THE NEW ZEALAND DEBATES. [From the Times, July 23.]

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 30, 27 December 1845, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALAND DEBATES. [From the Times, July 23. ]

The division of a legislative body into party sections is natural, perhaps necessary ; nor are the effects thereof, either all good or all evil. Amongst the advantages of the spirit of opposition, is the sj>ui which it gives 10 energies that else might not be put forth, or (which is harder still) mi^ht not he sustained and kept in extrtion. Among the drawbacks is the too frequent occurrence of the sacrifice of great and general principles, to paiticular interests. No in-tance of the preference by a party of " self love to s>C;al |f was ever more staking than that which has been displayed in the Njw Zealand debates. The management of the colony has been tr'eattd as a pure party question. In vain did the advocates of the New Zei and Company try to put it on another footing, and entreat that it might not be made a Government affair. Their interest too visibly concurred with this their prayer. Because they were sincere, they were distrusted, and it was refused. They were certain of being in a minority, if it was to be simply a party question. On the other hand, Lord Stanley was deeply interested in its being made a parly question; for so only could his egregious, his habitual, his systematic mU-m.inagemeut of the colonies in geueral, and of this colony in particular, escape censure and a reproving vote. A party question, then it has been made. The only chance lor -t.hrf' i»ii«».-..h1« mirl rimipfi /»nlnn lg t° liujJia l diei e may be found a sufficient number of independent members who will insist on deciding the matier by its merits, and not by official politics, as Mr. B irkly diJ on the former occasi u. Many circumstances have combined against New Zealand in the present debate. Some membeis, like Lord Howick, are absent lor special reasons. The lateness ot the season has thinned the house. To the sense of fatigue has supervened a determination strong as death to enjoy a liohd iy after such prolonged labours. Exhausti .11 has' brought on the maladic dv pays. Railway have accelerated their flight, by the broad gua^es and by the narrow. But the members of Govern- , meut must remain at their pests, their retainers and dependents must nted stay to vote, and to divide for the Minister, and against the Colony To be thus rescued by his colleagues through a party vote, u> have heard the opin on* th.it have been expressed, and to have been made conscious of what the puvate opinions oi many of those who have not expressed them, are, can hardly be without some significance even for Lord Stanley ; to a more sensitive mind these things would have a language of most intelligible distinctness. But, passing 1 from his Lordship, to the opposite inttrett,, we shall find, that iour pirties a. least, are mainly affected by the policy of the Colonial office, as exhibited towards New Zealand, viz — the New Zeahud natives, the Settlers, the Compam, and the Crown. First, there are the New Zealanders who since their country has (by whatever course of even s), become a colony t,f Great Britain, are deeply concerned iv being protected from encroachment. Their number not ixoeediug'one hundred thousand, they are lar from occupying the whole of the country, comprising 80,000,000 acres. But what they d.d occupy, and did not sell, ought to be secured to them, —nor can we recognise the proper spirit of protection in Lord Stanley's avowed design 'of gelling possession of those lauds which they make least use of by taxuig them, and compelling them to register these uncultivated lauds. It would be more direct, and more fair, for Government to assume to itself, all the land that cannot he known to have been under occupation. Next come the seltlers. These have broken the ties of home, impelled hjfjK&rjjuie-Fcasons to seek au asylum in a new country. They have experienced, an I they know what a government owes to be governed ; and instead of a fulfilment ot its divies, they now witness nothing but oppiession, misina ' nagemeut aud disorganization of us parts, the con* sequences of which are ruinous to themselves. The lands they bought in England, are withheld from them, against the wish of the vendors. The very authority, to whiih, iv ordinary ciicuuistances, they would have appealed, to have a fulfil nent of engagements enforced, is the one that has rendered their fulfilment impossible. The New Zealand Company is the next great interest. They are the vendors, who have been driven into a breach of contract. Before ever the colony was attached to England,— while it was independent, and its independence recognised, rhiscompauyboug"ht lands in New Zealaad. Those lands then belonged toit, as much as they had belonged to the chiefs who sold them, and the company was entitled, in respect oi them, to be regarded as owners, in the same ntauncr as the natives would have been, had they not sold them. When England assumed the sovereignty, it took with it rights vested as they then stood. The last of the four interosts of which we have spoken, is that of the Crown. The right of the Crown depends on a double title, that of discovery,— and that of cession by treaty. The former we consider by far the most valid, not to say honest, of the two. All these interests, are unfortunately, but too conflicting, and Lord Stanley has, by the course which be has pursued, injured, and has all but ruined the company as a speculation ; he has exasperated the natives, and driven them to arms, he has sacrificed the prosperity and the property, and in some instances the lives of the settlers, he has compelled the Crown to wage war, and to enforce obedience, and to rule by the sword, and after the mischief is done, he is poimng in troops where formerly one hundred men were a sufficient garrison. If it were this single colony, which bade so fair, and has so— " Unbeseem'd the promise of its spring." we should be- inclined to attribute much of the disarrangement to the force of circumstances ; but when we find that complaints of grievances, and petitions for redress are so geueral, that a happy and contented colony is the exception, and dissatisfaction the rule,—- when we find the evil greater than evei before, and still increasing, we cannot attribute much ' to the circumstances, and much to the system, (gladly as we would see that amended), but are constrained to believe that most of it belongs to the md vidual r Minister. We can admire Lord Stanley's dexterity , as a skirmisher in debate, and his ski 1 in fencing, ' but he is wofully deficient iv weight and stability, ' in comprehensiveness, in fitness ior responsible office. He it' a dashing «uagn, perhaps even a slashing; colonel, but he is not endowed with the thoughtfulness and (he resource of the general. He bears about the same proportion to a staiesm in, that Lord Anglesey iv the field did to, the Duke ol Wellington, or Ney to Napoleon.