Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1882.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1116, 7 August 1882, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1882.

Partwiunt monies, nascitnr ridiculus miu!!! Capt. Tuckeb’s agonies are over, but, however great the labour of the parturition, the result is, to say the least of it, disappointing. Starting with a playful, but weak little allegory about a crab, Captain Tuckeb meanders fishily on, evidently more in sorrow than in anger, to deprecate the “ shameless deceit ” which has been practised upon our ignorant and unsophisticated mind in the information supplied to us respecting the matter quoted in Hansard 31, 1881. Captain Tuckeb, somewhat illogieally for a gentleman serving his apprenticeship to the mysteries of the law, proceeds to hint that as we were not present at the time the matter referred to in Hansard 31 occurred, we know nothing whatever about it. Does it not occur to this gentleman, whom we hope soon to be able to call “learned," that it is not absolutely necessary for a judge to be present at the committal of a murder, although he may have to give a very decided opinion upon the guilt or otherwise of a person who mav be accused of the crime. Withuut arrogni ing to ourselves I ho position of a judge in this question, wo

may fairly draw a parallel. The judge forms his opinion upon the trustworthy basis of the preponderance of evidence laid before him. We do the same, the only difference being that we have to collect our evidence ourselves, the judge has his collected for him. Capt. Tuckeb carelessly rattles on with his version of the relations in this matter between himself and Sergt. Kidd, and there he thoroughly misleads the public. Without a single doubt he endeavored to bias Kidd’s mind in the matter. Krom Mr. Rees’s office to the Police station is well known to be a lovely and enticing walk, and it is hardly surprising that the wandering footsteps of Capt. Tuckeb so frequently led him in that direction. Certainly it does seem a little odd that he should so frequently make a point of entering the Police establishment and closeting himself with Sergt. Kidd, as also that those visits should be so politely, and without delay, returned by that officer; but those little circumstances, although at the time they may have created some little remark, are capable of explanation, and Capt. Tuckeb is remarkably happy in his versatile talent for explaining away apparently difficult and even suspicious circumstances. So that after all, it may be our ignorance, and not Capt. Tuckeb’s guile, thatclouds the atmosphere of this nice little case. But really, if we may be allowed, we would venture to differ with Capt. Tuckeb in his statement that Kidd led him astray ! Innocent as Capt. Tuckeb is, he certainly came the heathen Chinee over Kidd, and thoroughly misled him. It is possible he may have done so in that guileless and trusting spirit of innocence for which he is so pre-eminently distinguished, for we know how open he is to that kind of thing, but still that is not material to the question, the gist of which lies in Capt. Tuckeb’s endeavor to misuse his position as a Borough Councillor by attempting to prostitute the reputation and locus standi of that Council to hie own ends. Does Capt. Tuckeb for one moment believe that his motive is disguised from public view ? Does he entertain so poor an opinion of the abilities and knowledge of his fellow Councillors and fellow men as to imagine that they could be so easily blinded by specious argument and plausible theory ? Facts suit practical minds far better than fanciful theories and we should really imagine that Capt. Tuckeb posing in the graceful attitude of a philanthropist, would be about the most fanciful theory extant. We venture to say that when Capt. Tuckeb stated in the Borough Council that he was actuated, in the motion then before them, solely by pure affection for publicinterest, and anxiety for the welfare of this district in general and Borough in particular, not one of his fellow Councillors believed him. Capt. Tuckeb in his reply to us fairly damns his own story by wildly endeavoring to oast upon Messrs. Dick and Bolleston the slur of having deliberately been consenting parties to the fraud which he alleges to have been committed, insofar as sheltering the criminal by stopping the action of the police goes. This we unhesitatingly say is thoroughly untrue, and can assure Messrs. Tuckeb and DeLautoub and Mr. Hubbey also, that when their names and reputation stand out boldly before the public as clear and unstained as those of the gentlemen whom they thus abuse, they will be deemed far more worthy of weight in matters political than they are at present. Rut is it possible we can be mistaken ? Can Capt. Tuckeb be a philanthropist, pure and undenied, after all ? Is it possible? A light breaks in upon us ' It may be the case ! The true philanthropist is ever ready to shed the last drop of his brother's blood in the cause of the Negro population. Among the petitioners whose names are affixed to No. 13 of H. 31, we notice several wellknown names of our coloured brethren and sisters, notably one Ripebata Kahutia, a lady whose name is not entirely unknown in this district and whose claims are doubtless worthy of attention. It strikes us that we have heard before of Capt. Tuckeb urging, very forcibly, claims made by this lady on the Government of the Colony. Perhaps, we know not, but it may be, that this has something to do with the matter, and that Captain Tuckeb shines forth through all the dusky gloom of selfish individualism with which he has apparently been lurrounded, in the brighter and more enviable light of a philanthropist pur et simple. He has doubtless formed himself into a society for the protection of aborigines 1 .Eureka 1 This is the jewel from the bottom of the well. How small it makes us lesser mortals feel. Fades from our vision the dark and unpleasant sight of a revengeful man, seeking by murky and intricate ways to mould people and circumstances to his own selfish individual desires for bitter vengeance, and in the more glorified light of pure and unselfish desire for self-sacrifice in the holy cause of weaker creatures we behold the manly form of Captain Tuckeb, his left arm stretched encouragingly round the terrified heap of affrighted Borough Councillors ns representing his white brethren, whjle his right encircles proteptingly the shrinking though somewhat dusky form of Ripebata Kahutia, qs re presentative of the colored race, and the spirit of Kidd hovering lovingly near them. There we behold the man glorified by unselfish desire. No petty ; spirit of revenge to cloud the holy at- ; mosphere, no wistful longing to sit j upon any one, or to persuade any one I

