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Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1502, 3 December 1874, Page 2

The most momentous meeting yet held at Ohinemuri, or respecting it is reported in our telegraphic columns. It is correctly stated thab '•' things have reached a crisis." The intrigue that has been proceeding to thwart Mr James Mackay in the opening of Ohiueinuri, has been successful to some extent. It has been successful so far as to produce confusion, tho outcome of which it is yet diffi.cn tto see. It has served the purpose of those who are secretly moving the natives against the opening of Ohinemuri in so far that in the confusion opportunities may arise for makintr private bargains Ft is painful and humiliating to see such a state of things, and our enemies too have been those of our own household. Openly aud covertly the efforts of the Government ayont have been mot by the intriguing of the latidsharks,

and which will be master of the situation is yet to be proved. iiut when we hear tho lannshaiks crying out about the "imuioia!ity of the transaction,"in Mr Maekay's method of opening Uhiueiuuii it its enough to siclcou one with disf.'ii>t. Men who have been all thenlives trading on tho credulity of natives, swindling them out of their lands whenever they had a chance, are now seized with a t\vmg<; of conscience forsooth, when the negotiation is not for private but public purposes. We do trust that the memtiers of the Government now in Auckland will not be wheedled by the hearfcl«*s, soulless, conscienceless men whose native policy is to get lands, and whose public good is their breeches pocket. ' liincnuii can be opened now ; if it is not, it will ouly be from conuivance at knavery, and in such event we hope that the miners will take it by storm and by foicc of arms.

Some six months ago we trod rather roughly on the toes of Mr. Carlile, the then proprietor and conductor of the Poverty l!ay Herald. He had played toady most disgustingly to the Superintendent when down there, and then turned about and abused him when he was gone. We hammered the Herald for the sycophancy sneaking, and and Mr. Carlile did not like it and squealed out. Since then he has gone back to Napier, where he is one of the lessees of the Hawke's Bay Herald. He watches us for that old hammering, and now and then deals us a poke. He seizes the last little row between the editors of the Cross and Star, and speaks tlrasly. We like to see ourselves as others see ixs, but we don't know why Carlile should " give it" to the editor of the Cross in this fashion. We may do that occasionally ourselves, but we will allow nobody else to hit him. Thus saith Carlile: — " In the Evening Star, of the Kith hist., is an article which occupies a whole column of that journal. Jfc is filled with the choicest 'Billingsgate,' and calls Mr. Luckie, editor of the Cross all the abusive epithets it can possibly think of. Almost everybody knows that Mr. Luckie does not fill the post he occupies so well as some of his predecessors, and that he ' keeps his eye on his political father,' the honorable Julius, but the language used by the Star is utterly unjustifiable. Mr. Luckie has to some extent brought it on himself by saying (what by the way is quite true) that the ex-reverend editor of the Stab, Mr. E,eed, made a miserable Provincial Treasurer. He was put there by Mr Williamson in order to prevent the Government being abused every night in the Stab. The end has been gained, and Mr Reed having wrangled and jangled with his colleague, Mr. Sheehan, until there was no peace in the ' Cabinet,' has been eliminated, and has fallen back on the Stab, which he is just as likely to ruin as Mr. Luckie is to depreciate the Cross in the market. It would not surprise us if both of these journals did again come into the market, and be disposed of cheaper than before. Then the Pott and Shirk of Auckland would probably take themselves off to Fiji, and few would regret their absence." We rather like that idea about Fiji. We have been often thinking of sacking the editor of this journal for his unclerical comments on men and manners by which he has been evidently " ruining the Star, " but we never thought of Fiji before. We believe Jai S. has got him a promise of a situation down there—hangman to King Cakabou, or something of that soi't. But for the editor of the Cross, why send hivi to Coventry ? What does the fellow mean by saying " Almost everybody knows that Mr. Luckie does not (ill the post he occupies so well as some of his predecessors." We may hit that gentleman ovrselves, but we're blowed if we '11 allow anybody else to do it; and who is there that dares to interfere with anybody keeping "his eye on his political father," or his mother either, or even his grandmother if he likes ?

In a supplement published with to-day's issue, appear English and Austalian telegrams, per s.s. Hero from Sydney. In the same place will be found the report of the Hero's passage, passenger list, and cargo.

The steamer Pretty Jane went down to the quarantine station this morning to bring up the single men and women per Hydaspes. They may be expected to return about four o'clock.

The Teachers' Association have hit upon a novel mode of making their annual meeting attractive. On the 30bh inst, the members will proceed on a picnic to Ellerslie, when tbedry details of reading thereport and transacting other business of the Association will be enlivened by tea and other social enjoyments.

