THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Saturday, May 13, 1848.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 3, Issue 151, 13 May 1848, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Saturday, May 13, 1848.

LUCEO NON URO. "If I have been extinguished, yet there rise A thousand beacons from the spark I bore." Our contemporary the New Zealander seems anxious to quarrel with us. He accuses us of impugning his " plain, unvarnished narrative" of the Governor's Northern Tour, and the sour tone of his remarks, and the ill-repressed hate which characterizes his strictures, sufficiently prove the willingness with which he would enter into Bitter controversy, while the puerility of his censures equally proves his unfitness for the contest. — But we have no intention of gratifying the pugnacious disposition of our contemporary. •• We have something else to do besides wasting our time in useless controversy, and we should pass over this unprovoked attack with silent contempt, if there wore no danger of such forbearance being misunderstood. In the first place, we did not impugn our contemporary's narrative. Wo never for one moment attributed it to him. Knowing that he had no moans of ascertaining, from independent sources, the facts connected with this journey, and that his narrative, modestly styled " plain and unvarnished," (plain it certainly was, even to deformity, but not unvarnished,) was gathered from some of the fawning satellites who accompanied His Excellency, and who made it their business to utter thp most palpable misrepresentations of this important diplomatic visit — we merely regretted that our contemporary should havo fallen into the trap, and that he had been made the instrument of propagating falsehoods. Is our contemporary offended because wo did not attribute to' him the "plain, unvarnished narrative?" If he insists upon the honor, he shall have it ; but then he must make up his mind to be considered as the principal rather than the accomplice — the forger rather than the unconscious utterer of false notes. We are quite content to leave to the do • cision of the public the question of the relative claims to authenticity of the narrative, which our contemporary calls the "litera scripta," and the "oral" account which he gave. The public have already decided, and that decision is the best proof of the futility of our " contemporary's attempt to weaken the narrative we published by impeaching the motives, and maligning the intentions of our correspondents. The New Zealander has managed to fill rather more than a column with his animadversions, but if the sentences that really bear upon the question were separated from the ridiculous allusions to his own consistency andfreedom, and the egotistical pretensions to his "manly independence" — they would be very few, and very irrevelant. Our narrative, according to our contemporary, was written for a special purpose, to "cast obloquy and ridicule upon the person of Her Majesty's Representative, and to hold up Heke as a sort of insatiate Ogre, whom the Governor was in agonies, at any sacrifice, and at any amount of personal degradation, to propitiate." We should be glad if our contemporary would point out any part of the narrative that will legitimately bear this construction. Pie must bear in mind that it is strictly a narrative of facts, and if the facts disclosed should, unfortunately, reflect upon the honour and dignity of Her Majesty's Representative, then they — and they only — must be blamed, whose conduct the facts disclose. But if our contemporary would wish to " confess" us, we have no hesitation in avowing that our object in publishing the narrative in question was, to secure a true account of it being transmitted to her Majesty's Government. The interview with Heke was an important one, and we had no confidence in its being fairly represented ; every despatch that wo see, being more distorted than another. The missionaries' sons, says the indignant New Zealander, " pressed upon

Nor, is it so much for tho good we have done in exposing this conduct, that we found our pretensions to public favor, it is for the evil that we have prevented. Our columns are open to every one, and if there is a public abuse to be corrected, we are always ready to give our assistance. Wo at the same time entirely disclaim being opponents of the Government, properly so called. Wo have no end to serve but tho general good of the country, with which all our pecuniary interests and desires aro identified ; a much better security for our acts and good intentions than of those, however exalted, whose income is independent of the prosperity of the place, — whose interests perchance, may be opposed thoroto.

the very steps of the Governor with a degree of intolerable rudeness." Did Capt. Grey visit Heke in the character of a private gentleman, or as Governor of New Zealand ? Our contemporary will hardly have the effrontery to say that it was a private visit. It is well known that his Excellency's visit was in every sense of the word a public piece of diplomacy, and ono might as well accuse the good citizens of London of impertinence, when they pressed upon the heels of our beloved Queen as she proceeded to banquet with the Lord Mayor, as attribute ungentlemanly conduct to the young men who rode over to Kaikohe to witness the public meeting between Heke and the Governor. Has it not occurred to our contemporary that he is especially in danger of " casting obloquy and ridicule upon her Majesty's representative, by admitting that he wished to cast the veil of an impenetrable secrecy over the details of his visit ? If the Governor had nothing to say to Heke, but what honor and truth would have dictated, why fear the presence of an audience. Concealment is only necessary either to cloak weakness, or to dissemble roguery. For which of these purposes it was so eagerly desired by his Excellency, we do not profess to know. We think that his Excellency has been very much compromised by the conduct of his officials at the north. One of them, we know, gave occasion to very natural suspicion, by writing to Heke, some time previous to the Governor's visit, requesting him to come, " but to come alone. The natives hate mystery, and invariably couple it Tvitli perfidy. But oar contemporary is far more guilty than ourselves. He has (ignorantly we hope) cast ridicule upon his Excellency by an allusion to one of our national proverbs, by giving it an application that we never should have thought of doing. Last Saturday he told us that " Heke — tho Hotspur Heke — finds it less his ' cue to fight,' than (as a Scotchman would say) to fleech" The original, proverb runs thus, 'Better to fleech {i.e. flatter) fools than fight them." Did our contemporary intend giving it this application to his Excellency ?— The manner in which our contemporary has managed to introduce, under cover of his indignant rebukes, those sly and silly encomiums of his consistency, impartiality, and independence, is worthy of notice. For the New Zealander to talk of consistency is excellent. Our readers will recollect that some few weeks ago, we gave a specimen of this consistency, by culling some choice parallel maxims from his columns. If our contemporary indulges his vanity at this rate, we shall be tempted to repeat the same process, as he appears to make it a rule, not merely to forget what he has often told us in tho previous publication, but absolutely to dony, or contradict in the following number, his previous statements. — It is only a few weeks ago, that he was labouring hard to expose, not simply the measures of his Excellency, but likewise his personally offensive method of carrying out his schemes. Now, he has suddenly become enamoured of his Excellency, and is doing his best to whitewash him. This conduct, we admit, may be in accordance with the pecuniary interests of the New Zealander, and of the party it represents, and he has an undoubted right to follow such a course of expediency ; nor wotkld we take the smallest notice of such a trifling circumstance, but for the cool effrontery with which he proclaims his " independence" and " consistency." He is certainly consistent in one way, but only as the weathercock is consistent in turning round and round, according to the_ wind, so is the Nezy Zealander consistent in saying one thing to-day, and another to-mor-row. We close our remarks upon this subject, by a little friendly advice to our bellicose friend. He can expect to gain nothing by entering into war, and therefore it would be wiser to keep on the even tenor of his way, and allow us to do tho same. He has chosen his path, and perhaps, all things considered, it would be a pity were he to deviate from it. The balance of power would not be fairly maintained if there was not one recognised supporter of the measures of Government out of the three public presses. Let him therefore mind his proper vocation, and forbear to peril the interests of his party, by arousing the indignation of their opponents. Time was when the New Zealander might have aspired to the more honorable position of representing by_ itself the interests of all parties ; but it degenerated into a mere puffing machine of his Excellency, until the indignation of the public was aroused, and called our luminary once more into existence. And, but for that event, we do not scruple to say, the northern settlers would now have been completely prostrated by the machinations and misrepresentations by which the present despotism, is upheld.