CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 919, 11 October 1879, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

.. [To the Editor of the Hbeald.] " That in the Captain's but a choleric word, ** Which in a soldier's is rank blasphemy." Sir, — Your telegraphic columns have lately been replete with the view of certain persons as to the charge against Ward, Flexmaa, and others for riot with bailiffs ; and the Grand Jury, the Judge, and the papers Seem to have expressed themselves in such a. way as would show they were almost unacquainted with the case. It seems that they visit their especial indignation on the R.M. who ventured to commit, and kindly suggest that he ought to pay half the expenses of the prosecution because he sent the prisoners to Wellington. What then should he have done ? Should he have kept those who did not find bail in prison till a Supreme Court sat here, or till the next session in Napier in December 1 ? I believe he had no alternative but to send them to the next sitting of the Supreme Court of the District, and that is the Court- at Wellington. Ae to whether he • was right in committing, I am not a lawyer, nor did I hear the evidence ; but I will say this, that if it was right to commit the natives, Mantene Kaipau and others, for a strictly private and very mild form of the complaint, much more was it right to committee a lawyer and a justice, with their following enlisted for the enterprise, in acts of certainly greater violence, and more prolonged continuance, againßt the bearers of the warrant of the Supreme Court. But what strikes one most forcibly in connection with these affairs is the extreme one-sidedness and obliquity displayed, according to your wires, by Grand Jury, Judge, and papers. While they are horror struck with the Magistrate for doing what he believed to be, and doubtless was his duty as regards Ward, Flexman & Co., ,yefc the Grand Jury find a bill against the Maories without a murmur, the Judge does not perceive any impropriety in the sending of them to Wellington for trial, and the papers are equally blind and dumb. And yet the cases are sent from precisely the same place, by the same Court, and to the same place, at the same time. This is blind even-handed justice alike to rich and poor with a vengeance. Had those Natives been well off ; had they known how to manipulate juries ; had they even obtained the sympathy of the Judge, their fate had been less "damnable." But no ; when the case of the Natives was in the balance justice Blumbered j her arm dropped to her side, her hand failed to perceive any inequality ; her voice was mute ; her sword sheathed. A true bill is found as a matter of course. Hey presto 2 call on the case of Regina v. Ward, Flexman, and others. . Justice wakes ; her arm is nerved j her voice raised to a shriek ; her sword flashes, and strikes wildly. . Drop the curtain, the Bill is thrown out. I perceive by a Wellington paper of the 4th instant, that Mr. Hutchison has moved in the House for certain reforms as regards juries, and one is the abolition of the Grand Jury, which in the cases under notice has certainly been worse than useless. It is clear that our system is faulty to a degree, and justice suffers in consequence. — I am, &c., F4IRPLAY.