Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 130, 10 July 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1863.

To those aspirants after literary fame who are deterred from entering upon the uncertain and fluctuating arena of public opinion, by a feeling of diffidence as to their own abilities and doubt as to the success of their endeavors, we have to recommend as a pattern of modest assurance and retreating confidence the editor of the Hawke's Bay Herald. That übiquitous and many-talented individual has devoted the best part of a recent number of his invaluable (for waste paper) journal to divers reviews. Now, a work which can stand the severe test of criticism at the hands of our respectable contemporary must indeed be a work ; but, beyond the determination of that fact, it wmuld be difficult to gather from his remarks what sort of a work it is, whether a history, a book of poems, a biography, or a Bible,| except in those instances wffiere he has a defined and clear pecuniary interest ; then, somehow or other, matters assume a tolerably clear aspect. If, however, we may judge, from the nature of the original matter which finds an opportunity of appearing in print in the columns of that journal, of the taste ampdiscrimination of the editor, should be inclined to think that his opinion, whether good or bad in such matters, would be con. sidered of small value, and his praise or censure alike fall harmless into that far bourne —the waste paper basket—from which such journals and such articles never return. But such is the confidence and audacity derived from being long the chosen vessel and special receptacle of Government “jobs,” that the proprietor of the Herald does not stop at criticising and mutilating the works of other men, but he must actually come forth himself under a new name, and in a barbarous disguise, and publish, with the assistance of the Provincial Government, a paper called the “ Waka Maori o Ahuriri,” for the special edification and enlightenment of the Natives of this Province in particular, and that interesting publication is with unblushing impudence strongly recommended to the notice of that literary people as the unaided result of the enterprising genius of James Wood.

If this work was really printed and published by James Wood at his own risk, and upon his own unassisted responsibility, we should say nothing about it unless we could give it a good word in passing, for we should be inclined rather to praise the enterprise of the publisher than censure the inutility or insipidity of the publication. It is plain enough, however, that although the reviewer with apparent ingenuousness asks the question “ Who’s to pay ?” it is well understood by the proprietary, before venturing upon the " uncertain waters of public opinion,” by a private but comforting arrangement

between himself and the Superintendent, that but most important question has been 'answered to his entire satisfaction, and that he,* the incorruptible proprietor, depends mainly, if not entirely, for support *in this undertaking upon a grant guaranteed him by that high functionary the Superintendent out of some public money. Under these circumstances, then, we enter a protest, not against the paper itself, for with that we have nothing to do beyond wishing it every success and a sensible editor, but against the Government patronage under which that paper is fostered.

We regret very much to see that Mr. Me Lean, the man whom the people with an almost unanimous voice hailed as the man to guide and direct the affairs of this Province with wisdom, economy, and impartiality, is rapidly, we may say with most alarmingly perceptible rapidity, gliding into a course of action which at once confirms us in our preconceived and unsatisfactory opinions of him—opinions founded, not upon personal grounds, but upon a long and careful observation of his public career. We repeat that we regret this ; we had rather, much rather, have found that the encomiums passed on him by the Herald were well deserved, than that the unfavorable opinions which we ourselves entertained and expressed were opinions which would be found but too tmo } and but too well founded. It is in all conscience bad enough for the Maories to get public money spent upon roads, upon bridges, .upon mills, and upon almost every conceivable thing which they can by any possibility make use of, but it is carrying this liberality beyond the bounds of complacent toleration when superadded to it we come to the item of “ Newspapers.” Even that extreme of extravagance might be passed over, if it was a. positive fact that the paper was really for the benefit of the Natives, and that they appreciated and made use of it, and not a scheme started by way of repaying an obsequious Editor out of the Public purse, for the fulsome and unwholesome flatteries and encomiums which he is constantly dealing out upon the head of the Government, in no very measured or tasteful terras. If such things as this, of which we complain, are done in the green leaf of M’Lean’s reign, what may we not expect to be done in the dry.

There is but one other Maori newspaper, and although that is published in Auckland, and circulated all over the Island, it is still almost entirely dependent on Government or Missionary aid for its existence. Up to this date no publisher but J. Wood has thought it a safe investment to undertake a paper addressed especially to the Maories in their own language, on his unassisted and unindemnified personal risk. Not because there are not publishers possessed of enterprise and capital to be found in the Country, but because it is known that both enterprise and capital invested in such an undertaking would be irretrievably lost. With regard to the manner and matter of the paper itself, we are not prepared to say much, beyond that the specimen given of it in the Herald’s issue to which we refer, does not hold out much hope of any improvement on the unintelligible jargon into which all writing or conversation addressed to the Maories invariably descends by the process of translation. This is much to be regretted, because there can be no reason why a literal translation of any Maori speech or writing cannot be rendered into intelligible English, such as is commonly understood and accepted in colloquial conversation. The fact of Government aid being extended to the publication of a newspaper exclusively in their own language, for circulation amongst the natives in this province, where those people are comparatively few in number, would be very remarkable, when it is considered that larger and richer provinces, where Maories abound, do not indulge in the luxury of such extravagance, but for the circumstance that Mr. M’Lean feels himself

all-powerful here, and at liberty to do just whatever he likes, and proves that that is his own opinion of his position by doing with the public money now, in the present almost collapsed state of the Treasury, what would have rather startled Fitz Gerald in the heyday of this Province, when he ruled and money was plentiful, and he himself by no manner of means scrupulous. It is but too true what we have always said of Mr. McLean ; every Gazette appears laden with some addition to the already tremendously heavy list of governmental sinecures. Personal and paltry favoritism is the order of the day. The public works are neglected, the public service is allowed to remain in a most abominable state, public education and instruction is never thought of; but making of places for personal and party friends, without regard to any qualification, is being carried on as though the rivers flowed with streams of gold and the Iron Pot was full of molten silver, and there was nothing for a Superintendent to do but to distribute these riches amongst a chosen few.

What a deplorable circumstance it is that McLean, with all his power and popularity, has not wisdom to use that power in such a way as will secure his popularity, and not waste both in rewarding toadies and feeding ungrateful sycophants and “jobbers,” and that we should already begin to look back upon the shelving of the quiet, safe, and apparently easy-going, but certainly safe policy of Carter as likely to prove’a great and ruinous loss to the Province.