The Star. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1880.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3944, 8 December 1880, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1880.

It is oasy to be profoundly wise after tbe event. We bave received several letters upon the subject of the demoralisation going on among the Natives of the North Island throngh the traffic in liquor ; correspondence whioh evidently haa been suddenly oalled forth through the murder of the unfortunate girl Dobie. It seems somewhat surprising, if the writers knew as muoh and felt as strongly on account of the wrongs perpetrated by a Christian people upon the noble savage, as they now desire the public to believe, thafc they should have been able to control their feelings for so long a period — that, in short, nothing but the perpetration of a barbarous murder oould prompt them to rush before the publio with their information and horror. Of a truth, however, that which is taking place every day in this Oolony ia not new to the world. Whether we take the red Indians of America, and the " firewater," which has proved more fatal to them than wars or disease, or the fearful tragedies at this moment taking place in -South Africa, where the missionary, with the Bible, is followed step by step with the bullet and the bottle, or coming still oloser, we watch the few remaining relics of the Aboriginal race of Australia gathering round the door of the hut. keeper, begging for rum, the treatment of tbe blackman by the white iB invariably the same. Their lands taken from them for a song, or tricked out of them by gentlemen thieves proceed- , ing under the respectable designation of speculators, they Beck the maddening excitement whioh affords a deliriouß happiness to the untutored mind, and fall victims by scores to the fatal effeots of continued debauchery. In j New Zealand of oourse it is the same — . wVy should it not be ? We put into » our highe places and cloth with the, garments of authority, men who have ' risen to wealth through their success in - land trickeries, we hip, hip hooraa them and do tbem all sorts of honour. As a consequence Government leads the way ' in swindling and robbing the Nativeß of | their land, and Ministers shed the I beneficent light of their encouraging * countenances upon the by no means feeble imitators who struggle after > them. This has been going on for years — it has always been tbe prooess — and i,t will continue to go on until the Maori becomes as extinct as the Moa. Tbe murder of Miss I Dobie appears to have woke up some ' of our friends to a startling realisation of the benevolence, love, and mercy of ( the Ohriatian white man to bis poor savage brother, and the horrors of the ' drink traffic appalß their suddenly | scandalised senses. Ko doubt ; but they j need not to trouble themselves! As , they knew all about this business before, their gush oi feeling may be spared today. i What we desire more particularly to i point out to-day is the fact that there ia | little or no evidence that the murder of 1 Miss Dobie — whioh has oaused our friends thus liberally to throw open the • stores of their knowledge — was attributable to drink. Let ns examine the evidenoe whioh has been presented in regard to this point. Mabtin Cor_?KE, a storekeeper at Opunake, deposed that - Tuhi must have been a dozen timeß in bis store during the afternoon , of the day of the murder, yet he is unable to say whether t Turn was in his store between the period of Miss Dobie's departure and Hone Pihama's arrival— the time at i which the murder must have taken 1 place. He says tbat " Tuhi evidently had been drinking." On the other L hand, Hoke Pihama, who met the i prisoner after the commission of the deed, did not notice that there was > anything peouliar about him. He , deposed : — " Prisoner said to me : 'I want you to buy I me a pair of trousers because my knees and other parts are coming through,' and he lifted his knee for my inspection. I would not look, because I did not intend to supply him." i Another witnesß, Habry Middleton, proprietor of the Telegraph Hotel 1 at Opunake, is moßt distinct in hiß evidence. He says ; — "I noticed nothing particu mr ir prisoner's manner when he returned with Hone's party. He appeared to have been sober all day." A witness, a yonng man named Harlez, employed at the hotel, speaks to the condition of the prisoner, as follows : — " I saw prisoner frequently from eleven to one o'dock, but not again till half-past six, when ho came for a bridle, having, as he said, broken the one he had been ÜBing. He took a small flask of brandy from hia pocket, but let it fall. I don't think he was the worso for iquor." Rona Matut was overtaken by Tuhi after the time when the murder must have been committed, and went wi.h him to Tamati's whare, where they had food together. She says : — "Tuhi ate there. He looke d unnatural. I observed him frequently looking at tho door when Tamati asked him to remain thore all night." Looking " unnatural " certainly cannot bo taken to mean tbe worse fcr liquor. It meanß that prisoner was reotlesa — fidgetty — anxious — as one who had recently committed a murder might naturally bo expected to bo — which is quite a different thing from the effect produced by drink. Mim, the wife of Tamati, Bays she : — " Bemembered Tuhi and Bona Matui coming to my whare on Thursday evening and having food. Tuni appeared all right, and not excited." Tamati Kaweroa, husband of tho last witness, said: — " Bona and Tt. nr camo to my wharo together on Thursday. Aftor the meal, Bona, who arrived drunk, loft. Tuhi did not stay loDg after Bona left. Whon askod to atop, he looked frequently out of the door ; other- ' wise he looked as usual." J Emanuel Baylet, a storekeeper, I depceed tbat Tuhi came to his place at . about 8 p.m., on horseback — thia must { ' haTe been after he left Tamati's— and c

then " ho wanted a bottle of grog, ard goods aleo, bur, they were refused to him." This conetitutee all the evidence tendered at the inqueat bearing upon the question of the mental condition of the pmoner Turn, and we think our readers will oonclude that the weight of it is altogether against the presumption which haß been put forward, tbat he -WW mad with drink, or suffering from ite effects. The law already prohibits the Bale of intoxicating drinks to the Natives, but as everyone knows, it iB systematically violated ; tbat is cne question and a most important one, deserving tho atte ation of every benevolent mind. Let it be taken by itself and dealt wf Ja. upon ita merits. It is quite another thing to assert that Turn was mad with poisonous liquor when lie perpetrated hi B foul crime ; to seek to übb euch an allegation to make an entirely baseless hue and cry throughout the country, or get up a Bemblance of excuse or extenuation for such a criminal as the murderer of M_bs Dobie.