Maori test for act

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 6

Maori test for act

Te Ringa Mangu (Dun) Mihaka is travelling the country’s Magistrate’s Courts and risking arrest in an attempt to test an obscure and little used section of the Law Practitioners Act.

In Auckland, Wellington, and yesterday in Christchurch, Mr Mihaka has attempted to act as a Maori agent for Maori defendants.

In each case he has been refused the status of Maori agent. In Auckland he was ■arrested and charged with obscene language and resisting arrest. Mr D. Sullivan, S.M., in Wellington allowed Mr Mihaka to speak only as a friend of the defendant. In

Christchurch yesterday he was again refused permission to speak on behalf of a defendant as a Maori agent.

The Law Practitioners Act makes it illegal for any one who is not enrolled as a solicitor to act as one.

The exception is a clause that states that no offence is committed under this act by a person who acts as a Maori agent. Apart from the paragraph stating this, no further mention is made of what a Maori agent is or does. Mr Mihaka says he is attempting to act as a Maori agent to ensure that defendants, particularly Maori de-

fendants, are provided with better representation in the courts than at present. “The present duty solicitor system is a "farce,” said Mr Mihaka, who was one of the original petitioners for the present legai-aid scheme. Guilty pleas were still made too frequently in an attempt by the defendant to rush matters through and avoid long, frequent and confusing court appearances, said Mr Mihaka. The legalaid scheme was an attempt to avoid these problems, but it had been used instead to continue them, he said.

“By pleading guilty to save time and trouble the defendant keeps suppressing his dignity and eventually ends up with none at all,” said Mr Mihaka.

By attempting to use the provisions for Maori agents he was changing the purpose tor which it had been used in the past, he said. The original purpose of the provision had been to help in the sale of Maori land, but he was now trying to use it for the good of Maoris, said Mr Mihaka.

From Christchurch Mr Mihaka hopes to travel to Dunedin and Invercargill to attempt to act as a Maori agent in the Magistrate’s Courts there.

Mr Mihaka is waiting for two cases in "which he will apear as his own counsel to come before the Court of Appeal. The cases concern Mr Mihaka’s attempts to have court proceedings conducted in the mother tongue of the defendant.