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Evening Post, Volume VII, Issue 129, 8 July 1871, Page 2

Truly " the fashion of this world passeth" away." Only a very short time has elapsed since the jwhole. .Colony .joined; in hurling execrations at i the ..head of Titoko Waru. who was denounced as a fiend in human ifo.^m, placed beyond $he pale of human society and human'sympathy by his ruthless deeds, and to shoot; whom, ? like a wild dog, would, be an act of the highest merit. A reward of £1,000 was placed upon hh head by the Government, and.expensive expeditions, undertaken in the hope to capture him, were not begrudged. Mr. Parris was held, to have degraded hjmself, as well as the Government he represented, by appearirigat a meeting where the arch-rebel was present. But what is now the state of matters? Titoko Waru openly shows himself jn the vicinity of European settlements ; less than! a month ago'he was in the inirrie-' diate neighborhood of New Plymouth; his "abiding place is well known, and yet no one

offers to molest him ! He lias waxed bold, and actually demands from the Government a condonation of his offences, and permission to return within the pale of the law. In fact, lie looks upon himself as a bankrupt, waiting to pass 4 his examination and obtain his certificate. But worse still, his request is supported by the Provincial Government and people of Taranaki; they plead their exposed situation, their inadequatejneans of defence, and the example set by Mr. M'Lean in pardoning other murderers, and ask the Government to give poor Tito another chance ; and such is the position to which Mr. M'Lean's disgusting truckling to rebels has brought the Colony, that it is far from unlikely that the request of the archcannibal, backed by his Taranaki sympathisers, will be refused. Peace must be kept at the expense of any amount of degradation. Possibly the rebels, after they are pardoned, may demand compensation for the wrongs inflicted on them, and no doubt the generous M'Lean will be ready to grant it. We may shortly expect to hear of Titoko Waru being made a native assessor, or a major, or something else, and settled in the town of New Plymouth. The inhabitants of Taranaki have never been famed for any display of spirit, but their last proceeding "out Herods Herod," and if their wishes are granted, they will have succeeded in affixing a stigma to thf name of New Zealand colonist, which nothing can ever wipe away.

Mr. Henry Anderson, as will be seen by an announcement elsewhere, has resigned his seat as a member for the city in the Provincial Council.

Major Edwards returned from the West Oast in Cobb'o coach last night, having satisfactorily completed the business of the mission with which he had been entrusted by the Government. Like all native land squabbles, the present one with which Major Edwards had to deal, is involved in some little obscurity. Some thirty years back there arose a tribal dispute as to the ownership of the land situated between the Ohau Stream and the Manawatu River, and the aforesaid dispute has been smouldering ever since. Our readers must bear in mind that this laud has nothing to do with the Manawatu, but is a distinct piece of territory altogether, still held under native title. Lately the dispute came to something like a head. The Ngatirakauwas put up some wharres on the land, which the .Ngatiapas pulled down, and a series of squabbles, which the Wanganui Chronicle says resulted in blows, took place. A couple of months ago, the whole question was discussed at a large native meeting but as the Ngatiapas would not agree to the settlement proposed, nothing definite was done. Then Major Edwards was sent up by the Government to pour oil on the troubled waters, and we believe haa ' succeeded in adjusting matters for the time. He wen£ up the Coast on Monday, met the Ngatin* kauwas on Tuesday, at Horowhenua, and heard their version of the matter. Afterwards he held a meeting with the Ngatiapas, and ultimately the disputants agreed to the appointment of two Europeans to act as arbitrators—one representing each party —who would take all the points of the case into consideration, and give a decision therein. Thas, for the present, the difficulty has met with a peaceful solution. . We are sorry to"notice that Mr. M. V. Hodge, another Wanganui solicitor, has been obliged to declare bankrupt; while the managing clerk of a legal practitioner in the same place has also filed his schedule. The legal profession is evidently over-done in Wanganui, as» both the gentlemen referred to were indefatigable in their attention to business, and had every likelihood of prospering. Wanganui now produces fifty per cent of our bankrupt, criminal, and divorce cases. The formation of the proposed new volunteer corps, to be called "the City : Guards," proceeds apace. A meeting of those interested is to be held on Monday night, at 8 o'clock, in the Branch Hotel. Apropos of volunteer companies, some sons of " the Green Isle" are talking of forming another one, under the title of " the Irish Brigade," and it is intended that every member thereof should be a genuine Celt. An ex-lieutenant of volunteer cavalry, hailing from the Wairarapa, is taking a strong interest in the proposal, of which we shall doubtless learn more by-and-bye. A well informed correspondent at Napier writes :—Mr; M'Lean-has been visiting his run, but has how returned to Napier. He leaves here next week for Wellington. I would not be surprised if both Mr. M'Lean and Mr. Ormond were, under some pretext daring the coming session, to dissolve partnership with Mr. Fox. It is rumoured that they think he would be more advantogeously employed in looking after his political duties, than in running about teetotal lecturing. :If Mr. Fox attempts to foster the Provinces at t the expense of the Colony, there will, in all probability, be a rupture, as it is well ;known that Ormond holds!strong opinions in the contrary direction. .';■.; During';the,,sitting,,of the City Council yesterday, Mr. Plimmer; wished to move two resolutions, of which he had sent round notices to the 'Councillors,/respecting!the purchase, of tie reclaimed land. ■■ His; Worship having taken the opinion of Speaker ofJ the' Provincial Council on the subject, decided that Mr. Plimmer. would be out of order in moving resolutions on a subject already passed by the City Council. What Mr. Plimmer wanted discussed was briefly'as follows : First^ that in the event of the purchase of the properties by the Corporation being decided upon, credit should be given.it for £9,750 alleged to be due to the City Board, and that if this sum were'not allowed -the purchase should not be made ; and second, that in the deed of sale a clause should be inserted by which

