A REAL "NATIVE DIFFICULTY."

Grey River Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 3251, 17 January 1879, Page 2

A REAL "NATIVE DIFFICULTY."

[AUCKLAND WBBKLY NEWS.] i Registrars of what Government papers call "vital statistics" are sometime placed in a difficult position, and, as may naturally be supposed, their difficulties gene* rally are out of marriages; births and deaths are easily settled. Some days ago a good-looking Maori, a man of rank and W consequence among his own people, ap-Jf peared at the RegiStrarsV Office- accompained by an attractive girl^-a half-caste— and signified to the Registrar that the r twain wanted to be made one flesh? ia Tfief Registrar was proceeding- to Me' discharge bf hia solemn duty when his letters were delivered, and he found amongst them one in which a number of ; natives lodged a caveat against the marriage. They had gone to the Registrar of the district where they reside, and had got him to draw up the caveat in proper form. The law faaakea provisions that such may be done, but renders the persons doing so responsible for any damages the intending husband may sustain through postponement )f his marriage. But a serious difficulty iit once arose. The alleged first marriage was only a marriage according to native , iustom, and was that to be regardew ks a valid marriage by English law i The Maori was aghast when he heard the case stated. He did not say that he knew nothing about the woman dn whose behalf the projected marriage Bad been stopped, but he reasoned in this way: "Thar; no marriage; me f&nt rieht marriage now; me no like flhafc woman now ; me like this woman." He thought that was conclusive, but the heart of the Registrar was as hard as the nether millstone. The question raised in

this case iB, it seems, ore whioh no jurist has been able to settle. It has occupied (Some attention in England, and it has been; found so knotty a question, that it is calculated it will not be settled in time to enable the last Maori to take advantage of the solution. What the Maori who ap-j peared before the Registrar has done to solve the difficulty in which he found himself, we have no idea, but as far as the j Registrar is concerned, he is still an unmarried man. We have no doubt he considers that our law is rather hard upon a fellow. In the old days the chiefs had all several wives, polygamy being the recognised rnle, and then this Maori could Bimply have brought home No. 2, and installed her beside No. 1. Now we prevent him (so far as we can) from possessing No. 2, and refuse to give him a plain answer about what position he occupies with regard to No. 1, declining to recognise his plaintive plea that he has made a transfer of his affections.