THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS BILL.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 2, 19 March 1842, Page 6

THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS BILL.

We are exceedingly anxious to see tfie Municipal Corporations Bill, as altered^fh its transit through the Council. Such as it was when first laid upon the table it appeared to us decidedly satisfactory. We do not say that there was nothing which we would have altered ; but the general spirit in which it was drawn up was so infinitely above that which previous notices of Auckland legislation had led us to expect, that we were most agreeably disappointed. We had intended to give in our columns a copy of the original bill ; but, as we look now every day for copies of the ordinance, we have thought it better to await its arrival. It is remarkable that from a Council so formed as that which now rules these, islands such an ordinance should ever have proceeded. It is still more remarkable that the only protesting hand and voice against this ordinance — and that, too, on the ground of its democratic tendency — should have been the hand and voice of one of the socalled independent members. Not that we question Mr. Earp's independence, but simply that we know nothing at all of the matter. We have found honey in the carcase of the dead lion : let us not be hypercritical as to the how or the why. Yet stfll it is fitting that we give honour and gratitude where they are due. To whom, then, do we owe it that, at a period hitherto unprecedented in any British colony, we shall be in the exercise' of the functions of free men — that we shall be fulfilling those duties and' asserting those rights which are so congenial to our national character, so essential to the preservation of our independence ? Without any intention of adverting to English politics, with every desire and determination to be wholly independent of every party, we tannot refrain from expressing out gratitude to Lord John Russell, for the clear exposition of the rights which we have not foregone by leaving our native country. Hitherto, to ■ emigrate has been to yield so much of individual liberty, that men have hardly known how to select between starvation at home and petty tyranny in a colony. Henceforth new settlements will be schools where the most ignorant may learn, the most indifferent become interested in the machinery of a representative government. According to the instructions from which the principles of this ordinance have been drawn, the municipal corporations, and the exercise of the right* necessarily attendant upon their formation, are to be the political leading-strings of th»se settlements. Experience has shown that it is better to fit all for the exercise of the franchise than leaving all to their chance, to establish a distinction, often arbitrary and never just, between' those who are and those who are not supposed to be competent. We have been led away from our original purpose, which was to have made some remarks upon the bill itself rather than upon the improved spirit of colonial legislation which dictated it. The~ necessary extracts on the subject of Auckland legislation prevent us from entering at greater length into this subject; but we* shall continue it in our next. In looking over the file of the New. Zealand Herald, we find, in the number published on the 11th of December, 1841, an

article which announces with some exultation the cc rtajnty of the, defeat and ejectment of the. W^igs on the meeting of the new Parliaments and gives out at the same time, as one .3^ the most important Causes of gratulation to the' colonies in general, and New Zealand in particular, the strong probability " That a more rational and liberal course of policy will be extended to these islands ; that a death-blow will be dealt to the theories of a Wakefield as regards colonization; and that the specious bubble of the self-supporting system will burst at the breath of an untrammelled and sagacious Colonial Minister— a system absurd if extended to any new colony, but more particularly to this, which, though a new colony as regards its annexation to the British Crown, is actually an old colony, inasmuch as it contained at various points a stationary population of considerable numbers long before the British flag was unfurled on its shores— a population whose incongruous elements require the intervention of, as well as the protection of the strong arm of tbe law. This protection involves an expense, to meet which the funds of a young colony (for it must be so regarded as to its finances) are totally inadequate." The writer of the article from which the above is extracted has doubtless paid much attention to the practical working of what he calls the " theories of a Wakefield." It would be to offer unmerited slight to the zeal and talents of the editor of the Herald, to suppose that he has allowed the many opportunities which his position must have given him of watching the result of the Port Nicholson experiment to pa3s unmarked and un profited by. His conviction, therefore, that tbe system is absurd in all colonies, whether new or old, and more especially in this, which it appears is at once both old and new, we do not quarrel with ; every one has a right to his opinion, and why not the editor of the New Zealand Herald? But, when he speaks of Mr. Wakefield's plan of colonization as " the specious bubble of the self-supporting system," he either descends, for want of argument, to wilful misrepresentation, or must be content to lie under the imputation of total ignorance of that which lie scruples not to vilify. Mr. Wakefirfd'e is not * self-supporting system : it never professed to be so. It interferes not in the slightest degree with the pecuniary relations of the colony and the mother country. It proposes merely such a superintendence of the sale of land as shall tend to ensure its cultivation, by rendering acquisition sufficiently difficult to prevent individuals from acquiring the rights of ownership who are not in a situation to fulfil its duties, and thus to exert the productive powers of capital and labour in a field exactly proportioned to the amount of each. Mr. Wakefield, in bis evidence before the committee of the House of Commons, has distinctly stated this to be the case. Content with having thrown a light upon the art of colonization, which dispels all the clouds which have hitherto enveloped it, he wisely leaves all questions of colonial government, whether financial or otherwise, to be decided according to the circumstances of each particular case. Should " the theories of a Wakefield " but fulfil ' the promise which the present experiments of the New Zealand Company appear to us to give cf them, the time may come when the unprecedented prosperity of colonies so founded may indeed entitle them to be called the " selfsupporting system," not in mocking misrepresentation of his proposed object*, but as a just tribute to the prosperity which its adoption shall have ensured.

