Auckland Times. Tuesday, March 11th, 1845. New Zealand Legislative Council, Auckland Match 4, 1845.

Auckland Times, Volume 3, Issue 113, 11 March 1845, Page 2

Auckland Times. Tuesday, March 11th, 1845. New Zealand Legislative Council, Auckland Match 4, 1845.

The Council m6t this morning and the attendance was complete. The new members are Messrs. Donnelly, Whitaker, and Ileale. The practice of reading prayer was introduced without any objection.— We believe there is little difference of religious opinion among the members. The ceremony was impressively communicated by our respected clergy mAn the Rev. J. F. Churton. Afttfr reading the Standing Rules-(the new mem” bers we presume having been else-, where sworn in,)-

This : Governor delivered the Ad~ I dresf which we give in another column —and which we now proceed to remark upon.— This Address is conveniently divided into paragraphs, upon which we may comment seriatim. In the First, The Governor says, and every man of common feeling in the place will sympathise wi,ti»;him, *'that he feels great anxiety." We have no doubt he does: lis predecessor set an example, which he has followed, of disparagement of our power and pur pose among the Aborogines, and he himself has annihilated the only rational means (to vyit. the Customs) of raising a revenue, and he has permitted, under his government, an indulgence to Maorie passion and crime which he is awfully puzzled, now, to subdue. He mav well feel great anxiety. The Second Disposition, of His Excel lency is an assertion "that the most dark and trying period of our position has a'ready passed.'' This we utterly deny ; the Colony, it is true, has been going; on from bad to worse, but was certainly rever so badly off as now Is there not, from one eud of the Colony to the other of 1-jis Excellency's government, an extreme and a just spirit of discontent? Where will he find a friend to repeat his promises of prosperity from present measures? The on'y hope is, and we believe it to be His Excellency's lurking meaning that when things are at their very lowest condition, they caunot possibly be worse.

In the Third clause we have a congratulatory chuckle over the Par Mai mentary grant, which, is to relieve the \mircls of the Council of much anxiety. There is much want of candour in this, for, by the report of His Excellency, f very hod y else has been led to suppose

i.hat the Home Go'ernmeut would do ■omei' ing liberal towards the support .• ud growth of the Colony (besides i aying for their own nominees, \vh© they must provide for by hook or by crook). This expectation is miserably disappointed,and His Excellency makes it a matter of rejoicing instead of regret Fourlh.—"o\ir commercial prospects'"' —are indeed advancing? How can they be otherwise when we have a ruler who can seriously propose anything so monstrous as the public investigation of, and tariff upon, ever traders books ! We cannot conceive by what perversion of common under* standing and experience, such an idea can be for one moment entertained by any rational being among a British community. We are glad to bear witness to the faot of our incres. sin;; export cargoes; but they do increase in spite, and not by reason, of His Excellency's proposition. Export trade taay do much for the benefit of the mother-country arid the Aborigines, but, just now, all ret, we encouragement and qoi prevention. Fifth —* Peace, confidence and capital !* - Capital elements of colonization, no doubt! but how are they promoted here ? By rewarding Maorie \iolerice—by refusing the usual military protection- and by supporting an absurdly high price of waste lands.

Sixth. —lf this outrageous deviation from truth was not written by Heki himself, he must have gotten some other person to write it for him. Seventh.—lf. there be such persons as are here suggested to public be'ier, why are they not made subject to the Law,— especially, since "some of their wicked attempts have been discovered."' " Slanderous publications" are certainly amenable to the law, and this part of His Jfixcellenej'a speech is in itself an especial example of the tact, for it is the greatest slander of ali. The libelled parties can, however, afford to pardon its grossness, because such shafts must ever, in effect, be harmless.

\E'ujhth. \i this abstinence from c:rime is to be recorded, and it may be

justly, it may be so to the credit of the Colony only, and not o f the Government—whose measures have only had a tendency to create a condition of society which has been described by a high auti'oritv as equivalent to sitting over "a barrel of gunpowder, or deploying over a mine prepared for explosion" A recent rase >of matrimonial murder, among cur instant native associates, has recurred, and has the law enquired into it ? Ninth —This assertion is at variance with e»ery colonial's experience, —but, if it were tine, the Governor may not hope to discourage crime by "Native Exemption Bii s' i What has the recent application for troops, from Sydney, been made for ? . ■ , . -. 7 'ruth.- "Forbearance, restraint, and tranquillity."—Are nptfthese qualities strangely evinced by the recent proceedings at the Bay of Islands, at the flutt, and New Plymouth > Are we all asleep with pur. eyes and ears wide open ? For th)2 rest of the matter, if the New Zealanders have few of the 'faults and failings inseparable from our natures," we should not square our law and conduct so as "grossly to nurture them into Usage."

Eleventh. —We believe, with his Excellency, that the generality of the native population are exceedingly well disposed, until their cupidity is excited by impunity to theft and violence ; it is therefore that we would, at all risks, uphold the power of the law. Put down the nonsense of Maorie protec tion, and let the certainty of purishuient, in the case of Maorie offence, be as well assured as in u>e case of a white offender. . The severity of the law may be safely adjusted by the executive power.but the Native Exemption Bill is neither more nor iess than an invitation to crime and a premium for its com.nission.

Twelvth. —We join in this aspiration, and we hope that justice, and mercy, and forbearance, and ad tiiat sort of thing—but, especially, that practical common sense—may bring aoout the desired results.—and that false send ment may not be permitted to prevent them. Thirteenth and Fourteenth —His Excellency's goodness of heart is here apparent, and every one, we hope, will coincide with his wishes. Fifteenth —" To revise laws" is I one thing - to make them pimminent another Tiie acts of Council, passed i in New Zealand, have been remarkably ephemeral. We can hardly recollect a single one that has survived the year of its birth. The bantling bills we will canvas hereafter, when they are divested of their swadddng clothes and we may judge of their proportions.