The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 203, 10 May 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

P,c just ami le.ir not: '. et all the ends tliou auns't at, be tliy Country's, Uiy (Jons, and Tiuth's.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, I S4 8.

in accuracy of (ho plain unvarnished nana- '. > -which (1 Ins day week) we ptesentedof (he - > noi'.s NdithiMii (.0111 has been publicly i -.ouod. We lune '' (alien,"' says out , - . contemporaiy, '' into the snaio andlune "i i il as uui opinion 01 lathoi we ha\o ■ 1 that we htue been told thai v altogether. i' interview (wilhlleke) wasof asalislacloiy • '■ i ictei.' " '"ur coniempoiaiy " holds quite the contiaiy .'.j0.1i," and in iclul.ilioii ol oui hue I' and description ol actual octiuiemes, lioats \ilh foil) inoifal col mil n,s of sciiploiy mnation, because, says ho, '• w h<i\e no pain 1 with such puih (>) and cannoi, while , possession ouiselvcs, of all the details of the \ allow the public to be so beguiled." My good. The question is Ihus nauowed ) a^wiy small compass, namely, the supe- • ' •'aulhcnt icily of the liiera sen pi a or the itci degice of credibility attachable i lie \eibal communuation — the laigoi or 'cs.ei aiuouut oi mteio<led piepidice maitod by tin* wnlei oi by the nauatoi, — and moti\e which we, unshackled by any spnil > ailisanship, can possibly ha\e to become , " cat's paw" of any body or section of bo- , ' , politic, howc\er " powciful their influence .' Vnno" or howeuu ample their "means of ■ (ting their voice be heard." On the two piimary sections of this qucsion it is for the public, to whom oui conlemoraiy appeals, to decide. With reference to ihe last, — we piesume we may >enliue to affirm that the past claims of this Journal to a just and manly spiut of independence have been fully lecognised. In our hands, that Independence shall moult no feather. We shall j>peak " the plain and simple tiulh .'" — fianlcly and fearlessly, reudeung to constituted authority that just suppoil which an honest and iinpaitial Journalist is bound to aiToul. For its desei villas we shall e\ei ha\e a laige and liberal meed of piarsc, foi Us backslidmgs a "measuic oi'censiue no less shaip and .searching, but ne\ei 1 1 bald noi factious. Libeity is our idol; license oui abhoncnce: and we tiust neither to desecrate the one noi pandei to the other. When called to •' spy into abuses" we shall sedulously endea\our not " to shape faults that are not," but to cauterize without prejudice, or commend w ithout panegyric. Thus much Aye felt bound to state — more were superfluous — since by our actions alone we must stand or fall. To lesume — we have given to the narrative of our contempoiaiy,a calm and dispassionate consideration, and we peil'ectly concur with him '• that it contains within Hselt the stiongest internal evidence " of the souice from whence it spiings. The animus of that narrative is too transpaient to bolster even the cause it seeks to sei\e. What is its aim 1 A low, pitiful, pointless endeavour to castobloquy and ndicule upon the person of Her Majesty's liepiesentatne, and to hold up Ileke as a sort of insatiate Ogre, whom the Governor was in agonies, at any saciifice, and at any amount of pcisoual degradation, to propitiate ! " Some of the Missionaiies sons,"' says the narratne, '-rode aftei the Governors paity." Yes, — and pressed upon his eveiy step with a degree of intolerable rudeness, even ajter " the Captain of the Calliope," (with a very broad and unmistakeable hint, respecting an intrusion in ivhich no gentlemen would have perse\ered), had-" dispensed with the attendance of one of his officeis." Of all this we had ample details, but we did not consider the actions of a few individuals, justly incurring the suspicion of spies, intent to penetrate the Governor's motives, if not anxious to embarrass his movements, a ci editable subject for public discussion. These, and the ingenious pumping of Pene Taui, and many of the apociyphal details that follows had belter have been left in obscuiity. The published avowal that Pene " had no complaints to make " against the Pakehas, is a key to the feverish anxiety caused by the Governor's visit. It is clear how very unwelcome he was. His shaip eye might discover too much — My acres— oh, my acies — these he might perchance " Come me crankling in, And cut me liom the best of all my land, A huge half moon — a monstrous cantle out." Jt is, moreover, just possible that Captain Grey might impiess Hr-iu: with a different estimate ot his chaiacter, fiom that with which the ingenious author of this nanative — no doubt conscientiously — invested him. He might, possibly, succeed in demonstrating to that intelligent iwurior, that, however defective in the estimation of some folks, he is hlillalal^enls, an English gentleman, with .something like a inodeiate shaie of good and bad in his composition. Governor Grkv, we say, might upon such showing, inflict a moital blow upon ceitaii 1 injunous pocket-polHical puissances — a clique, who^ influence lias hcen repiesented to be fraught with so many cuh tv the. colony at

laige. Nay, we fiimly believe he has done so, and Hine illnp laclnymrc. So lnueh foi this transcendanf nanatne ' Oiu contemporary is peifeetly conee(, it does, indeed, " reqnne no comment," foi, voiily, '-it speaks," trumpet -tongned, " foi itself."

fti snviinnr, w ill be found a graphic article 1 torn Iho London Krncruoii, headed " Anothei Cimstilulion lot New Zealand.'' The astute Kditoi deals Avith the Slate '"'waste papei," m I hat caustic \em in which he is so pi one- to indulge-. — snooi mg mcicilossly at the miserable palch-woik of pool Eail Giurv, who he saicastically says, will ha\e to bring in a i iiiun bill next year to undo the handiwork of the second. Wr should be apt to opine that a foui lh 01 a fifth edition might be imperalne, unless the second shall display a dogiee of intelligence utterly undisco\orable in the first. If Santa Anna received from his government sLcn instructions as those of Eail Grey, he e\inced a wise discietiou in disregarding them, — and the colonists of New Zealand owe a deep debt of gratitude to their Go\ernor foi haung, by a prudent firmness, delivcied them fiom " a constitution more pragmatically leg.udless of exisiino encumstanees than any that \\ase\ei ofleied by Sieyes foi the icfusal of the Fiench Dictatoi. ' We aie happy to le.un that a mo\ement is on foot to lender to his Excellency the tubule of public acknowledgment his prompt and spn ited conduct on the occasion demands.

