Wanganui Chronicle. AND TURAKINA AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. WANGANUI, 20TH JUNE, 1866.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 10, Issue 620, 20 June 1866, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. AND TURAKINA AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. WANGANUI, 20TH JUNE, 1866.

"We have little or nothing to add, by way of Supplement, to our Summary, published on the 9th inati, for transmission by the old route, via Suez. The, notable fact, in connection with our present issue, is its mode of conveyance to the United Kingdom ; letters and newspapers being now carried from Australia and New Zealand for the first time, by way of Panama, to the Ameri_ can Continent, the West Indies, and on to the old country. This, as we have said, is a notable fact, and cannot fail to. have an important bearing upon the future destinies of these distant colonies. We are comparatively a small people in point of numbers, but we may reasonably regard this uniting o£ America with the Australian group as a great work, and one which wilj ere long materially affect our commercial and it may be our social relationships with the old country. America and New Zealand will be brought close to each other, and an extensive trade is sure, to spring up between them, making, us, to a large extent, independent of supplies at present received from England. At all events, and without forecasting the future very, closely, the very fact of binding nations more closely together is a matter of devout congratulation, as adding to or helping to perpetuate those material guarantees for peace and good-will, which it is so desirable to strengthen ; it is always another step, however feeble and faltering, towards that universal peace of the poet, which in some bright far-off day to come, shall

Lie like a shaft of light across the land, • And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro’ all the circle of the golden year. The s. s. Kaikoura, a fine new vessel expressly built for the trade, leaves Wellington on her first trip to Panama, on Saturday next. The ‘Lyttelton Times’ states that Mr. Crosbie Ward, who, as PostmasterGeneral of New Zealand some years ago, took the initia'ive. in those negotiations .which have ended in the present postal

contract, has been offered a passage by the Company in the Kaikoura and is likely to accept of it. The berths, we hear, have been nearly all engaged. We heartily wish the good ship a prosperous voyage. A wretched attempt at murder, fortunately unsuccessful, lias again been made by sonny of the rebel Maoris on the West Coast. It is one of those isolated outbreaks of baffled rage which, in writing our Summary of the 9th, we said was just probable. We furnish the particulars in another column. Such things may occur from time to time ; it appears to us a mistake to magnify them "’'into either tefriblo' or terrifying events they are no such thing ; but they should be sufficient to cause the authorities to keep a vigilant lookout along our frontier. No trust need be placed in the good faith of these savages, and it is entirely owing to their weakness and not their will that they are quiet. Still with exceptions, such as this one, few and far between, the Maori war is virtually at an end. Properly speaking such, attempts at murder are not -war or anything like it—they resemble snore than, anything else those raids which the Highlanders of Scotland, about a century ago, were in the habit of making upon their Lowland neighbours, with this difference only that, whereas the former appear to seek life as a gratification to their hate, the latter were well content: with black cattle and such portable articles as would help to make their shealings a little more comfortable. War by the Maoris — meaning a stand-up fight—will not again be attempted. After what our colonial troops and the friendly natives have achieved on the East Coast, there need be no reasonable fear of any future rebellion. The military settlement at the Patea, however, cannot be too rapidly proceeded with, as a necessary means of overawing those tribes which remain disaffected. We must and should now look to ourselves entirely for the iiieans of defence,, as the home country seems determined to let us sink or swim, as fate or our own bravery may determine, and the settlers go in for swimming with all their might. The Provincial Council of Wellington has resolved (by the casting vote of the Chairman, —a certain proof in itself of the very doubtful propriety of the step) that the price of agricultural land in'the province, but chiefly t as bearing"upon the Manawatu block, the purchase of which is now in course of negotiation, shall be £1 per acre. Hitherto the highest price of Government land in the province has been 10s., but it is urged that not only has land greatly increased in value, blit that the sum to be paid to the natives for this particular block and the demands upon-, the provincial revenue necessitate such a rise in price. The Manawatu Small Farm Association, at all events, has just cause of complaint.