to help him to do so. No ! His sole desire is universal right aud peace, and thus our wild imaginations of revenge and spite are shattered into dust and in the all-protecting form before us we recognise the manly spirit of the true philanthropist. That must be the true solution of Captain Tuckeb’s action. He loves his white brother, but his sense of duty leads him to the side of his colored sister in preference. Generous man I What an example he sets us ? And what a reward awaits him in the future. It may not be in land, it may not be in money, but if it only be in the heartfelt thanks and smiles of the grateful aboriginal lady it would be dear to the heart of the philanthropist. Still it might have occurred even to a philanthropist, and such a philanthropist, that it is impossible to blind everybody’s eyes to facts that are patent, one of which is, that as long as the Press of the Colony are existent they will endeavor to prevent public influence being brought to bear for private ends, more especially where a very grave suspicion presents itself that unfair means have already been sought to attain those ends. The public is tired of Capt. Tuckeb’s prosecutions. Their name is legion. The same gentleman tried hard to force a prosecution against Messrs. Parnell and Boylan some time back and failed. He succeeded in getting a warrant issued for the arrest of Mr. Cooeeb by means of a statement which was grossly outside of real truth. He deliberately urged the claim of Ripebata Kahutia to certain moneys to which he knew she was not entitled, and now, forsooth, assuming the attitude of a disinterested person, he seeks to pass a vote of censure upon the Government because they .refuse to pander to the views entertained by himself and Mr. DeLautoub as to a prosecution they wish to bring forward to suit their own private ends. Defend us from such advocates 1 If Capt. Tuckeb proves no better effi. cient in his practice of the law (when he enters it) than he appears in advocacy of his own personal cause as referred to in this matter, the Lord help his clients I But the probability is that|he will prove so, for he will have better grounds for working on, In oonolu, sion we need only say that while we appreciate Capt. Tuckeb’s remarks as to our having been •' grossly misled ” at their full value, we would suggest that there has been no misleading or attempt at misleading, made by anyone but Capt. Tuckeb himself. So far as we are concerned we are tired of the matter, and we really believe that the public have had a surfeit of it. We nave forwarded the correspondence to Wellington, and if we find any further attempt made to bias public feeling in the matter we shall make it our especial business to deal further with it in the interests of fair play. Fair play for everyone. Justice for everyone, but no unfair attempt to bias public feeling or use a public body as a stepping stone!