AN OUTSIDE OPINION.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 264, 23 February 1889, Page 2

AN OUTSIDE OPINION.

The subjoined is a complete extract of the article which appeared in the New Zealand Herald on Tuesday last: —

If bloodshed comes of tho ostentatious movements of the arch-murderer To iKooti, the Government need hot suppose that they 1 will evade responalbility. They have had abundant warning, and tho mere leaning of instructioua to natives and Europeans to reL train from anything calculated to provoke a breach of the peaoe, is not exhausting the 1 means which the Government have at their disposal for averting the trouble that teems to be impending. We think the occasion is one in which there should be plain speak- ’ ing, and «•« believe we interpret the publlo ■ tec-ling of thia colony when we say that the Government will he held responsible at ths bar of public opinion for the blood that may 1 be shed if they allow this State-pardoned Ml criminal to presume on impunity In parading that pardon in the acene of hie former murderous exploits. Wo are told by telegrams that in one place forty armed nativea have i organised themselves into a body to intercept his progress to Poverty Bay; and at Poverty Bay itself the settlers have enrolled themselves by hundreds under military command, and while soliciting the co operation of tho great fighting chief, Ropata, and hie warlike followers, they have shown their determination if necessary to take the law in thair own hands, and at any cost prevent the entrance of Te Kooti into the district. There is evidently the greatest excitement in the district, andeamong the settlers in tho outer districts an apprehension verging on terror. For the Government to say that all thia ia mere bravado is simply insolence ; and if the Government have no solicitude for settlers in alarm in an exposed district, that feeling will happily not be shared by their fellow oolonists in other parts of tho country. The attitude of the Government has been exceedingly reprehensible. The arch-mur-derer has been assiduously paid court to during his visit to Auckland, a Minister of the Crown even waiting on him at hie hotel; and not only have his requests for the substitution of one piece of land for another offered him for settlement been exceeded to, with a courtesy and alacrity which might be the envy of European suitors to Ministerial favors, but this proposed ovation to the murderer has been deprecated in such a mildly indulgent fashion as must have seemed to the savage equiva’ent to permission, if not encouragment. The effect of those interviews with the Government appears in the fact, that Te Kooti, who had expressed his warm desire to submit absolutely to the law and place himself under its protection, at once made preparations to carry out his original intentions f and welure advised that with a following of a hundred men, fully armed, ho is now in the Lake district, preparing to ceed on his enterprise. While we deprecate any action on the part of Europeans or nativea that may bring them into collision with Te Kooti and his followers, it would be fatuous folly to close our eyes to the possibilities, nay, the probabilities, of i what may happen. It is true Te Kooti has W received a free pardon from the State, and that in consequence of this the slaying of him would be techuicrlly a crime. That his life was forfeited by the laws of God and man no one can question. “ Wnos6 sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed,’’ was a law imprinted oa Nature and confirmed by Revelation ; and the question might be raised whether it is in the Ministries or earthly laws to abrogate a law of Nature and of Nature's God. Let the Government be warned of it, that there is at least the danger and tho imminent danger, that the relatives of some of those who wero cruelly butchered by To Kooti may feel that tha duty comes to them area at this remote period of becoming the “ avenger of blood ;" and that, however it may be legally and technically, they may think that they would not be morally guilty in going behind human lawi. The Government must also be aware that notwithstanding the law-abiding character of the community, a jury would be loth to convict where the moral and the civil law would seem to be at variance ; and that in all probability whatever might be the verdict, public opinion would probably demand that capital punishment should not be carried out on the man who had believed fiimself called upon to avenge the death of a father or a mother, a sister or a brother. If the Government, knowing that such a belief and such sentiments, however erroneous they may be deemed to be, are likely to impel natives or Europeans under a feeling of excitement* to perpetrate a deed of blood, which might lead not to the death of one but of no one knows bow many on the side of Te Kooti and on ths side of the ” friendly ” natives and the (European settlers in that district—we say if tha Government, knowing this, insolently ignore the danger and make little of ths excitement and the evident terror exioting in the district, then we say unhesitatingly that the blood ot it will be on the Ministers’ hands, and that neither tardy regrets nor any reparation of the mischief in their power will ever wash that blood away. To say that the Government oan do nothing is simply paltering with the difficulty. Poverty of resource io the minds of Ministers, w or want of nerve for meeting and grappling —' with an emergency will offer no condonation for their neglect of the obvious duty of averting this danger. A Ministry possessing any of tfiat masterful spirit wfiicfi should actuate men entrusted with the government of th(j country, should not seek for precedents : n iiealiug with aa emergency. They thou

act, and if necessary trust to Parliament giving them indemnity. But what is the difficulty in the way ? It is said Te Kooti being pardoned is a free man, and can go where he likes. But there are ten thousand freemen in Auckland, and if one of them congregated a hundred followers in Queenstreet and merely blocked the way, they would be ordered by the police to disperse. Much more it would be so if it was obvious that they were assembled with objects that were calculated to provoke a breach of the peace, or to put any class of Her Majesty’s subjects in bodily fear. There was no difficulty felt in ordering the dispersal of the natives at Parihaka ; nor would there be any hesitation in ordering the police to disperse any crowd of men whose assemblage was a menace to the public safety. And what is

