AUCKLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 278, 30 June 1855, Page 5

AUCKLAND.

The'news from Auckland brought by the last mail abounds in interest. The Provincial Government of the Northern Province had come to a dead lock. The new Superintendent and the old Council cannot work together, for his Honor has only two supporters among the members. This lias induced his Honor to request the Acting: Governor to dissolve the Council, but to this request his Excellency replied that it would "'be improper to dissolve on the eve of a new registration ; but his Excellency does not promise a dissolution when the registration should be effected. However high party spirit may run in the oilier provinces of New Zealand, it appears like peace and good fellowship compared with the state of party feeling in Auckland. The defeat of Mr. Brown by Colonel Wynyard, backed by the whole strength of the Government, by the military and pensioner interests, and by the missionary bodies, at the first ejection for Superintendent ; and the recent triumph of Mr. Brown over Mr. Whitaker, although that gentleman was supported by the same powerful interests, has created an antag-

| onisrri as strong as it well can be. But if the popular party is strongest out of doors, the old Government party is the strongest in the Council, and twenty-two to two are long odds'. Of course the Superintendent's measures are re— ceived with little favour. Instead of passing an. appropriation ordinance fora year, it Las been limited to three months only, except certain sums voted for public works; and ,had it not been for a little " pressure from without," the Council would, in all probability, have limited the vote for public works likewise to three months, which virtually would have been to declare that no public woiks should be undertaken, since an authority to spend money for such a brief time must have prevented any works of magnitude from being begun. After passing the estimates, the Council suddenly adjourned for nearly six weeks, while it had the supplementary estimates before it, without assigning any reason, so far as wecansee, for so extraordinary a step. But if the proceedings of the Council are important, there are other proceedings equally or more so. During'the preceding session, the Council agreed upon a veiy elaborate spt of land regulations—a little too complicated, we thought at the time, to work smoothly—but these regulations, although adopted and put in force by the Governor, are now declared,;, by a competent authority, to be illegal. This has brought all land sales to a hasty termination, much to, the disgust of a party of intending purchasers who had been attracted from the neighbouring colonies by the tempting bait which tin se land regulations hp]d out. Some persons were still for selling the land, whether it could be done legally or not, as if there' had: hot already been more than enough .confusion- in the north from illegal land sales. We are not sure, but we believe the old regulations have had to be reverted to, at least such a remedy; for the evil into which the provincehad fallen" was suggested.

The next cause of commotion has arisen from the disallowance of the City Council elections. The Provincial Council, duiingits first session, passed an ordinance constituting a City Council in Auckland, bestowing ,upon a body elected under its .provisions large powers'-of raising and expending money for Jocal improvements. Mr. Brown, the present Superintendent, has always been of opinion that the City Council had no legal existence—that, in fact, the Provincial Council did m t possess the power requisite to constitute such a body, and that, consequently all its acts were illegal.' Almost the first public act of the new Superintendent was to declare the City Council a nullity, for he had the power under the ordinance of deciding on the legality of the elections; but at the same time his Honor was willing, until a properly legal body could be constituted, to carry on, by the agency .of a commission, the public works the Council were engaged upon. As the City Council appears to have been a pet measure of the local Legislature, its sudden, strangulation by the Superintendent was viewed with great disfavour, and a second election.of councillors has ttken, or was about to take place, which his Honor was prepared again to annul. Some of the Provinciiil legislators talked very amusingly about (he legality or illegality of their proceedings. One honourable member, (Mr. J. O'Xeill) thought "unless the Council stood on its acts, and prevented the law from quibbling at their legality, the members had better beat home than spending their time there; 1' another worthy, Mr. Boylan, whs of opinion that " the usefulness of the City Council was of far more importance than its strict legality:" and a third, Mr. Powditch, was unable to understand how the act could be illegal, as he '' believed that the [Provincial] Council possessed the same power as the British Parliament for a high law officer had t'>lii him that it had power to }>ass any law not repugnant to the law of England." The iirsi-nained of these three gentlemen is going--to play the very deuce with the General Assembly, which seems a very unpopular body with the northern provincial lights. Mr. O'Neill informs us that, as the weakness of the Provincial Council is the strength of the General Assembly, so the " General Assembly must either swallow up the Provincial -Council, or the Provincial Council the General Assembly." Really, this Kilkenny-cat warfare looks serious, and we congratulate ourselves that we are beyond the risk of having to swallow a *h;ue of such indigestible bodies,.or, saving that to be swallowed up in turn.— Nelson Examiner. .