We regret to learo that the young man White, who met with a severe accident on Tuesday last, at the Solid Bock Baths, still lies in the Provincial Hospital in a very precarious state.

We ye a t«rday made reference to two ex- 'J he wafer drinker, of NortJ i HwM. have tracted articles from the Nelson CoJoniH, t*^FJ < ££ which had been kindly forwarded to uS by a gill If optaed the P^eJf n* "Jj^ friend in .Nelson; They are il appeal, sB we The ehurch*B to «b MGt^f3 are assured, from the hands of Mr Luckie, for- W admitted td methbersll fc **t!J *8b ' mer editor of the CW o >^, and Mr Downie the ciated either with a Teetotal, Kechaoite, or present edicor of that journal, antUM some Templar Society. weeks ago a jeporter on the Cross. jft e ouly bases before the Police Court Th.y bear on the mutual fcpnipliiiieufcs «H |i h { a mining w«re ihose # iw« drrinkardfi; recently Bas^eVJ. .Hetw^Hn tHe c'ditors or tne ; who were lined 10s each, or twenty-xciu W6U i£ad /&fa/' in Aucklautt. The one is in ' hours' imprisonment. the leading column, and the other is assumed J trott i o g match will take place on the to be contributed by ".,Chjpni|fca, and ap- | in3t ant, between horses belonging to pears in" the same*-issue.- *^« Sjfcfcd-yester- | *™■ * ,^. rk ins aM poVaW&{ for tbe sum day that we felftuclined to reprotoce them in Iq{ £lQ^ fdur . fi f b Hs of which siiiii hav6 bteii our columns, but m ijgiet tha^their length. it g d The distance to be run is to be ajid jires^uta on <^ tea^ij^MAs from i & ha[f g> eivins more than a few extracts. With reter- , ' , ~ .. torv ._ ence to the Editor of the Star, the writers, The following ett«r tells its own^J>^ of course, allude to hie. having si dnce "To tbfi Jiiditor J rj^-i read. m lab* fe|cn_ adorned-Bhftll I say? the pulpit of A Pres- j ing's StAr Major Gordon w»h«i the Valon byterian Church," and "trul^ the Church's , teers to turn out. As one I did so. After loss was a real gain when he laid aside ihe : we were dismissed I met my emrioyer^ and Bible and t6ok to the scissors ami paste-pot," reported myself, whet he Bait ~ Is and "he pours out volumes of tilth in a ; you waste your time Do y<m get a n^ hl u manner that must be indeed to the ibyit ?" I told him it was irty^dnty, and he Father of lies." This "quondam parson" paid me off. I would say mote,• biib time is to remember that tile "editor of a paper wiU not permit.-L, HARRIS. , i, not, whatever the man who holds the This evening, in St. MW**™*™^l office Way haVe teen, the Moderator of a | Parnell, a magic-Wrn wil Kirk Session," and people will not tolerate' be given in aid of the Sunday school library, "the priestly censure which he could, cassock- j n conseC(U ence of the Citizens' Ball on covered, spue out on the unfortunate occu- Monday next, the concert of Mr Joseph pant of the cutty stool." " Why no priest , j3 rown w illbeheld|ia the Choral Hall on Tues-uufi-6ckedforthegro3sestlibertinismthatman it| even j n g_

