The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 199, 26 April 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Ie ju>t awl fear not: Let ail tlie ends thon aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy <i'oo\, and /'mfcli's.

Tv ED N E S I) AY,TP JU L_2G^ Jl^S 48^

Prom the Blue Book of 1817, copies of some of the most impoitant despatches, to and fromGo\ernor Grey, on the subject of our nKiwu-rnn constitution will be found in om ihi.s day'.s issue; together with Kail Giey's leply to the Bishop's piolest. We must reserve until our next the comments we have to offer upon the line of aigument selected by His Excellency in depieciatioti of the immediate enforcement of this constitution. We must, also, leserve oui opinion of the singular reading which the noble Secretary for the Colonies attempts to give to the despatch which evoked the Bishop's protest — a despatch, it would appear, so misworded, or so conglomerated, as to have been mistaken by readers of all classes, heie and elsewhere, for a cool and determined instiuction to laugh to scorn the treaty of Waitangi.

It has lopealedly been asseiled, by paitios .snj)])oscd to be well infoimed on naval subjects, that Auckland would be selected us the spot wheieat to found a imal aisenal for the South Pacific. Of thepaiamount unpoitanceof such an establishment there can be but one opinion. It opens up a vista of maritime and commercial greatness unnecessary at present to dilate upon. We merely call attention to the fact of the immense superiority a haven capable of docking and refitting ships of war must possess over every rival poit. To say nothing of our geographical position with reference to the Chinese and Pacific stations, there are no harbours either in New South Wales or Van Dicmen's Land possessed of like facilities as Auckland. Sydney and Port Arthur are both comparatively tideless, whilst here the ebb and How are adequate to the purposes required. A dock, it is true, is in lazy progress at Cockatoo Island, but the ground has yet to be levelled, and the Legislative Council have only,and in a niggardly spirit, voted ii 1000 for the work. Under such circumstances we feel no ordinary pleasure in transferring the following statement to our leading columns. It is, we trust, an earnest of future aggrandizement, and to which we are, no doubt, indebted to a hearty friend of the settlement, Captain Graham, ot the Castoii, who expressed his fiim determination to call tiie attention of the Admiralty to our great natural capabilities •.—. — New 71' ALAND — II ii intended for the future to ktep a permanent n.ivdl fuice at New zhaUhml. It will consist of one fiigate, one sloop of war, and a steam sloop. Orders have been *<ent out to foim a naval depot at Auckland, and such stores and provisions as cannot be procured at that colon* will be sent out from En/rl md. — Dinted Service Gazette. The Acheron steam vessel, Captain Lort Stokes, on being taken out of the basin lust wee te \w forced by the strength of the tide Hgninst one of the buoys in the ri\er, and it been appieluivleil that she might have been injured, sh« was taken into dock to have her bottom examined ; no injury having been sustained worth mentioning, she vrill be taken out of dock this afternoon, and the Hromboli be taken in to be examined previous to proceeding to sea. — Tunes, December 13.

By the Marchioness of Douglas, (which came into port on Saturday, after a favourable passage of thirteen days, and with the inconsiderable loss of twelve out of upwards of two hundred head of cattle,) we have news from Sydney to the 9th inst. The Swallow had arrived from Singapore on the 4th, and through the medium of a " Home News " of the 24th December, quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald, of the 6th curt., we are enabled to resume our epitome of European affairs. The New Zealand government bill Avas read a second time in the House of Commons, and was ordered to be committed on the 4th February. The Bill for the Repression of Crimes and Outrages in Ireland, became the law of the land, on the 20th, after an abortive attempt of the " new liberator," Mr. J. O'Connell, to trammel it with a clause limiting the power of the Lord Lieutenant to proclaim such districts only as were first formally reported to him as being disturbed. On a division four responsive voices only were charmed into acquiescence, whilst two hundred and three gave their flat negative. The effect of the debates upon this question, has been to demonstrate the lamentable incapacity of Mr. O'Connell to assume the leadership, and to disclose the general weakness of the Repealers, and the discord and divisions which pervade their councils. For unhappy Ireland another winter of starvation seems impending. There was little employment for the able-bodied, and wholly inadequate accommodation for the helpless •, whilst in aggravation of prospects so desolate, the country was in alarm at the threatened visitation of Cholera. A discussion on the Repeal of the Union, introduced by Feargus O'Connor, afforded the repealers another opportunity for amusing personal vituperation, tlie debate having resulted in nothing, albeit conducted with no ordinary degree of " bear gaidcn " courtesy. There are rumovus of an augmentation of the army, an additional company it is stated, will be added to each ten battalions of artillery, and the Duke of Wellington is said to have written a letter on the subject of defences, pointing out how unprotected are same parts

