ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Times, Volume 1, Issue 4, 15 September 1842, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

By the politeness of the Postmaster General we are enabled to lay before our readers the following letter from a mercantile house at Valparaiso in reply to enquiries made by him some months since, respecting the transit of Home- •- ward English Mails from that Port by way of the Isthmus of Panama. From this letter it is to be inferred that under existing circumstances it is not in our power to avail ourselves of that route for our homeward correspondence, and that our letters sent via Va’paraiso, are forwarded thence by first homeward ship round Cape Horn. Valparaiso, 31 si May, 1842. Sir, —in reply to the enquiries contained in your favor 13th January, we beg to inform you that our Steam-Boat Company, alter having sent twice their steamers from this to Panama and taken letters for England, in the hope of placing themselves in communication with the West India line, have been obliged to give it up, as they have not succeeded in their object; their steamers only go as far as Guayaquil, from which port the letters must be forwarded under cover to Panama, where the postage being repaid, they are placed on board the packets at the port of Chagres. Under these circumstances, mails from New Zealand could not be forwarded by Panama, at present, without the agency of some confidential parties at Guayaquil, Panama, and this place. Our Steam-Boat Company contemplates havinga couple of steamers to run between Guayaquil and Panama; and then, by making some further arrangements with the Colombian Government for the uncontrolled transmission of their correspondence across the Isthmus, to take charge heie of letters for England, most likely the postage will have to be pre-paid, As soon as the contemplated arrangements be carried into effect, the Directors of our Company have promised to give us notice of it, when we shall do ourselves the honor of , communicating it to you, if agieeable to you. At present, the letters for England have to be pre-paijjjSMi the Company’s Office, to go only as far as Guayaquil, there sailing vessels take them to Panama; but vessels are not always ready to sail on the airival of the steamers, and delays will sometimes occur in Guayaquil. The rates of Postage are the following— For a single letter, not exceeding $ oz. weight, 1 real currency (6 to 8 per cent, less than hard S>.) For letters exceeding | oz. and not passing 1 oz., 2 reals. For parcels of letters of 1 oz. and upwards, 2 reals per oz. Newspapers are free of postage. For your guidance, the average passage of the steamers from this to Guayaquil is 21 days. Ditto of the sailing vessels from Guayaquil to Panama. 12 to 15 ~ A cross the Isthmus 1 ~ From Chagres to England (as lar as we know) 30 „ Together 67 ~ Average passage from New Zealand to this poit , 45 ~ To this day the steamers have no fixed day for their departure, but as that uncertainty is much compiamed ot, we think that the Directors will be ob’iged to adopt the plan of dispatching one at the beginning of each month, We ere, Sir, Your obedient servants, RIDGWAY, TAVARGEII & CO. William Connell, Esq , Postmaster-General, Auckland. To the Editor of the Auckland Times, Sir, —Peimit me, through the medium of your valuable paper, to enquire whether the Surveyor-General has yet selected a site of the Government Township at Hokiango, or Caefria, and at what time the allotments will be offered for sale, as a number of individuals, both here and at the Company’s Settlements, are more anxious to locate themselves at either of ibe above places, than proceed to sire Australian Colonies. They being determined to leave those parts of New Zealand, finding them diametrically opposite to that which they have been represented by the Company’s agents at home. I am, Sir, yours very ohediently, A Lately Arrived Emigrant. Auckland, Sept. 10th, 1842. New Zealand, - , 1842, May it please your Excellency, Sir, There are responsibilities attached to the office to which her Majesty has called you, which are arduous and peculiar. You have to sustain a hill position under a cross fire. —You are expected to please the Government at home, and satisfy the people here. These are difficulties it is more easy to deplore than remove. Interests so opposite are not easily assimilated; and I know no one in your list of political alchymists who seems likely to find the amalgamation necessary to produce the philosopher’s stone. But how comes it to pass that while the first Act of your Excellency declared that the 100,000 people you came to govern were a free people, they have no representative in your Councils! The Government have three representatives, the iahabi-

tants of the Bay, one—the people of Auckland, one—the Land Company, forsooth!—one, while the aristocracy of the Islands you are appointed to govern, with their 30,000 square miles of patrimonial possessions, have no one to represent their interests in the Council, or plead their cause there. Is this in harmony with British jurispiudencel But lamto be told, perhaps, that it is too early—that they are minors in law, —and that such a measure would run counter to the general proceedings held in view—“a contradiction in terms.” Would it appear so on the pages of history acentury hence"? Would it not rather be England’s boast, that she set an example of colonization upon so lofty a principle (because just), as even to appoint a ProtectorGeneral on behalf of the Aborigines, and gave him a place in the Councils of the Government. And why not"? if a kind of “assiento” Government is not ultimately to be established, and a total dilaceration of interests to be carried out. I hink you that a charge of intromission will one day be a light charge! Fairness may disarm much future obloquy; and obloquy is as certainly upon the cycle of time, as history will mark either the principles which have buried a free people in oblivion, or an enlightened policy, which has lilted them up, and given more than was received, I have other points upon which to call your attention should circumstances permit;—the Tainanga affair—your taking away the native law, and giving the peaceable nothing in return—the threats of your Executives there—and your financial position, I have the honor to remain, Your Excellency’s Most humble servant, JIMASION. To the Governor of New Zealand.