Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 237, 6 October 1868, Page 2

As the Airedale had not been signalled wheu we went to press, there is no probability that the Panama Mail will be despatched to-day, and it may be therefore regarded as a certainty that the mail will not close at all events until 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. Amongst the passengers by the Gothenburg this morning was his Honor the Superintendent, who has paired off for the remainder of the session with Mr George Graham, of Auckland. It is generally supposed that the present sitting of the General Assembly will be prolonged at all events until the 21st instant, and probably for some short time beyond that date. From tbe monthly Report of the Nelson Hospital we fiad that out of the 13 patients in hospital at the end of August and the 5 admitted during the month of September, 4 bave been discharged cured, 2 discharged relieved, 1 has died, and 11 remain. The Government Gazette notifies the acceptance by his Excellency the Governor of the resignation of Thomas Alfred Sneyd Kynnersley, Esq., as Justice of the Peace and a Resident Magistrate. Dr Featherston, the Superintendent of Wellington, is rapidly recovering from the indisposition nnder which he has been laboring, and he is now able to attend to his official duties. The Sturt was to have left on Sunday last for Wanganui, with the detachment of the 18 th Royal Irish, stationed at Wellington, in accordance with the resolution ofthe House of Representatives, and with the sanction of his Excellency the Governor, but it was thought convenient, on account of the tide, to postpone her departure until yesterday morning, when she left at an early hour. She has on board a quantity of Sneider ammunition, besides other cargo. Tbe men were taken up under tbe command of Captain Young, Captain Dawson being now engaged on a court-martial at Napier. A telegram from Napier, under date of the lst inst. states that there is no alarm felt at Wairoa. A stockade is in progress. A patrol has been sent to watch the enemy, who are said to be in want of ammunition. The escaped prisoners are supposed to be at or near Tarewera, Another telegram, dated on the 3rd inst., on the contrary, aßserts that« person, on whose truthfulness reliance may be placed, and who was at Tarawera on Tuesday last, reports only three natives there, a blind man, and two old women. A party of natives had been digging up potatoes at tbe old cultivations, They were evidently not bent on any hostility, and had left the place. It is -stated that tbe escaped prisoners propose to deliver up their arms and settle npon their land, if Government will permit them. An Act of the Imperial Parliament, called An Act to determine the time at which Letters Patent shall take effect in. the Colonies, has been recently brought into force in this colony. Amongst the arrivals at Wellington by the Ruahine on Thursday was Captain John Vine Hall, formally Manager of the P.N.Z. & A.R.M. Company in these colonies, and it is understood that, the object of his mission is in connection with the affairs of tbe Company, in which he is still interested, and in which it is rumored that extensive and important changes are likely soon to be effected. He is accompanied by Captain Blane, R.N., one of the Directors. In an article in the Wellington Independent, showing what England owes to this colony, it is asked-—' Has the mother country received no advantages from the colonisation of New Zealand? She has; she enjoys a monopoly of our trade. During the year 1866 we imported no less than £5,500,000 worth of her manufactures, which in that year was more than the value of the united imports of South Australia and Queensland. This sum would keep a great many factories and workshops, with their tens of thousands of workmen in profitable employment. Ought England to haggle and drive hard bargains with her colonies? Ships and colonies have made her famous as well as great and powerful. The British Government seem to forget

that the colonists of New Zealand have spent the best part of their lives in the heroic work of colonisation j that they have had to reclaim a wilderness, contend with warlike savages, build up towns, make roads, introduce population, make provision for religion, education, and for the proper government of a civilised community located in a country inhabited by savages, and almost as large as tbe new kingdom of Italy, islands excepted.' Another association is about to be formed at Christchurch. Under what title it is not mentioned ; but its object will, according to a resolution passed at a public meeting, be ' for the purpose of protecting the interests of the Middle Island against injurious legislation.' Another resolution wasj passed at this meeting to the effect that it had ' no confidence in the Ministry and is of opinion that the present Parliament should be dissolved immediately after the session.' The Lyttelton Time3 in commenting on this meeting, at which there was nearly 1000 persons present, says ' There was no excitement, no unnecessary enthusiasm, but every one seemed impressed with the gravity of the occasion, and the vital importance of the question they had to express an opinion upon. . , . The Stafford Ministry retains not a shred of that confidence which is necessary to carry on the government of the country.' In speaking of the second resolution it says that that resolution, affirming the necessity of forming an association for the protection of the interests of the Middle Island against injurious legislation, was received with even more heartiness than tbe first.'