The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 211, 7 June 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

He just and fear not: Let all the ends thon aiins't at, be thy Country's, '1 hv (Jod's. and Truth's. ;

An fr caiefully collating the latest Southern Journals, we rejoice to find that the peiemptoiy conliadittions ghen by us to vague rumouisof impending war and outrage have been fully confirmed. Not one cloud appears to darken Lheir quiescent horizon, unless we except the inconsiderable speck arising fiom an isolated expedition of five and twenty followers of the lestless Rvngiimeata to Ahuriri, in quest of arms and ammunition, a supply of which they unfortunately received from Te Hapuka head chief of that district. So far and no farther can we discern cause of anxiety. On the contrary peace and peaceful puisuits seem to have obtained the absolute mastery of the native heait, and mean* foi the sustaining and ehelishing of human life,—not munitions for its saciificc, —aie the acquisitions on which their j minds are bent and, in piocurement of which, their puise strings are drawn. They glow, they say, larger supplies of bread corn than their own requirements de- I mand or their steel mills can grind. True, they can \end that corn in the unmanufactured state, but as its value is materially enhanced j when converted to flour they see no good rea- ! son why that additional profit should not find its way into their pockets as readily as into the coffeis of their Anglo-Saxon fellow subjects. — And, acting upon such close and conclusive reasoning, they have erected, and are continuing to erect, numerous flour mills, applying the ! pi oceeds of their land sales to such wise and piovident pui poses. I Yet these are the Savages, whose lands Earl Giey—inalleged consentaneity with the usages of civilized nations—would fain confiscate to the British Crown. Ay—these are the very Savages for whose sake,—in honest protest against invasion of indefeasible and solemnly guaranteed rights,—the Bishop of New Zealand has been calumniated in Parliament, and assailed with rancorous malevolence by ; e\ery writer in the New Zealand Com- j pany's settlements who, blind to the beam in their own eye, regard not this Company's land sharkings Avhil&t indulging in rabid deunciations of those of a poition af the Church jULsionanes, said to have manifested an undue eagerness after the acquisition of land. Admitting this eagerness to have been pioved—did there exist no difference between the paiUes ? Will the Company, or the Company's ad\ocates, have the temerity to assert that (hey ever gave anything like value for land compared with that which the missionaries disbursed'? Did they possess any such claim to native affection? And when, for an incommensurate price, they did acquire large sections of territory, was the acquisition made for a gieat national purpose, or for a great general good 1 No such thing—the result has shown it to have been a wholesale politico-commercial scheme, by which the non-resident schemers trusted to earn political influence, and retail their lands " for a consideration" of some five or six hundred per cent above cost price. The missionaries, on the other hand, sought to obtain a possession in the land of their labours, where theii lot (an anxious and an onerous one) was cast, and for which they had indisputably achieved a moral and a social position such as the Broad Street projectors and their hungry speculators could neither compass nor concerve. It is leally pitiable to contemplate the wreck which passion and prejudice make of men's judgments. In the very arguments adduced, by the wiiteis of the Wellington Independent and Ni'LsoN Examiner, in support of their fulminations, we can delect only conclusive proof of the justice of the Bishop's proceedings, and that pi oof wrung fiom the distoitcd leasonings of their infuriated pens. We must, ere we proceed to question our contemporaries opinions, premise, that they peifectly coincide with the present noble Secretary of State in the honour and honesty of all his spoliatory views, and entertain a most disinterested horror that the independent maoii race should be permitted to appropriate their possessions (their legitimate biithright) in a country acquired by no conquest, but whose sovereignty was ceded upon express terms solemnly recognised, and commanded to be scrupulously observed, by a previous not less noble Colonial Minister. " The whole of this immense territory," exclaims the Independent in agonies," according to Dr. Selwyn and his disciples, is the bona tide propei ty of the Maories, and to attempt to settle in the country against the wish of the aboriginal inhabitants, is to infringe upon their rights!" Precisely'—Such we believe to be the doctrine not meiely of Dr. Selwyn but of every man whose perceptions ofmeum and fuum aie regulated by a sense of conscience and the dictates of integi ity, The course advocated by the

