THE GLOBE. MONDAY, MAY 31, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1955, 31 May 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. MONDAY, MAY 31, 1880.

The tone of the late Parihaha mooting was so exceedingly pacific, as to surprise even the optimists. Nothing could have exceeded the good will expressed by Te Whiti. He explained away all that has hitherto appeared ambiguous in his utter, ances with a skill well worthy his renown. When he had said that the two roads which wore being made by the constabulary would never meot, he had merely meant that the line adopted would have to swerve somewhat towards the beach in consequence of the swamp, and so on. Ho was now moat favorable to the whole undertaking, and wished that the road should be nicely metalled. He hoped that his audience would bo good boys, and lead steady and virtuous lives, and that they would not sell their land, as it was their inheritance. So much for the position assumed by the prophet. Circumstances have forced him to draw in his horns step by step, as the Government measures have more and more proved themselves to bo directed with firmness and ability. It has been throughout, as regards To Whiti, a mere game of brag. A steady opponent has brought him to his true bearings. That he was able to retire into his present position without much loss of prestige among his devoted followers, is a sign of the greatest tact on his part. Aided by this tact and his undoubted powers of oratory, he has beat one of the most masterly retreats on record, although it is possible that ho may yet have to retire still further back, should it be found possible, as it is mooted, that the line of road contemplated can bo carried out in its entirety by means of fascines. The man to bo most pitied in the transaction is the war correspondent of the “Lyttelton Times.” His prophecies have so utterly broken down, and there has been no possibility of his wriggling out of the position assumed. If ho has written throughout in perfect good faith, ho has been most egregiously duped by Te Whiti, and, if he has not been duped, he has from party motives played a most disreputable game. He is on the horns of a dilemma, from off which it is impossible to escape. Want of penetration or want of good faith must be charged against him. We trust, for his own sake and for the sake of the journals that have employed thorn, that it is the former.

And now that tho session has commenced, wo prosumo that tho correspondent has laid by tho sword for the ploughshare, and that the public will ho favoured with further fancy portraits of Government members “ cowering in their seats ” before the withering platitudes of Sir George Grey and of the Housoheingdissolvodin inextinguishable laughter at some sido-splitting joke made by Mr. Macandrow at tho expense of the Treasury Benches. But by way of drowning tho memory of the failure of his past prophetic utterances the war correspondent would appear to have visited tho Wanganui vineyards. From certain airy touches thrown in in the well known stylo, wo are very much mistaken if a certain report on tho Grande Canonge Vineyard which appeared in the pages of our contemporary the “ Lyttelton Times ” was not written by tho war correspondent en route to Wellington. If wo are correct in our surmise, it was a happy thought that of drowning the memoi'y of the past in tho cellars of the Graudo Canonge, and of invigorating tho frame for fresh onslaughts on a terrified Go-

vornmont. Au hour spent with Don Guiseppe Solera in sipping Cons tan tia, Tokay, and Ohasselis, would profitably divide the past from the future. “ When fortune frowns and friends forsake,” says the old song, there is no specific like the glorious vintage of Champagne. The vintage ef the Grande Canongo might well help an unhappy war correspondent to forget his past failures as a correspondent, and the manner in which he had lost the delights of the officers mess on the plains. It might open to him vistas of fresh triumphs in the House, when, with his eagle eyo dominating the members obnoxious to his party, ho would flash through the wires picturesque sketches of thoir utter discomfiture.