WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 571, 8 November 1862, Page 8

WELLING TON.

Native Outrage. • Great sensation has been caused by the. violent proceedings of a number of Natives against settlers at Wanganui, The Independent says :— " The sword of Damoc'es in the shape of the Native dificulty remains continually suspended by a single hair over the heads of our fellow colonists in this Island. The wreck of the Lord Worsley, its purchase by the Government ; the detention of the Nelson mail box, and moi c recently still, the utter defiance of legal jurisdiction shown by the Natives at Wanganui -are all pregnant and important instances, which establish the truth of this assertion. 7 ' In our columns of to-day will bo found a report of two cases of recent occurrence there, which possess features of painful interest. The first has reference to an action raised before the Reside nt Magistrate by a Maori against a European, claiming £o as damces for two pigs, the property of the former, which nre alleged to have been destroyed by the latter. We have carefully perused the whole of the evidence adduced, and cannot find the slightest jot or tittle of legal proof that the defendant could be held liable for the amount claimed, and the court would appear to have taken the same view, and returned a verjict in aeeoidanee with the facts. This decision, how- ( ever, does not satisfy the Maori plaintiff, who forthwith proceeds up the liver, and calls a meeting of his friends there, as the result of which a select party of fifty men, armed with gun*., come down to the dulcndant's house on the following day, and as in the time of Colonel (ioli and the Tar-miki war. coolly take possession of two valuable horses worth £80, and cany them off to their stronghold. This it might be thou&ht, bora lurd enough upon the European settler ; but it appears further punishment was yet in store for him. If the repoit of the local paper be correct, on the same clay, Atkinson, the defendant was called into Court, and ordered to pay the cost«cf the ca=e, on the understanding that he should take a warrant out against fiopana. the native plaintiff, for the amount. There v something almost ludicrous in this decision. Here is a European settler who contributes to the support of Government as a taxpayer has an action of a Maori against him, decided in his favour ; is consequently plundered by the natives of sixtf en times the amount claimed, and after ali is required to pay the costs of the proceedings hy the same magistrate, who only a day or two before pronounced them by his decision to be unfuiinded. Verily, law is law. It furthers appears that no stops whatever have heen taken to vindicate the majesty of the law in this matter, and Atkinson, despairiusr of getting any redress, has resolved to pay the illegal demand of the native iv order that he may get his horses back.