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1848.

anti-protesters lacks even the manliness of the highwayman, because it implies a giovelhng" desire to filch from a people betrayed to treat, but whom it feaied to in\ade. It were an idle waste of woids — meie hair splitting — to combat the attempted parallel betwixt the aborigines of New Zealand and those of New Holland. Can the writer point out one degree of affinity, or one instance of practical civilisation in the latter ? Have they ever converted the soil to the smallest social use "? " A perusal of the Bishop's protest," continues the Independent, in stolid admiration, • c by a person unacquainted with the local affairs of this colony, would naturally induce a belief that the British Government had seriously contemplated an act of injustice." We incline to think the perusal would have such an effect, and \\ c know that to avert that threatened act of injustice was the sole aim and object of the Bishop's protest — a protest in which masses of i esidents perfectly familiar with the local affairs of this colony entirely sympathise •, but we in the North, entertain widely different feelings towards the Maoris from those we have seen exhibited in the South. We would fraternize with, rather than seek to exterminate them. We would acquire their property by purchase rather than compel it by plunder. — Does it not strike the Independent that if the Waste Lands' Bill were enforced and the Maoris, in consequence, stripped, the poor victims could by no posibility enjoy any of those benefits (so ingeniously paraded) which they have gained by selling thaUery soil which their civihsers are so impatient to grasp. Wheie would they then, find produce for the market so generously created for their behoof? But right and title is nothing in the eyes of these Company's Hamans. Their argument is that if foreigners should evince an anxious desire to acquire the land, the land they ought to have and not at the " exorbitant price" the natives may choose to demand. Great is the Independent's indignation that "one chief after another (should) be induced by men ranking so high as Dr. Selwyn to keep possession of tracts of land to which they claim ownership." For, (runs the inference) if these fellows are impertinent enough to do what they please with their own " m what manner is colonisation to be promoted, or how are the expenses of emigration to be defrayed ? !" In other words how and where are the Broad Street Potentates to find traps for fresh gulls *? The evil, we opine, if such an evil should ever arise would cure itself ; but remedy or no remedy we consider that cause a base and a bad one which seeks to serve itself by logic such as this — " The natives resident in who do not number over five hundred of all ranks and ages, are deriving considerable returns annually by leasing runs to settlers who have euteied into the praiseworthy and beneficial pursuit of sheep and cattle farming. And it is asseited, that these natives will not consent to part with the valley at any price, though it contains three hundred square miles of available pasture and agricultural land. Thus the advance of civilisation (query, aggrandizement) is to be checked, and a country capable of sustaining thousands and thousands of the human race is to be withheld because, according to Dr. Selwyn by taking possession we should infringe upon the rights of the aborigines." The simple fact that the rights of aborigines, to whose civilization, intelligence, and good conduct, number after number of this same Wellington Independent has borne honorable testimony — should thus be sneered at — that their contracted privelege to hold their own at their own good pleasure, should evoke something like a threat that " force must be used to avert the evils created through false ideas of humanity !" These we conceive are proofs demonstrative of the justice— the Christian justice of the Bishop's protest. The artistical inference of the Northern bill of rights being an emanation consequent upon, this protest argues a measure of ignorance or of disingenuousness unworthy of the print which puts it forth. All the venom launched at the Bishop on account of the pretended mischievous tendency of his protest is contemptible in the extreme. Wha} is the meaning of the word protest ? Is its character active or passive 1 The authority to which we have had recourse in confirmation of our OAvn remarks, describes a protest fo be " a formal and solemn declaration of opinion, given in writing, commonly against some act." That declaration was given under cover, by the Bishop in order to avert a wrong not to precipitate a war. In justice to the Mission, induced to contract the about to be repudiated treaty, and whose act he recognised, the Bishop did propose " God being his helper," and his remonstrance unsuccessful, — then, and not until then, to instruct the natives the value of their rights as British subjects, — rights, we imagine, sufficient in law and in equity to protect them against all meditated spoliation. The Bishop had no land to preserve. His interposition was just, impartial and opportune, and if his caution shall attain its object, it will infallibly avert bloodshed and death. Of course the Nelson Examiner, who affirms us to be under Missionary influence, will pietend to scout our views as those of an antagonistic and interested party. We beg, however, to disclaim our contemporary's allegation, —

