The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1889.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5425, 15 January 1889, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1889.

Although the Press Association telegrams on, Saturday stated as a fact that Mr. Seth Smith had been appointed Chief Judge of the Native Land Court in the place of Mr. J. E. Macdonald, we notice that the New Zealand Times only mentions it as a rumor requiring coiifiimation. It is to be hoped that the change will be made, and made quickly. Mr. MacdonaW has not given unqualified satisfaction while he has been at the head of the Native Land Court, and we are surprised that after tho Hon. J. N. Wilson's speech in the Legislative Council last session that he has not been removed long before now. Mr. Wilson said:— " There is no doubt that the Native Land Court system has been a failure, because the Court has considered that its duty is not to ascertain tho owners of the land at all, but to got through tho proceeding somehow, and to get the land into the possession of some natives who it was known would be disposed to sell. In that way very often the land is granted to the wrong people: but the Native Land Court does not trouble itself in any way to discover the reality of the ownership. The solo idea of the Court is to get rid of the business, and to get the land vested in parties who are prepared to sell. The whole proceeding of the Court has been unsatisfactory from the first—utterly unsatisfactory. What could be more discreditable than what was shown to have occurred by the papers produced in connection with the Owhaoko ease?- The Chief Judge was shown to have communicated with the parties and advised them to take the very steps to which he would give effect afterwards. Had he been a Judge of the Supreme Court, and attempted to lend himself to any such proceeding as that, I have no doubt that that Judge would have been removed by request of both Houses of Parliament. Why was it not done in this case ? Of course, it was only a native matter; it was of no moment; it was a small matter. But had the property tho title to which was in dispute been owned by Europeans, there would have been such a feeling of indignation created throughout tho whole of tho country that the outcry could not have boon resisted for a moment. Tho samo thing is going on now. It is impossible to bring proof in these cases. It is only, as in the cases I have referred to, after very careful enquiry that theso things come out at all." Mr. Wilson does not speak without kuowlodge, and we repeat that after what he said the Government should have taken the earliest possible opportunity of appointing a successor to Mr. Macdonald. In making Mr. Seth Smith Chief Judge the Government will fall into tho same mistake that they did in the appointment of Mr. Macdonald. He is not acquainted with tho native languago or Maori customs ; ho is a lawyer, and ho has been an upright Magistrate. So also was Mr. Macdonald. As the Hon. Mr. Pharazyn said, who followed Mr. Wilson in the debate on the Native Land Bill:—" It is quite possible that the Land Courts are not so well conducted as/they ought to bo; but that is simply tho consequenco of appointing persons who are not competent for the position of Land Court Judges. That is a matter for tho Executive carefully to consider ; and I must say I think there has been a great tendency on the part of successive Governments to appoint gentlemen simply in consequence of their legal knowledge, without taking sufficiently into consideration their knowledge of the natives. The term " Court" is, after all, a misnomer, for the strict legal means of ascertaining title cannot bo applied to lands held, as these lands are, in common. With tho natives the communistic title is of such a nature that it is impossible to apply to it tho abstract rules of law derived from a totally different state of things." The appointment of Mr. Seth Smith to tho office of Chief Judge will certainly not give effect to three Maori petitions presented to tho House last session praying for tho removal of Mr. Macdonald, and tho appointment of another European acquainted with the Maori language and customs.