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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 73, 29 May 1852, Page 6

To the Editor of the Lyitelton Timas. Sih, —" Politicians remark, (says Dr. Johnson, in No. 148 of the Rambler,) that no oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority. The robber may be seized and the invader repelled whenever they are found ; they who pretend no right but that of force, may be punished or suppressed. But when plunder bears the name of impost. . . fortitude is intimidated and wisdom confounded, resistance shrinks from an alliance with rebellion, and the villain remains secure in the robes of the Magistrate." This passage from so eminent a writer, must be to all who think at all on the subject an additional motive for joining the Society about to be established, and must awaken all who, like Mr. Brittan, think that because we have now no grievance to complain of, we shall sit with folded hands and sleep in fancied security, while the enemy shall steal on us and bind us with the same kind of fetters which now oppress so heavily the dwellers in " our native land," but to avoid this we must be up and doing, we must have a society who will watch jealously over our interest, and be ready to resist an undue exercise of authority,. remembering always, " prevention is better than a cure," and that it will be owing to our negligence if we allow that heavy and lasting oppression to fall on us, which is caused by that which is unfortunately of too common occurrence, —the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority. In this colony the enemy is already at the door, already has possession. Who shall dare say we have no grievance? true, it is no more than is endured at home, no more than is endured by other colonies, but its universality does not prove its justice, nor our present submission our entire concurrence. If we would know this grievance, ask any of our /colonists, ask those whose energies have been cramped, and whose capital has been wrested from them

at a time when they most needed "it, at a time when they might have benefited themselves and now assisted others ; ask our latest arrivals' from the richest to the poorest among them' what they have found to complain of, and they will tell you the iniquitous customs duties. This impost falls on them at a tima when they are least able to bear it; it is to some the cause of months of suffering, and to others the cause of ruin. After the expenses of a long voyage on their arrival here, they find they have <> s pay enormous duties, which are colle^teu with the utmost severity; the consequents some of them neglect, or at best, partially* cull tivate their land, and others, by selling and forcing a market either for their land or what goods they can spare, add to the depreciation,and struggle on for a time in the confusion of which they have unavoidably been the Cause. It is to these Customs' Duties especially I think-the Doctors words may justly be applied, " plunder bears the name of impost." % The expression may appear rash, harsh, and unjust, but still I think they deserve it. This mode of collecting a revenue is very much like a trick common to cabmen ; they cannot take you from Cheapside to the Bank without taking'you half over London, and making and charging for five or six times the distance they might have done it in. When detected, the unfortunate "cabby" is justly punished as an extortioner and plunderer, though he charged for no more than the work done ; yet, as he might have done it more expeditiously, he has rendered himself liable to a charge of fraud, as he does not do it under the " robes of the magistrate." But " That in the Captain's bnt a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy," I acknowledge the necessity of due enforcemegt of the law ; I acknowledge the blessing of security of life arid property; but I cannot acknowledge that this blessing is only to be attained by maintaining a staff of useless officers. The collectors may be " gentlemanly," the the clerks "jolly," and the landing-waiters a very obliging," yet, with all these redeeming qualities, I for one must protest my dislike of the obligation to support them; and will gladly^;, join a society which will prevent the extension of such abuses, and which will, in the words of one of your correspondents, be a preventative to our being saddled with " some needy protege" of the colonial office. R. T.