THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, February 25, 1843.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 51, 25 February 1843, Page 202

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, February 25, 1843.

Lei joumaux deviennent piiu nlcessaires a mesure que les homines sont plus egaux, et 1' individualisme plus & craindre. Cc serait diminuer leur importance que de croire qu' Us ne «ervent qu' it garantir la liberty ; ill naintiennent la civilisation. DX TOCQUBVILLK. De la Democratic en Amerique, tome 4, p. 230. JoumaU become more .necessary as men become more equal, and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty : they maintain civilisation. Db Tocqubyillb. Of Democracy in America, vol . 4, p. 202. Every step we make in advance, every nearer approach towards the ordinary standard of executive establishment, shows us more plainly the vast barrier to progress that is presented by the unsettled state of the question as to titles to our lands. While for a time we were every way deficient in the ordinary machinery of government, the want of this one essential groundwork of the whole — security in the possession of landed property — struck us the less, because, though loud grumbling and justly discontented enough, yet there must have been in the minds of all a sufficient substratum of confidence in the good faith of Government, which would in the end set things to rights, and by some means equitably enforce contracts entered into in good faith by the parties concerned. But as this, that, and the other cause of complaint is removed, as clearing our woy onward various obstacles

are overcome, "we only perceive the more clearly how useless has all our labour been, how vain all our long-urgent cry for aid, while this barrier stands still facing us, impenetrated, unsurmounted. Everywhere, turn where we will, we are stopped by it. There can properly be no jury list, for there are no freeholders. There is no security to purchasers or mortgagees. The inclination to invest capital in land is altogether checked. A fertile source of discord and quarrel, the lawyers alone can be benefited by the title question being still left open. We have heard that the Officer administering the Government proposes to grant titles to the land in the town, and perhaps to

some in the immediate neighbourhood, so as to provide freeholders to sit as jurymen. This object is one so much to be desired, that we would not, on any account, be supposed to offer an objection to the plan by which it is to be obtained, by which we are to receive security of the rights to which all Britons are born. But this one question settled, jurymen provided, and the court holding its sitting!, comes the general question again, the same as ever, only an argument removed by which the necessity for its immediate settlement could be more palpably put, more strenuously urged. It is requisite to have the titles settled not merely because their remaining otherwise acts as a bar to the administration of justice in other matters, but because it is in itself a matter which demands in justice to be at once set at rest ; because it is but justice to us purchasers of land that the question should be settled. We want to be certain that the ground on which we tread is firm, before we proceed further. Who can blame us ? Or even how can we blame those who hang back, and, though interested in the place, employ their capital in other ways rather than advance it on the security of land to which the would-be mortgagor can show no title. The very fact of its being known in 'England that we are still without titles acts injuriously to our interests. Should the contrary be published to-morrow in England, it would give immediately a fresh impetus to every proceeding connected with the settlement. Matters of great importance hitherto on the tapis, vapourized into talk of the possibly possible, would be condensed at once into the immediately practicable. Who is there amongst us whose memory does not supply him with numerous cases in point ? Capital would at once flow into channels so peculiarly fitted for its reception and profitable transmission, when they were no longer dammed by such dangerous and objectless interruptions. Seeing that things are in other respects likely to take a favourable turn, our whole attention is now turned this ward. There it stands hemming us. Place us only in a position to put our foot upon it, to down with it and have done with it, and let us then fare onwards. Other matters we may, we hope, look upon as settled, only wanting some arrangement of detail : this still hangs over .us, shaking confidence by its threatening aspect. Let us work and pray that it be swept from our horizon at once and without delay ; so that we may know and acknowledge that the " God speed you " of the lip has also an echo in the well* wishing language of the heart.