true of Te Kooti’s armed retainers is true of himself ; and, if it is honestly believed that his individual presence in any district is likely to lead to bloodshed, the Government, as the representative of the public, has the inherent and absolute right to prevent his presence theie at any sacrifice of private rights. “ The safety of the people is the highest law ” is a principle at the foundation of all civilised civil government; and, whatever this ex-murderer’s rights may be as an individual they must be foregone if they are at variance with the public safety. If public safety demanded that Te Kooti, all-pardoned and free man as he is, should be lodged in gaol, it would be the duty of the Government to put him there for such time as the exigencies of public safety might demand. The question is simply one of the public safety, are imperative the Government as the guardians of the public safety and the Executive of the State, have' simply to bow and * ’ obey. That the situation on the East Coast demands the prompt intervention of the Executive to arrest this peril is apparent to any rational mind, and would be felt and acted on by the Government were it not that there is an influence in greatness, even though it be the greatness of infamy, which possesses a fascination for a certain order of minds ; and our Ministers would not have surrendered themselves to this kind of heroworship of a’murderer, but would have done their duty promptly by the people, both natives and Europeans, of the. East Coast. And that exercise of duty « not neoessarily a work of any magnitude. It is the putting forth of such authority as invests the commonest constable in Queen.street with the right to disperse a crowd, or to interfere with anything calculated to provoke a breach of the peace. The Government could order Te Kooti’s hundred men to disperse to their homes; and bid himself retire from a district where his presence inspires terror or provokes to violence. The Government know this well, and their affectation of not believing in the danger of bloodshed, is simply a discreditable and criminal deference to the infamous distinction of ao exceptional and notorious murderer.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. A DIVERSITY OF EXPRESSIONS, (By Telbcraph.) (Standard Specials.) Auckland, last night, This morning’s N.Z. Herald charges the Government with weak and dangerous conduct in the Te Kooti matter, and says it was a clear understanding and a consequence of his pardon that he should live on the land assigned to him near Kihikihi. This he has never done, but has gone about the country with bands of armed men, and has only been prevented from going to Poverty Bay by the Native Ministers going down on their knees to him. The article charges the Government with assuming a fierce and awful attitude to the Poverty Bay settlers, and with seeking to terrify those who only ask that Te Kooti shall not be permitted to come into the district. There ia no reason why the Government should not apprehend Te Kooti as a vagrant, and as having no visible means of support, rather than that he should be at large and keeping an extensive district in agitation. The article further says that for the last few years the Native Minister, whoever he has been, has been perpetually on his knees to Te Kooti, and that the colonists, out of mere self respect, should insist that that no longer be continued. The general opinion here is thSt the settlers having gone so far, they must at once and for all put a stop to Te Kooti ever entering the district. The Native Minister has decided to remain in Auckland, pending the development of •vents in regard to the Te Kooti trouble. Napier, last night.

A few Maoris have left Napier for Poverty Bay. They are followers of Te Kooti. The News to-night publishes a list of the people killed by Te Kooti twenty years ago. This is what one of the local papers has to say on the Te Kooti scare :—The New Zealand Times has assumed the role of apologist for Te Kooti. According to that paper, Te Kooti is a nice affable gentleman who merely desires to visit his old haunts and friends. All we can say is that if Te Kooti’s intentions are as innocent as the Times would make out, why in the name of common sense does he travel with a retinue, the numbers of which are a menace to the peace of the country ? The fact is Te Kooti wants to make a triumphal entry into the land he desolated. He wants to assume the character of a victorious general of whom the Government is afraid, and this sort of thing won’t do, and should not be permitted, for it is an insult to the loyal tribes who helped us in our trouble to chase Te Kooti like a wild pig through the bush, till the cowardly murderer found refuge in the King country.

Wellington, last night. The Wellington Press has the following ;— “The Poverty Bay settlers have made an appeal to us which we have felt bound to reject only from the strongest sense of duty. We assure them there is no appeal they would make to us which would be in vain if we believed that by responding to it we should |do them any good. Let us now in this spirit of heartfelt friendship make an appeal to them. We ask them on behalf of our country, for which we have all had to make sacrifices in the past, and are assuredly prepared to make sacrifices again if need be— We ask them for the fair fame and well being of thia dear country, to place uprn themgelvea that noble restraint which is the only true courage, and tn set an example of highhanded humanity to their fellow subjects of both races. We ask them not to disgrace the name of New Zealand by reviving to-day the horrid traditions of a period in our history murky with the smoke of battle, horrible with the flames of burning homes, incarnadined by the blood of massacre, We ask them to rise superior to speh pagan passions to |how them selves worthy members pf S Christian nation, the watchword of whose creed is, “ Forgive your enemies.” Opotiki, yesterday. Te Kooti arrived here this morning. His arrival was expected, and the residents turned out en masse to see the cavalcade of about 250, all mounted and ntany armed. Te Kooti rode in advance by himself, and was warned not to proceed to Poverty Bay. He disregarded the advice, and went steadily on. Residents here are assured trouble will ensue, as many of Te Kooti’s followers are a bad lot, bounceable and overhearing, and asserting that they intend to re-occupy the land, and that To Kooti has done more for ihem than either Rewi or Tawhiao. One old settler says that the scum of the Maoris are following Te Kooti, and that it would be unsafe to have such a bad lot settled ftnywhere near civilisation, Jha friendly natives here say that Te Rooti’s visit now to the East Coast is to enable him to ‘ makutu ’ Ropata. Two chiefs, one being Wiremu Kingi, died recently, and Te Kooti predicted three would die, his followers asserting that Ropata will be the next.

Wairoa, last night. The settlers of this district thoroughly sympathise with their fellow settlers’ of Poverty Bay iu the efforts being made by the latter to keep the cowardly murderer Td Kooti from returning in triumph to the Scene of his greatest Their sympathy will take a practical form if the necessity arises. A great number of up river Hauhaus have left to fraternise with Te Kooti, and many of them are most impudent and bouneeable to flp&ptaM about the matisn