Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5372, 4 February 1879, Page 2

The case of the man Rennell has excited attention from one end of the colony to another, and moat of the newspapers have commented on the judgment of Justice Gillies, deeply regretting, as he did, that there was no legal power to retain the man in custody, to try him here or to send him anywhere else for, trial! Attention is naturally attracted to the circumstances by tlie interest which New Zealand has in the case, as many persons who have their permanent residence here, and whose wives and families reside here, are engaged in the Island trade,, and have to face the dangers of living in a lawless region. It seems to be thought that all that is required to prevent such a thing in future is, that the British Government shall confer on the New Zealand Courts power to try a man accused of a crime on any island of the Pacific Ocean, or to send him to Fiji to be tried by the governor of that colony, who has been created Lord High Commissioner, and has received certain powers under special Acts. These powers were conferred with the view of dealing with the abuses of the "labour trade," and to protect Islanders from the unscrupulous rapacity of those engaged in that traffic. The British Government 17111 possibly find some difficulty in conferring the powers spoken of. They will look at the matter in all its aspects before assuming a legal jurisdiction over the multitudinous islands of the archipelago of the Pacific. If the British Government are to take cognizance of a homicide committed on any of these islands, they must do the same with regard to an ordinary assault, or perhaps even a case of small debt. Administering law and justice means the institution of a system ranging, like the capacity of some people, from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter. The answer to anyone who here would resort to violence in defence of his rights, or what he supposed to be his rights, would be that he ought to have appealed to the law, which would hare seen justice done him, and that policemen and resident magistrates being close at hand, ho had no right to take tlie law into hia own hands. Whore is the British Government to draw the line ? And what offences are to be ruled large enough to be taken cognizance of 1 It is obvious that the prisoner will not be able to plead that he had received such and such provocation, for which he could obtain no redress, for that would be an attack upon the British Government, which did not profess to hare anything todo withrighting his wrongs, but which punished him when he took what he conceived the best means to right them himself. We can conceive of a boat's crow landing on an island, and, under tlie direction of someone, wrongfully taking away all the stores of a trader, and leaving him perhaps to perish. He lias no means of legally pre- j venting them. He cannot call a police- ! man and prevent them from entering his house till they have proved their right to do so. His only hope of escaping outrage is by opposing force to force. Administering the law is like enforcing a blockade ; it must be effective to be legal. This has always been recognised even in the Courts of Judge Lynch. Rough-and-ready justice hasoftenbeenadininistered, but allowances were always made for the position of men who, in resisting aggression, found it impossible to call any kind of legal force to their aid. If Great Britain says, respecting any island, or group of islands, " we will set the forces of the Empire in motion to punish any murder committed here," it will also have to assume jurisdiction for every crime down to petty larceny. Unless the British Government will guaranteo to protect a man from assault, or aggression, or wrongful treatment in any shape, it cannot claim the right to punish him for acts which he commits in resisting what he considers aggression. Ofl;iteyears, Great Britain has shewn a great disinclination to take the responsibility of enforcing law and order in distant and obscure quarters of the globe, and the Crown lawyers will well consider the question in all its bearings ere they recommend the Government to

undertake a new responsibility. Even New Zealand would not have been colonised when it was had it not been for the complaints of lawlessness existing amongst British subjects in the North.