LETTER 111.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue I, 30 July 1842, Page 83

LETTER 111.

To thb Editor of the Nelson Exauinbb. Sir— lt was my desire to have kept the Governor out of sight for a while. I had intended in this letter to have addressed the resident agent of the New Zealand Company on the present state of this settlement considered in its relation to that body ; but his Excellency seems resolved that the vices of his Government, unlike the interests of the settlers, shall not remain under a cloud. The Cardinal de Retz lays it down as a maxim — I quote from memory, and cannot, therefore, refer Mr. Shortland to the particular page in the Memoirs — that men who enter upon employment should make it their study to set out in the world with something uncommon, in order to strike the imagination of the people, and make themselves taken notice of. "Whether the Governor has taken a lesson out of the cardinal's book, or whether the functionary, whose mouthpiece his Excellency is reported to be, may, among his varied acquirements, have learned that such a work is extant, I shall not undertake to say with any certainty. The public may form a better judgment after digesting the statement I am about to make. There is an eloquence in facts. Unlike Governors, they speak for themselves. Mr. Erapson, a merchant who has lately come to Nelson, when he arrived at Port Nicholson placed his goods in bond, believing that, on arrival at this port, he would be liable to the payment of those duties which our Government has such a curious felicity in levying. Having procured a vessel to convey his goods to this place, Mr. Empson learned, with the surprise natural to a man unacquainted with the machinations of favourites in office, and ignorant of the various influences which preside over the councils of a colony — Mr. Empson, I say, learned that the duties in question must be paid* at Wellington, before the goods could be taken out of bond. He appealed against so great a hardship. He assured the Comptroller of Customs that he was not going to bond his goods at Nelson at all, but that he would pay the necessary duties as soon as he should arrive at that port. His cargo was not insured — could not *be insured ; and, if to the risk of loss he were compelled to add the payment of a heavy impost, he not unreasonably felt that his grievance would be a great one. Mr. Empson knew as well as Captain Hobson that if the duties were not paid at Wellington the revenue might be evaded ; and Captain Hobson knows as well as Mr. Empson that the revenue might be as well secured by making Nelson a bonded port as by making Wellington one; and all the world knows as well as either of them that our trade and her Majesty's Customs ought to have been protected by & suitable arrangement for bonding goods at this settlement before we arrived. Our victimized merchant would not, indeed, have i gained much by having been enabled to insure his cargo. Even then he must have effected a policy on the full value of his goods, inclusive of duties. But, if Nelson had possessed a bonding warehouse, he might have removed his goods out of bond at Wellington. Then he might have insured his brandy, for example, at the rate of ten shillings the gallon. But, as Government has taken care that Nelson shall possess no such thing, he must have insured his brandy at the rate of fifteen shillings the gallon — all for the encouragement of commerce. Mr. Empson, thus perplexed, proposed to clear out for Sydney, intending to have touched at Nelson, and, if he liked our market, to have sought for customers. This plan is sanctioned by the canons of commercial ethics, which constitute many such expedients mere pious frauds, such as do not prick the tender consciences of mercantile men. But the fiscal functionary was too wide awake. He declared that, if Mr. Empaon should take that course, he would instruct the Collector of Customs in our deserted village to prevent the goods from being landed here. Thus baffled by the elaborate industry of Go- | vernment, in all his endeavours to make a profitable investment, Mr. Empson made a virtue of necessity, and paid the duties at Wellington. ■ This transaction is the' common talk on Auckland Point. " Even there, where merchants most 6,0 congregate," they content themselves with a whispered murmur that several months ago they applied for leave to erect a bonded store. They have not yet been answered. Perhaps they have not been heard. And these men, sir, these traders of our port, " With bated breath and 'whispering humlileneis," crouch before the footstool of their Ruler and present memorials. They do not claim — they petition. They sue for condescension when they should demand redress. If they must memorialize, why not memorialize the Queen to remove her unfaithful servant ? If they must present petitions, why not present them to the British Parliament and people ? ,ob, craven merchants ! You scarce deserve to have your wrongs made known by the energy of An Englishman. In the United States no new political question had arisen. The case of the Creole was discussed with increasing warmth, and Congress had assumed a hostile attitude. A resolution had been passed in the Senate, to ask the Government what steps had been taken to vindicate the rights of the States and to bring the offenders of the Creole to justice for "mutiny and murder" ? Henry Clay was among the supporters of the resolution; and it passed unanimously. — Colonial Gazette, Feb. 9. The retirement of Sir Charles Metcalf from the Government of Jamaica and the appointment of the Earl of Elgin in his room seem now to be beyond a doubt. It is understood that ill-health is the cause of Sir Charles's resignation.