The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1491, 20 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1874.

For lh* cause that laoks assistance, For the wronu i-rat neetls resistance For 'Me fature in the dUbtoce. 4j»« tbt tcvoi thht vtp can d».

We observe that our respected and spirited contemporary, the Wellington Post, is in a high state of dudgeon at the intended swearing in of the new Governor at Auckland. " The proceeding," it says, " appears wholly unnecessary, and extremely objectionable,1' and urges that the Luna should pick the Marquis up off the Hero and take him down to Wellington, there to take the oaths of office. But really our contemporary is very unreasonable. Has he no reverence for the usages of antiquity, no respect for the prestige of the ancient capital ? Does he spurn those sentiments which invested old lona with veneration, and which to the ancient Scots made coronation there secure the tutelage of that Divinity that doth hedge a king ? Recks he not of the reverence that encircled Scon' 3, called the rttjalis civitas, from which the Robert Brace and the kintts from Constantine to Charles 11. derived all that grace and majesty that are conferred in the solemn ceremony of coronation. Doe 3he not know how the ancient coronation stone had been carried from lona to the Royal City of Scone, and after being used for centuries to give antique grandeur to these august proceedings, how it was thence deported by Edward tha 1., of England, to Westminster Abbay, a'td ho.v it haa baen plajei boaoaLli tJu coronation chvr of the kings of England, and hotv apart from that.sacred "Mtoae of Dosfciny," thesolemnity and binding character of the coronation oaths would be incomplete. We are surprised that our honest' Speaking and well-informed coatemporary should have forgotten all the teachings of history, or that remembering them he should not have declared for the necessity of administering the oaths of office on the stone Dais in front of Government House, at Auckland. Here our ancient Governors wore invested with office of state before our New Zealand Walpole demoralized our legislature and showered immoral largesses over a crew of prostituted followers. And actuated as we know our contemporary is by sincere desires for the welfare of the country, can he not see in the restoration of ancient customs and the return of our "Coronation" ceremonies to the "Regalis civitas," and to the sacred Dais, a means and a pledge of political regeneration? Who can tell how it would have been if violence had not been done to historic usage in the investiture of Sir George Bawen at Wellington. Porhap3 our legislation had been still incorrupt, and Voxel's influence had been unknown. And there can be very little doubt in any properly regulated mind that the speedy severance of the tte between us and Sir James Fergusson has been in some way connected with the fact of the official bond having been formed in the Empire village, instead of over the " Stone of Destiny" in Auckland. But besides these high historic grounds for the ceremony taking place at Auckland, it is in the highest degree desirable that a favourable impression at first should be made on our future. Governor. It is well that ho should be pleasantly greeted by the evidences of civilization and refinement, by charming scenery, an i everything that makes life delightful to the intellectual and cultivated mind, rather than that his first impressions should be formed by the bleak and desolate hills of Port Nicholson, and the dreary little streets that appear to have vainly huddled themselves for shelter from the pitiless rain under the storm-lashed and earthquaky ridges that shut out civilization. But beyond all it will be well that in the trying moments of his inauguration he be surrounded by the sweet and lovely face 3of our Auckland ladies* whose beauty is admittedly unsurpassed in New Zealand. If these are not sufficient grounds for his Excellency the Marquis of N"ormanby taking the oaths of office in the ancient capital, then we yield the honor to our Wellington contemporary.