Untitled

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1488, 17 November 1874, Page 2

Wellingtsn has p&rted from Sir James Fergusson and have "paid him off." Sir James was not a man iter their heart, and we can quite understand how the realm of flunkeydom must sigh for the good old times of Sir George Bowen, It is a. remarkable circumstance, bui one noted every where over the world that the most democratic communities are the most servile in their adoration of position and rank America worships a title, and a nobleman or a prince visiting the Stabes throws liberty equality and fraternity into hysterics, tur own colonies are not a whit behind. When the Duke of Edinburgh wab in Sydney the ladies used to steal into his bedroom and gather the valuable hairs of his head from his toilet combs and brushes. Even a Governor, if to inclined, can develop towards himself this gushing devotion which, under the mask of loyalty to the Queen's representative, is of the identical type with the pride that swells the boHom of my gentleman's gentleman. There have been Governors and there have been Governorsin XeW Zealand. We shall not be invidious, but we have had those who have humoured this eo'onial weakness to the top of its bent, and wheu they went away cambric handkerchiefs were moist, and big men's hearts throbbed to bursting Sir James has not been one of ■hem Probably it is from. hi 3 having had different antecedents, and he doesn't relish the Brummagem article. Our own correspondent has, we have no doubt, correctly mirrored the state of feeling that a* tended Sir James' departure. "It was a mean - spirited cheer." The departing Governor had not paid that respect to society which society had been taught to conaider its due, and it paid him with a " meanspirited cheer." Let us hope that the Marquis of JSormanby will be more observant of what is due to Jeames, and that more correctly appreciating the weak points in our colonial character, his departure will cause despair and sorrow among cambric handkerchiefs, and elicit deep and sonorous huzaas from great manly buzzurna.

WllA'i. has come over the Ni'to Zealand Timrx to-day? It is par excellence, the Ministerial organ, but to-day it is endowed with an animation and a vigour that betokens something unwonted. Surely either disappointment sits on somebody's brow, or the editorial bile has been unduly moved The occasion is the new appointment of a Minister of Justice, and it is refreshing to hearken to the words of vigorous denunciation wherewith the Ministerial journal lashed the Minis - teiial appointment When the cat's away the mica may play, and we fet-i that if the Jupiter of the Government were in Wei lington, either Mr. Bowen would not have been appointed, or the organ would have played a different tune.

As will be seen from another column, some one with the editorial pen is slandering the North Island. " The best of the land," we are told in to day's Otago Daily Times, "

already monopolised by capitalists, and even that is unlit for grain growing." If this is true, then the .North Island must have a sorry future iv prospect But anyone that has ever observed men and manners throughout the colonies knows that this libel is as old and as general as colonization. Less than twenty years ag >, it was generally asserted that Victoria would not grow the potatoes required for its ovvn consumption, an 1 any questioning of the assertion was heterodoxy or mure s upidity. And so over the boundless districts of New South Wales and Queensland, where free selectosr have now ttieir happy homesteads surrounded by all the comforts that fertile soil and genial climate can give, it was once confidentally asserted and as generally believed that agricultural produce would not grow. it is needless to point to the enormous .yield of wheat and other produce winch native labour yielded aud exported before war desolated their stttlemems, as an answer to the statement which is everywhere the cant of the political roue and the thnlth-ss iv the colonies, that the laud is " uuiit for grain

growing."

The " Tragopau " has kid an egg. This was announced at yesterday's meeting of the Acclimatization Society. We learn that it was received not the egg, but the announcement, amidst great rejoicings by the meinberd, and we do not wouder. .An event of this kind does not occur every day, indeed it would be injurious to the members of that august society if it did ; but ie is an event on which we may well congratulate the community. A morning contemporary states it was the female tragupan that laid the egg, and we are glad of this ; in fact, we do not know what we should have said if it had been the male one. This interesting animal had been for four years unfruitful, when thus blessed with increase. We refer to the female tragopan, not the male. We are not aware huw long he has been unfruitful, but we Buppose much louger. There is some obscuriiy aoout the whole thing. J lie reporters say that this animal had not only laid the egg but also succeeded in hatching the same egg on Saturday last. This was close on being viviparous, but it makes the event more interesting. Becoming modesty has made the reporters draw a veil over the scene, but we are informed that the promineat members of the Society were in attendance. Mr Swanson had prepared a little gruel for the interesting invalid, while Mr Thomas Macffarlane officiated as obstetnx, acquitting himself with the greatest credit. Dr Campbell promp'ly wrappd the little chick in flannel ; Mr Firth during the whole proceedings remained with hid eyes closed and his hands folded, evidently exercised in his mind on behalf of the invalid and of an event destined to mark a new departure in the history of the world; Mr lJurtt was here, tnere, and everywhere, runntng for hot water and warm flannels and head salts, while Mr clatter's feelings so overcame him that he sat down and wept. Alter this important event this society will occupy a proud distinction, and we can readily understand the showers of houorary memoorships from all the learned societies of Europe and America that will fall on our society when once it is flashed along the wires that the "female tragopan has laid an es»g."