LAND COURT JUDGES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 411, 1 February 1890, Page 2

LAND COURT JUDGES.

THE Napier News has got into a muddle over the question of Native Land Court Judges, being under the impression that Mr Arthur requested that Judge Wilson should be sent to Gisborne to hear the Tokomaru case. A long article is founded upon that view, Judge Wilson being strongly attacked and Mr Arthur’s (supposed) reason for wishing his selection being adversely criticised. It was in opposition to the appointment of that Judge that Mr Arthur wrote to the Chief Judge, and experience seems to prove that Mr Arthur had good grounds for the action he took, though of course the way he set about it was inexcusable.

The following is a lengthy extract from the leader in the News Judge Barton bears one iff the highest reputations among the Native Land Court Judges. He is upright, quick, intelligent, painstaking, a good lawyer and a good equity Judge, and well up In h|s work. HI? judgments In the numerous eases decided by him on the East Coast have gained for him the admiration of both the public, the contesting parties and the legal profession, and we are sorry that Judge Wilson, whose appointment is anything but popular, should have been appointed agairist th® express w ‘ t * ie Natives, who repeatedly Requested the Government not to send kite t.q Gisborne as they did not like him to sit as president of the Court with Judge Barton. We venture to say that in the face of the request the Government should not have sent Judge Wiismj jo adjudicate upon so important a matter wberp jt may turn out that after nearly twelve months’ loss of time and a thousand or two of pounds expended, the two judges cannot' agree upon a decision. The following is an extract from a letter received from Gisborne, which will show how the disagreement arose, and it is. for our readers to say whether it would be possible for two judges to agree if one talked Dutch and the other Chinese and

neither was acquainted with the others’ language. To our mind it was a gross insult on the part of Judge Wilson to attempt to keep from his brother Judge what was transpiring in the matter, especially the interpreter being present to perform those duties. Gisborne, 24th January, 1890,

You would have laughed yesterday had you been in Court, when the two learned Judges had their first row, and it hae been tho cause of considerable astonishment that it had bren put off so long. Tuta h»d started hie list of names (Wharepapas), and after going on for some time,_ Wilson pulled him up and told him in Maori that ho wasn't doing it propsrly, so Tuta and he went at it for about twenty minutes, not a word being interpreted all the while andWileonmaking arpiow notes of Tuta'e answers, Jndge Barton sat fuming the while, evidently very angry at such procedure, and on his seeing no apparent sign of on end to such conduct gave vent to his pent-up indignation thus: ‘ I should like to know how long this style of business is going to last. A constant jabber of Maori, not one word of which is being interpreted, and my learned brother is taking copious notes, whilst I have not a word interpreted to 'me, and moreover I am expected at the conclusion of the case to give an intelligent decision, so I think if the business of the Court is to be carried on in this style the sooner I leave the Bench the better. It is all very well for my learned brother, who is a Maori speaker as' near perfection perhaps as mortal man could be, but I am not a Maori scholar, never tried to be, don't wish to be, never could be, and never will be 11! so I would request my learned brother to interpret each sentence as he speaks it. Judge Wilson, in reply said, I'm not going to interpret when there is an interpreter on the ground ' Then Judge Barton said, ‘ I request my learned brother to confine himself to the English language and leave the Maori to the interpreter, then I shall be able to follow the case, and at the conclusion will bo able to give as intelligent a decision on the matter in question as any other man.'