THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2093, 18 September 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1875.

Me Eees lias determined to forego hi 9 projected visit to the Thames, and the Saturday night habitues of Owon street will not be summoned by sound of bell Jnto the Theatre Eoyal this evening to liear him "chaw up" the enemies of | Provincialism ere he returns in triumph to rest awhile beneath the peace inspiring wings of Seed and Brett, Esquires. As long as there was a probability of his coming we forebore comment. We wished neither to do or say anything which might prejudice his 'ease, or be distorted into | something inimical to his object. In spite, therefore, of what we felt and thought, all we asked for him was a fair field and no favour ; and the same we would ask for anyone advocating views however much they might differ from those we hold ourselves. Matters now are different. It is no longer an affair of fwndenle lite. Mr Eees has publicly abandoned his resolution of coming for the present, and we do not consider ourselves bound to refrain from saying what we think and feel on the subject, simply because we may be made to appear as prejudging a case which may come off at some indefinite future time. We remarked before, when referring to Mr Bees' advertisement, that the good taste of his coming was questionable, and we would go further now, and say it was presumptuous, or impertinent—perhaps bolh. It was presumptuous on the part of Mr Eees—when so much had been said and written about Abolition and Provincialism that the matter almost stank in the nostrils of all—to imagine that he cou'.d put matters in such a light that a people deluded (according to the ideas held by himself and the proprietors of the Auckland Evening Star) by misstatements | and false promises would, under the persuasive powers of his oratory, see these misstatements melt away like snow in sunshine, feel that the false promises held j out to them were but made to gloss over a pleasing unreality, and as Abolition in all its hideous deformity was presented | to their view declare with one voice they would had none'of it, but like " independent, honest, clear-headed miners and people of the Thames," (vide Auckland Star) profess themselves loving worshippers of the Image of Provincialism which Sir George Grey, the ex-Governor, has set up. We say that if Mr Eees imagined he could do this, it was a piece of presumption on his part. For if he thought that after all that has transpired, matters had not been clearly and definitely set forth to the people of the Thames, but that Sir George Grey had lost his temper and Mr Fitzherbert his wind in speaking on the subject, and yet had lost these two necessary articles to no purpose insomuch as they had not made matters clear, or said all that was to be said on the subject; and that it was reserved for him to do this, and he alone was wanting to show what Provincialism realiy. was, and how costly a pearl they who rejected it were, swinelike, trampling under their feet, then Mr Eees was guilty of a piece of presumption greater than we have hitherto believed him capable of.. If on the contrary Mr Eees was fully prepared to admit his inferiority to the leader of the Opposition in matters rhetorical, and looked upon Stafford's speech as nought and Atkinson's as transparently inaccurate, then was lie guilty of a piece of gross impertinence to the many adjectived people of the Thames, by showing plainly (if these were his views) that he considered them incapable of understanding, not only things which he himself could understand, but things intelligible to any one who wished to understand them, if they had the slightest pretensions to common sense, unless he was there on the stage of the Theatre Eoyal to threw light on their darkened understandings by a^repetition of the set phrases of adulation and invective which illumine the pages of the Auckland Evening Star. If, however, Mr Eees denies all charge of presumption in thinking his persuasive powers greater than those of the Opposition advocates in the House, with whom lie sympathizes, and disclaims the idea of any impertinence being intended on his

part by considering people of the Thames animals of inferior mental capacity or culture, he only does so to place himself in, the position of one who offers wanton insult to us of this goldh'eld. That is, if he allows that he cannot say anything more brilliant or more favorable to Pro? vinciali&pofjthan what has already been said, and urge nothing further to the disparagement of Abolition than what has already been urged, and, 'further, is prepared to allow that we aro sufficiently well educated to understand common English either spoken or written, he wantonly insult 3 the whole community by comiDg here to harangue whoever may choose to listen; for he implies by his coming as plainly as if he had spoken it, that though Provincialism has been shown to be (as he believes) all that is good, and Abolition (as he assarts) all that is bad; and though the Thames people are able to read and understand that these things are so, yet they are so^ mean-spirited and worse than fools, as, though knowing what is for their good, they obstinately choose what is for their hurt, merely in obedience to the dictates cf Mr William Bowe, who according to Mr Bees' organ —the Auckland Star—holds in his hands the wills and understandings of the people. Can anything .be more insulting to the self-respect of any community to be calmly told that, knowing right, they persist in wrong in obedience to one man P And yet this^ is the insult Mr Bees must ask us to swallow if he wishes to clear himself from the charge of impertinence or presumption. On the face of it, Mr Bees' coming here could do no good. He may be a more fluent speaker than some of our common-sense speakers; he may have had more practice in stump oratory than some of our stump orators; if he has not had more opportunities than others of speaking in public, he. has at any rate availed himself of more ; and we will allow that cater'isparihus he can make a better speech than most here. But he never can make black white," however much he may try, or justify the robberies inflicted on the Thames under the name of Provincialism by any amount of platform eloquence. Neither can he any more than Mr Bowe or any one else he may choose to fix upon, force the Thames to act in one way or another unless tkey think proper, and if he thinks he can, 'he is alike impertinent, presumptuous and insulting.

