A LIQUOR BILL.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3097, 12 January 1871, Page 3

A LIQUOR BILL.

« Tiie following is a translation of a nativo letter : — Otaki, 9th Jan., 1871. (To the Publisher of the Newspaper.) Friend, salutations to you. I wish to ask you in what position half-castes are. Are they included among the Europeans or among the Maoris ? I refer more particulai'ly to the question of grog selling. Tho grog belonged to a European, and a half-caste purchased it from him. The half-caste was brought before the Court at Otaki on the 6th January, 1871, in the matter of a debt for liquor and other tilings. The debt waa incurred during past years. One of tho magistrates said that a half-caßte was exactly tho same as a European, and therefore ib would be right that ho should pay for the liquor debt. I make these enquiries because this law has not been'made clear to us. I heard casually that it had been laid down by tho Assembly that half-castes were the Bam'e a 9 Maoris, and that they under the same law. That is all. Tamati Ravapiri. [Our correspondent seems to think that a definition laid down in tho Native Lands Act and the Representation Act, for tho purposes of these acts respectively, has to do with a matter entirely foreign to.them. Nothing in these or any other act can affect the question ; tho debt is either justly owing or it is not, and it matters not whether any or all of tho parties are Maori, halfcaste, or European. Tho man who bought the grog must be mado to pay for it. — Ed. W. I.]