South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1884.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3532, 1 August 1884, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1884.

A good deal of alarm has been excited in certain quarters by the assembling of natives at Parihaka, No donbt the presence of over a thousand natives on that historic spot makes the settlers feel rather uncomfortable, the more so because their principal occupation while the meeting lasts will be the discussion of their grievances. Beyond this, however, we see nothing to be alarmed at. The natives are mostly unarmed, they are all perfectly well aware of the power and resources of the Europeans, and they know that their race has nothing to hope for from acts of violence. The Maoris are not fouls, and there is no fear that antipathy to the Europeans will ever again burry them into a contest which they know to be hopeless. Our morning contemporary, we observe, suggests that the West Coast Peace Preservation Act, which has just ceased to be in force, ought to have been kept in force for six months longer. For our own part we do not think so—it cannot possibly affect the peace of the community that a few hundred unarmed Maoris should meet together to talk over old times, to plant crops and to condole with one another, while it would have been bard indeed, if the Government, having them so completely in band, bad denied them this privilege. Thera is nothing to be alarmed at in the meeting, and all the Government need do, is to .have an eye on the proceedings.

Nothing could testify more strikingly to the truth of the statement that England is the mother of nations than the great event in journalism which is on the point of occurring, viz., the editing of the “ New York Herald ” in London. Mr James Gordon Bennett, the enterprising proprietor of the “ Herald,” and Mr Mackay, the millionaire, have had a special Atlantic cable constructed, and when this is in lull operation the staff of the “Herald” will be busily engaged all day at the office, Fleet street, London, in collecting European news from every quarter, and transmitting it by wire to New York. The leading articles will also be cabled every night. The American news will of course be supplied by the New York staff, and there will be issued every morning in New York the greatest journal of the age. The citizen of the United States will daily peruse as much European intelligence as the Englishman obtains from bis “ Times.” This is certainly the most stupendous enterprise ever undertaken, and illustrates most strikingly the annihilation of time and space by electricity.

Some persons have a peculiar faculty for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and making everybody uncomfortable just when they ought to say something pleasant. An instance of this occurred at the banquet in Christchurch to Mr Coster the other evening. Mr Wakefield was called upon to co-respond for the General Assembly of New Zealand, and one would have thought a gentleman of bis ability and knowledge of the proprieties, would have no trouble in discharging this duty in a satisfactory manner. There were illustrations and examples enough to guide him. He might have studied the speeches of Her Majesty’s Ministers at Lord Mayors’ dinners and many other deliverances of a similar kind—but above all he might have listened to the promptings of good taste, a quality of which it is impossible to suppose him destitute. We cannot bat regret that he should have so egregiously blundered, for faux pas like these reflect no credit upon our public men as a body, and show a very indifferent example to the rising generation of politicians.