Maning as Judge.

In the mid-sixties Maning was appointed a Judge of the Native Land Court, a position for which his consummate knowledge of Maori land tenures and customs well qualified him. One of the most important Native Land Court cases which came before page 28

Railwayman: “Wonderful smoke this National Tobacco. I believe it is the healthiest tobacco on the market.”
Man behind the Counter: “Yes, I smoke it myself. Apart from the fact that the tobacco is one hundred per cent. in quality, it is produced by a company that is one hundred per cent. New Zealand. I believe that company pays hundreds of thousands to the Government in freight and taxes and employs over a thousand workers. Why, dash it all, the more we smoke the better for the country; and the loyal way the company sticks to the Railways in fares and freight, helps to keep the railwaymen in their jobs.”

page 29 Maning was the investigation of the original title to the great block of Te Aroha, situated on both sides of the Waihou River, and including the site of the present town of Te Aroha; the area was about 200,000 acres. The recorded judgment, which is clearly from Maning's pen—he had a colleague, Judge A. H. Monro, on the bench with him—is of exceptional interest because of its skilful epitome of the long inter-tribal disputes going back several centuries, narrated in the Court by the old tattooed warriors of Ngati-Haua on the one side and Ngati-Maru and Ngati-Tamatera, of the Waihou Valley and Ohinemuri, on the other. The date was 1871. This eloquent extract is one of numerous passages which make the judgment more readable than such documents usually are. Maning sums up the evidence, in awarding the land to the Ngati-Maru and Ngati-Tamatera (old Taraia's tribe):

“No human flesh and blood, however hardened, could endure much longer the excitement, privations, danger and unrest which the equally balanced forces and ferocious courage of the contending parties had now [1830] protracted to several years' duration on that small spot of the earth's surface and between two petty divisions of the human race. War had attained its most terrible and forbidding aspect; neither age nor sex was spared; agriculture was neglected; the highest duty of man was to slay and devour his neighbour. Whilst the combatants fought in front, the ovens were heating in the rear. The vigorous warrior one moment fighting hopefully in the foremost rank, exulting in his strength, laying enemy after enemy low, thinking only of his war-boasts when the victory should be won; stunned by a sudden blow, instantly dragged away, hastily quartered alive, next moment in the glowing oven; his place is vacant in the ranks; his very body can scarcely be said to exist. While his flesh is roasting the battle rages on, and at night his remains furnish forth a banquet for the victors, and there is much boasting, and great glory.”

The Dunedin Railway Cadet Football Team, 1900.
Back row: Left to right—Messrs. H. Millar, J. L. Jacobson, W. Sinclair, J. Stewart, L. H. Campbell, L. Aikin, E. Scanlon, E. Wright, J. Davie-Parson, J. Short, G. Livingston, and R. M. Isaac. Front row—H. L. Gibson, T. Bateman, H. W. Franklin, C. L. Hope, E. J. Paton, W. P. Miller, R. A. P. Francis, and A. Urquart.