has worked out Bentham's suggestive hint, that the r historical method }& the only true test of any theory of ancieni laW, and: he comes to" litie fenclti*ion that the 6nly theory that wiMetand* that test m> the patriarchal; as exhibited in the Scriptural-BUstory:of the Hebrew patriarchs' in ; Lower Asia. *k in primitivetiimeSjWashotwhat^it'la?aswumed; to theisb present, a collection of t7irftwd«o&,.but it waej in feet, and in tHe; viewofitheimen who. composed! aggregations of [ <fmnilies'\ ";Tie unit of3ftn,taneient Society was the family , , of: a modern! Society) the individual." The.-community:, by which; jfehe tests all his views iefthe Hindoo. ; . Hie; 3^e je is one ; community which; yiill , always b^, careiujly examined bycthe.enquirer,who.ie institution of i primeval society j that .one, is the llindop branchiof the Indo-European faaniJLy,,; the. yillage communily society, and an assemble of ~,-$&

personal relations to each ot|ej!-6tf the compose it are indistinguishable confounded with thgir proprietary rights; an<|, tdthe functionaries to separate the two may be assigned some of the most formidable miscarriages of AngloIndian administration." Is not this exactly the way we should speak of the Taranaki question ? Professor Maine having shown by the historical jflß«toßd^rttti!B- : of society, and- the tenure of lan 4 upon tribal rights, contrasts it in several respects with our modern ideas of individual preperty-and individual right* He- showa-that-our legal maxim, "which Governor Gore Browne wanted Telira's Ibebalf/ k nemo>iw bonimuniorie potest inertia detineii," is in India exactly the reverse id HHe trtrtti.- Hβ shows that the modem idea, of •'•local^ontigiiijy'' giving rights anda claims of proprietorship ; %fts - entirely unknown to ancient law. •tia'saowe itiety of thia joint-proprietorship whole] family'or tribe; there was a patria palest as, or'patriarchal powervested in the chief as representative of- the family; - r Strangely enough he tnia-Word in'ancient Boman law for. this , *uld in JGermanic law was 3 ''MJkdi.'' io S^e'first-rate Maori scholar have traced %t 4a < the' > Maori • \ language with the Sanskrit. *Do we* see JieTe any indication of a common k&ginlos th© L Eoman" maau«'' the Geman." mund," welbkiiowjis Maori r : • ; pake of -the • .work, would illustrate in Mabri history. -' ilf English officials '^pl&a^RHa^WonW' man : or kapu (family) i p6Ai(fed ! lo i sell ■* land, Maine says; * Individuals in could^not bind families;" and, furrigbt'fcf the tribe overrode the right of 1 ; tiffiikd Tβ* Teira's shapu could not sell "witabut-leave !: 6f the tfibe. ; If the r other day the ,s tribefc ; rt i&bw we*' had specially been at war shame be ;it; said) .a'wrecked "vessel,' 1 iilai&BYsaysi, ! roperty ( .of an enemy was : ttiwa¥# neldMf old t;o be ves'nullius, and therefore ithe, prc-p'erty' of the fiVsfc occupant." * If mbdern English "law -givei'» ! great ( i powers and , privileges to tn© pccui , prescriptive; right, ancient; and Hindoo 'odcti^atibn j (and'so MapriJueage)idecreedthat " that 1 adverse possession began in good'faith, "wiih'tiie%eiief »dn tHeparfevpf the possessbr.ithat he ■wae prbperiy." '.■ If the Maori runaiig* showe too-great a r tendericy to ; mix,up in a lawsfftgainist delict,, and^. sin ; so ' Saxon forefathers, bo didjthe ; aneient3oniaß(s, °Ba|e 1 Pi i If.thle MaoriwiißhesLto makq rtinaWga^at/once;» political'«and" organ* cays that! the) ancient f K,oman Qusestionesiwereltjibuiaale consisting,of " Committees of 'tHeOtegielAtUTe -ifl andrevergr;reftdwof I bfr'Lappentourg «aay Bee'that tie, Sa?ton, B#6ft#hWeeurtsvasr*!eH:jAß ,The fights I 'Bf' Stocient wB& IJindbor]priintigeßil;ur.e W!&> exactly osteage. irjlt iraor in. f ttie eldest tWmeriit of ihaiineittbera/pf thats line;-) we have: the exact * p«*HjeL, off the i feelings, ©jK, mosi? Eng-i *squ6tation ifciom Hqmer!s, Qdyasej,i where and ignorance are attributed by a man of more advanced] civilization to a people only half- . «i*ili*edl; ciinob hejaddsi f ithftiCyplppi* type; pf i ofl ;ftlien' andv.ldss iadyanced i civiliEation, fot; the ialAiost physical loathing: which the more advanced ftSels ior usually expressesdteelf by deacribing thjemaeimcmst»rs,'aaigiaafcß>[andas4eniom.' , - «. rUild y'?i,ia--.v,j.!:{??<-. - ■■;[ Ji;-> Jr.-''-., . ■ : .