Sympathizing, as we most cordially do, in the just and generous philanthropy which animates our contempoiary, tho " Anglo-Maori Warder," in his anxious endeavours to promote, in every possible way, and by every tangible means, the moral, social, and intellectual culture of the native mind, we must still be excused if we lift up a dissentient, nay, a deprecatory voice against a quasi agent, (some years defunct,) of that praiseworthy aim — an agent, whose " hasty suppression " our contemporary deplores, and A\hosc " re-establishment" he in a manner invokes. We allude to the " Maori Gazette," a peiiodical of -whose worth, as a professing instructor and guide, the pages of the " New Zealander " have presented frequent and conclushe illustrations: — a matter of fact of which our contemporary must doubtless be fully moie conversant than A\e. Without pausing to canvass anew the literary pretensions of that equivocal print, we presume its utter inefficiency, in the cause it was supposed to espouse, will be at once apparent, when Aye stale, that the number of copies printed, and those at disjointed and most irregulai intervals, amounted to but five hundred, not one half of which were ever issued. Is this, then, the lost lieasuie which our contempoiary laments'? Two hundred and fifty copies' Venly, asony literal y banquet to set before a population, which (according to Col. Waketie Id's estimate), numbers 109,000 souls ! We need not to be reminded, that papers pass from hand to hand, and that good words travel far ; but so likeAvise do rash and inconsiderate ones. We have dipped, (through the medium of translation), into this " Maori Gazette," and Avhat did we find to recommend it ? Judicious information or instruction to improve the physical — Avell considered tieatises to enlighten the social — or high and holy essays to soften and subdue the moral man 1 No such thing. Narratives of useless excursions, tales without point — and ill judged accounts of the rise and progress of the Avars of the late " rebellion," Avere depicted in the Ossianic vein, or rather in a sort of Macpherson terrified strain. Was this the mode to tianquilize a warlike and excitable race ! Was it by narratives of blood and battle, calculated to inflame fierce and stormy passions, that the homely and the patient viitues Avere likely to be engrafted ? If it Avere, then, indeed, the suppiessed Avas most assiduous in its vocation. Had the Maoii Gazette been an instalment for good, being " under the immediate influence of Government" a\c cannot for a moment be brought to suppose that so shreAvd and so astute a politician as Governor Grky Avould have failed to convert to his oavii peculiar advantage a lever of its alleged utility. His Excellency, hoAvever, it is notorious, Avas solicited to suppress not only the Journal itself, but the depaitment from aa hence it emanated, and he did so, having proved we presume this lever to lack a piacticable fulcrum, and to be of much more avail to enkindle a weed than to enlighten the understanding, — in fact a Aehicle powerless of the virtues for which our contemporary seems disposed to give it credit. Of our contempoiaiy's oavii exeitions in this Avoithy cause, Aye enteitain a very, — very different estimate. He has chalked out the honest and the legitimate method by which the race of Avhich he has constituted himself, in a great degree, the guaidian, may be elevated and refined. lie has piescnbed himself a comse, a steady observance of Avhich will, avc doubt not, lender the objects of his solicitude not only good citizens but good men. The task is a noble one. The instructor a most efficient one. May success aMend. his benevolent, undertaking.

Tin. CoqiU'Tit. came into poit, on Monday evening, bringing us Sydney papers to the 25th ultimo, likewise two English mails, —the " Jane Catheiine," and Sydney, post office packets for December and January, having aimed on the 20th and 21st. European intelligence to the 7th January, via Madras, had aKo been recched. From our Sydney tiles, and British Journals transmitted us by mn London agents, we have culled as copious and as inteiesting a selection as our space will admit. The Cholera had made its appearance in England, and in conjunction with the Influenza, was committing fearful ha\oc, both with lich and poor. The election foi the see of ITeiefoul had taken place, Di. Uampden being inducted undei solemn protest of the Dean, delneied m presence of an unusually large concourse of spectatois. The famous Emii Abd-El-Kadei, the terror of Algciia, being hemmed in on eu'iy side, had surrendered to the French, on condition of being sent to St. Jean d'Acie, oi to Alexandria. The state of Ireland was awful —famine, disease, and death, being aggra\atcd by murder and rapine in their most abhoient shapes. Lord Claiendon's proclamations of the Crimes and Outrage Suppression Act had been hailed with gratitude and delight m the lational and peaceable Noith , —with ebullitions of insane and uibid finy in the ungovernable midland distncls, against which they were principally directed. The message of the President of the United States has been delneied, it occupies ten columns in some of the American Journals. — For its concentrated essence we hope to rind space in our next. The English money market was in a much more healthy and improving state, a large accession of the precious metals having found their way into the Bank cellars.

The Calliope, 26, Captain Edward Stanley, is oidered home from New Zealand, to be paid off, if her presence be not urgently lequhed on thatdh ision of the East India Station. —Sydney Herald, April 25. The following \essels are advertised in the Sydney Hfralo as being about to sail, or laid on, for Auckland. The " Minerva," schooner ; '•'William," barque; "Louisa," biig. The " Deborah" had not arrived. The " Swallow" and " Wigrams," were open for chaiter to a poit in New Zealand.