The Sketcher.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 311, 6 April 1878, Page 5

The Sketcher.

NEW GUINEA. (From the Queenslander, March 23.) It seems almost certain that Now Guinea is to be the next country in these seas which Avill be subdued and settled by the Anglo-Saxon race, the primary attraction being gold ; though up to the present time nothing has transpired to Avarrant gold-seekers in trying their fortune in that country. All the encouragement that lias been given consists of a few verv ordinary specimens of auriferous quartz, and the opinion of two or three persons who have beau there that a payable goldfield Avill be discovered. Of the character of the country aud of its people some slight knowledge has been acquired lately by stray visitors, but the accounts as regards the natives are rather conflicting. Before long, however, avo hope to be able to furnish our readers Avith more reliable information than has hitherto been available, a gentleman of considerable ability, Avho is resident in the. country and has an intimate acquaintance with the natives, having undertaken the otiice of correspondent of the Queenslander. His first communication appears in the present issue, and in a letter written a day or tAvo later he states that he had offered the Kanaka, Jimmy Caledonia, £5 to get good gold specimens to send to us. From the Rev. Mr. Chalmers avlio, though he has only resided in Ncav Guinea a feAv weeks, probably knows as much of its inhabitants as any European, our Cooktown correspondent lias obtained some interesting information, Avhich he has forwarded to us. Mr. Chalmers describes the natives of the South Cape district as cannibal ?, Avho Avear human jawbones as ornaments, and decorate their houses Avith the skulls of enemies killed in battle ; while the Port Moresby natives, he says, express horror and astonishment at such barbarous customs. While regretting that the gold-fever should have set in before lie had gained a firmer hold on the population, Mr. Chalmers rather encourages the idea of a Avell-equipped prospecting party, which he says ought not to consist of more than twenty, four or five of whom should be Kanakas. Such a party, be states, could go through the Avnole island Avitliout molestation, especially inland from Port Moresby, in which direction the specimens that have caused such unwarrantable excitement were found. We cannot but think, however, that such a party would run A r ery considerable risk of contributing to the decoration of some village after the native artistic fashion described by Mr. Chalmers. The best time of the year to laud, Mr. Chalmers says, would be June, and the party should be furnished Avith packhorses or mules, as the coast natives Avill not go inland. The question of annexation to Great Britain or Australia will no doubt soon be settled one Avay or the other ; in the meantime Mr. Chalmers looks upon it as absolutely necessary that some one of the settlers should be A'ested Avith authority in the island. Such a person would, he feels sure, be looked up to by the natives at Port Moresby, Avho Avould obey him like children. These people, it seems, number about 150 males ; but there is a population of several thousands to be dealt with—people avlio, according to Mr. Chalmers’ own shoAving, are of a less amiable disposition than these 150 —and it is to be feared that many difficulties Avould arise Avhich would not be very easily overcome, Under existing circumstances it is plain that nobody outside New Guinea has power to confer authority upon anyone on the island, however desirable such an appointment may be in the interest of the missionaries and of the European settlers. WHAT MUST GOME OF EXCESSIVE NEUTRALITY. (From tho World.) A positive desire for Avar is far fiovn being the only means by which Avars are brought about. The burdens and evils of Avar are so keenly felt in civilized Europe, that, in a constitutional country at least, there is little danger of peace being broken out of mere Avantonness. Ear more serious is the danger teat excessive zeal for peace may frustiate the only means by Avhich lasting peace can be ensured. There are moments when clamor for peace is even more rash and perilous than clamor foi Avar ; there are times Avhen tue re il %vai paity is that Avhich makes the voice of a great nation of no effect in the council of Europe, by loudly insisting that under no circumstances whatever shall the Avords of its rulers be reinforced .by deeds. If ever there Avas a position in which great discretion ought to be left to. the responsible Government of a country, it is that in which the Government of England has been during the last year. It decided —and in the opinion of a vast majority of Englishmen rightly decided —to stand apart from a conflict Avhose ultimate issues could not be indifferent, aud might be of very serious consequence, to tbe poAver and prosperity of England ; that is to say —for this explanation seems to need repeating—to the Avelfare aud happiness of the great multitude of mankind avlio are subject to English dominion, and Avho.se interests are entrusted to the Government of England for the time being. Bub at tue same time the Government resolved that in the final settlement of the questions throAvn open, in this conflict England should claim an effective voice; and further, the Government pledged themselves that in that settlement the interests of the country should be maintained. Such Avas the position repeatedly announced by authority at the beginning and during the course of this unhappy Avar; a decided neutrality in the contest itself, a resolute purpose to have an equal part Avith other Powers in fixing the ugav dispositions Avhich must result from°it, and an equally clear resolve that those determinations should not infringe upon the security of tho Empire. This being so, it . became the duty of Ministers to take such steps

