JUSTICE IN THE COOK ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11372, 15 May 1900, Page 3

JUSTICE IN THE COOK ISLANDS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln to-day's llkkald I observe that you give in full the letter sent by LieutenantColonel Gudgeon to Mrs. Makea Daniela, in which my efforts to obtain justico for her husband, who did great and .valuable sorvices during my administration, are termed by him "an impertinent, and uncalled-for interference." I hesitate not to impugn tho trial and conviction of Makea Daniela as improper and unjustifiable. He applied to mo in his distress to help him. I have done so, and purpose still doing so to tho utmost of my power, however terrible the indignation of Lieuten-ant-Colonel Gudgeon, may be. The trial of Makea Daniela was improper, for bias by tiio judge against him, as was alleged at the trial and can bo proved. Tho conviction for embezzlement was unjust, because, at tho most, tho issuo was only a disputed account. The sentence, I am advised, was illegal, because at the time of tho alleged offence having been committed, tho so-styled High Court of the Cook Islands was not in, existence, and no such punishment as imprisonment was known to tho law, much les3 transportation to a desolate islet. Thcro is no appeal from tho High Court, whether it bad a right to assert jurisdiction in this easo or no, and neither tho Governor of Now Zealand, nor tho High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, is found to have power to interfere. The following is tho letter to the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. It will speck for itself, and I fail to seo why Makea Daniela should have been further punished for political reasons, because I, without in any way his participation, had written that letter. One thing more. This last movement, on the part of the irresponsible native Government and its equally irresponsible native High Court, is only part of a long and cruel persecution of Makea Daniela, during which, among other things, his and his wife's joint household furniture, collected at considerable cost, were seized and sacrificed by public auction at the suit of the native Government.—l am, etc., Frederick J. Moss. (Letter to His Excellency the High Commissioner in Fiji.) Auckland, February 27, 1900. Your Excellency,—On December 30 I addressed to His Excellency tho Governor of New Zealand a letter (copy enclosed) asking inquiry into a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour imposed by the Native Court, known as the High Court of the Cook Islands, upon Makea Daniela (Vakatini), a native high chief, who was for several years paymaster, since the federation in 1891 of the said islands by me, as British Resident. The reply to me was, that " with reference to your letter of Deeomber 30, relative to Makea Daniela, His Excellency has no power to interfere in the matter." Having since learned that the same Judge, Lieut.-Colonel Gudgeon, has been gazetted by you as Judicial Commissioner, ami a Court established in the Cook Islands under the Pacific Order-in-Council of 1893.1 respectfully appeal to Your Excellency, as High Commissioner of the Western Pacific to make inquiry into the case of Makea Daniela. above referred to. I also enclose tho verbatim report of a judgment (November 2, 1899) published in the newspaper printed at the Government, printing office in Rarotonga, and received by the last mail. The statements in the said judgment are so wrong, and so regardless of the necessarily crude character of the local (Rarotonga) Government concerned in this matter, that I cannot conceive by what evidence the judge could have been so grievously misled. The alleged offences are said to have been committed during my administration, and I may sav that up to inv departure (September 13. 1898) no Bitch offence as " embezzlement" was known to the law. nor was punishment by imprisonment known, nor any gaol in existence. The Scriptural law of restitution has been from time immemorial the only provision in the native code for offences against property. Nor had the Federal Court—by which the | High Court of the Cook Islands lias been j since replaced—jurisdiction in cases in which j a local government only was concerned. The rates or taxes referred to (in the judgment) i were only an experiment, at my recommendation, to raise a local revenue for schools and roads in llarotonga, hut which wero op- I posed from the first by a number of the I native chiefs, and by Europeans inciting j them. Tho district of Avarua (Makea i Baniela's) was the most satisfactory of the ' three into which the island had been from | old times divided, and the circumstances are stated in my despatch of October 21. 1896 (recorded in the Official Letter Book at the Residency), which despatch is also published in the New Zealand Parliamentary Papor A-3, Session IT., p.p. 24 to 27, filed in due order at the said Residency. The difficulties proved so great that they led to an early abandonment of the attempt. With regard to the piles for the wharf and sheds referred to (in the judgment), I shall be glad to give a memorandum if desired, but may observe that the original agreement with the Union Steamship Company provided only for an expenditure on their part of £200, with a subsidy of £75 from the Federal Government, to j secure a claim to control the wharf so far as I the public interests were concerned. The exj penditure was afterwards much increased— it is said to £11G0. It was in connection with this, also, that I proposed a further vote of £25 towards recouping to Makea Daniela the losses he is said to have sustained. His services towards overcoming the difficulties I caused by this great enlargement of the origii nal idea were unquestionably great and valu- ; able. In my humble opinion. Makea Daniela j was in any case entitled to a generous coni sideration, instead of the unaccountable i treatment accorded to him.— have, etc.. I Frederick .1. Moss, late British Resident at tho Cook Islands.