We mentioned in our last that a public meeting had been held at Auckland, for the purpose of expressing the general indignation excited by tbe Land Claims Bill. On this subject we now extract the .following from the New Zealand Gazette : — # " The Land Claims Bill introduced by the Attorney-General has been withdrawn, ostensibly in deference to the opposition of the three non-official members of the Council, but really, we suspect, on account of some split among the official gentlemen: for Mr. Secretary Shortland has introduced another bill for the same purpose, which the Attorney-General disclaims. An article on the new bilL in the Auckland Herald, describes it as ' infinitely worse than the one thrown out.' Nevertheless, Mr. Clendon and Mr. Porter gave it their

support; and are smartly rebuked for their ratting by the Auckland editor. Mr. dene don's conduct is the subject of . the following . remarks : — " ' We are sorry Jhat, after having through- ■ out the session remained true to the cause efC the colony, Mr. Clendon appears to havethought fit to desert the settlers in their "hour of need/ and to have been gained over by the Government party. Mr. Clendon has doubt- - less his reasons for this, though we must confess we cannot see what those reasons are. . He has now got his land in exchange for the hopeful township of Russell, therefore he can-, have nothing to fear from the Government;, and, if he imagine that he has anything to. hope from them, his faith in them is infinitely greater than ours. His grant of land ought tohave made him, in every sense of the word, an. independent man. Ten thousand acres of good land immediately adjoining the capital is no ■ bad exchange for three hundred acres of inaccessible rock at the " Governor's Folly.'* Surely the honourable gentleman is not afraid that, if he do hot support the Governmentupon the land question, the Home Governments will refuse, to ratify Captain Hobson's bargain, with him. There is no doubt that the good" people of Downing-street will stare not a little, when they see land worth £20,000 given in exchange for other land not worth the same number of pence ; and it is just possible that they may even venture .to ask his Excellency why such things be. Still Mr. Clendon has nothing to fear on this account, inasmuch as l>efore their pleasure on the subject can be known, Mr. Clendon will hold his land upon that most valuable of all legal tenures, possession; and the Governor, not Mr. Clendon, must stand the brunt oi the inquiry there will certainly be.' " It is insinuated that Mr. Porter has I)ten sopped by leave to introduce a clause for me issue of land scrip, which might enable the holder to obtain something now for the land he may be put in possession of some years hence. " Mr. Earp remains in opposition, and is greatly glorified by his friend, the Herald's editor, for his independence. Conduct generally attributed by Mr. Earp's constituents to instability of purpose, the Auckland editor has discovered to be the working of profound policy." Of much that suggests itself to us on. reading this article of our contemporary's,, we confess that the sense of the ludicrous* is most prominent. In the first place, here is our friend, the New Zealand Gazette* with a most editorial unwillingness to acknowledge ignorance of anything, speculating — not unwisely, either — as to the possible motives of our Auckland legislators, of which, nevertheless, we shrewdly suspect on this subject he is as profoundly ignorant as ourselves. Then there is the change of tone in the Auckland Herald, which comes upon us rather suddenly, who have seen no Auckland paper since that of the Bth of January y particularly when, in addition to the above, we find the following extract from its columns :— " Wednesday's shameful disclosure has stamped them with a name and conferred on them a character not to be envied by ordinary and common men — a name which shall never be forgotten in New Zealand. The events of Wednesday shall be intimately connected with every page of her history, as tine reward of arrogant presumption and shameless political deception. They have obtained a name ' which tyranny shall quake to hear,' at least in New Zealand. " In our former number we gently touched the whip. We shall hereafter take the stockman's strong and long lash (if matters do not speedily change for the better), by means of every crack of which we shall make a sore — which shall not only bleed but fester." There occurs to us also the idea of what a flagrant piece of jobbing must the new bill be, if it deserve worse abuse than was dealt out to its defunct, predecessor, by the gentlemen assembled at Wood's Hotel, on the 3d of February, 1842 :— " That, in the opinion of this meeting, the Land Claims Bill, as originally proposed to the honourable the Legislative Council, is unjust to the claimants generally; and that the amendments proposed by the Government, instead of diminishing the injurious tendency of the said bill, are only calculated to increase it." And again :—: — " That, notwithstanding the assurances on the part of his Excellency the Governor, which had led tbe colonist* to employ additional capital, and to extend their commerce to every available spot on the immense coMt of this beautiful country, tbe colonists were filled with consternation and alarm, on finding that his Excellency had introduced a measure into the Legislative Council of the colony, to compel them to vacate the lands on which they had solong resided, and to drive them, en masse, to districts where there was little available land, and where success was, at best, the result of a doubtful experiment, to the utter destruction not only of their property, but of the commerce which had for so many years been the reward of their industry and enterprise." And still again : — " That, upon remonstrance by the colonists

