The Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1896.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5697, 16 October 1896, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1896.

We were particularly pleased to be able to insert in our issue of yesterday an experimental batch of news from Greymouth, brought thence by one of the Star's carrier pigeons. The bird was despatched from Greymouth at noon, and the message was in our hands at ten minutes to three o'clock, the island having thus been traversed from coast to coast, with a high mount£sft- range to surmount, and in the fac^ of a strong head wind for a part of the distance, in less iihan three hours. Moreover, the bird had to come through a stretch of country that is thickly infested with hawks, and so ran some risk of being stricken down. On Saturday last thirteen Chriatchurch birds were flown from Balclutha, a distance of about three hundred miles, twelve of them making excellent time j and a • pigeon race from Wellington to Christchurch has now become an annual fixture. ' Our purpose in referring to these achievements is to emphasise thecontention that the Government ought to spare no trouble in establishing the projected pigeon service in connection with various lighthouses. But why should it stop there ? It would be well that each detached fort in the colony should have its pigeon service, and there are other ways in which these intelligent birds could be utilised. We hope, however, that the Government will take care to secure expert advice in the selection of a really good strain of birds. Otherwise the results will not be at all likely to prove satisfactory. Mb R. Moore has opened his electoral campaign at Kaiapoi in a manner that is characteristic of the tactics adopted by the Conservative Party, who are painfully anzious to appear "all things to all men." But Mr Moore in this regard out-Herods Herod. Everybody knows perfectly well that his candidatrue was actively promoted by the National Conservative Association; that he was selected by delegates from various branches of that Association, who met at Kaiapoi ; that the delegates in question formally presented the requisition, and that Mr Moore as formally accepted it. Yet in his very 'first public address he emphatically declared that he had not been brought forward as the nominee of the National Conservative Association — a declaration, by the way, that finds no place in the report published in the morning Conservative journal. Taking Mr Moore at his own valuation, either he is diking with deliberate intent to deceive, or "'E dunno where he are." He has repudiated his National Conservative Association backers ; he is neither a Conservative nor a Liberal, these terms, according to him, being simply " a play upon words ;" nor is he a Radical. "He cared not what he was called." Then we take leave to call him an out-and-out Conservative, endeavouring to masquerade in Liberal garb. He has declared himself to be in favour of an elective Executive, the Referendum, old age pensions, the abolition of grand juries, and other essentially Liberal measures, and he lias, at the same time, avowed himself a pronounced opponent of of the present Liberal administration. " Away with him " ought to be the unhesitating pronouncement of every.Liberal elector in the constituency. '