The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning Thursday, August 22, 1889.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 341, 22 August 1889, Page 2

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

Thursday, August 22, 1889.

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

A BBIGHTENING PBOSPEOT. Now that the Legislature has disposed of some of the most weighty points — and we hope for this session all of the points—of political difference between contending factions in the House, it seems that there is a very favorable indication of the all-important question relating to Native lands being at last dealt with in an intelligent spirit. In connection with this subject, the important judgment delivered by His Honor Judge Barton, in the case of Mangaheia No. 2 Block, presents itself for special recognition. The learned Judge has before him an extensive field in which to operate. His experience as a member of the Bar eminently qualifies him for the task. A perusal of the judgment referred to will give to the uninitiated some idea of the almost insurmountable difficulties, technical and otherwise, that have to be dealt with, while the native land laws remain in their present complex state. Not only are those statutes of a contradictory and complex nature, but there are the collateral difficulties that arise out of the complicated character of the transactions between the native owners of the land and Europeans, and other Europeans, who become involved in the same labyrinth. We have pointed out, over and over again, the imperative necessity for the existing state of things being remedied. Until Parliament grapples determinedly with the question no hope of genuine prosperity or progress can be entertained in those portions of the colony where the disastrous effects of the bad native land legislation have been experenced. In no part of the colony have those experiences been more bitterly felt than on the East Coast of the North Island. Though one district may feel it more keenly than another, the colony as a whole is a great sufferer. Session after session efforts have been made to have legislation of a practical character placed on the statute book, but so far the result has only been a condition of things which gives rise to endless confusion. One important principle that should not be lost sight of in passing laws relating to native lands, where the interests of Europeans and natives, though bound are apparently antagonistic to each other, is that of conciliation. By conciliation, we mean that a certain amount of latitude should be allowed on each side—that diffi. cullies can scarcely ba avoided where transactions in land are constantly taking place between people of a different race and speaking a different language: that the true equities as between parties should be the object sought. How this is to be best achieved is for opr legislators to determine. As His Honor pointed out, the Native Land Court is 'not purely an English Court. Parliament has placed in it an English Judge and a Maori Judge, endowed with equal powers of dispensing jointly the native land laws of the colony. The Court deals with land held by a semi-civilised pegpie, under laws and customs different to those that prevail among that race whose h-Ojne is where our English law has its foundation. Jbe necessity, therefore, of some otfier means tr.sij ft? se provided by the strict rigidity" of I that law, fpr dealing with native be ftjUjr Bjatufest, 1

A basis upon which all matters may be settled in accordance with the principle of equity ought and should be devised. Even-handed justice should be meted out to all parties concerned. The present condition of the native land laws does not permit this to be done. On the one hand injustice may be done to the natives, on the other hand the avenues that the legislation itself opens up to the Maori people for defrauding the Europeans, are simply marvellous. No intelligent people of any race can respect a law that de facto offers a premium for the repudiation of honest contracts, contracts entered into faithfully, .and with the full knowledge of all parties concerned. In the able judgment to which we have already referred, there is offered a solution which, if availed of, should in a great measure contribute towards placing things upon a basis sounder than at present exists—a basis of settlement whereby the evils complained of may be in a great degree removed. Matters in dispute in regard to land titles and claims between Maoris and Europeans should in a great measure be settled by arbitration. His Honor Judge Barton’s intimate acquaintance both with English and American law eminently qualifies him to express an opinion upon this particular aspect, of the question Although the observations which we are about to quote were made by His Honor when delivering judgment in the Mangaheia No. a case, their applicability to the subject, generally, warrant their reproduction, now, The ques tion as to the power of suitors before the Native Land Court having been raised, His Honor expressed himself as follows “ As to the right to appoint the members of a court as arbitrators, that depends upon the construction to be put upon the principle of English law (now much more honored in the breach than in the observance) that ‘ consent cannot give jurisdiction.’ In former times when that maxim had full force the courts used to refuse to consider the arbitration as lawful, and would not permit a reference to arbitration to be pleaded as a defence to an action. But the public persisted in resorting to arbitration, whenever they deemed a tribunal best suitable to their interests or convenience, and thus in modern times the right to arbitrate became so fully recognised that proceedings by arbitration are now regulated by various statutes. It is therefore no longer a principle of law of universal application that' consent cannot guide jurisdiction,’ and I am informed that recent English and American decisions show that the right to give jurisdiction by consent is being extended to the judges of courts as well as to ordinary persons.”