Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1872.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1367, 5 July 1872, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1872.

No one who has perused the Herald files of the last few months can fail to be impressed with the editor's solemn sense of his own infallibility, and, should lies-till possess any lingering doubt, he need only read the leading article in this morning's issue to nii'.et with full "confirmation. } n its several self constituted capacities- final arbiter, for instance, of the destinies of nations—supreme court of appeal—as well as in such every day matters as knotty points of law, divinity, metaphysics, or politics—the' air of oracular superiority with which the opinions of a lower order of minds, qualified, it may be, only by high intellect, deep study, and special training—are set aside, is worthy our most piofound admiration. ~£ts article this morning relates specially to 'a judicial decision recently published in our columns.. The case of Regina v. Paora Torotoio excited some public interest, and haying been dealt with by the District Court in a manner unsatisfactory to the prosecution, it has, been removed to the Supreme Court. Understanding it to be still pending, we Jiavc carefully refrained from commenting upon it, meiely reporting its progress,' and publishing at length the. grounds on which the learned Judge saw fit to quasb the indictment. We are not so ignorant of the position of a public journalist as iq enter now into \\ie consideration of these grounds—tbat being the special and proper function of the Supreme Court. TJnt no such scruples restrain our morning contemporary. No sooner has the decision iieen published, and Mr Sutton been i&YftvwH

the Hawke's Bay Herald—eager for the fray, armeil with an appalling an ay of adjectives—rushes to the front as his champion. What need now Of a Supremo Oourt action 1 Paora, without judge or jury, is incontinently found guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury*--the learned Judge of the District Court of incompetency (" without the capacity of arriving at correct conclusions on any question ") - -and, lastly, ourselves, of "a flag!ant breach of the unwritten, if not also of the written; laws of journalism." Leaving the District Judge and the native chief to defend themselves, we would merely ask, if our contemporary this morning has not been guilty, in an aggravated degree, of the very offence which lie wou'd fain iix upon us? The steamer Albion, conveying the English Mail via Suez, arrived at the Bluff from Melbourne at- 9 o'clock this morning. In the Resident MagistrateV Court this morning, before S. Locke, Esq., J.P., there was one civil action, Sea'y v. Stuart, a claim of £6. —Judgment by default for . amount claimed and 13s costs. Our Auckland correspondent, writing on the afternoon of Tuesday last, says that the scrip market is rather depressed. We hold over our correspondent's letter. From Auckland, we learn that the bulk of the citizens are undergoing the process of vaccination. The New Zealand Herald of Monday last says : " Medical men are busily engaged in all directions in operaing on their patients. \Y r e are very glad that the warning which we have received has had this fatal case having occurred in Auckland will thus be our real safeguard." The New Zealand Herald, June 27, says that there was considerable excitement; in Auckland on the previous night, in consequence of ramour« of wonderful gold discoveries in the neighborhood of Kennedy's Bay. The Herald has been shown a letter from one prospector giving an almost incredible account of the richness of one of the reefs. Tiie most engrossing topic at Ohinemuri now (says the Thames Advertiser) is the threatened advent of the smallpox, the opening of the country and Kingite nogociations being reckoned small matters in comparison. As the natives have not been vaccinated, the disease would be certain to cause considerable havoc amongst them, and this they are fully sensible of. Mr Bullock, who has been residing at Ohinemuri for some time, and who, by directions of the Government, acted as medical attendant to Taraia, has come down to see if the Government could make any arrangements to have the Ohinemuri natives vaccinated. The Alexandra correspondent of the New Zealand Herald, under date July 1, writes :—Te Kooti is going to settle at Mokau, Tikoakao having come to Tokangamutu for the purpose of escorting him to his future residence, with the latter chief. Referring to the lightness of the calendar on the occasion of the last criminal sitting of the Supreme Court in Auckland, the N. Z. Herald says : It simply -demonstrates this fact, that the less the Government interferes with British people, the less they are likely to trouble the Government. And we doubt not, were a thorough system of free compulsory edit cation adopted by the State, without reference to sect or creed, and were the liquor traffic placed on a sounder basis, that in the lapse of a few years crime would almost disappear from our midst. That would be by far the. cheapest way of dealing with the criminal class. It would cut off the supply, and gradually the old stock would become exhausted. They would die out much sooner than the moribund Maori, about whose demise so many fine essays have been written, and political schemes promulgated, with this remarkable difference, that their disappearance would be a solid gain to the country ; whereas, in the case of ihe Maoris, we hold that it would be an irreparable loss." The receipts of Hus-da for the past year exceed her expenditure by just