"INVESTOR" ON NATIVE LAW SUITS BILL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 610, 27 January 1879, Page 2

"INVESTOR" ON NATIVE LAW SUITS BILL.

To the Editor of the Evening Herald. Sir, — Captain Porter asserted at the meeting of Captain Morris, that, had the Native Law Suits Bill passed, the district of Poverty Bay would have been ruined. " Investor," in the Standard of Saturday, not only denies the the correctness of Captain Porter's assertions, but goes the length of declaring that the Bill would have been the greatest boon that could have been been bestowed on the district ; further, that the Bill was drafted by the Opposition ; that its object was to settle disputes according to equity and good conscience, and that all land disputes between Natives and Europeans should be divested of legal technicalities. Allow me to tell " Investor " that he is utterly wrong in all his assertions. Ist. The Bill was not drafted by the Opposition. It was drafted by the Governmnet, with the assistance of Mr. Rees. 2nd. The Opposition made several efforts to meet the Government, and assist in passing the Bill ; but one of the greatest objections to the Bill on the part of the opposition, was the refusal of the Government to consent to disputes being settled according to equity and good conscience. The Government and Native Minister absolutely refused to allow such a clause. The Repudiation chief evidently dreaded equity and conscience as much as the Opposition admired the same ; in short, the object of the Bill, as drafted by Government, was, to the minds of many of the Opposition, to add to the legal technicalities, and to have the jurisdiction and settlement of the same handed over to judges to be selected by a Government composed in a great measure of Repudiation jobbers, which, I have no doubt, time will prove to be too true for the welfare of the Colony. I took a deep interest in the Bill, and would gladly have seen a Bill passed to facilitate the settlement of all disputes in the Colony on native matters ; but I quite coincide with Captain Porter's opinion, that the Native Lawsuits Bill, as submitted to the Assembly, would, if passed, have been most disastrous to the European inhabitants of Gisborne — excepting, of course, the lawyers, and the Repudiation parties. The appointment, or nomination, of judges, was certainly a most important element upon which the Opposition refused to agree with the Government. I am afraid " Investor's " assertions about looking for safe investments is similar to his others about the Lawsuits Bill, and that the signature of "Investor" should have been "Borrower," as more appropriate to the disposition and character. — I am, &c, Mercator.