THE MANGONUI AND HOKIANGA MURDERS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3512, 17 October 1868, Page 4

THE MANGONUI AND HOKIANGA MURDERS.

To th« Editor of the Weekly Nbwb. Sib,— l see by yonr paper of the 28th nit. that hi» Exoellency the Governor has been pleaded to place the two condemned meu oo an equal footing, wuioh appears to give great dissatisfaction both to Euro, peans and natives. The first was a deliberate murderer, and after the prisoner's guilt wa« proven, and an attempt made to prove him iniane, which al«o fell through, although being most ably defended, after a most lengthened and patient hearing, he was brought in guilty without the l«ast doubt; and when the question was put to him what he had to say why tbe sentence of the Court should not be passed upon him, he replied, " Naku tenei hara. 11 —" This is my guilt ;" and, this coupled with no hope of m-rcy, every one felt assured that the penalty of the law would be carried into effect. So 1 thought the sugar-and -flour polioy at an end, and only to be spoken of as some past mismanagement. I saar in' one of your papers his bxcellency's reply to a native, so far at* I can recollect, was that guilt would be punished by the utmost severity. Now, in this instance, what effect will it have upon our aboriginal brethren? lam well acquainted with native character, and I know every act of leniency a native only thinks a piece of weakness ; he is no fool, and very foxy ; and what is more, he knows right from wrong better than a good many of our Anglo-Saxons. Two influential chiefs of the prisoner's tribe said, in my hearing, that h» ought to be hung ; in fact, they say there is no law, or it's all a farce ; and if a white man had killed a Maori, they would take their own law and kill the white man in return. But tbe next we hear of Hemi te Hara, the murderer, he will have his liberty like the Chatham Island prisoners, Then, with regard to the Hokianga so-called murder, there is no doubt but the JSgapuhis are satisfied, and I think they would have been so had he got two years; while, at the same time, Te JRarawa is very dissatisfied, as they think it selfdefence by English law, and as they say they don't wnnt to light ; and if the Governor had given him two years merely to please their opponents, they should never have grumbled, but as it is they lay there will be plenty of work for the future. — I am, &C., CORBES?OND*NI. Ahipara, October 10, 1868.