The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2027, 3 November 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1869.

"We do not suppose that the resolution reported yesterday as having been passed respecting the Maori prisoners ■who are to be sent here for safe keeping, was seriously entertained by anyone at Mr Grant’s meeting. Those who gather together to hear his expositions of political doctrine, do not trouble themselves to consider whether what he is saying is true. They listen to it for amusement, just as they would do to the cut and dried jokes of a clow n at a pantomime. But sometimes there may be mischief in the matter, for Mr Grant is not particular whom ho attacks, or what he says about them. It is very easy to invent epithets in order to damage political reputation, or to stigmatise with obloquy particular measures. There is something very taking in the idea of condemning a Superintendent and exalting one’s own value in the same breath. We did not hear Mr Grant’s oration, but presume it was a fitting comment upon the resolution that nobody took the trouble to controvert. Evidently he proposed it, for -we hardly think anybody else -would; and as plainly no one thought it worth while to vote against it. But as comparatively few know what all the rigmarole was about, wo will in a fewplain words explain the matter, so that it may be seen what truth there is in the bombast that was flourished before

the meeting. On the 7th July Mi* Fox moved the second reading of the “ Summary Trials in Disturbed Dis- “ tricts Bill,” the object of which was to invest the Government with power to deal with prisoners taken in arms in a different manner from that previously pursued. By the Act which was afterwards passed, they are deprived of the character of prisoners of war, and are subjected to be treated as criminals. Under authority of that Act a number of Maori prisoners were tried and condemned to punishment. These are what Mr Grant terms the “ criminal filth” of the North Island. We will not trouble ourselves to enquire whether such a term is applicable or not. Some there may be who coincide with the idea and can make no allowance for Maori notions of right and wrong. They judge all by one moral standard ; a process, by the way, which might be rather inconvenient if applied to themselves. We will not dispute the matter. Fortunately for the Colony the prisoners are in our hands, but the difficulty to be overcome was how to cany out the sentence of the law. It has already been proved that Maori ingenuity and daring are equal to making their escape from places where natural barriers only have to be overcome. Every one acquainted with the history of the Colony for the past six years will bo well aware that the island of Kawau was easily escaped from. The hulks at Wellington were not found secure enough to retain the prisoners placed there for safe keeping. Liberty was won by them, although for most of them, only miserably to perish in the subsequent pursuit by the Volunteers. The Chatham Islands were then tried. Distance there seemed to be insurmountable. With so wide a space of ocean to cross, even canoes would have been of little use. Yet human brains when concentrated on one settled purpose are not easily baffled. The right moment was seized upon, and with great skill and tact the prisoners possessed themselves of a vessel and effected their escape. No one ought to blame them. They had quite as much right to do so as Napoleon to escape from Ham, or Charles Edward to hide from his pursuers in the Highlands during the Scotch rebellion of 1745. The blame must be laid upon the ill devised measures of those who ought to have kept them secure. If the ingenuity of one man is praised for escaping from captivity as a prisoner of war, every “ right hearted and noble- “ minded ” man in Otago will accord it to another. With these few facts before them, the present Government naturally desired a safer place to confine the prisoners in, than those which have hitherto been tried. By the Act power is given them to transport them to other Colonies, but this would not be a very dignified course. It must be also remembered that these men are created criminals by the Act recently passed, and had it not been for that Act they could not have been dealt with in the manner now proposed. The nobility which Mr Grant ascribes to other Provinces in rejecting the safe keeping of the Maoris, really arose from their not possessing the means of keeping them safely ; and other obvious considerations pointed to the advisability of confining them as far from the North Island as possible. Otago, that has come to the rescue of the General Government, merely accepts charge of them because no other place in the Middle Island is so secure. So far from its being an insult to the people, it is complimentary to their courage, habits of order, and moral discipline. In Dunedin the prisoners will meet with no sympathy in. their rebellion. They will be surrounded by a European population, to a man interested in preventing their escape. They will be in the presence of the most efficient police in the Colony; and, if in any place their labor can be utilised, it is here. Maori wars have already cost Otago too much money. If these Maori prisoners were let loose once more into their native wilds, they might form the nucleus of another rebel army, and lead to endless misery, distress and expense. It seems pretty clear that our political connection with the North must remain intact, and, therefore, the wiser plan is to aid to the utmost in the suppression of what Ave suppose may now bo legally termed “the rebellion,” by taking care that these prisoners are safely guarded.