NATIVE LAND COURT JUDGES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 465, 10 June 1890, Page 2

NATIVE LAND COURT JUDGES.

The Wairarapa Star considers that Captain Preece acted very wisely in declining promotion to “ the exalted, but somewhat shaky position of a Native Land Court Judge,” and our contemporary goes on to state that it is well known that the Land Court Bench is being made a sort of shunting station.

For our part we are sorry that Captain Preece did not accept the position, but we regard the matter from a State point of view, it not being our place to concern ourselves with Captain Preece’s personal considerations. It having been given out that further assistance is necessary in the Native Department, some appointment must be made as a kind of proof that no empty cry was set up by the Government. As there will be no withdrawal from that position a terrible mess will be made through appointing as Judges men who, if they have some of the qualifications necessary, still lack certain essential ones—qualifications with which an otherwise incompetent man might be successful where a clever man without such quali. fications could only be the cause of everlasting troubles. We known that there are now many men hankering and even toadying after the offices, hoping to gain them by political and other influence. It is pretty certain, too, if men of that class once get in they will take care there position will not be a shaky one, for every bit of work they get through they will increase the trouble tenfold in other respects. The whole business ought to have been swept away by this time were it not that favorites haye been pitchforked into some of the bidets, and instead of clearing up the work they have succeeded in messing and muddling until they have created a huge mass of complications, which have been made still worse by the contemptible imbecility of so-called legislators. In 1883 one Chief Judge declared that in two years all the titles would be settled, but the end now seems to be as far off as ever.

The Star’s idea is that more Judges are not required at all——that the outcry is merely tbe result of political chicanery. It says :—“ Ministers are besieged by irrepressible friends who believe that they are intended by divine providence to be dispensers of equity, law and justice. Some of them know nothing of either, but like Ministers themselves they suffer from mild delusions, and consequently they are very troublesome. The difficulty with the Cabinet is to devise a means of satisfying them by appeasing their ravenous appetites. If the Colony were particularly unhealthy there would be no great difficulty, or if population was growing rapidly enough the trouble might be overcome. But there is no excuse for increasing the paid magistracy or adding to the Supreme Court bench ; and even if therp were and the present commercial retrenchment administration .threw promises and consistency to the winds, the country could not stand the cost. State pensioners and well paid civil servants in this colony, though severely overlooked, are earning a celebrity for longevity, and as (the nominees of the judicial bench, like the worst class of malefactors, are understood to be lifers, the prospects of those who are waiting for the coil to shuffle off are very remote and disheartening. Under these circumstances a convenience is being made of the Native Land Court, to tempt certain Resident Magistrates from their accustomed duties. But inasmuch as the Native Office is looked upon as a very doubtful and insecure institution—liable in fact, to be swept away by the sword of retrenchment at any moment — the sagacious magistrate prefers to remain where he is, rather than be a judge with the executioner’s sword above his head. Captain Preece is quite right in leaving the Government to find some other puppet for their Native Punch and Judy show.” We are afraid that it will be a long time before the Native Land Court can be swept away, and a great deal longer if certain puppets are allowed to get on the Bench. Nor does it seem likely the desired end will be attained by Commis-

sions that set about their work as the one recently appointed has done. If there must be more Judges, as it seems there must be when the Native Minister has set his mind upon it, it will be far better to make the appointments worth the acceptance of such men as Captain Preece, rather than appointing men who will place everything they touch in a worse position than it was at first.