The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXV, Issue 3753, 29 July 1869, Page 4

The Daily Southern Cross.

LUOEO, NON URO. If I havo boon tjxe.lngui«he<3, yet tbore Wie A. tbouiitud bOKConu from the spark I boro.

THURSDAY, JULY 29.

It is no easy matter in dealing with intelligence that comes through native claimants to found any very souud deductions upon what is reported. That Te Kooti — or his repiesentative, for we are disposed to believe the real party to be dead — has left his .station on our frontier appears to be probable. That he has gone in a state of enmity with the King's more particular followers seems not unlikely ; that he has insulted the King and his people by burning down Tawhiao's house is just possible. 13eyond this point, however, the whole thing is doubtful. It may be that the King has quarrelled so irretrievably with this so-called Te Kooti as to make the latter an enemy for the future, but we cannot say we are convinced that there are good grounds for all that is said. It is not so trifling a matter for either party to enter upon a grand conflict, in which Te Kooti, and the most extreme of the Hauhau party, would be arrayed against the King uad the most powerful of the central tribes, that we are ready to believe it the case at once. Te Kooti knows in how dangerous a position he stands, we need not doubt, and it would be only madness on his part at present to court a quarrel with so powerful a section of his own race as the followers of King Tawhiao. That the man himself is ambitious enough to entertain the design of dethroning Tawhiao or anyone else in his way may be very true, but we can scarcely believe in the phenomenon of a Maori who allows his ambition so to outrun his discretion aa to tempt a conflict so very unequal as this would be. What, then, it may be asked, does Te Kooti intend to do in thus leaving the Waikato frontier in such an unfriendly spirit towards the natives connected with the King 1 It is impossible to answer this question clearly in the present state of our information. It is conceivable that the whole affair is a ruse, including the burning of Tawhiao's house and the derisive volley which hailed Te Kooti's departure ; and that beneath the appai'ent quarrel there is really no ill-will. We do not say that this is so, but we do say that if it were it would accord better with what we know of Maori character than any such scheme aa that of bringing six hundred men to dethrone the King and set up Te Kooti as King in his stead. Such an understanding would not necessarily mean an attack upon fur Waikato frontier, but it would necessarily

mean danger to us in some way. Tt wa enough to show that the King and hia people were not wholly disgusted with and opposed to Te Kooti, when they allowed him to come amongst them in tLe friendly way in which they did ; and if they have now separated with any friendly understanding it may certainly be taken for granted that that understanding is dangerous to us. It cannot, we think, be denied that if Te Kooti has really left the Waikato frontier, and gone away, we have gained something. It is no easy matter to see how a better opportunity ever can occur for making an attack upon our settlements than that which offered the othf r day, and which w<n not seized by 'the King natives. It would have been an easy matter to have allowed a conflict to spring up, which would have appeared to be set on foot without their consent, when Te Kooti and his friends were on the spot. And if they had cared to enter upon the quarrel they could easily have done so, with all the advantage of having a body of zealous and formidable allies to place in the forefront. All these advantage?!, and many more, they have, it would seem, thrown away, rather than take the fatal step of breaking the truce which has existed so long up(toi our Waikato frontier, This we say is a clear advantage to us, and to the cause of peace. Every opportunity for stirring up war which is let slip is something more than a mere delay of the eril day. It makes the evil day itself of more doubtful occurrence. It is more difficult now to break the truce than it was a year ago, and it will bo more difficult to do so a year hence than it is now. The visit of Te Kooti may, therefore, be looked on as a crisis in our fate as a community. The chances of war in Waikato seemed very great indeed a week ago, but now they seem less serious than ever. It is not necessary to go minutely into motives in this matter, and moreover it is not in our position possible for us to do so. It may be that jealousy had something to do with the failure of Te Kooti to get up a war in Waikato at present ; it may also be that fear of possible consequences had its share in the question. But, in any case, what we are most interested in is the result, which amounts to this, that, the best possible opportunity for stirring up a war having been let slip, we are either marked out by great good fortune, or they are seriously unwilling to risk a war on the frontier. And if this is the feeling abroad, it is so entirely a healthy one that it should be encouraged in all reasonable ways. Two of these ways are very apparent, and erery effort should be made to give them effect. In the first place, if Te Kooti is really gone, and the King and his friends really seem inclined to settle down quietly as before, we must be content to leave them s». The constant attempt to get something more than this has already led more than once to o\ir very nearly losing even this itself, and this may occur again. If we are bent on asking their terms with one pacificator, or their grievances with another, we shall never have real peace on our frontier. W r e shall ourselves feed the fever which is to destroy us. And, in the second place, we must always be prepared for the worst. Mounted scouts, rifle volunteers, first class militia, all must be attended to, encouraged, and made efficient, so that, if by leaving the natives alone we do not avert the danger of attack, we may be in a position to appeal to their fears before they attack, and ever after to their bitter experience of its unsatisfactory results.

