ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 15, 29 July 1843, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Southern Cross. Sir, — Any legitimate means employed to prevent a palpable public evil, to counteract its vital and devastating influence, and to proscribe a salutary and infallible remedy, must bo hailed by every well-wisher of his species, as highly meritorious in either the individual or association, which labours to effect so desirable a measure. Therefore, it is with sincere gratification, I have read your avowed public opinions on total abstinence, as a prolude to the happy events which generally result from the talented advocacy of the cause of suffering humanity. In the last number of your Journal, you have adverted to the report of the " Auckland total abstinence society," in reference to the Press ; and in order to prevent misconstruction, by quoting only garbled extracts, I will transcribe the passage alluded to, verbatim : " The Press is a powerful weapon to wield in any cause, how much more effective in that of suffering humanity, and to its talented advocacy of the principles and advantages resulting from total abstinence, may in a great measure justly be attributed the irrefragable position which that all-ab-sorbing measure has attained, particularly in our native countries. "Tho Auckland Standard supported us with an enthusiastic zeal, deserving a better fate, its immediate successor, the Times, during its transient career, treated teetotalism with " absurdity," and absurdly accele-

rated its own annihilation. The Chronicle and Southern Cross, observe a cautious neutrality, but we cherish the fond hope, that the Southern Constellation which illumes these Antipodes, will shed a benign ray on a subject paramount to those which it illuminates and adorns." I quite agree with you, Sir, that " total abstinence" is the only cure for the drunkard, and I am satisfied that the salvation of this pitiable and deluded class, is the primary object of all total abstinence societies. And what nobler conquest could be achieved, or act of true Christian charity performed, than to rescue from ignominy and perdition the soul, which tho' sullied and dishonored, is still Divine. I agree with you, in " that no man ought to cherish pride because he is not a Beast, " but I submit that any person has cause to exult, and fool much peace of mind, and internal consolation, in surmounting and subduing passions, or momentary gratifications of a vile and injurious tendency. And that acting on the principle of drinking only what nature require, is both judicious and expedient, especially in these degenerate times. I feel that I have trespassed too much on your valuable time and space, but I cannot conclude without congratulating you on the eminent position you have attained among your fellow-colonists ; you wield a powerful weapon ; exercise it with prudence, moderation, and philanthropy. You express the feelings, and assert the rights of the people ; your Journal was much wanted ; it ought, and I sincerely hope, will be deservedly supported. I remain, &c, Abstemious. Auckland, July 20, 1843. [Drunkenness, we believe, to have its origin in a state of things, almost unhappily beyond the effective influence of total abstinence societies, and while such societies may doubtless do much good in reclaiming individuals who are already the victims of intemperance, something more is necessary to eradicate the poison. The evil is not accidental, but consequent upon the present state of society, and social government. To do away with intemperance, it wore necessary that the framcrs of our laws and institutions should make themselves better acquainted with the moral and physical constitution of man, and study the science of social happiness more than they have hitherto appeared to have done. If every man were permitted to occupy his own proper sphere, and to exercise rationally the various faculties which his Maker has bestowed upon him ; appropriating a certain portion of his time to healthy corporeal exertion, to intellectual or mental improvement, to moral and innocent amusement, and if circumstances had not converted some men into hard grinding machines, perpetually operating upon the rest of their fellow-men, keeping them in want, misery, and wretchedness, drunkenness like other vices, would hide itself in shame. A complete social change can alone cure it. While Englishmen love money more than happiness, and mistake the one for the other as the real object of their exitence, so long will this and other crimes continue. While our rulers are merely occupied with schemes for raising money to support themselves and others, whom chance or circumstances have raised upon the surface of society, and while our laws are framed in ignorance of our nature, and with the view of keeping down, and crushing intellect, mind, and heart, so longmust that society be defaced by vice. A temperance society may stem for a time (and so far do good) an individual stream ; but the flood remains. General, intellectual, moral, and social improvement, among high and low, must be sought after as the great cure. It is the shame, and the disgrace of the government of England, that more of its revenue is proportionately derived from tho crimes of the people, than in any other civilised country; and while this is the case, the people can hardly expect that those who live by these crimes, will be very anxious for their improvement. England requires a government and laws based upon reason, and a proper knowledge of mankind. Wars and murders might please old John Bull, but we trust the schoolmaster is now fast changing his taste, and if the rulers change not with him of their own accord, he has still determination enough to compell them, even against their will Ed.]

