The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 206, 28 March 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1868.

If those present at the volunteer meeting on Thursday evening last, will maintain only a portion of the enthusiasm shown on that occasion, we may shortly hope for a volunteer corps in this township, of which we shall have every reason to be proud. The number of names then subscribed to the offer of service would go far towards the formation of two companies of full strength, and the required balance to complete these cannot, we should think, be difficult to get. The meeting altogether was eminently successful in achieving the object for which it was convened, and at the same time was a complete vindication of the loyalty of our citizens in these troublous times. There are two parties that are dissatisfied with the result. One is that class who never can conceive there is possible danger, unless they see it visibly before their eyes, and are brought into actual contact, or within positive reach of its unpleasant consequences. The other is that section whose loyalty is more than questionable, in fact, who glory in their disaffection, and would gladly see the power and prestige of Great Britain laid low. Those belonging to this faction can see nothing but menace in a movement which is purely self-defence, and cannot by any possible means affect the lives or liberties of any class whatever, other than favorably. It is highly improbable that the dreaded civil war about which a parcel of old women h iva got so dreadfully scared will ever break out on the Coast or in the colonies, for the most inveterate Fenian cannot but admit that, in this hemisphere at all events, country, creed, and color, are i a'l alike in the eyes of the colonial rul-1 i.ig powers. The same political rights, thy same openings to wealth or distinction, the same opportunities are alike open to a 1!, and it is to maintain the laws undor which these privilege are enjoyed, and to defend our shores from a foreign foe, that volunteers of all arms ought to, and do cheerfully respond

when their services are called for. We have no independance to struggle for, for we are already practically independent—it is for the preservation of that freedom, if endangered, that the volunteers will ever be called on to fire a shot in anger. When, how, aud by whom our liberty can or will ever be imperilled is beyond the power of mortal to know, almost to guess at, but at the same time, as we are told, the best guarantee for peace is to be prepared for war, and though we most earnestly hope that occasion for active and deadly service may never arise, still, if it should do so, unhappily we doubt not that the volunteers of the West Coast of New Zealand will prove themselves worthy of the stock they sprung from. The remarks of Mr Kynnersley should, we imagine, satisfy all parties as to the intention of the movement, whilst at the same time his whole speech is one that may be laid to heart by all. There is no doubt that the drill and exercise attendant on it, will be of vast advantage as far as health is concerned to those who join. Tl e'r muscular development will bo increased, healthy exertion compelled, and the knowledge of arms and their use be imparted. A wholesome emulation is thereby created and in the cause of training both amusement and excitement are supplied in ritle matches, with their concomitant victories and defeats. The volunteer who attends regularly to his morning drill will have fewer hours of waste in public houses at night, and just in proportion as he gains skill in the new profession of arms, so will he become more and more enamoured of exercise. The volunteer movement is especially republican in its principles. Each company selects its own officers, and if they choose badly the fault is their own. On that account it is better to let drill proceed for some little time before permanent officers are elected inasmuch as the best men, whatever their position in life may be can then have an opportunity of proving themselves, and of obtaining honors. This is the more necessary as no more fatal mistake could be made than to choose incompetent, idle or careless officers, no matter of what grade. The question has been asked, what enemy can the volunteers ever be confronted with if they are not intended purely to quell domestic dissensions ? The reply isocisy. A.s all newspaper readers must see, Europe at present is in such a state that at any moment war may break out, whilst at the same time the relations of England and America are at least delicate, what with the Alabama claims, Fenian complication in reference to American citizens, and other matters added to the fact that a large party in the States are doing all in their power to embroil the two nations. It would not therefore be at all_ surprising if their machinations ultimately succeeded, though it is to be hoped the good sense of the two G-overnment will avert such, a dire mutual calamity. It is however quite on the cards and if so before war was declared a week hundreds of privateers would swarm on the seas and attack places or vessels whose condition rendered them an easy prey. Such a place is Westport, such are all the towns of the Coast, and we might say of all New Zealand, There are in all banks to be plundered, and buildings to be ransomed from bombardment, goods to be seized, and plunder to be obtained of various kinds. In such a case a well organised Volunteer Corps could do good service, and we should at least be secure against many of the mosquitoes that would buzz about these and other coasts of tbe British possessions. Agidnst a powerful frigate or sloop of war of course we should be powerless, and would not be the kind of foe we should probable have to encounter. Our privateering visitors would not stay to ague arbitary points of ownership in regard to any spoil seized, and all, whether Fenian or English, would suffer in common in such a raid. Altogether then, whether as a means of obtaining health or relaxation, providing for mutual security in case of war, or promoting social intercourse in time of peace, every good citizen must wish the Volunteer Corps G-od speed. At the same time let all who join remember that it is for use not ornament they are required, and let them by diligent attention, steadiness of conduct, and earnest zeal in making themselves acquainted with their self-imposed duties, deserve the honest respect and gratitude of their fellows, and fit themselves to become in truth and in fact a safeguard and defence to their adopted country.

The Westport Times has incurred the high displeasure of our local and our Charleston contemporaries. Our pubhcatipn acts as a perpetual blister on the sensitiveness of theseorgaiis of public opinion (Heaven save tho mark) ; and the effects, though harmlessly amusing

to us, must be excessively tiresome to their unhappy readers, a circle fortunately extremely limited in both cases. The public, for iustunce, can scarcely care to know that Mrs Camp disapproves of our views in reference to Mr Donne, and the fitness of things, as far as his candidature goes, but the journals in question gladly publish the old lady's ideas, so long as they are opposed to those of the Times. Whether Mr Jones, Brown, Robinson, or Snooks wrote this, that, or the other, is scarcely a matter of general interest, but our contemporaries rush out with the information, and we impute literary bantlings innumerable to all kinds of sources. As long, however, as it amuses them it does not hurt us. The Westport correspondent of the Herald has the chief part of his letter in Thursday's paper devoted to our unworthy selves, and after a preliminary paragraph, in which we are mixed up in a wholly unintelligible paragaaph, with a lot of lax words, he states that our ''ascendency in point has occasioned scandal and apprehension," &c. This is mysterious and unintelligible to the general public, as might be expected, and had the writer not gone into a business matter in connection with this paper, we should not have noticed the effusion. We are charged with inserting dummy advertisements, and have no hesitation in admitting what every one must have known before, that this is a usual practice among journals. Owing to the dullness of trade, and consequent falling off of advertisements, we publish the Stamp Act and other similar notices, which are not paid for, this course we adopt, following the example of all respectable journals, as can be seen by reference to the principal provincial papers in preference to following the Star's example of publishing local advertisements gratis. Numbers of those announcements —columns that appear nightly in the Star, and are not paid a farthing for, the proprietors speculating on the somewhat poor prospect of getting pay for what was either not ordered at all, or else, only for a short time, but are retained as fill up matter for any indefinite period. If on the contrary, only those appeared that were actually paid for a very sorry show our contemporary would make. Our "dummies," as the term is, are confessed and apparent to all, and there is no attempt to set them forth as anything else. The Star, however, prefers to be a cheap advertising medium, and no one would complain of its terms when it publishes their advertisements for nothing. In fine we may say that journals like everyone else feel the pressure of the present crisis. We have, we are thankful to say, secured the largest amount of patronage and support, and our contemporaries in question being jealous and ridiculous, are exasperated and endeavor to recognise themselves by successive and futile attempts. We are exceedingly sorry for the Herald in particular, and can partially excuse his impotent wrath, for it is rather hard for him to find that a paper published twenty miles away has the largest circulation and ten times the influence, that he has on his own ground, and in tho very heart of his district. That this is the case of the residents at Charlston well know.