Manganui Chronicle. and TURAKINA X RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. THURSDAY, 22th APRIL, 1869.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1017, 22 April 1869, Page 2

Manganui Chronicle. and TURAKINA X RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. THURSDAY, 22th APRIL, 1869.

This is the age of nil admirari, else we should wonder at Colonel "VS liitmore receiving an ovation on account of his recent military achievements on the East and West Coasts. The Auckland papers inform us that as he passed through that city, on his way to Hawke’s Bay, he was laid hold of as a hero and treated to a complimentary dinner. Well, there were a few exceptional persons who strewed flowers on Nero’s grave ; some people like to do out-of-the-way things ; and why should not Colonel Whitmore be feted 1 Not that he is at all like Nero. He is by no means an unamiable man ; and in several respects lie has shown himself to be an active and energetic officer, who might do his country some service, if he were not continually letting his tongue run away with him. But as yet he has not giveu many indications of possessing the stuff from which heroes are made, and the oftener he speaks the harder it is for those who have had occasion to note his sayings and doings to respect him. Our readers can readily anticipate what the subject of his after-dinner speech would be. No one connected with the present Government, from Mr Stafford downwards, thinks of making a public address without showing how much they are grieved at the wickedness of the New Zealand newspapers generally. This is the beie noire of the Slaffordites. Mr J. 0. Richmond, of course, took up the wondrous tale the other day at Taranaki, and Colonel Whitmore loyally followed suit at Auckland. We are not going over the old story. But we have a single word for Colonel Whitmore on this point. Having invariably striven to do him the fullest justice, we ask that he will point out to us any “mis-state-ments or charges founded upon wrong arguments and wrong facts,” which we have made bearing upon his recent campaign. (We thought facts -were facts and could not be wrong, but the words in italic are reported as part of the Colonel’s speech.) Let him then point out wherein we have done him wrong—give us the instance or instances of error —or let him henceforth put some sort of restraint upon his tongue. This is surely a fair test : will he accept it ?

Colonel Whitmore, however, was not alone in his abuse of the press. A gentleman of the name of Firth,—the same, we believe, who erected a monument to the late William Thompson, because he let him and some others have a large run at a cheap rent in the Waikato, — outheroded Herod in this particular. The newspapers were Helots, and much worse. Of course, nobody cares what Mr Firth thinks of the press, but it might occur even to this gentleman, although he talks about things of which he is profoundly ignoi’ant, that these Helots either lead or follow public opinion. Our own idea is that thej r partly do both. If they lead, then it is because the public have found cause to place confidence in their guidance ; if they follow, then they are simply stating what the public have ascertained and believed for themselves beforehand. Either way, they are representing the public, and does Mr Firth or any other person suppose for a moment that the people, say, of Wanganui or of Hawke’s Bay, do not know a friend when they find him. If Colonel Whitmore had done for us what he would make people

at a distance believe he has done, why should we not praise him 1 Supposing Colonel Whitmore a hero, what possible interest could we have in denying a fact so gratifying, and one which bears so closely upon the prosperity of the district in which we live ? None whatever. All our interest lies in quite the other direction. The press is neither better nor worse than the community in which it circulates. And all this talk about mis-statement is simple nonsense —mere rubbish flung out, if perchance it may hide some of the sins of omission and commission which have disgraced the management of the war from its commencement until now. Colonel Whitmore should take the good the gods send him, which is a complimentary dinner from a few gentlemen in Auckland, and let sleeping dogs lie.

We would have supposed that this same dinner would have partaken of- a farewell. Colonel Whitmore was determined to leave this miserable country, where there are so few to praise and none to love him, as soon as ever the West Coast campaign was ended. He was humiliated, he said, that he ever set foot on New Zealand soil. Has the panegyric of the noble Firth changed our hero’s mind ? It is possible we may have some other questions to ask Colonel Whitmore on a future day.