To the Editor of the Southern Cross. Sir, — Of all the departments and intricate ramifications which constitute the kind of Government with which the Colony is at present burdened, that which has for its object the preservation of the peace and property of the inhabitants is perhaps the one which has hitherto least frequently come under the just censure of your scrutinizing pen ; neither is it at the present time from

any source of gratification that I feel in discovering defects and omission rather than the effective men suits of any branch of the public service, that I seek to point out any in the discharge of the Police Duties of this district, but merely that I think that the moment has arrived at which the whole energies of this department will be required for the suppression of crime, and that this is a fact which thoy neither appear properly to understand nor anxious to provide for — The Police Magistrate has hitherto had few other cases to adjudicate upon than those of drunkenness, for which no other exertion on his part, was requisite, than the taking down of so and so's evidence that so and so was found endeavouring to light his pipe at the pump, &c, and fining so and so for such breach of the peace. But indeed such extensive wisdom was shown in cases of this kind, that however much the community bewailed the loss of a talented Surveyor General, the fact of his being restored to them in the shape of so learned a Police Magistrate, was a consolation universally felt. — But the time, I repeat, has now arrived when the gross mismanagements of every branch of Government are becoming too serious to be much longer tolerated. Numbers of the labouring class, destined under any but a mock-government to become peaceful, sober and industrious subjects, after parting with every article of their clothing, but what rags they carried on their backs, are forced (I speak from personal knowledge) both in the town and country to work for their bread only, and many of them can find no employment whatever. Gaunt misery and hunger stalk in every direction over the country, and unfortunately, though as a matter of course, crime is following fast after. — During the last fortnight numbers of thefts have been committed in the neighbourhood of the town ; amongst many I may enumerate a few : A poor woman named Thomson had £5 worth of clothes stolen ; a poor Chelsea pensioner. Pilkinton, had his little warre literally cleared out ; Mr. Lardner had £10 worth of clothes stolen ; Mr. Elliot and some servants of O'Mealy's had also a quantity of clothes stolen ; Mr. Cleghorn had a clothesline cut, with a view to take some clothes attached to it, but discovered the thief in the fact, though he could not apprehend him. Such, Mr. Editor, is the beginning of a state of things of which your inspired pen gave us true and timely prediction, though, like Cassandra the prophetess of old, I believe it is destined that your oracles shall never be regarded, at least by the present unhappy rulers. But, to come more immediately to tho subject of my letter, the Police Magistrate has, I believe, received information either directly or indirectly, of all these acts of theft ; and as far as can be seen or learnt, he has not taken one single step towards the discovery, or detection of the offenders. Such conduct, Mr. Editor, if true, you must allow to be intolerable. The Police Magistrate surely does not imagine that his duty is confined to attending from 10 to 12, or to 3 o'clock, at a particular office. He is mistaken. We expect him to be continually officiating, day and night, indefatigable in his researches in whatever quarter crime may have shewn itself, and though like the Coroner and some others, he will say his salary is insufficient ; that has nothing to do with the public — he can resign. But, unless the settler can be afforded security for his person and personal property, he must in evitably abandon the country. Indeed, Mr. Editor, the only remaining inducement for any one of us to continue here, is the confident expectation we entertain that when the great incubus which now broods over the colony like a pestiferous malaria, is removed, all these diseases which the incubation has engendered, will also be removed, and for a speedy delivery therefrom we all most earnestly pray. ■ I remain, yours, &c., Aquila. Auckland, July 20, 1843. [We strongly suspect that many of the thefts complained of by our able correspondent are more justly attributable to the Parkhurst delinquents, than to the famished-by-Shortland emigrants. The conduct of the Police Magistrate is, in either case, reprehensible, though we can scarcely hope that the remarks of our sensible correspondent will produce any effect upon him. He is one of those who can never do wrong, at least he would appear to think so himself. ]