Mr. Stafford’s ministry is gradually being completed. Tlie latest Government Gazette announces the appointment of the Hon. Francis Jollie to be Colonial Treasurer, vice Mr. Stafford resigned.

Don’t our settlers think that there is too much law or rather, litigation amongst us? Good or bad trade, bright, or dark times, business never knows any pause at the Resident Magistrate’s Court; indeed, all the worse trade is, and all the duller times are, the brisker do the lawyers seem to get. Old Dr. Johnson used to say—“lf a man cheats you quit dealing w T ith him.” In many instances this might be accepted as good advice, but it is too rough and ready to be taken aa a general guide. There are cases in which men are compelled to resort to our courts of law ; sometimes, because tho loss .they would sustain, , if they did not, .would; be.- tqo. .serious-for them; to bear—sometimes; because a -principle is at stake, which it becomes necessary for the public good, as well as for private interests, to maintain- —occasionally, because the person with whom you have the difference is amenable to no sort of reason. But making every-allowance for such cases, we are quite satisfied that there still remain a large number which, with good temper and the intervention of a friendly neighbour or two, might be well and satisfactorily settled with, out incurring the worry and expense of a resort to the Resident Magistrate, whose decision, be it what it may, too often leaves a sting on the one side or the other. A Southern member in the last session of the General Assembly, if we remember rightly, proposed a series of resolutions having for their object the establishment of courts of arbitration to possess jurisdiction in all cases, except those of a very serious nature. The proposal was made in consequence of the enormous cost to litigants in Otago, where it was represented that the law expenses in one year amounted to £400,000. What midsummer or rather (speaking according to our Southern climatology) midwinter madness is litigation, of this, kind 1 Much of the money so spent might as well, if not better, have been thrown into the sea. Arbitration courts, however, are only law in another, although simpler, form. They would certainly be an advance upon our present expensive system, but we should like to see something more spontaneous and friendly in the settlement of disputes. Men will differ to the end of the chapter, but there is no reason why they should not agree to do so, and have their differences decided, where a decision is necessary, by a shrewd acquaintance or two, who would go into the matter as fully and settle it as satisfactorily as any court in the country. We have no idea of what tho cost of litigation in our small community may he, but that it ia txv more than it ought, t r need, to be, there can be no reasonable doubt. Besides the rfcpense is the least of tho evil. The breaking up of neighbourly feeling and

fellowship among settlers, where “ taking and giving ” are so requisite for comfort, is a loss that cannot he appraised in money. And what after all is the result of litigation ? The one party loses his case with costs, and yet the other, in very many instances, only gains a loss. Under all circumstances the law is a costly and uncertain luxury. It is one of the axioms of British jurisprudence, that wherever there is a legal right and that right is invaded there must be a legal remedy. But litigants often find, in their experience, that the axiom is a little too positive for universal application ; and even when it does apply, that the remedy, when they get it, ia worse than the disease. Apart from cases involving money considerations, it ever has been matter of common complaint, that the law wholly fails to meet the greater number and the more cruel kinds of social wrong. With infinite pains we manage to hunt down some of the larger game of the chase, but the smaller deer evade our utmost vigilance. Our courts are open to ail comers, and dozens of cases are disposed of daily by the rule of thumb ; magistrates strive hard to render justice to all parties, and no one can say with any propriety that Da minimus non curat lex: But all the laws that ever were made, or ever will be made, fail to reach numerous offences —some of which might well nigh drive wise men mad—offences that make the rich tyrannical and the poor discontented and disaffected. They fail to avenge misplaced confidence : or to affix oven a stigma to ingratitude. They cannot obtain honour for grey hairs or recover for the credulous and trustful the property and the rights which they cannot hold securely themselves. We are not going to write a sermon or even point a moral at any length, but it is allowable to us, in speaking of these tilings, to throw out a suggestion to such of our settlers as may be inclined to assert their rights or punish their wrongs by litigation. We would counsel them to think less about law and more about justice. All of us, indeed, should trust les3 in the conquering power of the wind and more in the genial influences of the sun, and seek steadily to build up a public opinion—a. supreme law—-which shall be based upon faith in goodness and truth.