AFFAIRS OF NEW ZEALAND. FROM THE RECORD.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 32, 10 January 1846, Page 1

AFFAIRS OF NEW ZEALAND. FROM THE RECORD.

We are very glad that the New Zealand Company hare received a second and that a far mot c decided defeat than the foimer one in the House of Commons. The government, and Lord Stanley as their instrument, may not have chosen the best course in every step of the government of the colony; but there is no doubt that such measures have been selected as were judged the best, by a man of very distinguished talents and of the highs est honour and integrity, and enjo)ing the assistance of Mr. James Stephen ; (to wbose high capacity, probity, and unwearied industry, we rejoice to see justice at length rendered;) while the mercantile Company we have named above enjoying the advice and protection of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, may be very clever and very much bent on securing the interests of their shareholders, but we must refrain from conceding to them either the capacity, or, what is of far more importance! ths disinterestedness which distinguish the officials in the Colonial-office. Their primary and leading object has been to render the affair a good pecuniary speculation: the only object of Lord Stanley and the government has been to arrange a most complicated and entangled transaction, (complicated and entangled in a great degree by the iriegular proceedings of the Company,) in a manner consistent with tho interests of the native population, and the honour and good faith of this country. These views of the question became more distinct to the house and to the country between, the first and second debates in relation to it. The Company exclaimed, with great apparent sincerity and with unquestionable fervour,—"Do not make a party question of it: if you do we are lost." While the Whig-Radicals, knowing that many of the usual supporters of the Cabinet had a pecuniary interest with the Company,and threefore likely to leave the Ministerial ranks on a division, were mustering their forces with unwanted zeal for the battle. The quality of the pure, un-party views of the Company were discerned ; and hence their more aggravated defeat. We are very much of the opinion, of the Honourable Captain Roue, that not 'only the safest, but the cheapest mode of nowproceeding would be for the country to buy off this company altogether. They may be an incubus on the prosperity of the country, but more probably a fretting sore, making the government of it still more embarrassing and difficult than it must now be under the most favourabje circumstances. Such a bargain would no doubt be difficult to drive. It would require a very strong government to have the courage to make it. But according to all appearances, the money would be admirably well spent—it would be a most economical outlay, in the existing statejof things, of the national funds. The current of affairs in the Bay of Islands is very alarming and discouraging. From all wecan learn of the subject, we infer that John Heki and his tribe and allies, have been stirred up to the deplorable steps they have taken, under the bad advice of loose Americans, and other men interested intheSoutbSeaFishery. The principal resort of vessels engaged in this important trade (which is chiefly in the hands of the Americans,) was the Bay of Islands. These parties used to obtain their supplies free of all imposts. When duties were iraposed by the government, the vessels in a great degree left the locality for their supplies, much to the pecuniary loss aud damage of Heki and his tribe. He very naturally considered he had now received proof of the truth of the statements, previously made to him of the evil consequences of surrendering the sovereignty of the country to the British Crown, and he resolved to resist the accomplishment of that event. Hence the repeated cutting down of the British Flag, the recognised evidence of the existence of that sovereignty and hence the attack onKororarika, when the attack was necessary again to displace that emblem of their national servitude. The motive is clear and not indicative of a savage mind. Heki is a baptized Christian j though we learn that since his taptism he has often given cause of solicitude to the Missionaries. While we must all regret that he has been misled to take a btep which, will probaly issue in much more bloodshed, and in his own ruin aud that of multitudes of bis countrymen, still no man can fail to rejoice in the effects which Christianity has produced on him and his tribe in the mode in which they carried on this unhappy warfare. It was after the best, instead of formerly in New Zealand,aftertheworst possible model, tender any model it is deplorable ; aud issuing, as it probably will do, in a civil war, in the Christian tribes, generally, operating with the British, and those uncbristianized, with Heki, the issues can scarcely be otherwise than wretched. We hope some arrangement may still be made, either by Captain Fitzroy or by Captain Grey; but this is a hope \i hich circumstances render feeble in the extreme.

We notice the announcement of the deaths of the following individuals: — Very Rev. George Gordon, Dean of Lincoln. Rev. William Bruce Knight, Dean of Llandaff. The Fiench General Desoix. Dr. Mole, a celebrated Physician of Birmingham. Mr. Aid ridge, the African Hoscius, and Baron Bosier an eminent sculptor.