AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 669, 1 April 1869, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

fFBOM OUJB OWK CORRESPONDENT.] March 23,1869. , n*OE latest news relates to the display of loyalty at 'Shortland. An advertisement appeared in the press of an i intended banquet and ball at Shortland i on St. Patrick's Day, giving the names ! 0 f several J.P.'s as patrons, and intimating that the band of the 18th Re- j giment would assist. The banquet caUl e off, and was under the presidency . of the Superintendent of the Province * 'fhe first toast was NOT "The Queen," J jj U t " The Governor of New Zealand," ' jtot as the Qneen's-representative, but | «'asan Irishman who would do soni"- i tiling great if not fettered by his con- < gtitutional advisers," &c. Some of the 1 guests called attention to the omission. I but they were put down by force. The i toasts which followed were " The Su- I perintendent," and " The Chief En « gineer," both of course Irishmen. The i band of her Majesty's 18th Regt. was i lent to assist at this celebration, and thej* game was under the distinct patronage;' of six of Her Majesty s Justices of the s Peace, every one of them in receipt of , a salary from the public chest! Yes, six salaried J.P.'s, with the additional*' name of the Provincial Secretary, ■ formed the list of patrons of a spree • that was practically an exhibition of s disaffection. Probably two or three J other J.P.'s (unpaid) were present, ' and by presence sanctioning. Governor ! Bowen may feel flattered that he w«s ' toasted ratiier than the Queen, whose c servant he is supposed to ! e, or he * may not. But it' he h»q any respect ' for his So\er«dgn he will iirmediately l . remove from the commission of the l Peace all the six who are implicated ' in this transaction, if not the other? who assisted by their presence. It i* ' pr'riiiijis necessary to explain that with ' the exception of Mr MaHcay, all the J.l'.'s alluded to as patrons are Irish ; men either by birth or parentage ; and ' their being J.P.'s and salaried « fficial.is likewise to be rei'erred to llnir ra tionality ; for lately it has been noto- ' rious that to be either an Englishman or a Sco'chman was to be disqualified y Irom public life, except in us very * lowest phases. By c mbina-ion and ! corruption a clique secures all the pa- ! troiiage of this Province, and even the;. : quarrels over the spoil. The go]dfieMs are almost smothered by theii ' load of taxation and lees yet the sum < raised is not sufficient to satisfy official- ' ism. Confusion and mismanagement •' are rife, and in the Provincial Council - the Provincial Solicitor acknowledged * it unreservedly, but assured the Coun I cil that, if they would vole the money, fc the Government would undertake to [ revise the whole administration; but c promises are easily forgotten. The press of Auckland is in the interest of t the existing Provincial Government : t the Herald avowedly, the Cross co- ' verily, owing to Mr Creighton's old 1 connection with it as editor, and hi- ' having two of the members of its for- l mer stuff in Provincial billets. They r have thus sufficient influence to pre- ( vent public opinion obtaining expres ! sion. That greatest safeguard of de < mocratic institutions —a fi;i;e press j —does not exist here, or we should not tamely submit to be misgoverned as we are. ' The candidates favored by our Pro- < vincial Government have been victo- < rious, so that one seat has been gained. ; having been held by a supporter of the Ministry, Mr James O'Neill. It is now held by Mr H. W. Furnall, a man un- : known to fame ; Newton seat a Mr 11. J. Creighton. A number of both Ge neral and Provincial officers interested themselves on his behalf. His opp« j nent, Mr Wrigg, is an untried poliii cian, and had more pluck than many would have in a similar position, as he tad no support from the press —the Herald opposing him bitterly, and the Cruss professing neutrality, but the sort of neutrality that suited M< Creighton, by refusing to allow Mr Wrigg's friends to back him up, and agitate the poll tax and other obnoxious acts of Mr Creighton. Some of Mr Creighton's supporters maintain that their surest hold on him consists in bis Provincial salary of i-400 a-year —forgetting that a man who has changed his coat once for that price, ma y see it desirable to change it again for a higher figure. One of the few measures introduced last session, which I regret did not become law—the Disqualification Bill— Would ba of use ia more ways than