could be guilty of could pour out more deadly venom upoa the Superior of his order than has this thing, which a church once nursed, poured out upon a man who is in every way his supetior." This "larrikin of journalists," this "professor of Billinsgate," who so " dangerously splutters forth his slaver," this "octopod of the Star, whose literary slime and hideousness" must "be tackled with a sufficiently strong stomach," " robs himself of all his nastiest epitnets of his vocabulary and strings them into a garland." This " puny sling," his "beggarly filth," his "volumes of filth " "offend the nostrils," and do many other things very elegantly described in all the graces of polite literature. From this ruffian of the Star it is pleasant to turn away and contemplate the editor of the Cross, as described by the same two pens. Says " Chronista " and the "able editor," :—'■ In bis early manhood, when those talent 3 were beginning to develope which have made his Influence fell throughout thiii colon 1/ and have W"ii for him a proud position among Us legislators, 1 admired Ins steady perseverance ; his wanly independence ; his fearlessness in dealing with snobbish quackery ; his honourable conduct in fighting an honourable bailie with an honourable foeman ; his quiet contempt of the mean thing who could, under the giu.se of acciug in the public interest, attempt, through the medium of a disreputable print, to stain the honour and vilify the name of an honest man ; and above all his sterling honesty of purpose and fiery enthusiasm in any cau;<e he espoused. From my boyhood, I .say I have known Mr Luckie. I ha-'e given you my reasons for admiring aud respecting him at home ; but at thtj same tune / haw been fully cognisant of his tloiiujx in New Zealand, and naught in them hive I yet seen ac all tending to lower him in my esteem or detract in the least from the high opinion I have formed of him. His memory la still green in the important town on the eaat coast of Scotland, where is great abilities as a journalist were first displayed," " Although co jrsely accused otherwise, wehave good reason to know that no great iiaancial an prove me ut presented itself to lure Mr Luckie from Nelson, where his energy, astuteness, and fearlessness- iron for him the confidence of the people, who, had he remained amoimst them, would undoubtedly have shown that upon him they relied to pull the Province out of the slough into which yeirs of "muzzled" inaction of its Superintendent had stagnated U3. Misdoing aud (lodging generally were warmly attacked by Mr Luckie when he was here, and however elated or pretentious the offender the wholesome lasa of prompt criticism showed the right road, compelled its adherence, and checked any further attempt to " kick over the traces." In the past Nelson his proved the training school of Ministers beyond any j/her province, she now appears to to have sent to the right place a iournali.it equal to the necessities and capable: of withsoandiug the peculiar politnesses (?) of the Province, and if sufficient proof against the deleterious and noxious local newspaper exhalations, there appears to be a prospect of his doing for Auckland equally serviceable woik to that which he performed in Nelson." Such then is a true description of the editor of the Cross. We know it must be true for no one knows him better than the writer of it. And ie is to us a matter of deep regret that the light should have been so long hidden under a bushel, and that the people of Auckland should in their stupidity, have formed such an erroueoua impression. And right glad are we to discover that the " ugly duck" of journalism is a swan.

There is a probability that the SODg of the English nightingale may yet be heard in the neighbourhood of Auckland. We learn that one dozea of these woodland minstrels are on their passage to the Acclimatisation Society's gardens, hi the Domain. Tbe song of the nightingale is unequalled by the song of any other small bird, and, from the fact that the nightingale sings in the night, lie has been termed by Milton, Drummond, and other poets, "a melancholy bird." The two poets who have described the haunts and habits of the nightingale most accurately, excepting Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant, were Coleridge and Keats, who, strange to say, passed the greater portion of their lives within the hum of the busy city of London. Nightingales are remarkably shy birds, and during their brief six weeks sojourn in English woods, during the months of April and. May they exhibit an attachment to certain localiti-s. In the northern counties the nightingale is never heard. Sir John Sinclair tried to rear them in .Scotland bub without success. Their favourite resortarethe woodsinterspersedwithrunningsfcreams. The Domain will be a likely place to retain them. They usually sing in old thorns and lay their beautiful olive-coloured eggs ia the hollow stems of such trees, in nests formed chiefly of dry leaves. The famed naturalist, Gilbert White, in his ever-interesting " History of Selbome," a wild Hampshire village, about eight miles from the new home of the poet Tennyson, gives an excellent account of this exquisite songster from his own observations. Sir Charles James Fox, the eminent statesman of the time of George the Third, was often delighted with the music of the nightingale at hie estate, St Anne's Bill, Chertsey. and in a genial letter, still extant, to his friend Lord Grey, he speaks of the pleasure ha derived from the song of the nightingale. The writer of this paragraph heard the nightingales at St. Anne's while on a visit to Fox's home in May, 1869, where they still abound. The society will have to exercise great care with these shy and delicate birds, still it is possible they may exist in this warm climate. In England they are very exact in coming and going ; they are first heard in Surrey and Kent about the middle of April, and are rarely heard after the first week in June.

The American Circus had another full pavillion last evening, ' which no doubt waa partly owing to the reduction in the prices of admission which ihe proprietors made in order that the poorest person mijht have the opportunity of enjoying the wonders of the circus. The equestrian act by Mr George Gilham on two horses excited general admiration ; also the performance on the pair of ladders by Messrs Turner, Gilham, Lewis, and Hutchins. The whole concluded with a life-like scene of an English steeplechase of olden times, when the maypole was a conspicuous figure in civilization. To-night is announced as the last night but two oi their stay and a "tremendous bill" has been prepared. A grand compliment iry benefit will be given to Mr T. Bird to-morrow night, when a valuable prize will be given away for the best original conundrums.

His Honor the Chief Justice held a sitting in bankruptcy this afternoon, when the crossexamination of Mr George Thorne, jun., was continued, and had not concluded when our reporter left. A game of pyramids will be played this evening at the Q.0.E., at nine o'clock, between two Auckland amateurs, for the sum of £10. The match is causing some excitement in certain circles.