Untitled

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1712, 13 August 1875, Page 2

Our Wellington telegrams yesterday announced that the result of the Parnell meeting had caused dismay in the Government camp, and it seems to have been no less effective on our contemporary the Cross, which, in a strain of subdued sorrow, this morning informs its readers that "it would seem that the same unanimity of opinion which characterises the country districts does not exist in the towns, for we find that on Wednesday night, at a meeting called by the Mayor of Wellington to consider the Abolition measures, an amendment to the original motion approving them was substituted by the opposite party and carried by a large majority." This statement is all very well in its way, but where, we beseech the Cross to inform us, is the proof of this " unanimity in the country districts" which it assumes as a foregone conclusion. The electors of Hakarai, Otago, on Monday last adopted the same resolution as that carried at Parnell and Eden this week, and a public meeting of the electors of Selwyn, Canterbury, was equally strong in condemnation. If the so-called " unanimity of opinion" is examined into, it will be found to consist chiefly in the preans sung by newspapers controlled by the Ministry. On a previous occasion we shewed how public opinion is sometimes manufactured to suit a particular view, and another illustration is furnished by the same article from which the sentence first quoted is taken. Our contemporary endeavours to show, or rather insinuates, that tbe Wellington meeting was packed, and "canin no sense be taken as an expression of public feeling in Wellington." A simple refutation of this statement is contained in a few simple facts. The meeting was convened by the Mayor, who is an avowed supporter of the Government s-oasuros ; it was professedly convened in support of the Government; was attended by six hundred persons, and addressed by the leading men of Wellington on both sides of the question. The first resolution, duly prepared by the promoters, was favourable to the Government, and the counter proposal condemning the Abolition measures came in form of an amendment. The total number of hands held up in favour of the .Government bills was nineteen ; those against them, between four and five hundred. Th_, soya the Cross, was a paob( u a meeting, and,"in no sense" expresses publio feeling. And our

ontcmporary claims the position of an intelligent leader of an intelligent body of readers !, Tv'e aro sorry for them.