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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1624, 30 October 1874, Page 410

About the time of the trial which has proved so expensive to the Wellington Tribune, another libel action was being tried at the other end of the Island—Frazer v. Keed. In this instance the jury being unable to agree, were discharged; and this we presume, is the end of the case, unless a new trial is moved for. The libel complained of was a criticism of a public man in his official capacity. Specimen stealing having been carried on to a great extent at the Thames, it was well known that the spoil could not be realized without the connivance of _ persons connected with some of the batteries. These receivers were so cunning as for a long time to baffle 'detection; but finally some of them fell into the trap laid for them by the police, were convicted on the clearest evidence, and sentenced to a very heavy fine and term of imprisonment. Then the magistrate roundly censured the police for the part they had taken in the matter, eliciting a burst of applause from the body of the court. It was on account of some very strong comments on this conduct of the magistrate that the Star was charged with libel; and it is a satisfactory circumstance that the action has so far broken down. The Star is not at all times choice or refined in its language; but it is outspoken and independent, and unsparing in the exposure and condemnation of abuses.

Our Government is not sufficiently paternal to suit a certain section of the press. ■ For some time past, the two "Heralds"—of Napier and Gisborne—have been calling upon the Government to buy up and destroy all the scabby sheep of certain East Coast natives. The proposal is monstrously .unjust. It would no doubt suit the East Coast Maoris, and might allay the fears of certain European speculators in that quarter; but it would be of no benefit to any one else, and would be a scandalous application of public funds "to very private uses." As the country is said to be infected, we doubt, too, whether the expensive remedy proposed would be found an effectual one. A special despatch from Fiji has been received in Auckland by the schooner Pearl, announcing that the cession of the Islands had been effected. The British flag was to have been hoisted on the 10th inst. The cession took place on the 30th September, at Nasova, situated two miles from Levuka. Maafu, who stands next to the King, has not yet decided as to what course to adopt, hut it is believed he will offer little or no opposition. Sir Hercules Robinson, after the ceremony of cession had taken place, requested that the government of the Islands should be carried on (until his return from Windward Island, where Maafu resides) in the same manner as previously. A heartless deception has been practised upon the Daily Southern Cross. A correspondent callinghimself " Excelsior " wrote to that journal an elaborate panegyric upon " the magnitude and importance " of the foreign trade of Auckland, and the unexampled " carrying capacity in proportion to their registered tonnage " of the local fleet. These reflections were based upon the fact that the schooner Pacific, of 51 tons register, bound for the South Sea Islands," according to the manifest published by the accurate and übiquitous shipping reporter of the Evening Star, took her departure on October 3rd, carrying in her capacious hold the incredible quantity of 255 tons of breadstuffs, 596 pieces of timber, 900 shingles, 256 cases of goods, besides a large quantity of galvanized iron and general sundries." No one apparently took the trouble to verify the quotation, and.the sarcastic little paragraph duly found its way into the shipping column of the Cross. Now for the sequel. Next day the morning journal published the correction, having discovered when too late that the blunder had appeared in its own columns, and not in those of its evening contemporary; "255 tons" should have read " 255 tins." The Cross duly makes the amende to the Star, and muses on the great issues which may hinge upon the misplacing of a vowel—But what shall be said of the cold-blooded perpetrator of this cruel and deliberate " sell'» who, we presume, is still at large ?