All sorts of conjectures have been hazarded as to the causes which have contributed to bring down .Caledonian stock during the last few days. We do not know to what this decline is attributable except it be a desire on the part of holders to realise as soon as the scrip reached a certain figure. We believe the Thames Goldmining Company were quitting large parcels of their Caledonians, and it was even said that they were doing this to " bear " the market so that they could buy in again; but although it may seem rather strange for this company to be selling Caledonians just when the prospects of the mine are so much improved, the mere fact of their selling the stock does not warrant any one in making such a charge against a public company. We have made enquiries, and as far as we can trace the matter there has been no attempt to bear the market, and'the decline in the price of stock is most probably due to the fact that the market was rushed by small holders anxious to realise as soon as the scrip went up a bit. Consequently, buyers being few aad sellers numerous, the decline took place, sellers relaxing to meet the market. There is no reason otherwise to account for the fall. The mine is looking as well as ever, more rich stone being to hand from the reef.

Eaely as the season is and unfavourable as the weather has been thus far Mr Wilson has already some strawberries at his command in Tararu gardens. Those we hare seen are remarkably fine, ones, and we can bear our testimony to their luscious qualities. Of course the supply is as yet limited, but with a few days' sun we may confidently expect to see them in the market. The Bey. W. W. Willis will preach at St. George's Church to-morrow both morning and evening. We understand that Mr F. A. Pulleino has opened a case of seeds sent per ship John Kennie by the Royal Horticultural and Agricultural Association, London, and will offer the same for sale in a few days. We learn that Messrs G. S. Graham and J. R. Perry, two of the directors of the Puketui Goldmining Company appointed to proceed to Tairua to report on the ground, returned to-day. 'iheir opinion after a careful inspection is most favorable, and it is probable that a scheme will be perfected in a short time for furnishing the Puketui and adjoining claims with battery power. We are requested to state that Mr J. Hart will reopen the Staffordshire House, Owen Street, this evening, with a large and well-selected stock of crockery ware, plated goods, &c, bought at advantage in the Melbourne market. Mr Hart appeals | to his old friends and customers to give him a call. The Intelligent Vagrant says:— Nothing annoys me so much as to hear an honest gentleman speaking with sincerity to an utterly unappreciative audience. Weed I therefore mention the , disgust with which T saw the effect, or want of effect, of Mr Dignan's speech on Thursday in the House of ii epresentatiyes. But if the members failed to appreciate him, he was not left unrecognised by a stranger. I heard one gentleman, when leaving the public gallery, say to another: "Is it Pat Dignan ye mane ? The greatest thrate of the dibbate, sor! His spache smelt of the ould sod all over. Whin he implored hon. inimbers to pause on the pat they wor purshooing, begorra I almost cried hare, hare ? Ay anyone but O'Eorke had been in the cheer I couldn't- have restreened niesilf, but respict for a pa^ iixvioi made me dumb." 1

In a New Zealand Gazette published on the 9th instant, it is notified that SubLieutenant Frederic Williams Paul has been appointed Lieutenant in the No. 2 Hauraki liifle Volunteers. Commission to date from' sth August, 1875. In the same Gazette the resignation by Lieut. P. : L. Dignan of his commission is accepted. ; ...I

They have &i lifeboat in Taranaki which is neVer used.;!;. Lately in answer to an advertisement from the Harbor Master inviting men to form a volunteer crew, three persons only presented themselves, and the consequence is, says a local paper, that the liftboat is lik"ely"to continue hid in,its shed^. Under such circumstance* it is devoutly to be hoped no necessity for the use of the lifeboat will arise.

