TRIAL BY JURY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 112, 3 July 1911, Page 4

TRIAL BY JURY.

THE FIRST IN NEW ZEALAND. EXECUTION OF MAKETU. Following is an extract from Mr. Swain son's book, “New Zealand and ;ts Colonisation,” publislied in .1859: — “The first casa of trial by jury in New Zealand created on the native ,nu;d a deep impression. The Courtaouse in Auckland is by no means an imposing structure; out it is not wit.nout some historical interest, in chis unpretending building the ud- . eat of a new power in these Islands .as solemnly proclaimed. For a ; :;riod of several years lawlessness had oigned supreme; every man had been i law unto himself, and the law of lie strongest had prevailed; but the inie had now arrived when tlie reign .f justice was to be formally proclaimed; and in this modest temple, is first and chief Minister, for the ■rst time, took his seat. It is hardy too much to say that, of the numnoiis public servants holding office Jirougliout the Dominions of the Crown, no one, in his age and generation, was more emphatically ‘the igut man in the right place’ than was the first Chief justice of New Zealand. Trusted with all the powers >f several Courts at Westminster, (Viliiam Martin, its first Chief Jusdee, on February 28, 1842, opened .he proceedings of the Court. There Alias no display of pomp, or show of nilitary power, yet the first act of the new tribunal spoke, trumpst-ton-yued, throughout the land; and it /as silently felt by both races of its inhabitants that a power had been stablished amongst them to which, ionceforward, all would be compelled to bow. “Amongst the prisoners to be tried it the first sitting of the Court was i young native chief (Maketu by lame), highly connected with a powerid northern tribe, in custody on a ■barge of murdering the widow of a settler at the Bay of Islands, her two ■hildren, a servant, man, -and a half’ll ste child. The man had given some )i evocation to the young chief, but lie murder of the woman and the hildren was without provocation or xcusc. Against the will of his tribe, he murderer could not have been oaken, but knowing him' to have been bo author of the guilty deed, and aving been parties to the Treaty of Vaitangi, ceding to us the sovereigny over their country, they delivered up j Maketu to be dealt with in acordanee with onr laws. “It was the first case of life and loath that had been tried in these isinds, according to English law, and he Court, as may be supposed, was tensely thronged by a crowd of anxious spectators of both races. Of the prisoner’s guilt the natives themselves had never entertained the •lightest doubt. Under these civcum.bances the deliberate carefulness with which onr judicial proceedings were oud acted struck them with undisguised surprise. One of the most . ompetent residents in the country was selected for his knowledge of the lative language to act as interpreter, ..nd counsel was assigned by the Court :o conduct the prisoner’s defence. The quiet calmness with which the en<nily was conducted; the patient painstaking care of the Chief Justice; die grave attention of the jury ; the ■solemn stillness of the awful moment which immediately preceded the utter.iice of the prisoner’s doom; and the bread language of the Law, in which die prisoner was afterwards condemn;d to die, affected the anxious multitude with visible emotion. At that dme the military force in New Zea‘ind hardly numbered eighty men; die colonists wore but a small minority, weakened, too, by being divided 'ato several isolated settlements in--apable of affording each other the lightest mutual support; and—by a omnined movement of the natives—die whole of the English settlers then ■evident in those islands might have is-en swept away at a single blow. “Although his own connections in the North had delivered up Maketu, 'or trial, there were several powerful tribes in other parts of the country who bad always refused to become Parties to the Treaty of Waitangi, or to acknowledge the sovereign authority of the Queen, and who were miauling to see one of their own race subjected to the law of a foreign powi. Immediately the result of the trial became known, frequent consulcations were held by them as to the neons to be taken to prevent his exe'■'lllion ; and move than one threatening message was sent to the Governor of the colony to deter him from allowing the prisoner being put to an ignominious death. But Captain Hobon, who, while in the hands of pir;t,s, with the rope about his neck, uml dared death rather than betray l is trust, was not the man to be let erred by fears of personal danger '.n himself from the discharge of a miblie clutv. Seeing that the prisoner bad boon deliberately condemned, and ’ 'Having the condemnation to be just, love, nor Hobson allowed the law to ■ike its course, and Maketu was the irst of bis rice to afford an example of its sovereign power.”