The Evening Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 143, 24 June 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1870.

" The New Zealand Commissioners " are staying at the Charing Cross " Hotel," so says the Home News, so says each successive issue of the European Mail. .Thus opens every reference to New Zealand in home provincial papers; such is the burthen of every correspondent's letter from London. Why are we so often told that Messrs. Featherstone and 'Bell are staying at the Charing Cross Hotel ? Why are they staying there ? What are they doing there ? or why, for the sake of variety, do they not remove their traps to some other hostelry? or what does the whole world at home see in the circumstance

to warrant it in telling us by every mail-boat that the " New Zealand " Commissioners are staying at the " Charing Cross Hotel? " Is it $at subtle sarcasm is intended; that the air-blown bubble of the colonial conference having burst, the loud wail of "groaning, bleeding:.; New Zealand" being hushed;, the " colonial gentle- " men," having collapsed, the interest and magnitude of the erstwhile thrilling colonial question are aptly symbolised in the statement of the situation —the "New Zealand Com- " missioners are staying at the Charing " Cross Hotel ? " Or is it that their little account with Boniface is unsettled, and that they are " awaiting " a remittance from home ? " Or is it a mild way of hinting to us that our Commissioners are "on the beer ? " Or, in the name of the prophet, why is it .that we are tantalised, agonised, by the mysterious intimation that the " New Zealand Commissioners are " staying at the Charing Cross Hotel ?"

On the whole, we rejoice to learn that it has been a pleasant trip to the Commissioners ; and we have no doubt it has been as successful as the most sanguine spirits of either had anticipated. With the weight of honors resting on them as representatives of an embryo nation ; monstrari digito as two live pakehas who have escaped being eaten by Maori cannibals ; to be recipients of the bland smiles of the G-ranville, whose murderous hand is strangling the infant Colonial Empire of England; to be the petted of courtiers and statesmen, the welcome guests in "West End boudoirs, and to luxuriate and guzzle in the magnificent salons of the Charing Cross Hotel, must be gratifying in the highest degree to the patriotic feelings of the New Zealand Commissioners. And we rejoice in the success of the mission. It has been established by prescriptive right that old and useful colonists should in their turn with their families revisit the scenes of their early associations, and we cannot say that it is not due to them -rom the colony, in whose service they have borne the burthen and heat of the day. And a commission to represent the country is the most honourable and fitting form in which the compliment can be paid by a grateful people. It is not only just, but it is an incentive to exertion in our country's cause; and on the principle of " Xou claw me, I claw you," the system of " commissioning" may be regarded as one of the fixed institutions of this finely-governed country, and one of the most potent influences in political usefulness. It is hardly fair, however, to the recipient of the honour to ask him to perpetually produce mirage for the delectation of the people paying for his commission. The English regiment, and the guorantee, and all the rest, were known to be in the clouds from the first; and it is time that these little pleasing myths were dropped; the people don't ask for them and will be perfectly satisfied in knowing that the Commissioners are fulfilling the real objects of their mission and are " pleasantly staying at the Charing " Cross Hotel." At the same time we would recommend that they take a trip into the country 1; being always at that hotel looks beery ; and we believe they would be delighted with the green fields and primroses, and the delicious aroma of the new mown hay.