A Special Bill.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 325, 16 July 1889, Page 2

A Special Bill.

[iROM OUR OW*V CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, last night. Writing on the Bill introduced by the Government, the Post to-night says :—That the Government should have introduced a Special Bill to prevent Natives assembling in a manner calculated to create alarm and danger to tha public peace may, we suppose, be accepted as a practical confession that the Premier went beyond the authority of the existing law in his recent proceedings against Te Kooti, If what he did at Opotiki was legally warranted, there is no doubt that further legislation is not needed, but we have from the first, attended that the Premier's proceedings w,<zu>igh.handed, arbitrary, and unlawful, It i;- be intended to indemnify his conduct in Bill, but if this ia not done, and Kooti proceeds with his threatened action l or f rise imprisonment, wo have little doubt 1-at if the case is tried before an unbiassed jury! Te Kooti will get heavy damages. It ie aiwell, however, in any case, that the powers oßhe Government to prevent a recurrence of T| Kooti’s attempt to visit Poverty Bay, should ba clearly defined, so as to prevent further ii-gal action being resorted to, but the provisions of the Bill will require careful consideration to sea that they are not made unduly stringent in the interference with Native gatherings and Native custom.