NAPIER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 41, 4 November 1871, Page 3

NAPIER.

(from an occasional correspondent ) Napier, 18th October. If I were to report that Napier is as dull as ever, it would scarcely be considered the fact, inasmuch as our quiet little community have been startled by ihe occurrence of a murderous assault, a burglary, and a fierce controversy between our tw:> local papers, all within ten days. The first mentioned fact came to the knowledge of the police on the Bth inst, by the fact of a Mr Fegan, a printer engaged on the “Daily Telegraph” calling to see a friend residing in one of the boarding houses here. He was alarmed on going into one of the rooms to find a man laying apparently speechless,and thoroughly helpless from severe contusions and bruises the marks of which he bore. He immediately acquainted a doctor, who considered it a fit case to be reported to the police authorities, who have since ascertained that the patient was violently assaulted by two men named Langham and Lynch, on the evening of Saturday the 7th inst, and these men accordingly were arrested and charged with a murderous assault. They were both since committed to take their trial, and Lynch has been released on bail. The charge against Langham appears to have a good foundation, bail being refused, and the energy of the police in this instance speaks well for the vigilance displayed by our small force. The burglary referred to seems to have been a daring and impudent one. On the morning of Friday the 13th inst, a small aperture was made through the weatherboards of W. K Robinson & Co’s drapery establishment, of about three feet by two. After entering the thieves seems to have been careful in not disturbing any goods, but immediately put their hands upon a cash box belonging to ©ur Local Building Society and took their departure Nothing else in the shop was touched, and it seems the box contained £6O in cash and cheques, was carefully removed, broken open outside]in the yards, the contents ransacked, all the cash taken, and the box placed under the building sans key, sans cash. No trace has yet been obtained of the guilty party, although it is mysteriously stated the police are “on the track.” Twenty pounds reward has been offerred by Mr Robinson, the lucky treasurer of the Building Society for such information as may lead to a conviction, and so the matter stands.

The announcement that a railway will be at once commenced between Napier and Ruataniwha, has been rea majority of right-thinking persons with general satisfaction. But the stand taken bv the “ Daily Telegraph” on this, and most other political questions, has been of the most extraordinary description. Whilst deploring one day the extravagance of the Government, and assuring us that “ Hawkes’ Bay had less to fear than any other province by the introduction of iailways,” the next issue brings forth an astounding declaration that “ railways would be the ruin of the province,” and that all our hopes will be blighted if the present scheme of the Government be perfected, and permitted to be carried. The chameleon tints assumed by your volcanic contemporary are, how-

ever, little heeded,, as gross personalities, have taken the place of what is meant as politic satire. The editor has been immortalised by the fact of being horsewhipped in public, but the lesson seems to have been inefficient in his case, as he still persists in abuse of the inoffensive, and those who are prevented by their positions in the Civil Service to make any reply. In this manner an attack is opened upon Mr Turton, the Trust Commissioner, on the 10th inst. When a recently-fledged solicitor, comparatively a boy, is appointed to a position of grave importance, where he has to decide upon the legality of transactions involving large sums of money, and presenting at every turn niceties which only a rnan of mature experience, and exact discrim ioation could determine, then we may be sure that underhand means have been used to secure his appointment, and that there is some surreptitious motive for placing him in so critical a position.” A vague insinuation is made in another portion of the article that Mr Turton’s predecessor “ was not the man to do the dirty work of his superiors,” and hence the present gentleman’s appointment. It winds up with the following impudent, unasked for advice, and grave charge against the gentleman who now holds the position of Trust Commissioner for Hawke’s Bay:—“The sooner Mr Turton retires into that obscurity he is so eminently calculated to adorn, the better for the public and the Commissioner himself. Neither by age, nor by experience, is he fitted for office ; he is neither impartial nor intelligent; and his conduct of the delicate enquiries entrusted to his care is a disgrace, both to him and his immediate superiors.” Emanating as this does from an organ which it would be a burlesque to call a journal, and a writer who adheres to the principle that Calumniare fort-iter et aliquul adheerebit (calumniate with strength, and some is sure to stick), itlias so far been read, and made many friends for the gentleman thus foully abused and maligned. On the plan usually adopted by the same journal that a man’s presence is totallp unnecessary when an attack is made, indeed deemed rather indifferent company, I may add that the Trust Commissioner was on business at Poverty Bay when this libellous article appeared, and only saw on his return en route for Wellington. The career so far of the “ Telegraph” has been a most remarkable and varied one, and its claims for public support are peculiar. At its establishment in February last, there was no paper so thoroughly “ M'Lean-and-Ormond-ite,” afterwards wavering towards Stafford, following this by being a firm Ministerialist, and last of all a mere channel for the publication of simply scurrilous libels against gentlemen who happen to be Government officials, and permitting those who are nearest and dearest to us to be foully slandered, as if members of the demimonde, by some vile scribbler under the nom de ■plume of “ The Man at the Wheel.”

Mr Turton’s position as a civil servant prevents him making any public reply, ouly 1 would imagine the imputation cast that his appointment was the handiwork of Mr M'Lean, and made from personal motives alone, will compel that gentleman to defend his protege in a practical manner. Many years have not elapsed since the proprietor of a leading journal in Australia was indicted for malicious libel ; the case being taken up by the Government as a slander on one of its members who had exercised his privilege in making an appointment. His act was characteiised as a “ foul abuse, and improper,” and the person appointed “ totally incompetent ;” .but the scurrilous editor was content to compromise the matter at a cost of £IOOO. Men of character will not be content to accept the emoluments accruing to a respectable position, and be silent under all circumstances. If any little provincial newspaper is permitted to open out its vials of wrath, and keep up a black ink fire at the whim of any discontented land jobber or other disappointed individual who has a scintilla of influence with “ the editor,” it becomes the duty of the Government to defend their servants from foul as pensions, or dismiss them, as accusations similar to what I have quoted become nothing more nor less than an expression of want of confidence in the

Ministry, and are generally as unfounded as they are malicious. I trust in this instance that the Government will give Mr Turton the power to clear his character from the foul charges assigned, by punishing the journalist who permits his medium to become the vehicle of calumny and falsehood, and of sewing broadcast in our little community the seeds of arnachy and dissension.