the Provincial Government would be pledged not to erect another wharf in the harbour without the consent of the Corporation. Sermons will be preached in St. Peter's Church, to-morrow, in aid of the Diocesan Pension Fund—that in the morning by the Bishop of Wellington, and in the evening by the Archdeacon. The receipts at the Custom House to-day for duties were £107 8s 6d. We have to acknowledge the receipt of £1 Is from Mr. Andrew Young, for the benefit of Mrs. Lawrence. The work of the extension of the line of telegraph northward is being gradually and steadily pushed on. On the West Coast it has been extended as far as I Opunake, about fifty miles to the north of Patea, where a station has already been erected, that will be opened for the transmission of telegrams in about a week's time, a workman having been sent up to fit up the station with the necessary telegraphing apparatus. , The work of carrying it from Opunake to New Plymouth will also be entered upon without delay, a temporary stoppage only having occurred until the weather becomes more settled. On the East Coast, the line is also being pushed on from 'Tauranga to Kati Kati, a distance of about 30 miles in the direction from Tanranga to the Thames. '.'■■ This portion of the line is ipproaching completion, and it is anticipated that it will be finished by about the «nd of this month. From Kati Kati to the Thames will be undertaken as soon as the •latives are sufficiently quiet in that discreet. A branch line however, from Lake Faupo to Cambridge, which would open, communication through to Auckland, will he commenced almost immediately, tendei> having been invited fora supply of polesfor it as far as Niho-o-te-kiore, 15 miles oi the road. Visitors to the General Government offices have doubtless noticed an addition to the buildings, which has' been commenced at the western end of the south wing. It is intended ultimately to be connected with, and to be in fact a-part of the library. The accommodation afforded in the present room has for a long while been felt to be miserably insufficient even for the books now in it; the librarian has had his powers of arrangement taxed to the uttermost, and still he has not been able to have matters as he would like. As to buying new books (which, if the library is to be kept up to a good standard, should be constantly done) it has sim ply been avoided as much as possible owing to the want of space. The addition to the building will, we learn, be used during next session as a smoking room for members, and in the recess it will be, fitted up for the purpose for which it is designed. We learn that the Eev. W. H. West will preach a special sermon1 to the young, tomorrow evening, in the Congregational Church, after which collections in aid of ths Sunday School will be made. The recent Canterbury papers contain a list of donations to the Museum of that Province, by between thirty and forty persons, during the months of Apri', May, and June. They include fully two hundred articles, many of them being most interesting specimens of birds, Maori and Marion implements, fisb, shells, coins, grasses, eggs, tropical butterflies, moths and eggs, and water colour drawings. This liberality on the part of the public of Canterbury i^ not a mere sudden impulse, but for years donations to the Museum there have been very numerous, and the consequence is a most valuable and interesting collection of articles has been made. ; The Chronicle thus remarks about the West Coast native lands dispute, which Major Edwards has, for the time, succeeded in settling :—"Last week, Kemp of Putiki. together with Kawana Huuia of Ngatiapa. left to try and arrange a disputed boundary between the above named tribes. Tht said boundary, has been a long time in. dis pute, more particularly between Kangitamand Ngatiraukawa; and a3 it is necessary to have something definitely settled before the next sitting of the Court, the two chiefs went down to the block of land in question, which lies inland between Manawatu am) Otaki, to try their hands at an arrangement. <It was found, however, that the Ngatiraukawa would not give way ; having erected two or three wharres on the disputed ground. Hunia set fire to these and destroyed them, whereupon several men and women, interfered, and blows . were struck. Te Mawae, Kemp's uncle, was sent off post haste for Kemp-rlest he, should join inthe quarrel" arid involve the Wanganui tribes in a dispute in which they are in no way interested. In reference to the recent prospecting from the Napier side of the Kaimanawa,- a correspondent of the, Wanganui Chronicle writes :—I was struck* by the paragraph in your Wednesday's paper respecting the Kaimanawa. The Whitikau is the very stream on which Bracken's reef is situated ; so that the discovery of gold in it throughout its whole length by the Napier prospectors, is a corroboration both .of .•Mr. Bracken's assertion of his specimens having come from thence, as well as of the correctness of 'the Aucklandl assay of the quartz brought down by the Wanganui gold- ; seekers. Speaking of the policy of the Provincial Government, the Wanganui Chronicle remarks :—There is a time for opposition to what you conceive a' wrong or mistaken policy —a time for strong, it may be even exaggerated argument when the question is pending ; a time for calm reflection when a decision has been arrived at, and a step one way or the other has been adopted. As long as there is a prospect of influencing the measures of the legislature,1 even in a remote degree, by the statement of arguments or the collection of facts, they cannot be urged too strongly or adduced too

forcibly. Bub'when tho contest is over, and the period of reflection has come, a very different style of discussion should be adopted. The partisan must then be merged in the patriot. We may believe the measures to be mistaken, still it is our duty —the duty "of every man who wishes well to the country—to make the best of a bad bargain. You can only make bad worse by continued opposition or even by standing aloof. Such is our honest conviction of the whole matter, and therefore we must now take up such works as are proposed for this Province upon their merits, such merits as they may possess, and seek to have them so carried out as to do the most good or the least evil possible.