THE STANDARD. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1873.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 115, 20 December 1873, Page 2

THE STANDARD.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1873.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

Had Sub-Lieutenant Connelly been wise he would not have written the letter which appears in another column this morning. It is much to be regretted, in the interests of Volunteering—a branch of the service for which we have a special regard—that anything of the nature of which the Poverty Bay mounted men have to complain, and which SubLieutenant Connelly attempts to justify, should be allowed to happen. It is a matter for surprise that men enlisted under the same standard, and claiming a co-“ Equality” and “ Fraternity” should so comport themselves one towards the other as to raise a barrier that compels all future intercourse between them to be carried on bv means of a hostile friendship. We trust that the present misunderstanding may be cleared up; but Sub-Lieutenant Connelly’s letter, read side by side with Captain Simpson’s unmistakable condemnation of the conduct of the Opotiki men, will hardly, we think, be considered satisfactory ; and as the matter has already been remarked on bv ourselves, we are compelled to make a few further observations. Sub-Lieutenant Connelly “ contradicts the statement” that the Opotiki Corps sent a challenge to the Poverty Bay Corps, through Captain Simpson. Still he says: —(and “ having written the letter" himself, of course he “ ought to ” know the contents of it”), he “ simply “ requested him”—Captain Simpson—- “ to try and get up a firing match with “any Corps on the Poverty Bay side.” There may be a little squeamish tenderness in adhering with such exquisite punctilio to mere verbal distinctions, but as they do not affect the main feature of the dispute we shall merely observe that Captain Simpson distinctly states that he “ was requested by cer- “ tain members of the B.P.V.C. to convey “ a challenge to the Poverty Bay men and now Sub-Lieutenant Connelly wishes to extract comfort from the dilemma, by making it appear that his Troop were the challenged, and merely declined to

accede (which they would have had a right to do) to conditions which were not acceptable. Notwithstanding Sub-Lieutenant Connelly’s flat “ contradiction,” we cannot but accept Captain Simpson’s frank and manly letter as an endorsement of our suspicion that pecuniary profit was at the bottom of the whole business. At any rate he gathers the same inferences as we do, and expresses his belief to that effect in words that do not admit of two meanings. We think, too, that a close perusal of Sub-Lieutenant Connelly’s letter forces this conviction upon the reader’s mind, for after drawing another subtle distinction between the Opotiki, men who are, as he says, all farmers, and the Poverty Bay men, who have (we must infer), no occupation at all, he says at the time, what he pertinaciously calls the “ challenge” was received (that was Captain Hardy’s reply), “we were all “ busy getting our crops in, otherwise “ we should have fired for the mere love “of the sportbut, he might have continued, as it was, “ the stakes named “ were too small for us to take any “ interest in them.” We can only infer from this, that, bad the reply stated a sum worth winning, the ploughshares would have been turned into rifle barrels and swords without the slightest hesitation. We repeat that this is not the spirit in which men of kindred arms should meet each other ; and the sooner any further money consideration than that which is necessary for defraying the expenses incident to a friendly contest, is banished from the conditions the better.

On refering to Captain Hardy we are informed that his second letter, conveying a challenge for £5O aside, was posted in due course, a duplicate of which will be re-forwarded.

In the Provincial Government Gazettes to hand per Star of the South, we notice that His Honor the Superintendent has appointed John Sheehan, Esq., to be Provincial Secretary; George McCullagh Heed, Esq., to be Provincial Treasurer ; and Andrew Beveridge, Esq., to be Provincial Solicitor for the province of Auckland. These three gentlemen, and Patrick Dignan, Esq., (without office) have also been appointed members of the Provincial Executive Council.

We believe it is the intention of Dr. Nesbitt to accopmanv, the tenders <i£ lor leasing the Government paddock reserve with a recommendation that 20 acres of it be set apart for the purposes of a recreation ground, with an intimation that it is the general wish of the inhabitants here, and that such a reserve is necessary to be made from a sanitary point of view. We believe that AG M‘Lean will at once accede to this request, for we find that while at Tauranga a deputation who waited on the Native Minister, were officially informed that a piece of land known as the “ 68th parade ground,” would at once be reserved for a similar purpose.

By the last mail from the North we were placed in possession of Gazettes, papers, &c., dating as far back as the middle of November and containing information (?) upon matters the purport of which had been circulated in the district by wire, via the South, for the last three weeks. Amongst other items of intelligence comes a notification of the acceptance by the Superintendent of the resignation of Messrs. Lusk and Hvrst as Provincial Secretary, and Provincial Treasurer and Goldfields Secretary respectively, on the 19th November ultimo ! Such facts, multiplied, as they must be, in the experience of many others besides ourselves, should be sufficient to induce the Auckland people to follow up a decided opportunity given to them in the favorable impression made by their Steam Packet Company.

Inspection Parades.—By advertisement it will be seen that the date of the quarterly inspection parades have been fixed for the 29th, 30th, and 31st of December. False Pretences.—Dr. Nesbitt, R.M. held a sitting of the Court yesterday to hear a charge preferred against one William Ellis for haring obtained goods from Messrs. Robjohn’s, Teat and Co., under false pretences. Remanded till 12 o’clock this day. Charles Claridge, has re-commenced running his drays to and from Ormond ; a notification to that effect appears in to-day's issue. Vehicle traffic was suspended during the winter months, but is being quickly resumed as the summer hardens the roads.

Christmas Holidays.—We would ask the forbearance of our Subscribers for this once (we know not what our necessities may be next year) and aid us in enjoying the festive season. Our staff is small and hard worked. On Christmas Day we must Hot work; on Boxing Day we don’t want to work, and if we do neither, and the Standard don’t appear with its accustomed punctuality, it may be thought that it has been extinguished even before the prophetic period. This would cause such universal regret that we hasten to prevent disappointment by asking the favor of a holiday with the rest of jubilant christendom ; and beg to state that this journal will appear as usual on Wednesday next, but not on the following Saturday.

New Quarter. —Our Subscribers and others desirous of honoring us with their favors will please take early opportunity of doing so. The present quarter ends on the 31st of current month; and as a slight change in the appearance of the Standard is contemplated, orders for alterations in standing advertisements are requested to be left at this office not later than Saturday the 27th December.