one. Thus a supporter of Mr Creighton and the Provincial Government i justifies an appointment in this way : * —Mr Stafford had secured Mr Haugh- i ton's vote by theUnder-Secretaryship, 1 so Mr Williamson was obliged ro ?e t cure Mr Charles O'Neill's by giving t him the appointment of chief engineer ! s With such corrupt practices, is it sur- t prising that the Colony is misgoverned ? e I suppose the Prince will not visit \ Auckland afier he learns what pro- c ceedings are'eountenanced by those in c authority here. His absence will be c more annoying to some of the same u parties than to many Englishmen and i: Scotchmen ; f->r it is they, the " effi t cial caste,'" who attend at Government i: balls, levees, banquets, &c, and talk i loyalty without stmt, and assume the \ position of leaders of society. Proba- v idy four fifths of the whole body of v officials in this Province belong to one t nationality. At the indignation meet- c ing last year, the programme was so arranged as to admit only two or three 1 Englishmen to speak ; but some out- t siilers asserted their right to have a r voice in it. Mr Creighton then spok<- [ warmly—apparently forgetting that t ,hoth correspondence and editorials, t savouring strongly of disaffection, had i: appeared in the Cross, of which he t was editor a very short time before, s It does not follow that he is personally u disloyal, but for " sufficient reasons " n he panders to those who are. Another \: instance of the way the nationality t question is worked occurred last year, ii when Governor Bowen came to Auck- t (and. A meeting was held under the presidency of the Superintendent, and r it was arranged that "three gentle I: men " should receive the Governor. I The number three at once suggests e ihe three Kingdoms now United, and i if either Irish or Scotch had been I mitred, they would have resented it ! at once; but Englishmen are nobodies ; f s.» they contrived to put two Irishmen i • iml one Scotchman on the deputation, i Another ease occurred lately: an v ludiieaiion Act was passed last session. I' and a "central board" appointed to c woik it; on that board are one En- I glishman, one Scotchman, and either I tour or five Irishmen. Will the public \. have confidence in a board so one- ,c sidedly constituted ? f Oar exports of flax and gum are in- I creasing, but that of gold does not ' come nearly up to the amount at which I [ estimated it in former letters. The i amount from 10th January to 20th c March is not quite 19,000 ounces, or b say 1,900 ounces per week for a po- t poulation variously estimated from ( 8,000 to IG,OOO men. In my opinion the lower number is likeliest to be s correct. r You will learn that Maori affairs I are, if possible, more unsatisfactory i than ever before. Bat while Govern t ment is quite unable to protect pro i perty, or even life, in several of our s out-districts, is not it an act of mad i ness to hold Land Courts, and issue J titles to land in districts where the i Government has neither power, an- n thority, nor even foothold? On thai <. subject I can only reiterate what 1 < have expressed on former occasions. , " that beyond our boundaries the Go- « vernment should leave the Maoris | alone as long as they will leave us t alone." lam not alluding to rebels I in arms, but to those who are neutral, and only ask to be let alone. The J Native Lind Court is supported by ( the Auckland press, but in my opinion it is entirely supeifluous and uuneces- . saiy, and ia some cases positively '■ mischievous. March 25. 1 The latest on dil is that Mr Creighton has accepted an engagement which will necessitate his removal to Otago. If this proves true it will be a question whether he will retain his seat in the Assembly to which he was last week elected. There has been a paragraph in print about separating the northern portion of this province, and constituting il ; a new province. I have before offered an opinion that by such a step Auckland would only lose in prestige. G,od i government is the end sought, and it ■ the Northern settlers think they will j attain that end by the means proposed, , rhey have a right to try it. But they I will find that a sort of " royalty " cannot be kept up without funds, so 1 they will either have to resort to direct taxation to find the oil for the - great machine; or, like sensible men, i try to cut their coat by their cloth,

Personation has been practiced on i several occasions in this Province. Asa every honest man abhors such a thing, j 3 it may be well to point out how it is t facilitated, if not promoted, by the! existing regulations, which provides I that any voter may poll at any polling r station. Suppose that were altered t thus : compel every elector to vote i either at the special polling station, f where his qualification is ; or, if any I option be allowed him, confine his o choice to the principal polling station v of the district. Then the settlers in a any particular outdistrict would be al- f most sure to know the registered elec- t tors of that outdistrict, and the whole n number of votes possible in it would J fie known beforehand ; the principal b polling station would be the only place t where much risk (of personation) t would be incurred. But it is possible t iiiat some members of the Assembly ? do not wish to put down personation. I In financial matters it is a puzzle i how the General Government manage e to keep going. The military expenses o must far exceed the amount appro- d priated for the purpose, and neithei s the letter nor the spirit of the Consti- 1: tution authorises the Ministry to incui o heavy expenses beyond the appropria- f tion. An emergency might justify t such expenses, but that would only be 8 until the Assembly could be sum- t moned, " not continuously for several p months, purposely to avoid criticism t by the Assembly." If the latter course o is justifiable, our expensive Conslitu- i' tion is but a sham. March 27. t A series of articles have lately ap t poared in the Nsw Zealand Herald, '-' headed Great Britain v. New Zealand, v In these the facts at issue are distort- i ed and garbled, and quite as one-?ideo •' in their way as many of the article* v that have appeared in the Home press: r hut writers in Britain have net the h full opportunity of obtaining c/>rreci information that New Zealand journal t ists possess. Home writers say the p war is owing to the colonists' greed a for land, and consequently is purely a t colonial affair; the contributor to the I: Herald asserts that it was pun. ly an { Imperial war, entered into by an Im t perial officer, &c. Neither writers are \ correct. Governor Browne did not c rake a step in the preliminaries which t led to the Taranaki war without tin- c " advice and consent" of the responsi- 1 hie ministry of the Colony (Messrs. | Stafford, Whi taker, and Ricbmond), * consequently the responsibility cannot a be separated ; it is a joint affair be- I tween the Colony and the Imperial 5 Government. i Some editorials have also appeared, j suggesting the advisability of transfer- r ring our fealty to France or to the ! Umtad States, and asking assistance t in return. This would be admitting c that we, a branch of the great Anglo v Saxon race, are unable to govern our- c selves ! It is possible that we should i. not, if under the benign protection ol o Napoleon lIL, have to maintain such an expensive Governmental machine t as we now have, but the latter is part j uf the price we pay for political free- l ilom. That price might well be re- fc Juced, but it is not likely that many j of us would be willing to forego our \ personal liberty and our free press (in theory if not in practice here) for a , trifling and uncertain saving. j