THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2177, 27 December 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1875.

It is not often, we suppose, if ever, that a constituency has been in the same position with regard to its candidates on the eve of an election as is the Thames at the present, time. We are in a state of the greatest uncertainty, not only as to who will or who will not come forward, but even as to tljs very views which those hold who have ; declaredttheirr r decided^ determination to stand, and yet we are within eight-and-forty hours of, the day of election. It seems to us that this reticence with regard to the enunciation of their political creed, or creeds —always supposing each candidate has one—besides being very unsatisfactory, is hardly feir treatment on; the part of the candidates "towards the constituents; We have at present five declared candidates, and with the exception of a laughable combination of prbse and verse addressed by Mr Stephenson to some five or six score people at the American Theatre a ; shgrt lime ago, and a few words calculated No' gain favor with, miners, published at the; eleventh hour by Mr C. A. Comes iv the form of an advertisement, we are i a almost total ignorance as to how any one of our candidates deems it best " to serve the state" if he be elected to sit for the Thames. Of the :three remaining declared candidates, whose pretensions after all are the only ones, we care to treat of seriously, we know abso- ■ lutely nothing. For some weeks past we have seen an advertisement from Mr Bowe declaring his intention of seeking the suffrages of the electors, premising that his views accord, with j those of the " great majority of this com- ; munity," and promising moreover to take "an early opportunity " of addressing us upon the various political questions of the day. But that opportunity has, strange to say, never yet arrived, or Mr Howe has become suddenly diffident of his oratorical powers, or from some other equally cogent reason has left his promise unfulfilled, and we are as much in the dark as to what Mr So we believes the political views of the great majority, of this community to be as we were on the first day he ■issued his advertisement; It is true that from certain sayings and doings of Mr Rowe at public meetings re Abolition, and the reception of Sir George G-rey, we can give a pretty shrewd guess as to which side; Mr* Howe's; real sympathies as regards Centralism or Federation tend, but however .accurate our guesses may be they do not prevent Mr Howe from declaring that they are totally wrongj and the expediency of the polling day may point' out. to , him the very opposite course as being more in accordance with the > wishes of the great majority. Mr « on December . 17th made 'a similar, t statement .: about personally placipg■before, electors c his views on public questions, and his promise like Mr s Eowe's,alsp ,remains: unfulfilled. It is true that his declaration is, only ten days old, and to his mind the nomination day may be an early, as well as a fitting opportunity of addressing electors, but then he speaks in his declaration not of an opportunity biit! of 1 opportunities; so that, even supposing Wednesday next is early enough to enable* him to deny an allegation of breach of promise, still we had a

right—from his using the plural number —to expect that before we were actually called upon to elect him, or at all events hold up our, hand for him, we might know something of those things in which he himself believed. Mr Gibbons has been equally reticent, and with a hundred names expressed and four hundred others understood, does not seem to think, it necessary, or even desirable, to attempt to attach any others to his j side by practically showing by a'| speech in the Academy how he will j look and speak', on the, floor of the i House of Assembly. These things, we j repeat, are not satisfactory. • They leave ! room for suspicion where after all there may be none ; and men are apt to say—r and perhaps unjustly—that the candidates are waiting to see how the wind sets before they trim their sails.. It is yery well,to i say that the nomination day is the proper I day to declare political views, but when there are more than two candidates, and it is generally known that a poll must take place, not mora than one in a dozen electors will be present at the nomination, and of those who are there not one half will be able to hear—especially if there be any party spirit displayed—what is being said. The only way in which we can reconcile this backwardness in coming forward on the party of the candidates with any thing approaching to reason, is at the : best an unkind way, and may possibly be an unjust way; if true it is not a very creditable way (to the candidates) of accounting for it. We all know the anomalous position in which Sir George Grey stands as regards this district, and it is quite probable enough to be unpleasant that he may be nominated with the other candidates on Wednesday next, and quite possible that one, of the candidates will attempt to sneak in—-there is no other word for it— under his wing as the second representative of the Thames. This may not be the case—we earnestly hope it will not be so; but there is enough of probability about it to justify us in warning the electors while there is yet time of what may be> to prevent them rendering the district ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of all. Already the Coromandel Mail asserts that the Thames people would run after any great personage who showed himself properly equipped, even though compelled to do so in garments the reverse of ample; and though the satire is not all deserved, yet the unwillingness of our candidates to bind themselves over to views which may be in opposition to those of thegreat man when he coineth, affords some justification for the exaggeration. We see by the Herald that Messrg Speight and Porter have been to Auckland to request Sir, George io stand for this district* It is much to be hoped, that they have not laid' too much color on the picture of a downtrodden and ill-used people calling unanimously, with a cry not to be disregarded, for the presence of Sir George as a candidate among them to break the yoke from off their necks; for it is certainly not by the unanimous wish of the people that Sir George would come here to run in conjunction either with Mr Gibbons, Mr Macdonald or Mr Rowe. H

When people are seized with a desire of quoting, or worse still, of freely trans;lating what they (apparently) do tot understand, it would be as well if they made sure of their quotations and translated with some regard to the original. We are called upon to make these remarks by reading a mangled quotation given by the New Zealand Herald of one of the prettiest (when well sung) and oldest carols how extant. The following is the first verse of the carol as printed in the Herald's issue of December 25th :—• " The Wild Boar's Head in hand I bring, : With garland gay and rosemary, • ' • . We pray you all sins merrily Qui estis'in convivio. The Latin refrain may. be interpreted, ■■' A merry Christmas and a happy New Year,' which; in plain truth and thorough sincerity we wish to * all our readers.'" The following is the carol in its integrity, which is supposed to be as old as the days of Queen Phillipa, and. is sung every year at Queen's College, Oxford, founded in honor of that Queen, at Christmas, when a veritable boar's head is marched in procession round the large hall of the College:— The boar's head ill hand bear I, Bedeoked with bays and rosemary; And I pray you my masters be merry Quot estis in convivio, , Chorus—Caput apri defero, Reddens laudes Domino. The boar's head as I understand Is the noblest dish hi .all the land, ■ • ."■ And when bedecked with a gay garland, ' Serviamus Cantico.. ' y Chorus, &c. Our steward hath provided this '.'.'. In honor of the King of bliss, Which this day to be served is - .. • Inßeginensi Atrio.;; ■ ■; ,:, .;V\ Chorus, &c,

And so on. The garbled version as given by the Herald is certainly no improvement. The substitution of gui for quot in the fourth line is on a par with the want of any approach to rhyme of the first line with the next two, while, if quot estis in convivio (lit., as many of you as are at this banquet) can be translated to mean " a merry Christmas and a happy New Year," the Latin language can mean anything and everything.