It would be a pity that, for want of foresight, we should place ourselves in a position to be purchasers in this our early stage of more than is absolutely necessary. All that we can provide ourselves with we should, and especially so when the produce, of whatever description, is of such a nature as to be certain to be in sufficient demand

elsewhere to insure a profitable export to the amount of any accidental overplus. What we have especially in view at present is the production of grasses, whether what are called the natural or artificial, either for the purpose of supplying the horse and bullock keepers of the town with green food or nay, or for ships arrived with thort commons requiring supplies before they can

land their cargo, or the occasional export of an animal or two, which is incidental to all ' places, whether there be an export trade in stock or not. The clovers, the numerous English grasses, needless to name, the oat to cut green, the lucerne, or the alfalfa, will be grown of course, according to the fancy or knowledge of the proprietor, or the nature of the soil. All that appears to us requisite is in time to warn our fellow settlers not to put off, until the wanUs^ pressing, a wise provision to meet futuft^ demand for a species of produce which it is next to impossible can be in excess for the next twenty years.

The Government brig left the harbour on Wednesday afternoon, and anchored outside. It had been very unwisely attempted to take her out on Sunday morning, about one o'clock, without a pilot, when, as was not at all surprising, she ran her nose on to the boulders at the end of Fifeshire Island, and hung there until the rising tide lifted her off, wheu she returned to her old anchorage. We should be very much obliged to any gentleman who could make it clear that it was perfectly possible for vessels to go in and out of our harbour jt all times, of night or day without a pilot ; but, as we are not so very fortunate as all that, we do hope that in future no friends, with however kind intention, will run so imminent a risk of injuring their vessels and our reputation as there must be in cases like the present. Captain Richards had been so fortunate as to go out once before at night without assistance ; but, to be secure, especially in darkness, there should be a pilot on board all vessels drawing the water which the brig does.

His Excellency went on board early on Thursday morning, and the brig sailed for Taranaki about ten o'clock. It is understood that the appointments made are — H. A. Thompson, Esq., to be Judge of the County Court; W. L. Shepherd, Esq., Clerk to the Court, and, for the present, also to the Magistrates ; G. R. Richatdson, Esq., to be Crown Prosecutor; W. O. Cautley, Esq., to be Registrar of Deeds, and, for the present, also Postmaster ; A. Macdonald, Esq., to be Sheriff pro tern. We arc not aware who we are to have for Police Magistrate ; but it is understood that Mr. Thompson will act until the opening of the court; as, from one of those hitches unhappily too frequent in the practical application of the new law, it is necessary that the Judge should be sworn in before a Judge of the Supreme Court, which cannot be done until the arrival of the Chief Justice in the southern district. We have heard several names mentioned as additions to the bench of magistrates,. but are not sufficiently certain to allow of our publishing their names Uti'ttr'after" proclamation*.

We have seen ' within the last few days some remarkably fine seed potatoes, raised from seed brought from England, by the Rev. J. Sax ton. The potatoes of the first crop from seed seldom, we believe, exceed the size of a large marble ; in this instance, however, we were astonished to see specimens as large as a full-sized duck-egg, and the sorts appeared to he all of a superior character. Mr. Saxton has tried numerous - experiments in his garden, which is on fern land of a superior but not the finest description ; 4 and has received but little preparation, and the results have been most satisfactory as regards general fertility. Among other matters of curiosity, he has early frame i pease, which were merely scratched in without digging, and flowered early in the spring ; they have been earthed up occasionally, and have continued growing and bearing up to the present moment, vriSPfe they look as fresh and green as ever, and have an excellent crop on them. Some beans, which had yielded very largely, wera cut down close after the first bearing had been gathered, and the second growth is now looking unusually, strong and healthy. Potatoes planted in trenches, similar to

celery, and treated by filling up with earth, in the same manner, have produced the usual crop at the bottom, and on the stalk ' upwards to the surface, fine potatoes have grown. It is possible that similar treatment or very high earthing might tend to check the inclination which potatoes have here to throw out smaller ones from the base of those already half grown ; at all events it is worth the experiment.

*f [From a Correspondent.]— On Tuesday evening last, a Female Rechabite Tent was opened in this town. The candidates were not numerous ; but, from the spirited nature of their proceedings, we trust they will prove an important auxiliary to the great cause of temperance, whilst the tent will offer a valuable assistance to every female wishing to insure a virtuous independence.

