THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1881. THE OLD, OLD STORY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2335, 27 September 1881, Page 3

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1881. THE OLD, OLD STORY.

"With the spring people expect the snowdrop and the primrose, with the summer the rose, and so on. They would feel disappointed if they did not appear. The seasons would not be complete without these flowers that illustrate them. And so, in like manner, when any Native crisis • eventuates, people would feel hurtif the war correspondent of the " Lyttelton Times" were not immediately sent to the front to write a curious and diverting narrative of the course of events, bearing about as much resemblance to the truth as the " Comic History of England " bears to ■*' Hume." The proprietors of our enterprising morning contemporary are' -evidently fully alive to the pleasure of possessing a jester of the 'first order on the spot, ready to shoot down the smallest canard in 'its •flight; as the crisis advances, the proprietors become saturated with the fun of the situation, and in a reckless spirit worthy of a Carnival, back up through thick and thin the statements of their correspondent. During the last crisis, at the end of ' 79 and the beginning of'Bo, their amusing employee had his hands pretty well full. He absolutely invented a ewamp, which he said was to put a stop to all road-making when the roads came so far; he had a mysterious meeting at midnight with an outlaw quite apropos of nothing at all; he had a grand row with -some of the officers of the mess, though he declared that the majority of them were- cut to the soul to part with him, and, in token of their grief, drank steadily with him to the moment of departure; he received " a tip " from Rewi that he (the correspondent) had better not venture into the King Country; and in a thousand -other ways did this jovial and enterprising jester keep the game alive to the manifest delight of his employers. For there was really so little trouble in managing this unique specimen of a correspondent. There was no necessity of dropping him a hint that the material should be a little hotter next time, or for suggesting that his last was hardly up to the mark. Though he was very seVlom correct he was always lively, and though the public oould .not trust two words of what he said, there was always something sensational ready for the breakfast table.

And dow that the Native situation is again strained, we find that this archjester has returned to the front, and although he has not yet rushed into the arms of the officers who are panting to clasp him once more to their manly bosoms, yet he is cruising about New Plymouth and neighbourhood on a search for the marvellous. His proprietors, moreover, have made a pukba appeal that their fanny man shall have every chanoe given him. In a leading article of its issue of yesterday, the " Lyttelton Times " draws attention to the faet that " in every supreme crisis, military or diplomatic, it is now the custom of civilized nations to admit the representatives of the Press to the theatre of action. Of course there are things whieh correspondents of newspapers ought not to meddle with. But the actual circumstances of the situation, the things done and said from day to day at the theatre of action are their proper province." The article concludes by the statement that the special "has been despatched to the scene of operations in the hope that he will be admitted to the •camp as a matter of course." Our contemporary naturally writes from its own standpoint, and with many of its remarks we can agree. But did its special ever discover the thinga with which newspapar'correspondents ought not to meddle? Did he ever confine himself to the "actual circumstances of the situation, the tilings done and said from day to day?" We say unhesitating, No. The mc&-a-propas jests —or by whatever name they may happen to be dubbed —of the too celebrated special, were during the last crisis a faetor with which the Government had to reckon. All Lad not the keen cense of the ludicrous necessary to understand the faet that the whole proceeding was apparently a gigantic but ill-timed joke played off by a daily paper on the public Many took the wild statements issued au grand eerieux. The Government must necessarily have been hampered in the execution of very delicate details by the presence of a man capable of absolutely inventing things had w existence. Whethor the special is let

into the camp or not will, we fancy, not matter much. His imagination will be just as lively outside the coveted precincts as in them. But we would seriously ask our contemporary not to carry the jest too far. The situation is serious enough in all conscience. The Native news, to he found in another column, is not re-assuring, and, although we may still hope for the best, it is obvious that the Government should not be disturbed by working out tho problem. A mathematician cannot possibly enjoy tho presence of a troupe of colored minstrels outside his windows, however diverting the corner-men may happen to be.