LATEST NEWS FROM WELLINGTON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 59, 14 August 1862, Page 2

LATEST NEWS FROM WELLINGTON.

A 11 11 I A' A L S T O R I R X>.

The Slorm Bird arrived unexpectedly last evening from "Wellington,-whence she left on luesday morning. The Queen arrived in Wellington at 3 p.m. from Auckland, the Captain having kept out to sea, and passed by Hawke s Bay, notwithstanding the remonstranees of some of the passengers. The Slorm Bird sailed for Wellington immediately, with the English Mail, in order to catch the Airedale , which vessel awaits her arrival till Friday at 3 pan. By this arrival we have the welcome nows of the formation of a Ministry likely to do the business of the Colony, with Mr. Domett at its head. Below will he found extracts from the Adrerliser of the 12th hist., slips of which we were kindly favored with. THE NEW MINISTRY. (From the xS eiv Zealand Advertiser, August 12.) The most important event which has occured since the date of our last Summary has been the break-down of the Fox Ministry, which took place on the 28th ult., after a debate, which lasted two days, on the question of adopting a quasi responsibility in the administration of native affairs. The vote arrived at was not one of want of confidence, hut the House having, hy the casting vote of the Speaker, decided that the Ministerial resolution should not he put —the division being 22 for and 22 against it —the Ministers seized the opportunity of tendering their resignations, witli the idea that no other Ministry could bo found to take their places, and with the impression that Sir George Grey would he glad to send for them back again. They, however, reckoned without their host. Mr. Stafford and Mr. Fitzgerald both having declined the task of constructing a new Cabinet Mr. Domett, the former Colonial Secretary for New Munster, was sent for, and he succeeded in forming the following Administration : The lion. Alfbed Domett, Colonial Secretary ; The lion. Thomas Baxnatyxe Gielies, Attorney-General;

The lion. Fraxcis Dillox Bell, Colonial Treasurer ami Minister for Native Affairs ; The hon. Walter Baldock Dun rant Maxtell, Post-master General and Secretary for Crown Lands. It is very possible that other members may be added to the Cabinet during the session; but if they are true to themselves and more especially if they are true to the party by whom they are supported, there is no prospect of Mr. Fox ever again obtaining ofiiee. Li the House he is more feared than liked, and, strange to say, he prides himself on possessing these repulsive qualities. Last Friday the Colonial Secretary made his Ministerial statement, which was well received by the House, but the debate upon it was adjourned until this day week, in order to give the House an opportunity of digesting the Duke of Newcastle's despatches received by the last mail. Whether the Assembly accepts or not the power granted by the Home Government to manage native affairs, there is every probability that the Ministry now in power at home intend to make the colony pay the cost of governing the natives ; so it is not whether we shall refuse the responsibility in order to escape the cost, but whether we ought not to accept’the responsibility, seeing that it is the determination of the British Government to saddle us with the cost in any case. Ministerial responsibility in native affairs would have prevented many of the evils under which the Colony has suffered, and if it would not have prevented the war at Taranaki, it certainly would have insured its being more vigorously prosecuted and more satisfactorily terminated. It was objected to cm the ground that the colonists should not be saddled with the expense of suppressing disturbances amongst a people over whom the British Government bad never exercised themselves, nor had allowed the colonists to exorcise, any control. And it was thought, also, that before the British Government transferred the management, and with it the cost, of such a people to the colonists, it was their duty first to reduce them to obedience. It is quite clear however, from the despatches of the Colonial Secretary, that it is the intention of the Home-. Government to make the Colonics pay the cost of their own internal defence, whether they accept the responsibility of managing the aborigines or not. This is shewn by a despatch of the Hake of Newcastle to the Governor of the Cape, in which he says he shall require the Colony s assistance in maintaining the force required for its protection against, dangers confined to its own territory and borders, failing which, be informs him, that “they must be prepared to find measures adopted for withdrawing a portion of the troops from a country where their maintenance is not thought worth any co-operation on the part of the Colonial authorities/’ We have no room, in consequence of the length of Parliamentary report, to refer to the proceedings of the House at previous sittings ; the only event of importance was the speech of Mr. FitzGesald, which recalled to the hearer the days of Curran and Grattan —the former of whom he appears to have taken as his model. Mr. Fitz Gerald proposes that a number of natives should have seats in the Executive, Legislative, and Kepresentative Councils. This proposition, on the face of if, appeal's alike fair and feasible, but in ’practice it would be found that their votes would be secured in favor of the Government of the day, without reference to Maori interests, while they would certainly be employed to the serious detriment of the settlers, and might probably be the means of undermining their constitutional rights and privileges. ’ The Committee on Steam Communication r ecommend the voting of a subsidy for five years, from the Ist January, IS")-!, for Steam Communication with England via Panama, which, with the cooperation of the neighboring Colonies, is thought will prove ample for the purpose. It is expected that a Colonial Company will be formed to cany out the scheme, and that the proportion of shares required to be raised by (bis Colony will bo taken up with avidity. Wellington will be the Port of call for these steamers to and from Sydney; and we shall then only want a patent slip —also projected—to enable Wellington to oiler facilities lor shipping greater than can be ali'orded in any other port in the Colony. The sittings of the two Houses of the Legislature has made the town anil its business more animated than it lias been since Sir George Grey left it in 1853. The cattle trade with the South lias proved, and continues to prove, of great benefit to this port. Local politics arc knocked on the bead the local authorities are*equally at a discount. The following resolutions on the sub-

ject of the relations between the Governor and the present Ministry in the conduct of Native allairs were to have been moved by Mr. Domett, the Colonial Secretary, yesterday, but have been postponed by leave of the House to Tuesday week, the 19th inst: — “1. 1 hat ministers should in conformity with the Royal Instructions, advise the Governor m Native affairs (as well as in Colonial affairs) whenever his Excellency desires to obtain such advice, and should also tender advice on all occasions of importance when they deem it their duty iu the interest of the Colony to do so. “ 2. That Ministers should undertake the Administration of Native affairs, reserving to His Excellency the decision in all matters of Native Policy. “ o. That, as the decision in all matters of Native Policy is with Ids Excellency, the advice of Ministers shall not be held to bind the colony to any liability past or future in connection with Native affairs beyond the amount authorised by the House of Representatives.”