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Notes on Sir William Martin's Pamphlet Entitled the Taranaki Question

Page 88

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Page 88.

[Wiremu Tamihanas Statement.] "The Governor never does anything"…………

This is because interference on the part of the Governor (except by negotiation) would be useless, unless he were prepared to go to war. In cases of crime, whether committed by Natives against Europeans, or by Europeans against Natives, the latter are not very tractable. In cases of the former class, the surrender of the offender, if obtained at all, is invariably a matter of negotiation. In cases of the latter class, the Natives always evince, more or less, a desire to take the law into their own hands, and to use violence both towards the offender (or supposed offender) himself, and towards his unoffending countrymen. Cases of murder or homicide cause very great excitement. Native custom requires that life shall pay for life, and is not particular as to the victim. It is sufficient to mention, as instances of such occurrences as are referred to in this note, the case of the Kawau powder robbery, Sutton's case, Marsden's case, and the late case of the death of a Native, by means unknown, at Patumahoe in the neighbourhood of Auckland.