THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3371, 11 October 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1879.

By. telegram we learn that the Private Secretary of the Governor, the Eev. Mr Thompson, has so far forgotten his position as to write to a newspaper in Wellington upon the political situation, and Sir G. Grey as the leader of the late Ministry. Although the Governor may not be able to prevent his secretary from writing to the papers, still it is fair to assume that a gentleman occupying the. position of Private Secretary would not adopt such a course if it were opposed to the views of his patron, or likely to give offence. It is the first time we have known such a course tq be taken by any member of a Governor's suite, and should hope it will be the last. If the Governor does not approve of the policy of a Government, he has constitutional means of making such a fact known to his responsible"'advisers, and should not allow a member of his suite to discuss the situation in the columns of a newspaper. It is a wellknown fact that when ministers of religion take to polities, they show an utter want of capacity in grasping details, and are led by their peculiar training to jump to conclusions, and in an authoritative manner to state their own views, at the same time showing a want of toleration for the views of others. The letter was called forth by certain extracts read by the Premier as to the effects of the famine in Ireland 30 years ago ; and Mr Thompson argues from his pointof view that it was caused by the interposition of a loving Providence, justsuchdoctrinesaswe might expect from a gentlemen of his profession ; but in these days science accounts for such calamities by a more common sense line of argument. In discussing the native policy the private secretary refers to the Ohinemuri outrage as he terms it, but we are pleased that Mr Montrose, of the Auckland Star does not allow the letter to go unanswered. He writes a long letter in reply, and concludes by saying :— "I observe from Mr Thompson's references to what he is pleased to call ' The Ohinemuri Outrage,' that he is fond of hypothesis. Well, here is one of mine. Let us take an imaginary case. Suppose that some future ' Outrage' the llev. Charles Meysey Thompson, in pursuit of his investigations into political matters, with which he has no business, and miraculous interpositions of Providence, of which he knows nothing, were to proceed to the scene, and suppose he were to exert his influence in * Canvassing on the opposite side;' and suppose just as he was imitating the eloquence or his aristocratic friend at Aylesbury and endeavoring to persuade the Maoris that shooting two or three pakehas was a merciful interposition of Providence, some rude bar* barian, with a greater thirst for pakeha

blood tlmi theological sophistry, wtre to tomahawk the rev. gentleman and afterwards make a meal of lii?»—all of which would doubtless on use mourning in the Mouse of Beaconsfield—nud then suppose some poor 'curate in Claydon or any other livingf. who had been striving to keep body and soul together for years on a miaciv'blo stipend",, were suddenly to come in for the vacant rectorship; and then suppose some other U';feclim> curate, who had long hoped in vain for a similar stroke of good fortune, were to call out ironically " three cheers for native outrage.' If those three cheers were given, and if the ghost of the Itev. Charles Meysey-Thompson recognised a former fourth-form boy, and an opponent of his, making an evident attempt to be merry over his untimely decease, I do not think that anyone could in that way accuse the other curate of want of feeling if he replied sarcastically, * Well, you have often given three cheers for a thing which baa done less gopd to New Zealaud than the native outrage.' "