Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1863. PREFACE TO VOLUME III. OF THE “HAWKE’S BAY TIMES.”

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 129, 3 July 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1863. PREFACE TO VOLUME 111. OF THE “HAWKE’S BAY TIMES.”

The month of July is a memorable month in the annals of the world. Three of the greatest events affecting the liberty of the people which have occurred during the last hundred years have come to pass in the month of July. On the 4th July, 1776, the independence of the United States of America was declared, and a great people sprang into national existence. On the 14th July, 1789> the Bastile, that accursed den of horrors, was destroyed by a justly infuriated and exasperated people, and upon the ruins of a tyrant’s stronghold arose a bloody ’and momentous epoch in the history of France. And on the 4th July, 1861, this little newspaper first saw the light, cr rather the light first saw this little newspaper. Light was begotten of light; and the people of Hawke’s Bay, after years of unmerited suffering, were delivered, by means of the Times, from the exhaustive incipidity of our tyrannical bro-

ther the Herald, and a noteable revolution and bloodless epoch in the history of this Province dates from that happy consummation.

We have just attained our third year of struggles in the cause of freedom and enlightenment of the people, and of the freedom and enlightenment of the press. We have, to the utmost of our unworthy abilities, endeavored to fulfil the promise entertained of us at our baptism ; and we have, with a desire to promote the liberty of discussion, — to demolish the usurpation of class legislation, —to secure the maintainance of law and order between the Maori and the European, —and for the impartial administration of justice, fought against every conceivable obstacle which a time-serving, mercenary, and opposing press, and an ignorant and a greedy class, could throw in our path. We stand now on the field of battle, triumphant, defying our enemies to renewed attacks, and gloriously maintaining our own and the people’s independence. Our colors, upon which are inscribed in letters of inextinguishable flame this glorious trio of words—“ Truth, Independence ! and Charity !” are nailed to the front of our office, and we dare our now utterly used up and extinguished contemporary over the way, with all the army of saints and devils at his disposal, to pull ’em down.

To our numerous subscribers anti readers we return thanks for the support which they have given us during our two years of probationary struggles for existence; and to those intelligent and trustworthy merchants and tradesmen and others who have made use of our columns as a means of making known their own wants and exciting the wants of others, we are delighted to be able to say that we have good reason for believing that the object sought has been attained, and that, through the recommendatory medium of these columns those who have had for sale have sold to advantage, and those who have had to buy have bought to advantage, and the lost article has been found, and the found article has been returned to its anxious owner, and all are satisfied that there is nothing like advertising in the Hawke’s Bay Times.

It is highly gratifying to ho able to state that the rapidity with which our circulation increases is very great ; but cur gratification under this heading is somewhat marred by the circumstance that the limited assistance at our disposal renders it almost impossible for us to meet the demands made upon us for “ more copies” ; and we are also, from the same cause, obliged to confine our journal to its present much too small and insignificant size. We have, however, hopes to remedy this state of matters shortly. We have observed that, with the satisfaction and applause which always attend the successful maintainance of a righteous cause, many of our original articles bearing upon passing events of general interest have been copied and placed in a conspicuous position in the columns of the most enlightened and independent journals to be found in the colonies ; and it is satisfactory to perceive that our efforts have been crowned with complete and undivided success. There is not a house in this Province, tenanted by a sensible man who can read, but has its table decorated by a copy of this journal. There is not a crib, a shanty, or an outstation, within reach of our multitudinous mail service which is not enlightened and enlivened by a copy of the Times, and there is not a civilised man in Hawke’s Bay but who, with an eagerness which is quite charming to behold, upon meeting another civilized man, asks the all-absorbing question—“ Have you seen the Tims lately ?” True, we regret to add, there are exceptions to this happy rule, few certainly, but still exceptions; but we need hardly say that these exceptions are to be found only amongst that class who, because their deeds are evil, prefer revelling in the mire of darkness and herding with the outer barbarians, to coming

within the happy influence of light, and being counted amongst the children of wisdom. It is our intention to have only one day of publication, that of Friday, instead of as at present Monday and Friday ; but, in the event of the receipt of important news, we shall furnish our subscribers with it as early as possible. Upon Friday, therefore, in future, our readers may expect to receive with punctuality a number containing six pages of original and other matter of interest and amusement, decorated by a prolific admixture of advertisements of divers tilings to be bought and to bo sold by the most respectable of living merchants. (N.B. The fact of articles being advertised in this journal is a sufficient guarantee of their excellence, and which articles, to he known should be bought, and to be appreciated should be paid for.) Our columns, as heretofore, will be open to the expression of opinion of each and every one, whether rich or poor, of high degree or low degree, it matters not, who may be desirous of letting the rest of the world know “ What’s o’clock.” To our gentle and lovely readers, those ornaments of their sex, those charmers of man’s domestic hearth and sharers of his tears and of his joys, we return our hearty thauks. The smiles of beauty ever cast a halo round the works of genius. That discernment and discrimination which eminently distinguishes your adorable sex, above the sterner and less susceptible man, has caused you to patronise and support this our little paper in a manner which for ever stamps ye as the embodiment of wisdom. No wonder, then, that amongst the wise, poetical, and brave Greeks, Romans, and other refined nations of antiquity, the deities representing the seven cardinal virtues, the arts, the sciences, and even Wisdom and Justice themselves, are modelled after the divine and lovely likeness of woman. It is our earnest desire to guard these columns from that “low facetiousness and vulgar wit” which is offensive to that delicacy and refinement of taste for which you will ever be remarkable. Nothing shall find its way into this paper which shall raise a blush in your charming cheeks, or prove offensive to your brilliant eyes or fair ears. “ Then here's to her who long Hath waked the poet’s sigh, The girl who gave to song What gold could never buy.” To tyrants, to toadies, to jobbers, to sycophants, to sinecures, in short to the whole family of humbugs, whether singly or in numbers we say — Beware ! We have our eyes upon ye; and this pen—this simple grey goose quill, plucked from the wing of one of your defunct brethren, slaughtered by our own hand, will prove an instrument in our hands sharper than a two-edged sword, with which we will lay ye open from head to heel, and expose and dissect ye in such a manner as shall leave ye never a leg to stand on. With our fellow (but now used up) laborer in the political vineyard of Hawke’s Bay we shake hands, and beg to state that we are quite prepared to go in at him for another round whenever he feels game enough to come up to (the) Time(s). With this preface, then, we commence our third volume under the most flourishing conditions, and we, with one of those exquisite bows for which we are deservedly remarkable, conclude that preface, at the same time wishing our readers, ourselves, and our little journal “ many happy returns of the day.” “ Then send round the Times, and ho happy awhile. May we never meet worse in our pilgrimage here Than the tear that enjoyment may gild with a smile, And the smile that compassion can turn to a tear.”