REBEL PRISONERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 920, 17 July 1869, Page 1

REBEL PRISONERS.

It is to be hoped that Mr Fox in 1869 will be more successful in dealing with the treatment-of-prisoners question than he was in 1864. If that question is not settled to the satisfaction of the country now, we may despair of its ever being so settled at all. The experience of nine years of intermittent struggle should be more than enough to guide our legislators to the true solution of this problem. There ought to be an end to the law-making and the law - expounding which apparently have served only to complicate a very simple subject. Public opinion from one end of the colony to the other haa set its face against any further trifling with the demands of justice. Both the number and the influence of the Maori sympathisers among us have dwindled away. There is very little doubt in the public mind as to what should be done with a captured Hauhau. Even 'Jedburgh justice ' is loudly advocated by some of those who profess to guide public opinion in the North Island. Any proposal to return to the old system would be indignantly rejected throughout the oouutry. Read by the light of past events, there is something inexpressibly ludicrous in the ultra-humanitarian views which were so much in voguo a fow years ago. In a Ministerial Memo* ran dum written by Mr Fox in May 1864:, respecting tho rebel prisoners then confined on board the hulk ' Marion,' we meet with passages which aro much more suggestive of an amiable enthusiast in prison discipline than of a Premier of New Zealand. The prisoners referred to had been taken iv tho Waikato war — a wav professedly waged in defianco of tho Queen's supromaey by men wcro undoubtedly British subjeotsi. The nature of tho treatment which they vecoived on boai'd tho hulk may bo gathorod from tho following : — ' Divine service has boon held generally twico on every Sunday, and visits have been paid by ministers of religion almost every day. A supply of New Testamentsin Maori, and slates, pencils, and somo elementary books have been given. Several classed for elomentovy instruction have boon formed, aud a considerable* number ot tho prisoners have learned, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Tho Testaments aro in constant use. Such games as they are accustomed to and *vro capable of being played on board of ship — such as draughtts, it great fuvonrito among Maoris, and at which they arc great adepts — aro permitted. Fishing Hne» and hooka havo also boon nerved out, which both nlloviato tho tedium of imprisonment and afford & wholesome variety of food. Such wm Mr Fox>

account of the treatment aqg^eclto ourv rebel priaone^si^^^^^e^'^'hisj^p vernment to f 2llevia€" fte^edium of* itn-* prisonment'^was 1 highly creditable^ to their Immunity; 1 £i|d l j the ' means adopted" for " the" purpose 1 were certainly '« judicious, \thottgh, by the way, musical and , dramatic -entertainments niigh|j, hav,e 'been thrown in to advantage:* * s Tbat the 'creature comforts' of the*" prisoners were not neglected, is ve.jrjr from the $aily reports furnwligd by their custo dians. One of' thlse Reports runs as follows: — 'Men constantly at worli and studious. WWlt^'across to two islands, and selected one for cultivation. The men are being allowed wine and nutritious diet liberally. Rations properly issued.' The folly culminated in the remoyal of th& prisoners from the hulk to the island of Kawau, at the instance of Sir Geobge Gbey, who proposed to manage them ' something after the fashion of a Moravian settlement/ under the spiritual guidance of a Church of England missionary. The result of this proposal is but too well known. The escape of the prisoners involved Mr Fox and his colleagues in unexpected difficulties, which seem to have modified their views on the question at issue. A lengthy memorandum by Mr Fox concluded with an indignant censure of the course adopted by His Excellency, apparently in fbrgetfulness of the fact that His Excellency and Mr Fox had been practically rowingin the same boat. Mr. Fox thought that as long as the prisoners were in safe custody on board the hulk, the ends of justice were accomplished. If the ends of justice had been accomplished, the removal to Kawau would never have taken place. It would be unjust to Mr Fox to charge him, as he charged Sir Geobge Grey, with Maori sympathies. But Mr Fox, like othor Prime Ministers, appears to have thought that the ordinary machinery of the law was too cruel to be applied with justice to the Maori rebel. The Courts of Law, had the case been brought before them in the usual way of business, would have settled the difficulty at once. There is no room for doubt as to the fate which — under ordinary circumstances — awaita British subjects engaged in rebellion, or engaged in the commission of murderous and unprovoked atrocities. The unfounded assumption that Maori prisoners must be regarded as belligerents, and are therefore entitled to the courtesies of war, should never have been recognised by any Government of this colony. It seems, however, to have been recognised so far as to occasion great reluctance to refer the case of a captured rebel to the ordinary Courts. In one celebrated instance, at least, the Government of tho day declined to carry out the sentence of death passed by a Court of Law on a Maori charged with murder. The necessity for summary execution o justice forced itself at length on tho attention of Mr Fox's Ministry, and led to the introduction of the 'Suppression of Rebellion Act, 1863.' This measure authorised the officer commanding tho colonial forces to hold Courts Martial for tho purpose of trying persons ' suspected of being guilty of aiding and abetting rebellion,' and of punching them by death or penal acrvitudo in tho event of their being found guilty. Strange to «ay, tho duration ot thi3 Act was limited to the end of tho succeeding session of tho General Assembly. It waa never revived, but has been allowed to remain a doad-lettor in tho Statute Book. A memorandum by Mr Whitakkr, the thon Attorney Gonernl, i»tated with reference to this Act that it in aiinilar to one passed at homo in 1798 for tho suppression of tho Irish rebellion, but modified to suit tho circumstance* of tho colony. Wo may mention thai it had not received the Queen's aoaent at tho timo whon the Waikato prisoners were troubling tho Government ; and for that reason, Mr Fox apparently reconciled himself to the attempt to * alleviate tho tedium of dmprinonment' on board tho hulk. _^ Tho recollection of the disgraceful £arco« of Kaweu and tho Chatham Inland* will probably induce the Legi* Jftture tp Place the tar on th» subject

:on|a!satiß^to|7jbasis; inhere ar«now including -women and Children, in the handlr of the Government at«,:Taranaki and Patea.; , Thej|men T have been*boncerned in the commission of outrages for which, there can" be 1 neither ' excuse nor palliation.' i It* cannot be urged that they are prisoners of war — that is, men who have been made captive in honourable warfare. ' They; are rebels, I guilty ■of murder and pillaged ' *•■ They deserve deafek and ought to fmffer it. The colony is'^nftw left to its own resources ; it must' provide for a state of chronic war; and .perhaps the only means yithin its reacrpof ensuring peace is that of dealing out swift and summary vengeance on all who dare to disturb it.' < . ■