Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6820, 26 September 1883, Page 5

-Quit readers will observe from a state•ment we publish, elsewhere that the owner of the barque Gazelle, Mr. J. 0. Ellis, of .Newcastle, N.S.W., is determined to fight out the question of the seizure of the Gazelle to the bitter end. We have already expressed our opinion that the Government should have been content ■-with the penalty of £100 inflicted on the •captain, and that when it was found that the owner was in no way connected with the smuggling, the vessel should havebeen handed back. This was only simple justice, and it is monstrous that a Government should act in a needlessly vindictive manner. By doing so they must greatly injure the commerce of the colony. We understand that the shipowners of New •South Wales have tqken up this matter, and have determined to subscribe the •necessary expenses of seeing the case •out, and exposing the action of the New Zealand Government to the world. They look upon this as a matter which affects them vitally, because any of their vessels are liable to confiscation in a New Zealand port. We understand thnt some short lime ago the Government offered to return the barque to Mr. Ellis if he *woulrl pay £50 to the Government, as •expenses "to which the Government had been put in making the seizure. Mr. "Ellis could not see that if the Government had seized and detained Ms vessel, while he was entirely innocent, any obligation lay upon him to pay the costs .of the process, and declined. Besides, :he -considered that if he had paid the •money it would have amounted virtually to a confession that he had connived at smuggling.