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Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 15, 3 August 1848, Page 2

The Northern province can now boast of a fifth periodical—the Pensioners' Gazette; to which we beg to offer greeting. If our general prosperity only keeps pace with our advance in literature, we shall be well enough to do. Two numbers have already appeared, both of them cleverly and smartly written, with no inconsiderable sprinkling of wit. It is to be hoped that the light, airy tone which it has assumed will be maintained throughout, with as little descent as need to be into the solemnity of serious composition, which always seems out of place—though we know not why it should—in so small a sheet. The hint is offered because the second number bears some slight indication of a tendency that way; to what in theatrical language would be called " playing the heavy fathers." It is curious that comedians—the great Liston among them—should almost invariably persuade themselves that their real forte is in tragedy. Not that the Pensioners' Gazette has got so far as that yet; but the fancy may grow upon it, unless a bright look out be kept. The object of the publication is best explained by itself. " The necessity that exists for a newspaper adapted for the force of Pensioners is obvious. Cut off from the head quarters of Government, I and New Zealand civilization, by roads which | no boots can stand, and by employment which admits of no postponement, the rumours that reach us of European disturbances or of New Zealand enterprise and prosperity are vague and indistinct. For days we were alarmed by a report that his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief had burnt his fingers in the fire which consumed his palace ; and reports are still in circulation among our outposts that a chartist revolution in London had driven our beloved Queen to take refuge in France. Deep speculations on the probable course of European events, are beyond our powers of imagination, but a poetical narrative of facts may be useful among our veterans, tending as it must do, to confirm the good old notion that an Englishman can beat three Frenchmen, and is very superior to all the world besides. Our columns -Hill afford space for the real or imaginary complaints of the discontented, which had better

fiml£ vent in bad English than in oaths and grumbling, ami the infliction of corporeal punishment on their wives and families. Rising talent too will no longer be condemned to waste its sweetness on the desert air, but will find a refuge in our paper; and if New Zealand has a Shakspeare or a Milton, no editorial jealousy shall deprive the world of a Maori Hamlet or a New Zealand Paradise Lost. To afford useful information, to record real wants, and to give harmless amusement, shall be our aim, and if we cannot do any good, we will not do any harm." May all success attend it.