About twenty men, says a Taranaki paper, hare been discharged from the railway works, the reason given being that they objected to work on Sunday at the rate of time and a quarter, while the rule had been time and a half. Surely the railway works in Taranaki are not so urgent as to necessitate a " rule " being established for the rate of payment for Sunday work. . ;

The first number of the new issue o the Coromandel Mail, under the editiorial supervision and proprietorship of Mr James Browne—the genial " Snyder •' - was published on Wednesday last, and it presents a striking contrast to the late appearance of that journal. "Snyder" makes his bow to the Coromandel people, and the reading matter generally is much superior to the drivellings which have filled the columns of the Mail for months passed. We select one from a number of leaderettes which grace the columns of the Mail, the circumstances detailed in which perhaps account for the " tone " of recent writings under the late management: — When it came upon us to take possession of the Mail and we commenced looking into things we found the outside pages of the paper something like the top shelves of an insolvent tea-dealer—filled with dummies, and we said that this may do for a little, but it will not do for long. The office we found to comain moro miscellaneous dirt than we believe was ever found in any office of similar dimensions since thetime of the Deluge. " Confusion" would be a mild—almost an inanimate— expression for the state in which we beheld type, press, cases, and. all that belonged to the printing room. We had no other course left than to place every-, thing on the floor of the office, borrow a garden rake and rake out all the larger rubbish before the work was commenced of putting things into their places. Should any person resident in the community who can produce testimonials of character require a few loads of dry dirt, mixed with broken type, sardine tins, empty bottles, fractional pieces of window glass, and stale victuals, he has only to call with a dray at this office during the currency of the week, when his application will meet with immediate attention. Juno, to be "down" upon Hercules, set him to cleanse the Augean stables. She would have had a much sweeter revenge had she set him to put such an office to rights as we have had to attempt, and have not don© with yet.

This is how the Coromandel Mail deals with jumpers. If we have occasionally administered a trifling flagellation to the class with whips, the Mail is evidently prepared to scourge them with the cat—when opportunity offers. They deserve it, though perhaps some of the jumpers don't think so. The mail says : —Wade the traveller describes an ugly reptile he saw while passing through the eastern part of South Africa which lived by watching a small ground bird that gathered food and laid it up in store' against, the time she brought forth her young. When she got a quantity together of the seeds of wild fruit, this reptile would pounce down on the nest and greedily devour the whole. " I never," said Wade, " saw one of these things but what I put my foot on it." .We forgec the name Wade gave to this reptile, but he might very appropriately have called it the Jumper reptile. If ever we catch a jumper in our neighbourhood we shall certainly do what Wade did, and put our foot on him—in pretty hot print.

A landless Maori, who has for some I time past (says the Taranaki Budget) , been engaged at stone-cracking, and who, ! at any rate, fancies himself an adept at I the business, has been knocked off work by the Government. He cannot understand how it is that at a time when an extra lot of men, unused to the work (such as the Germans), have been engaged as stone-breakers, that his services should be dispensed with. The "Maori has taken the matter very much to heart, and appears to be sorely grieved about it. Willing to work and earn a living, he I says, and is not allowed to do so. A numbee of boysat Tingha, New South Wales, recently determined upon trying how many marbles the mouth of an ordinary human being could hold, and a correspondent of the Glen Innes Examiner remarks :—" They selected one unfortunate fellow as an object for experiment. Marble after marble was pushed in, until all seemed to be satisfied that they had arrived at a correct estimate. However, the scene was changed when all attempts to extract the marbles proving futile, the boys opened their eyes to the painful truth that by some dexterous movement just one marble too many had been inserted. After considerable difficulty,.and no small amount of skill on the part of Mr Rogers, the proprietor of the Pioneer Tin Crushing Battery (whose timely arrival probably saved the boy's life), one marble was extracted, and all danger was over, the remainder following in rapid succession." Mb MacDebmott, who has just joined the Kerford Ministry, lately denounced a member of Parliament somewhat after this fashion :—" The honorable gentleman brags about his birth, breeding and.education ; shall I tell you what they were ? He was born in Houndsditch, his father was a eosteraionger, and his education consisted in being kept at home to gut fish until he was old enough to go into the streets and cry them I " A London correspondent of the Australasian writes :—" It will interest your readers to know that at the State Ball, given at Buckingham Palace last week, by command of the Queen, the Agents-, General for the several colonies were accorded, for the first time, precedence next to the Foreign Ministers (who come after the five Ambassadors), and before foreigners of distinction introduced by the Foreign Ministers. This is a gratifying circumstance, as it defines the position of the Agents-General with relation to the corps diplomatique.

We have received from the Government Printer No. 13 New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, and New Zealand Gazette No. 50 published on September^.

The Key. Mr McKee was a passenger in the Phcebe which left Wellington for the North yesterday.