A meeliug of the Central Board of Education was held ab the Provincial Governmeub buildings yesterday afternoon, when it was resolved to give assistance to the settlers of Matokohe and of Puhoi for providing school teacheis for those districts* It j wag also resolved to give assistance towards the j maintenance of an English schoolmaster at Ahipara, for the teaching of Maori children. We learn from a gentleman who arrived from Shortland yesterday that a very rich leader has been struck within the last day or two in the Hokianga Clmiii, Karaka Cieek, from which a large quantity of very excellent specimens have been taken. The leader was closed in a chive at which the men have been working for a considerable time past, aud from the lay of the quartz and the position of the ground it is supposed tnat the leader comes over fiom the other side of the Karaka Hill, where so mauy rich claims are located. Thomas Beckham, Esq., R.M., presided at the Police Court yesterday, when several drunkards were brought up and punished in the usual manner. One, a searaan on Loard the barque 'Kate,' was fined 20s. for being intoxicated on board that vessel, and so unfit to do his duty. A charge of riding on the footpath was prefened again efc Thomaß Keightly, but on the case being called there was no appearance of tho prosecutor, and the matter was accordingly dismissed. A meeting of the Auckland Medical Society wil take place at Dr. Day's, at seven o'clock to-morrow evening. ""^iTia notified that transfers of reduced scrip, or of portions of oiiginal scrip, ia the Shotover Company cannot be received for regisr "ation until the reorganisation of the company has been completed. A meeting of shareholders in the Domain View Claim is convened to be held at the office of Messrs. Lewis Brothers, Q'icen-t>tieeb, at 9 o'clock on Saturday evening. We perceive, from the passenger lisb of the Bs. • Hero,' that Mr. H. Selwyu Smyth, the well-known mining surveyor and agent of Melbourne, was a passenger to Auckland, and arrived ou Monday. Mr. Smyth baa doubtless arrived with the intention of inspecting the Thames goldfielda. — Times, July 28. Constable Stanhope, from information received, arrested at half-past 9 o'clock last night, in Pollenstreet, an old man named Jones, and found upon him a watch and chun, which had been stolen from Champion's boaidiug-house on the 10th instant. The watch has been identified, and the prisoner will be brought before the Kesident Magistrate's Couit this moruiug. — Ibid, The Committee of the Irish Patriot Tribute held a meeting, at Mr. Griffin'a Shamrook Hotel, yesterday evening, when the lists were finally closed, aud the various accounts passed for payment. The funds now amount to about £400, which wilt be remitted to the head committee in Sydney.— lbid. A telegram ia an Indian paper, datsd London, June 5, states; — "In the House of Lords, last night, Earl Clarendon replyingto Viacouat Stratford de Redcliffe narrated the progress of the 'Alabama ' negotiations, and B«id that the policy of the Government would be conciliating, but that they would never oubniit to a sacrifioe of national honour. The Kail considered the appointment of Mr. Motley aa a good omen." The following letter has been written by Mr. John Stuart Mill, to Mr. PharaaymJ:— "Atignw, May 2f 1869. — Dear sir, — T have not sufficiently studied the present state of New Zealand to have formed a positive opinion on the question on which you invite my aid; and,being no longer in Parliament, I should have little power oropporfcunity of working efficiently for my opinion if I had formed one. In principle I am not favourable to guarantees by the mother country of loans to colonial governments, but I have always held that this country cannot direst itself of its moral responsibility with respect to the aborigines; and, if a loan j;of a single million under Imperial guarantee would avert such evils from the friendly Maoris as those you seem to anticipate, I do not think that Parliament ought to refuse it, It ought not, however, to be granted except upon the judgment of persons much more conversant with the state of things at present, and more competent to estimate the prospects of the future, thau ia the case with myself,— l am, &o,, — J, S, M*ll,— R, Paarazyu, Enq." J

