The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 30 November 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1880.

CoxTKAjiY to the surmise of those who are entitled to consider themselves judges of Maori character and habits, the murderer of Miss Dobie belongs to a Taranaki tribe. The wretched homicide, Tuhia, in savagely and fatally attacking his innocent victim, performed an act the counterpart of which car»not be found in the pages of the history of the Maori race. The young men of this race are usually noted for a rr-.-.'cl f<>. European ladies which approaches adoration. So secure have European ladies felt from any injury at the hands of the Maoris that they have visited their settlements with as little apprehension as they would experience in visiting the house of a friend, and received nothing but noble hospitality. Tuhia appears to the casual observer to have seriously belied the gallantry of the young men of his race. But a perusal <-f the evidence adduced at the i:-f|Uf£t will show that there are grounds for strong suspicions that Tuhia's act was superiuduced by an agent the terrors of which ontvio those of barbaric instincts. Wireniu Kingi, whose opinions upon such a subject; should be of more value thau the insane driveiiings of men who are paid to string worda together by the yard, when asked to express his opinion as to the murder, said, " Maoris do not kill in that way Martin Coffey, the storekeeper from whom Miss Dobie purchased the pencil for sketching purposes, avera that :t Tuhia appeared to be under the influence of dripk" just prior to the committal of the act; Sir. Eyes, foreman of the jury, states that, after the committal of the deed, " the prisoner appeared frightened and the agent of the Associated Pres3 Telegram Agency says, at the conclusion of yesterday's report of the inquest, "the prisoner is a tall, fine-looking man, of about 20 years of age, and is now down-hearted, and has been crying," Added to this, we have a confession from Tuhia that he committed the crime, in language which deeply moved the whole Court, " I know I killed the woman. It was a great sin, or crime, I know." We have reason to believe, from the demeanor of the prisoner, that he is sincerely penitent, and that he is fully Drepared to meet tlm fate which he so richly deserves. But we have strong reasons for conjecture that the murder would never have been perpetrated had Tuhia not been excited by drink. The truth of Coffey's evidence, that " the prisoner appeared to be under the influence of drink," is placed almost beyond the range of dispute by the evidence of Middleton, the hotelkeeper, that " the prisoner asked for a flask of brandy, which he took to the stable and broke," and that of Aubrey Harvey, that "a ! flask of brandy fell out of his hand." The contents of one flask of brandy would have been sufficient to have maddened a native, who is more susceptible to alcoholic influences than a European, but there is a probability that these two witnesses referred to two distinct flasks of brandy. With such evidence before us, we think we are warranted in concluding that strong drink has added another innocent victim to the thousands that perish annnally by its hand, and another criminal to the calendar whose pages would be almost a blank but for its instrumentality. It is useless our wringing our hands and bewailing such occurrences. Whilst the liquor traffic is conducted in native districts " without let or hindrance," we may expect; more or less : crime. The wonder is that while the drink shops of the native districts are permitted to conduct their business with the sole object of fleecing the natives, serious depredations are so rare. What becomes of all the payments to natives on account of land purchase 1 By trickery, which has been reduced to a science, they fall into the toih of the grog-seller.' Where are tho safeguards by which it was supposed legislation had surrounded the liquor traffic in native districts ? Middleton mav not have acted in contravention of the law in supplying Tuhia witlfbrandy —so much the worse for the law and the law-makers. But he will not surely eel quite comfortable when the thought occurs to him that he served the murderer with a flask of brandy just before the committal of the fiendish deed. The Colony has received another warning of the necessity for restricting the sale of intoxicating liquors to natives in native districts, and this warning should be improved by legislation on the subject at the earliest opportunity. Such Maori nonpolitical depredations are fortunately few; but they make up in seriousness what they lack in number. The natives of the West Coast, of whom Tuhia is a tribal member, have since the days when they fought for their lands, displayed the docility of children. Those who know them would as soon trust their lives in their hands as they would in those of Earopeana. That they should have displayed such humane qualities is not less than miraculous, seeing that they have been plied with liquid compounds as vile as it is possible for greedy and unprincipled men to concoct. Tuhia committed the murder, according to his own confession and the evidence; but the Btrong probability is that he would not have done so had it not been for the fatal flask or flasks of brandy.