as they could in the best of their judgment devise in order to make sure of England being able to speak with effect Avhen the time came for her voice to be heard. And it became the duty of reasonable Englishmen, to Avhicliever of the combatants their sympathies might incline, not to hinder or discourage Ministers in seeking this end, but rather to encourage them in any action apparently fitted to attain it. No such action ha 3 been taken apparently ; and if so, the responsibility rests in the first place, and most heavily of course, upon the Ministry itself. But it rests in the second place, and with no light weight, on those amateur politicians and irresponsible counsellors who have dogged the Ministry with petty suspicion ; who have refused to give credit to the most explicit and - authoritative statements of intention ; who have hampered its plans Avith captious hostility at home, and paralysed its bauds abroad by ostentatiously proclaiming the counsels of England to be so distracted that what might be said in the name of England did not matter. Not that the rulers of a constitutional country are to complain of being narrowly watched by their opponents. Vigilance is proper and necessary ; but it may be exercised Avitliout treating Ministers as a kind of creatures so foolish or so malicious that if they stir in any direction it must be for mischief. This, however, has been the treatment which her Majesty’s Ministers have received. Every suggestion of an opportunity for doing something has been met in certain quarters Avith a cry of our neutrality in danger. At every suspicion of possible action a clamor of forbidding voices has gone up. There must not be an understanding Avith Germany, because it might displease France ; there must not be an understanding with France, because it might displease Germany ; Ave must not accept any increase of power in Egypt, because it Avould bring expense and responsibility. We must do nothing, in a word, that was not perfectly safe and perfectly agreeable to everybody. Risk could be seen . in e\ r erv direction ; and hence the conclusion Avas draAvn, and vehemently enforced, that the only safe wav Avas to stand still. The only objection to this conclusion was that the course of doing nothing happened to involve greater and more certain risks than any other. Meanwhile there Avas among all these cries a more distinct and persistent one, kept up by voices feiv but loud, and to this purpose : Stir not a finger for England, lest you hinder the great Avork which Russia the Liberator is doing alone, because selfish England Avould not do it with her. All you may now do is to stand aside and say, “ God speed Holy Russia any prejudice to British interests that may ensue Avill be nothing but a just judgment upon you for not coming to the help of the Lord against the unspeakable Moslem. This is at least intelligible ; and the result of all the other uncertain cries has been practically to strengthen this one alone. The policy of England has, for all that appears, been paralysed. On the possible consequences, while there is any hope left of averting them, we do not care to dilate. A short generation affords full enough space, it seems, for not only the maxims of statesmen but the lessons of events to be forgotten. The Crimean Avar was brought on by a course of flurried and ambiguous action succeeding to a belief abroad that England would never really act. This belief, though not the whole or sufficient cause, Avas oue necessary cause of the Avar. It is not amiss to refresh ones memory on this point ; and Englishmen avlio have not made up their minds that Russia’s present enterprise 13 of so high and holy a nature as to be outside the sphere of ordinary politics, Avill do well to read and consider once again the second and twelfth chapters of Mr. Kinglake’s history. They may read there how firm and really peacemaking Avords Avere frittered aAvay ; how the ruler of Russia mistook a certain “ active little crowd for the English people; hoiv to liis ears “ the cheering which greeted the thin phantom of the Peace Party imported a deter- , minatiou of the English people to abdicate their place in Europe ; ” and hoiv the English people became conscious of a \ r ery different sort of determination, aud the Czar was undeceived Avhen it Avas too late for peace. They may also learn that it is not mere selfishness Avhich impels great Powers to be vigilant in the protection of their oaaui interests. Such vigilance is a security for the common Aveal, and is in a manner expected of them by the public law of Europe ; not, perhaps, that which is laid doAvn in the speculations of jurists, but that Avhioh is seen at Avork in the opinions and tho practice of nations. And England ought to be one of the last PoAvers to decline this duty. “In general, Avhen the avo rid believes that England av ill lie firm, there is peace. It is the hope of her proving weak or irresolute which tends to breed war.” THE NEWSPAPER PRESS. (From the North American Review.) This literary machine was invented about a century ago. In the language of the turf, it was sired by “ Essay” out of “ Flying Post.” At first its object Avas simply to circulate news. Then it began to manufacture opinion. As mankind became more and more busy in commercial affairs they had less time for meditation, and it was very convenient to buy opinions readv made, and to have their minds made up for them Avitliout the trouble of consideration. So this maehiue soon came into universal use, and the sloav craftsmen of literature, the old-fashioned thinker, the weaver of sound, strong argument, finding no market for his laboriously fashioned brain-produce, became a nressman. The inexorable machine now calls uoon him for- so much composition, not for thought. He Avrites by the yard. .It matters not whether his faculties are ill at ease i or Avell disposed, in vein or out of gear, o;ipy must be had. This daily milking of his brain, the eternal diarrhoea of thought, debilitates his mental system. .He ie under instructions to Avrite for commonplace mtellects—that is, to treat hia subjects in a shallow or showy manner, as “ the impression

is only intended to live for one day. He is appreciated not for the truth of what he writes (that is a secondary matter), he is urged to be racy, and so learns to cover with pertness of style his baldness of treatment, and to put a satin face upon a shoddy argument. I speak of the newspaper Press as a literary man, and as it affects the constitution of literature. It is needless here to allude to its power and services as a cohesive agent in civilisation. But to effect its purpose and to consolidate its dynasty, it was obliged to absorb our power as essayists, and degrade our independence. We became subject to a training in which, it may be said, the march of intellect was regulated by the editorial goose step. By this means it raised a disciplined force, but by the process the race of literary heroes was extinguished. As the newspaper Press has prospered, so in proportion have the poet, the novelist, and the dramatist disappeared. In the commencement of this century the list of authors, headed by Byron, Shelley, Moore, Scott, Sheridan, Colman, Bulwer, and Kuowles, formed but a few of the phalanx. AVhere are their compeers of this period ? They are private soldiers in the ranks of the Press. Have you ever examined meditatively the counter of a bookseller ? Have you not found nine out oi ten new works of fiction, displayed for sale, to be the product of female brains ! Why do women almost monopolise this branch of literature ? The answer is that men are recruited for the ranks of the Press. That is wherefore we see women doing their work in the field of literature. But it may be remarked that surely some sturdy brain would rebel against this conscription and resolutely preserve its freedom. Such there are : but the Press has, by depreciating the products of literature, cultivated millions of readers with no intelligence above or beyond the scope of a newspaper article. This multitudinous fry inhabit the shoals of thought, overwhelming the select few who still have stomach for works of greater reach and power.