A pul»Hc (liscusnion will take place at the Cookstreet meeting-hoiue, coinm«noing at 7.30 o'clock, this evening. In the present House of Lords there are no descendants of th« twenty-five, barons who •nforced. the Magus, Oharta. The following case wai hoard in the Keaident Magistrate's Court, Dunedin, on thel6bhinstaut :— Telfer v. Beal, a claim for £1. Mr. Macassey appeared for the defendant. The claim vraa on account of a £1 note presented by the plaintiff at the Bank of New Zealand, and refused by the defendant, the manager of the Bank, on the ground that the signature to the noto bad been torn off. Judgment for the defendant. The Victorian Baptist Magazine give"! its leading article to "Jmnes Taylor," and says that "what the Word of God requires a minister of Christ to be ia the Church's best guide in dealing with casea of ministerial delinquency. But when a man has proclaimed his own uufitnes«, and has made it plain that ha doew not meet the Scriptural requirements, and yet he persists in attempts to return, unrepenting and unchanged, to his oldj occupation as a preacher, what can the Church consistently do ? Is it not driven to the lamentable necessity of ceasing; to recoguis>e him either as a Christian minister or a Christian man ?" A lecture was deliTered in the Homt Institute, Shortland, on Tuesday evening by Mr. Henry Ellis, on " Man and his Masters." There was a moderate attendance. The leoturer discoursed at some length, and vrith considerable eloquence, on the nui-jeet of his lecture. He contended that the drinking habits of the community were a moral, social, and physical obstacle to the progress of the community. After some stricture on these habits, and the tastes oE the people of the Thames in not pationising the performance, the lecturer concludfd a very able address on the subjeot, and received a haarty rote of thanks by acclamation on the motion of the Rev. Mr. Sm»iles. — Advertiser, July 28. We undei stand that it is the intention of Dr. Fiaher, resident medical superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum, to give on Tuosday evening next another of tboae monthly concerts which give so much enjoyment to the unfortunate Inmatei. The Wellington correspondent of the Otago JSaily Timas says :—": — " It is hinted thai; Major Heaphy may perhaps receive the office of Under-Seeretary in the Defence Office at the end of the session." We observe by the Sydney Aforning Hermld of June 21at that Joseph Tole, Esq., brother of D. Tole, Esq , i f this city, has obtained the degree of LL.B. "Dr. Schomburgk," observes the 8. J.. Rcgisi&\ " \rill by acd-by rank high among the benefactors of mankind who have raised two blades of grass where only one grew before their time. No Boouer has the success of the prairie grass been attested, than he procures a still more valuable kiud from the earno Jatitu.ie. This in the celebrated Guinea grass, which the doctor has himself seen g/owiug to the height of five or sis feet, and which he can guarantee, from personal observation, te afford luxuriant feed. He has obtained two healthy plants, with which he will be able to experiment shortly on a larger scale. Meanwhile, the following description of it; irora the doctor'HJpen will interest our rea-lera :—"I: — "I speak from personal observation during a five years' residence in Guinea, where I have peeu this grass under cultivation growing from five to siz feet bigb, and giving generally from three to four crops a year. It is relisuhed by all kinds of stock ; in fact, the cattle and horses get nothing else there, and they thrive unommonly well. Should it grow with us half as luxuriantly as in the tropics, it will be one of th« most valuable grasses yet introduced. Ihe Guinea grass surpasses in growth that of the prairie grass, which it resembles in regard to its woolly leaves, but it is still inoiv given to shooting than the prairie grass," There was lately a discussion in Parliament in reference to the existence of slavery in the Transvaal Republic, and especially to the alleged torture of women and children by the Dutch Boera. Thtre was too muck reason for believing that the accounts of the atrocities had not bean exaggerated ; bu h , the British Government felt that they could only interfere by using their moral influence with the rt publican authorities. The fairest parts of the earth aie frequently the Bcene3 of the darkest deeds, and natui'd seems to have been unusually bountiful in the Transvaal territory, (ho chief city of which is thus descubed :—: — Potohefstroom is a most beautiful little town. It may truthfully be called a second liden. Vegetation here is so rich that the Boil seems scarcely capable of contaiiing its produce ; everywhere, no matter in what part of the town, even alon? some parts of the principal streets, fruit ticca overhang the pathway, bent down with the weight of their fruit, peaches, figs, promegranates, quincep, apricots, actually lying en the ground in cartloads. We have beeu invited by m«ny people in the tovvn to send baskets and bags and help ourselves to as much fruit as we want ; there is norm sold here. Upon our arrival I asked a gentleman where I could find a fri'ifc shop ; he smiled and said there was not such a place in town, but that nobody would object to our helping ourselves to whatever we wanted in that way. AJI kinds of vegetables are also plentiful. Yet with all its natural advantages and the benefits of slave labour the country is in a most wretched condition. In another part of the Capo paper which contains this description it it stated that "thirty-three £5 Transvaal Government n< t j s,£sold on the Capet >wn Exchauge, realised 5s 6d in the pound." — Pall Mall Gazette. The Orkney Island farmers are bitterly opposed to the conatrbiction of lighthouse* along the northern coast of Scotland, They have teen wall supplied heretofore with mauy luxuries from ihipwreoked vessels.