of the British coast, and how necessaiy it is that England should be prepared for Avar. Mr. Cobden has relinquished trade, and commenced statesmanship. lie has sketched out a plan for payment of the National debt, lie proposes a free trade in peace, and the laying down of arms by mutual consent all over Europe. The money now laid out on the army is to be saved for the payment of church Kites and the reduction of taxes! As in the case of tho Com Law League, England is to set the example ! Fancy England without a soldier now, when there are 80,000 Austrian troops in the Voralberg, 40,000 French on the frontiers of Switzerland, 60,000 on the fiontiers of the Pyrenees, and in the Lombard Stales of Italy, are 180,000 motley troops under the banners of Austiia. We are to look, on, according to Mr. Cobden, and imitate America, (in Mexico ?) by abstaining from all inteifereuce with foreign stales. Mr. Cobden does not believe it possible that these fanged wolves may join together at a moment, jf such a prey as England lay exposed, and and wreak their common quarrel upon her. According to different statements Louis Phillippe had been seized with a fit of abdication or of apoplexy, whilst the Piince de Jomville had, on the grounds of ill-health, lesigned the command ot the Meditenanean fleet. Switzerland appeals to be in a mm t of national arliculo mortis. Thirteen Cantons have dissevered from the other seven. Fnbourgh is fallen, — Zug is subdued, — Lucerne is occupied, and the aspect of the moral and political condition of Helvetia is disastrous to a degree. Lord Sheburne is to succeed Lord Ebrington as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Our Sydney neighbours are entering into anxious examination of the " Exile " question, which had heetv debated at great length by the Legislative Council on the 7th. Mr. Lamb expressed his continued aversion to the intio- | duction of criminal labour, and moved as an amendment that the despatch of Earl Grey on the subject, be referred to a select committee. The amendment was seconded, and supported, but subsequently withdrawn. As Exileism is merely a new fangled name for Transportation — and as its felon-pets are to be allorded unwonted facilities for migration, it behoves us to keep a watchful eye upon the development of its features, lest Australia be made but the j bridge across which the moral pollution of | England may pass to the injury of ourselves, and other colonies of untainted birth. Sydney Markets, Bth April. — Wheat, dull «t 3s. to S,» 7d. per bushel; a splendid sample of South Australian sold at 4t. Id. Flour, ill per 2000 lbs. at the mills. Bread, 3d. the 2 lb. loaf. Bran, lOd. j whoU'Snle, Is. retail, cash. Bucuit, No. 1, (cabin) 135. ; No. 2, (ship's) 13s. per cwt. Maize, irom Is, sd. and Is. 6a. per bushel. Barley, malting, 3a. Gd. to 3s. Oil. per bushel ; Cape, 2a. 6d. do. Potatoes, Circular Head, M toX'-l 195. ; Colonial, i! 2 to £2 10s. Cattle, fiom 295. to 4 Oh. for 6to 700 lb. Bsasta ; Calvei 5«. %o 155. ; Mdch Cows very scarce. Sheep, steady , at ss. to 6a* for 56 to 60 lbs. beasts. Horses, £3 ss. to £\2 17s. 6d., the average being £8 10s. Pigs, 2d. to 2|d. per lb. ; Sucking Pigs, 3s. 6d. to 4i. Cheese, 3d. and 4J. por lb. Bacon, 4|d. and s|d. Butter, 6d. to Bd. Lard, sd. Eggs, Bd, to 9d. per dozen. Poultry, Foicls, Is. Bd. to 2s. per pair; Geese, s*. aad 7i. per couple; Ducki, 2s. 6d. to 3s. per pair ; Pigeons, Is. Gd. j Turkeys, ss. to 10s. each.

Programme.-— On Thursday, April 27, at 4 o'clock, on the space of ground opposite the Council Chamber, the Band of the 58th Regiment, will perform the following pieces of music :— Overture Op.— " Straddle " Flotow Aria. Op.—" Siege of llochelle" Balfe Cay. Op. — " La Gazza Ladra" Itosiini Waltz— " A. deux teins" .....Jullien Galop— 11 Postilion de Longcmean ". Adam Valse & Galop de Fudnation— r ßallct of "Alma" Cobta