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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3909, 8 May 1877, Page 2

Our attention has been drawn to a portion of Mr Justice Richmond's address to the Grand Jury in Wellington, delivered on the 4th of April, in reference to the charge against Tutere and Tarita Tiweta for for-

cible entry. Tuteve' and Tarita Tiweta, we must explain, are husband and wife, at any rate according to Maori custom. They are claimants to the Orona Block, sold some time ago by the Government to Messrs Douglas and Co,, of Otayo, and to assert their claim they committed certain acts which laid them open to the charge of forcible entry. A true bill was brought in against them, but the prosecution was withdrawn on their undertaking not to interfere further with Messrs Douglas and Co. The portion of the address to which our attention has been drawn is that which bears on their matrimonial relation. It runs as f ollows : — ' ( They(the jury) would observe that the man and woman charged with the offence bore the same surname (Tiweta), and that led one to suppose that they might be, in the Maori sense, at least, man and wife. It did not appear in the depositions that they were so, and they might not be told that they were, but he apprehended that the Supreme Court would not take notice of a Maori marriage that was not celebrated in accordance with the provisions of the Marriage Act. Mere cohabitation would not constitute marriage in the eye of the law. He mentioned this because, as they were aware, in many cases where a man and his wife were charged together criminally, the wife was exempted from criminal responsibility, because she was supposed to be under the control of her husband." The significant remark, of course, is that the Supreme Court would not take notice of a Maori marriage that was not celebrated in accordance with the provisions of the Marriage Act. Judge Richmond is treating, no doubt, of the criminal responsibilities of Maori couples irregularly married. What he says, however, would, of course, equally apply to their civil rights.