" Sailing Directions for Vessels entering

the tide-harbour of Waitera. — High water at 9 o'clock, water on the bar at Spring tides 13$ feet, at neap tides between 10 and 11 feet. Coming from the southward, and having made the outer sugar loaf, run from that place N.E. $ E. for 12 miles, which will keep you nearly parallel with the shore, and distant from it about 14 miles, when you will get two black beacons in line, which are placed close to the shore near the entrance of the river bearing S. by E., which steer for -till you come to a buoy which in placed in the

channel, when you are safely over the bar. Steer then to the eastward about £ mile till you come to a buoy placed in mid-channel, and from thence to a beacon bearing E. 3 S. till you come to another buoy in line with it. If you wish to go

further up the river, keep close the island on the larboard hand, which will keep you clear of all snags; you can then bring up in 17 or 18 feet water under the cliff, about 2 cables' length ahead of the island. There is no occasion for any vessel to go. beyond the second buoy, as far as regards safety, as they can lay there in every wind or weather. Just beyond the second buoy there is a kind of natural dock, where small craft

cslii lay aground when the tide is out on soft sand and clay." — New Zealand Gazette. Past and present Cost of Colonial Government. — It is one of the many evils attending our government, that party-spirit is created aud fostered by the mere hope of partaking in the profits of the great expenditure which accompanies it. Our own times are probably the first in which the governing body, in large states, has sought to acquire strength by multiplying dependents on the public purse ; a matter of statecraft now well understood in some great European kingdoms. Under our old colonial system, no temptation whatever was held out to self-interest assuming the mask of patriotism — the commonest form of hypocrisy in these days. The expense of the civil establishment in Mossachussets Bay, before the commencement of the American war, was estimated by Adam Smith at about £18,000 a year ; that of New Hampshire and Rhode Island, £3,500 each; that of Connecticut, .£4,000 ; that of New York and Pennsylvania, £4,500 each; that of New Jersey, £1,200 ; that of Virginia and South Carolina, £8,000 each. "An ever-memorable example," as he most truly adds, " at how small an expense 3,000,000 of people may not only be governed, but well governed." In 1846, the civil expenditure of Newfoundland, paid out of its revenue, was £36,000 ; of Prince Edward's Island, £13,000 ; New Brunswick, £52,000 ; Lower Canada, at least £1,000,000. If this enormous difference were compensated by superior government, I for one should be little disposed to cavil at the amount of the sums which the people of the Colonies are called on to advance for the purchase of so inestimable a blessing. But I might safely ask those who entertain the highest notions of government and its duties, whether any of its functions, moral or material, are" better fulfilled in our colonies of the present day than they were in the ancient American provinoes.— «J4«r*M/f'« Lte-

turet on Colonization.

Lawyers' Costs. — An important Act passed the last Session of Parliament which is not generally known, having for its object to prevent plaintiffs in frivolous actions from obtaining full costs of suits. This Act repeals the 3d and 4th Victoria, c. 24. as to actions wherein verdicts had been returned before it passed. No plaintiff who had before the passing of the Act obtained a vetdiet of less damages than forty shillings shall now be entitled to full costs, unless he was so entitled immediately before the passing of the Act of last session. Entails.— Entails are the natural consequences of the law of primogeniture. They were int -oduced to preserve a certain lineal succession, of which the law of primogeniture first gave the idea, and to hinder any part of. the original estate from being carried out of the proposed line, either by gift, or device, or alienation; either by the folly or by the misfortune of any of its successive owners. They were altogether unknown to the Romans. Neither their institutions nor fidiecommisses bear any- resemblance to entails, though some French lawyers have thought proper to dress the modern institution in the language and garb of those ancient ones. When great landed estates were a sort of principalities, entails might not be unreasonable. Like what are called the

fundamental laws of some monarchies, they might, frequently hinder the security of thousands from -being endangered by the extravagance of one ; man. But in the present state of Europe, when *gmall asjvelljasgreat estate* derive their security from the~laws of their country, nothing can be more completely absurd. They are founded upon the most absurd of all suppositions, the supposition that every successive generation of men have not an equal right to the earth, and to all that it possesses ; bnt that the property of the present generation should be restrained and regulated according to the fancy of those who died perhaps five hundred years ago.—^4. Smith.