Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 3
[miscellaneous paragraphs]
The South Islanders, as a rule, know as little of Maori matters and North Island history generally as the Australians or « the old folks at home. » A goldfields contempoary [sic: contemporary] , in an article on the late Te Kooti episode, which is on the whole correct, speaks of the tragedy at Poverty Bay in 1868 as « that awful butchery at the White Cliffs » ! The White Cliffs massacre, led by the late Te Wetere, occurred on the opposite coast, in the following year. This is the second time we have seen it attributed to Te Kooti by South Island journalists.
The discussions which appear in scientific papers are every whit as foolish as any to be found in the every-day press. An American medical journal has been discussing « whether a belief in spiritualism is an evidence of insanity per se. » A cool proposition, to say the least of it! There would be some reason in debating the general question—whether the belief in any theory or alleged fact which can be disputed on rensonable grounds is an evidence of insanity per se—were not the dilemma involved so obvious. Either the whole of mankind are insane—for everybody believes something which his neighbor doubts—or the question must be answered in the negative.