THE AUCKLAND STAR ON THE TAIRUA CASES.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2016, 21 June 1875, Page 2

THE AUCKLAND STAR ON THE TAIRUA CASES.

„ The following is from' Friday's Auckland Star:—

The air of self-complacency with which the Thames appears to regard the recent settlement of the Tairua disputes- is something to wonder at. The attempt, as our readers- arc aware, was to take away the whole of the ground, a lease of which, was promised by the General Governm- nt to the discoverers, and the formal document in connection with which had not been made out .when-' the field was opened to an indiscriminate rush. The plunderers have succeeded to this extent that they havo obtained nearly one half of the ground, which, is held seemingly in trust for a number, probably tho whole ef the sharpera at the Thames. Of course, ' when the discoverers havo consented to it, that is an end of the matter, and no wonder the court is only too happy to wash its hands of a most disagreeablo business by allowing tho litigants to settle it among themselves. ..But, it is simply the .' triumph" of daring; and the. success which has attended this rush of the idle rascaldom of the Thames will have anything but a good effect on the moral tone of the community. But • what amazes us is the attitude which the press has assumed in the transaction. In yesterday's issue, the Thames Advertiser, usually one of the fairest and honestest of papers, actually continues to defend the propriety of what has taken place. It refers to two of the Auckland papers as baring " stigmatised all the objectors in this case as jumpers, and urged that tho Government should ■ interfere to protect the interests of those 1 who were termed prospectors. They waxed strong upon the injustice that \ might be done by advantages taken..of | legal quibbles." And then our coateniporary delivers.a homily on.^the evil of the Government stepping in to protect equitable rights, instead of leaving the matter to the ordinary courts of law. Of course this journal is chiefly referred to, and. the attitude we have taken respecting this attempted robbery. But what we demanded was not the Government stepping -in to arrest the operations of the courts of law, I but simply to carry out its own deliberate i engagement.'" It had bargained with the Grahams, and engaged to give a lease of thirty acres of ground as payment for the discovery and handing over of a goldfield. The-Grahams fulfilled, their part. -The Government did not fulfil its part. We merely urged that the Government should do what it had promised to do, and which it could still have done, although the bungling of its ow^officers, in not completing formally the lease before proclamation made it difficult. The morality ! which' makes a man stand by his bargain, i no matter at what cost to himself, is ■ the morality which,, we have defended. No matter what the cost, the-.Govern-ment should have given that lease of thirty acres to the Company;- even though it required an Act :of Parliament to enable it, "and twenty thousand pounds for compensation to the jumpers. This is the language of morality, not of the expe^ diency, or the desire to humour which appear in this case unfortunately to have guided and misled our contemporary at the Thames. The General Government endeavoured to shirk the responsibility of its own bungling, and tried to roll orer the difficulty on the Superintendent, who is too ' wary a politician to be readily trapped. Our contemporary, knowing nothing at. all .of what he is talking about, refers to the " determined position.' taken up by the Superintendent that the law should not be interfered with." His .Honor simply declined pulling-nuts out of the fire for Wellington monkeys, and .so far from taking any " determined poiition" in favor of the jumpers, we feel confident that their conduct gave disgust to him as jto every "other honest man. The matter is over now; "virtue" has been rei warded, and the Thames is happy. It has been one of the most successful though -meanest swindles which have fouled the history .of the, Auckland goldfields. But those who have succeeded, and their advocates, should be silent now; no longer blatantly glory in their shame.