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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1167, 13 January 1880, Page 2

The Auckland Herald cxprc3se3 an opinion that the delay which has occurred in bringing the Parihaka prisoners to trial, and their removal to Dunedin -will cause as much anger amongst the natives at Parihaka and throughout the other Maori districts as if the Government bad executed them all at Wellington. The effect that the action of the Government will have greatly depends upon the conduct of the Press. Here, as elsewhere, the Press can infuse evil ideas into the minds of people, and turn disaffection into rebellion. We are not cognisant with the reasons of the Government for delaying the trial, but if they have adopted such a policy in order that they may be the better able to deal with and settle the Waimate Plains question, we think their reason i 3 a good one. It is absurd to talk of the injustice and unlawfulness of such a course. These Maoris can advance no legitimate claim to be treated like Europeans. All subjects of the Queen should be possessed of similar legal privileges. But the natives of the interior of the North Island are not the Queen's subjects—they are aliens. We have invited them to act in harmony with us, and to participate in the advantages that being British subjects confers, but they hold ■ aloof from us, and act in defiance of our laws. The Queen's writ cannot issue within the realms that the Maori Kings call his. His subjects, and, in fact, the whole of the Maori race, cannot comprehend the meaning of the word leniency. There is not a synomyn for it in their language. The nearest word to it is cowardice. To treat them with more consideration than that which would be extended to dangerous outlaws would be to prolong the native difficulty, and to perform an act of extreme cruelty. The law should be stretched to its extreme limit, so as to allow the greatest amount of latitude to the Government in dealing with such of them a3 openly rebel. We hope that thfe Press of the Colony will take tiiis view of the matter, and, setting aside all political feeling, support any Government that will use even extreme measures in an endeavor to stamp out for ever the native difficulty, and abolish the Native Department. To oppose such a policy means the exciting of the native mind and the fomenting of a state of matters that might end in a bloody war and Maori extermination.