generally, by petitions and otherwise, with the Government, they were told that the bill should be ameliorated, and that they should derive every advantage which their enterprise and industry had deserved. " That, upon these ameliorations (as they were called), being submitted, to the colonists, they were astonished to find that they consisted ■only of a leasi of the lands which the Govern* tnent bad admitted in the preamble of their bill to be yalidly purchased, and that lease for a •very limited period ; a measure which they are confident that the British Government had soever conceived, nor would sanction, if passed by the Government of this colony. " That such a measure is not only in the tiighest degree unjust to the European population, who had made these islands their home long before the interference of the British Government; but it is also, in a still, greater .degree, unjust to the aborigines themselves." Yet once more, with a hard hit at Mr. Wakefield's plan of colonization, which the good folks of Auckland could not resist the temptation of giving: — " That the whole of these evils appear to be contemplated for the mere sake of trying an experiment of the system of "centralization," without taking into account that this country is thickly peopled in every direction throughout its vast extent with a native race, who, under a wise and judicious system of government, would consume more articles of trade than the whole European population, and that they can only be supplied by establishing and fostering settlements wherever the native population abounds - -thus creating a very great outlet for British goods, and receiving in exchange such articles of produce as will always find a ready sale in the Australian colonies, as well as in the mother country. " That 6uch a system of legislation is unworthy of a country, which the commonest fore- | Bight and sagacity can predict must, from its geographical position and hydrographical advantages, one day become the Britain of the southern hemisphere. The object of the ! Government of such a country ought rather to bo to legislate for the future prosperity of so important a colony, than to sacrifice its present interests and its future destiny to a mere visionary theory, of which nothing more has been proved than that it has been found to fail wherever it has been adopted." And lastly: — " That, on account of all the various reasons utated, it can now no longer be concealed that this meeting has no confidence in the good faith of the Government of New Zealand, and is fully convinced that it would be detrimental to the interests of both the native and European population, as well as calculated, in an eminent degree, to reflect on the hitherto untarnished character of Great Britain, if the administration of the government* of this most interesting colony be conducted as it hitherto has been done." If such things were done in the green tree, what will be done in the dry ? If this j is the character of the old bill, what must | the new bill be, which is " infinitely worse ?" Seriously, we sympathise with the land claimants ; for, with some of them, it appears to be really a hard case. We sympathise with Captain Hobson ; for, with all respect be it spoken, he seems to be Ishmael's antitype, of whom it was said " Every man's hand shall be against him ;" and all because, either misunderstanding or misunderstood, " his hand appears to be against every man." We look in despair at the compliaation of the whole matter, and verily believe that we would rather at once give up our editorial duties than attempt to unravel, for the benefit (?) of our readers, the tangled skein of the Auckland squabbles with the Council, or those of the ' Council among themselves upon this sub- i ject. I