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Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1126, 17 December 1883, Page 2

11l the course of a lecture at Blenheim on his recent visit to Palestine, the Bishop of Nelson (we learn from the Marlboroug Timas) said that his party had gone by the Red Sea to Egypt, and, strange to say, one of the last things they saw was the embarkation of General Hicks Pasha and the British officers and the Egyptians accompanying him to the Soudan. They did not present a promising array ; there was not much discipline, vitality, or order among the men ; the decks were crowded with ragged soldiers, and they resembled a lot of Bashibazouks more than a regular army. If ever there was an occasion, remarks the Press, on which it behoved public men to be perfectly frank in their relations with the public this is such an on''. Nothing ought to bo hidden from the public, either as to the present intentions of the promoters of Federation, or as to the possible eventualities of the movement, On the contrary, the members of the Conference ought to spare no pains to take the public of the colonies they severally represent, most completely into their confidence, so that whatever is to be done nifty bo done with the full knowledge and consent of all vho are to be affected by it. Wo trust that Major Atkinson will lose no time, on his return from Sydney, in addressing the people on the subject of Federation, explaining to them the exact position of the question, and communicating to them, not only the conclusions arrived at by the Conference upon it, but also the policy of the Atkinson Ministry regarding those conclusions.