The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 24, 1876.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 80, 24 July 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 24, 1876.

It wilt be probably be new 3 t«.soiue of our readers to learn that there are actually places in New Zealand where the Queen's writ for any offence, including the crime of murder, cannot run. It seems an extraordinary state of things that will perrant of this in a civilised country like the one we live in. Not'long ago the Colony was horrified with the details of a > frightful murder committed by a Maori named Winiata, at Auckland. The police made great efforts to secure the murderer, but all to no purpose, for he had the cuteness to know that if he could only reach the King country he would be safe. Now this is a most extraordinary law that will allow a Maori t>> murder a European in cold bWxl, and then shelter him because he is ott the other Hide of a boundary-line in a particular part of the Colony. W hen the Hon. Major Atkinson - spoke on this subject in the House the other evening, he certainly expressed a truism, when he observed that when a highlv-civilised race came into contact with a barbarous one, they must either remove it off the face of the earth, or else make up their minds to put up with much that could not be tolerated in a civilised community. For

our own part, we are inclined to favor the first alternative, as mentioned by the Hon. Major Atkinson, and go in for sweeping the barbarous race oft' the face of the earth. This flour and blanket policy has been a great mistake with the natives, and they are now laughing at us in their sleeves. What with Sir Donald 31' Lean's presents and smiles and the missionaries prayers, the natives at the present time imagine themselves little gods, and the Europeans as their worshippers. The idea of a Minister of the Crown when defending the Government ; over this W.vNiATA-murder-business, rising in the House and stating that lion, members must make tip their minds to put lip with much that could not be tolerated in a civilised community ! One of the things to be tolerated is the bmtal murder of a European by a 3laori. We wonder if the hou. gentleman would have taken the matter so coolly had it been one of his own relations who had fallen a victim to WiNiATA'fJ treachery. We don't tliink that the Commissioner of Immigration would have thought that murder was one of the things to be " tolerated " by a civilised race. Sir George Okey was not far out when he stated the other day, that moremoney had been spent in pacifying the natives than a six months' war would have cost in subduing them. The WiNtATA murderer occupied the attention of the House last week, and Sir George Grey then spoke very warmly on the subject. He said that he knew it was the fixed opinion in the minds of the best and most powerful natives, that the system of giving presents to murderers and those

who abetted them —in. fact, the,, system of bribing, which, for the time being* had been-successful in inducing them to remain quiet—was producing, a "very -bad effect. .Those men believed that it weakened the authority of"'the good over the ill-conducted,. and that, until. a proper distinction was made in that respect by the Native Department and by the Government, there was no hope whatever of good and well-disposed people in the King territory being able to restrain those evildispcsed persons whom lie had described. The Hon. Major Atkinson, in the same debate, pointed out that "The Native Minister did not visit the Bang country in the capacity of a police officer. It had been the custom of all previous Governments and Houses to admit that the Queen's writ did not run in the King country, and until the writ ran all over the Colony they could do nothing, but it was at the same time understood that when the Queen's writ ran all over the Colony, these murderers would be arrested, if it were fifty years hence. The object of the Native Minister in the King country", had been to endeavour to make an arrangement for carrying law and order into the King country, and if he had demanded these murderers he would have been acting unwisely, and the natives might well have said—'Why not give up a great many more murderers who were scattered about V " We have read the debate through very carefully, and we think that any sensible person when acquainted with the circumstances, will admit that the Government are very much to blame in not having effected the capture of Winiata long ere this.