A Compendium of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs in the South Island. Volume Two.
[Chief Judge Fenton's closing remarks]
At the rising of the Court, the Chief Judge stated that he could not but express his gratitude for the assistance he had derived from the Counsel who had conducted the various cases during the sitting of the Court. It was another proof to him of what he had constantly asserted—that Native matters were no mystery, that it only required an educated English gentleman, and not a Maori doctor to deal with such questions. He wished also to thank the Maoris for their quiet and orderly conduct in the Court. He could not pass over another fact which had been very gratifying to him, and that was, the intelligent manner in which the gentleman representing the Press had reported the proceedings. In no portion of the Islands had such clear and correct reports been given in the public papers, Finally, as the claims and rights which had been brought before the Court had been, and no doubt would be, the subject of discussion in the Legislative Assemblies of the Colony, he thought it only right to express his recognition of the justice, which bordered on liberality, with which the Crown had met the claims of the Natives.