The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, February 21, 1889. BLACKGUARDS AND MURDERERS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 263, 21 February 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, February 21, 1889. BLACKGUARDS AND MURDERERS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou nfmfet at be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth’s.

If the ordinary method of judging people by the company they keep, can have any weight attached to it, in what light are we to regard the characters of certain Ministers of the Crown ? About the same period as Mr Mitchelson was in Auckland lionising one of the worst murderers unhung, the Minister of Education was in Wellington bestowing his patronage upon a prize fight, which the City Council regarded as such a disgusting exhibition that no hall could be obtained for the purpose of holding it in. These, dear readers, be examples of those who have been deputed to govern your loved country; such are the men who are to lead this fair young country from the verge of bankruptcy to the height of prosperity. One Minister arm in arm with one whom he ought to be ashamed to be in the same town with, another—the Minister of Education, mind you—witnessing(being a much interested spectator, the newspapers put it) two low blackguards pummelling one another for the gate money 1 That is the man who has to care for the education of our children, who is one of a Government that has promised to do its best to suppress prize fighting. Jilt what is that in comparison with the action of the other Minister ? It has been said that it is an insult to Poverty Bay. If that were the only evil we might simply regard it with contempt, but it should not be considered as personal to this district—it is an insult to the colony. Can any elector in the colony approve of a member of those whom they have appointed to govern over them taking upon himself to lionise a brute who has been guilty of the awful atrocities of which there is no doubt Te Kooti is? If such a thing had occurred in some parts of America there would very soon have been more than one victim to the rough and ready Lynch law. What would the people of Nelson have done if a Minister of the Crown had

linked his hands with the notorious Sullivan—in fact, made a public guest of him and attempted to show him the sights of the cities ? Mr Bryce made an insane mistake when he pardoned and shook hands with the murderer, but there might be some excuse found for him—he was no doubt acting under a mistaken impression that what he was doing was for the best. Yet BryceJl with all his mistakes, would never bel guilty of doing what Mitchelson has! done—making a sort of idol of a mon-1 ster the repetition of whose deeds would bring tears to the eyes and sting any Britisher to the heart. Shame on the man who thus uses his official position to give further notoriety to one who has brought such misery and desolation into the homes of unoffending settlers, —one. who has threatened he will do the samel again,—one who would have as little! hesitation, if he thought it would go! unpunished like his previous crimes, ini murdering the wife and family of worshipper than he had in what Ji&.haM done in the past. Te Kooti’s creases with his impudenc/ ' Ld the! confidence which is fij m by I the flattery of his pakeha* worshippers, I and many of those of his' own race who I deserted him when he was being hunted I from place to place a.re now seeking his I forgiveness and favor. Is-there in modern history a record so humiliating and dishonorable ? Can anyone give us a previous instance of such disgraceful conduct? A hound in human flesh perpetrates atrocities that are too horrible to relate, mercilessly butchering and burning women and children; he is prevented from doing worse, and is hunted from place to place by bands of brave -men, but escapes and, defying them all, settles down in a native country where the white man knows it would be madness to follow him ; yet there he repeats his threat. After many years, the white man is still afraid to follow him, but the mandate of Justice being set at defiance for so long, and the Government being afraid to do further than set a price on the murderer’s head, a compromise is attempted by granting the murderer his pardon and a Minister of ' the Crown shaking hands with him (Te ; Kooti), the latter at the same time i threatening that if he had been or was i further molested he would repeat his ' past deeds. This was not enough—a ‘ grant of land was required, and was i cheerfully given. Then the pardoned ( murderer sets about showing what a * powerful man he is; a religious mockery, I of which he himself is the founder and n principal, is widened in its influence, s and a couple of years after he has been ’ pardoned he is invited to Auckland, is 8 shown round the city by another Minis- ° ter of the Crown, is allowed to exchange for a more valuable piece the grant of h land that was given him as a sop that " he should not visit Poverty Bay ; he is 11 advised that he must not go back to the e scene of his worst butcheries us he j may get hurt by some of those who n

have suffered most, but if he does l go the Government will provide him with every protection in their power, and avenge his death if anyone should be so foolish as to try and shoot him. They advise him not to go, but know that the very words they use must tempt and encourage him to do what they are advising him against. When the settlers of that district protest that his going would most likely lead to a disturbance, and implore protection, they are insulted ; when, having no other resource, they meet to consider how they can best protect their wives and families, they are snubbed and told that it is only their bounce, and in the meantime the murderer snubs all those who try to persuade him, if he has the peaceful intentions he professes, to promote peace by keeping away from the district. What can we think of men who are so regardless of the tender filings of those who have lost relations by ruffianly hands ?—who care nought for the danger to which, through the blindness of the authorities, hundreds of defenceless people are exposed ? The argument that Government has no power to forcibly prevent Te Kooti coming is a very weak one. We admit that a week ago this view would have been the only justifiable one, as the Government would not be aware of the danger; but since then there is proof positive that what has been said is not mere idle talk—there is ample proof that some of the least excitable and sensible men that cbuld be found in any community are apprehensive of the danger, and feel that it would be madness not to take some protective measures. When Sullivan, the notorious murderer, who turned Queen’s evidence, was released in Nelson, the Government had to arrest him again in every town in which he set foot, for his own protection, because feeling was so much against him. Cannot they, then, by force if necessary, prevent a fiend like Te Kooti returning in triumph to the scenes of his crimes, and by so doing endangering hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives ? We have never heard or read of such disgraceful and disgusting conduct on the part of a democratic Government.