The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning Thursday, December 13, 1888. THE EAST COAST TRAGEDY.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 234, 13 December 1888, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning

Thursday, December 13, 1888. THE EAST COAST TRAGEDY.

Be just and fear not;! Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God'*, and truth’s.

wow that the hrst great excitement has been tided over with regard to the terrible triple murder at Mataahu, and a calm view of the sad affair can be much better taken, a few words of comment can well be made. Some of the most extraordinary ideas, as fallacious as they are uncommon, have gained credence in the minds of those whose knowledge of such matters is only gained from the ordinary tittle tattle. Some have even gone the length of asserting that Te Kooti is in some indirect way responsible for the occurrence, and we have heard it actually stated that the crime was the first warning of evil to come—from the same source 'Te Kooti) of course. Such stories are hardly worth noticing, but in heaping further (assumed) sins upon the head of the archrebel the district is likely to suffer in consequence. People unthinkingly write these stories to friends in distant places, and though they may not have the slightest belief in what they write, the fictions are accepted as facts by those unacquainted with the circumstances The simplest answer to this sort of thing, however, is to say that these stories are all “ moonshine.” Unfortunately the truth appears to be that the culprits are of a tribe which has always been devoted to the Queen's cause, but we do not believe there is a single native along the coast (of course excepting the assassins) who has the slightest sympathy with the crime. Indeed it might lead to much trouble if they got the murderers into their hands, for they would be submitted to a tortuous death something like that which in the olden times of savage warfare each tribe felt bound to accord to its enemies, when captured. We are afraid that this late occurrence has engendered in the minds of many a feeling of animosity and dread of the natives, and there is an attempt to perpetuate this impression by the persistent assertion that plunder and plunder only must have been the object of the crime—that is to say that for a few shillings these men are capable of such deeds. We cannot believe such to be the case, though theft is a connecting and secondary fact. The lower instincts of malice and revenge appear to have had more to do with it, and this theory appears to be substantiated by the detention of Hohepa and and his brother in custody. From the character vrhich the former holds he

would only be getting his deserts, even if not guilty of the recent crime, if he were sent to the gallows. He has been known to nearly kick to death women of his own race, and has only been prevented from doing so by others interfering. He is the man of whom Tula Nihoniho said —“If it was done t>y one of my tribe I can point the man out.” The brother, against whom the evidence appears clearer, was in his youth an honest and obliging young fellow, but as he grows in years he appears to have developed into a villain. But they are quite exceptional characters, and it would be equally as unfair to take them as a comparison of the native race as it would be to take the Whitechapel assassin as an ordinary Londoner. We do not think theie is much more reason for the Coast settlers to be alarmed now than ever there was. If the murderers are convicted and made an example of it will make life in the isolated dwellings along the Coast far more safe than it ever has been, and until this recent affair it always has been considered safe. There is one thing we would very much like to know in regard to this terrible crime, and that is if drink had anything to do with it. Most of the hotels along the Coast are exceedingly well

conducted, but some of those who ought to be competent to form a reliable opinion express the belief that “waipiro” had something to do with the revolting crime. < Mr Booth has come in for much severe criticism for his decision in the case in which Hohepa was charged with breaking into Book’s store, and although we feel certain he did not act wisely in face of the evidence before him we think people should be careful what they say at such a time, for it is a most cruel thing for a magistrate’s decision (even assuming it may be defective) to be thus made to connect him with such a horrible occurrence. If Hohepa had been committed and convicted on the charge a few months’ imprisonment would be more likely to whet the malicious appetite of such an one, and spurn him to revenge, instead of being a healthy warning.