"AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM."

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5770, 25 March 1876, Page 3

"AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM."

To the Editor : Sir,— Noticing in the Thames Advertiser and the Auckland papers another long tirade of abuse levelled at Sir Donald McLean's department, and written by a gentlemen hailing from Hikutaia, it seems right the public should know that the writer of the aforesaid tirade, has been more or less involved in cattle trespass disputes with his Maori neighbours. And I believe it will be found that these quarrels have much to do with his well-known hostility to '•the powers that be" and Sir Donald McLean in particular. About three years ago a similar cattle trespass dispute on the West Coast might have involved the colony in another costly war but for Sir Donald McLean's moderation and firmness. In this case a settler named 'Campbell insisted on grazing his cattle on Maori land which was never alienated. The owner of that land objected— jnst as a white man might object— and because the interloper had to remove his cattle he forthwith became a furious enemy o£ the Government and the Native Minister. One need not be an admirer of the present Ministry to see how easily a disappointed man can, when it suits his views, manufacture a "mountain out of a molehill." Knowing something of the circumstances — the endless squabbles, &c, between the gentleman hailing from Hikutaia and his Maori neighbours — I, for one, should be inclined to receive his political grievances with "great caution." Possibly an inquiry lately presided over by Colonel Haultain (a disinterested person I am sure) went against the gentleman hailing from Hikutaia. If so, we have not far to seek for the hostility evinced for "the powers that be," in every line of his late letter to the Thames morning paper. — I am, &c, Observer.