Auckland Times. Tuesday, 15th April, 1845. THE MILITIA BILL!!

Auckland Times, Volume 3, Issue 118, 15 April 1845, Page 2

Auckland Times. Tuesday, 15th April, 1845. THE MILITIA BILL!!

Among Hie acts of offecliovaie care! < i ai’ the 'imperious, superdlb us, selfish and unfeeling commands, which abotind in those home documents, dignified by His Excellency: with the pom pons title of despatches and instructions. and to which, in ad their .frequent native absurdity. His Excellency gene* rally.pays a deference, as profound as the weathercock subserviency ,of B.is own official-council ; of all ; t!*e monjsirons pieces of heartless injustice, with [which we have ever been visited, this despotic bill is the most atrocious Buonaparte’s . conscription was a fool to it, that was an immolation by decimation, —this ‘ goes the whole beast,’— and demands every man’s personal sa crifice, and for whom are we to make so vast a display of loyalty and cev<>- 1 tion ? Why ..truly for a government l whose professed purpose has been, not ! to protect and encourage the colonists. ! but L) check, fa tt> ©• • > *-t nml to ” -*• < ' date them, whose career amoi v.sl us y> has been one of uiideviating plunder and oppression, and whose superlative folly is at last consummated by the advent of a condition of alarm, which u driving almost every one out of the place wl l o h ave Ih e power to, go while those who stay. lie down on their pillows in fear and trembling, lest they should be surprised end burned., in their beds, or tumble- out of them to bej tomahawked. Is it such a government as this, that has a right- to expect snob extremes of loyalty and devotion—-we trow not 1

His Excellency the Governor, though generally pretty consistent in Ids sub • servieney .to Downing Street insolence and imbecility, has even in this matter shown Some of his characteristic disposition to change. When lie laid Lord Stanley’s despatch upon the table, with the marvellous recommendation that sleepy Lari Rip or: had suggested it, after dinner iu the House of Lords, and when the Council were unanimous in its disfavor, His Excellency said — *t\vas wise, t'was welt for if his senators had been unanimous the othei way, he would have vetoed it. And no- v;c find him introducing this monstrous piece of legislation, of which it may lie truly said, none but itself can be its parrallel.

That ingenious gentleman the Attor ney General, who like the benighted traveller can warm his fingers ends or cool his pottage with the same breath ; the tip of whose tongue, or the point of whose pen, is capable at any moment Of both sides of an argument Hr; tells tis that every British colony is Subject to a militia, except the penal ones, and the specious sophism Isas the semblome of truth. But what are the requirements of such militia? why,—to act as a balance or cheek upon the possibility of domestic disturbance, not to go forth under lawyers and government clerks, against a warlike host of savages fully armed and gorged with plunder, having probably twenty times our number and , physical strength, being aili

the while gener dled by oni: whose | sympathies are on the other side, and j whose countless crimes of clemency, j whose constant compounding of fe- ; tony have been the means of bringing ! about the condition, we deplore. And \ I will, our fellow.colonists submit to. such [an act,- they cannot surely be so tamely self -devoted. Let the gfo veminent do heir duty by us, repair some of the manifold mischief occasioned, restore some,.of the happiness,• afHuj ence, and confidence they have annilu- | ; atqc!< Bond the protectorate folly to | j the—to its appropriate demo(n')lition, [—and then with the fipvivul of hope i wiH rise a spontaneous loyalty, that, j may promise conquest and security In the mean time, B. K. himself has furinislied to us a shield.against ali the | coercions and penalties of this odious bill,— he said, it was impossible to wo. to low against a whole nation ’’—let us be united then, and put the paper pellets of the A t orneyGenerafs brain ar defiance. We intended .Saying some- | thing abont the proposed officers of j the militia, but the towh watchmen, | Messrs. Dogberry and Verges have ! taken the matter effectually out of our i liands. We should ourselves, have | been less coarse in our expressions, j but these worthy custodes a f midnight I peace, are well known, \ > r be gen [tlemenof very refined. ;ucation, but | as w.e profess to give a just reflection I of public feeling; ;vnd as Dogberry and (Verges have unquestionably caught it, we. publish their letter as it came to us. One gentleman, however, has escaped their vigilance, namely, one Mr. Qmisby, this gentleman, with no single [earthly pretension but the sunshine of [court favour,: most impudently thrust |himself forward, as ti e captain oi the proposed troop of volunteer.cavalry. Mr* O: lias not, been long among us, and 13 not much known, but what is known of hiiii witness hie behaviour jin t lie matter of the late Mi Taka a surIvey, has been anything bus ;ueh as to I render him popular. He labbles in •and and ; marine surveys, with very questionable abi'ity. iu eitiy % he deals in caltle With a doubtfu’ udgrnent, that haS occasioned.many sneer, and now he has presumed < be self appointed commander of tvalry. Of course his interferenc eH'ectnally knocked the Volunteer C airy Troop on the head.

Bye the.bye of exenr lons, the i>UI exempts all Members of ! ’ouncil, and yet we see Major Whi 1 ?r, M.C., — surely after this, the Col. S. *ary ? Col. Treasurer, and Attorney General will not be skulkers ■ make them officers of drill, they are practised in drilling holes through Acts of Council of their own devising. And then Mr. Donnelly, he is tali enough and sufficiently active and energetic in his brachial movements for a fugleman ! Oh !we must have the Dragoman. We have only to add that a PUBLIC MEETING is to be held THIS DAY, in the open air, at which it is expected that all who have yet a hope for the colony, will attend to give their free and yet considerate opinion or vote. Such an imbecile government as this is, cannot coerce us, if we hold together. Remember. fellow countrymen, that ali the reverses we have suffered, all the eHls we now endure, and all the terrors we are obliged to stare in the face, are entirely attributable to three causes, - Lord Stanley 's obstinate parsimony, Capt. I'itzroy’s fascination in favour of the Maoiiesaml Exeter Hall, and that Arch hypocrite Clarke, —and lastly, His Excellency’s total disregard of the honor and fame of the Bntisu name and llaL r .