We are of no party. Our pen and our opinions are unfettered, and guided only in advocacy of such measures as strike us 1o be most conducive to the Colonial weal. We should despise the Missionaiies (if any such there be) who have descended to land sharking ; but not less the Company that has incontestibly outstripped them in the sordid race. In these it is well known the Bishop has no portion. The virulence with which he has been assailed is the surest test of his sincerity, and we take leave of the subject reminding the detractors that " // y a dcs rcprockes gui louent, et dcs louanges gui viedisent."

In pursuance of an advertisement, calling a meeting of such parties as felt an interest in the establishment of Steam communication, we wended our way to the Royal Exchange Hotel, yesterday, at noon. Having enquY A ed of the hostess, (for we could detect the presence of no enthusiasts in the praiseworthy cause,) the locale of the contemplated gathering, we were ushered into the billiard room, Avhose goodly proportions we had ample leisure to scan. We handled the cues, and hazarded a stroke or two at the halls, and, when tired of that one handed pastime, gazed, as if at novelty, upon the vacant streets. Still, no one came. Half an hour elapsed, and with it (led our patience. Our hat was in our hand, and we were half way down the crescent, when we encountered four or five persons, upon whose solicitations we returned to the proposed scene of action. It was a fruitless errand. Another half hour was idly consumed, by perhaps about eight or nine sanguine individuals, who, finding that the citizens of Auckland had no sympathy for any proposition that entailed the remotest chance of pecuniary risk, retired ; regretting that so few could be found to devote even an hour to consideration of a suhject fraught with much and permanent importance to the colonial interest. Possibly (thought we) a contraction of the Commissariat chest, or a dissolution of the naval and military establishments, with a reversion to the "glorious days " of 1844 and 1845, might have the effect of arousing the inhabitants to act with an energy and an enterprise worthy the character of British colonists, and in a manner calculated to ensure the solid prosperity of their adopted land. We legret to repeat this meeting was not responded to. It was a miserable failure. We have heard it uiged as a reason for this failure that our community is too infantine, and that there would be no traffic to employ steam beneficially. We conceive that the question has heen begged, and that the conclusion in consequence arrived at has been premature. At all events, we know that there were one or two part J< ?s present prepared with arguments to demonstrate the contrary. One thing is certain, in other countries, a facility of communication has repeatedly proved the parent of a laige and prosperous traffic, — creating poits, warehouses, ships, and all the et cEeteiu. of commerce, in spots pieviously waste. It is not very creditable to the capital of New Zealand, that she should he without a penny to apply in furtherance of steam navigation, whilst a minor southern settlement, (Nelsoa) has upwards of £10,000 due to her by the Company's scheme of settlement, set apait for the purposes of steam navigation — and which she is impatient to have immediately invested in that all important channel. We trust that the parties who sought to convoke the meeting of yesterday, howe\er sorely disappointed, will not be entirely discouraged. If it be true that a considerable number of persons have consented to take shares in a Steam Navigation Company, we recommend them to arrange a prospectus without delay. A second call, with a, more tangible explanation of their views, may be more cordially responded to. The moment is propitious, and should not be let slip, as two excellent new engines, of the lequired power, and with all their appurtenances complete, are now to be sold by the government of Van Diemen's Land.

Stock Sales. — Since our former notice \\° have had two Public Sales of the last carg° per " Hyderabad," and can report no improvement on previous prices, On Saturday Messrs. Connell & Ridings sold 50 Cows and Heifers, and yesterday 100, at the average rate of £4 each. Buyers are evidently well supplied, and such as are open for fiuther purchase, seem confident in the continuance of extensive importations, and in the probability at no distant date of being able to purchase even at <£3. The last shipment of Merino Ewes, by the same vessel fetched 7s. 6d., a proof, that however spirited our fellow Colonists elsewhere may be in the breeding of Sheep, our Settlers in this quarter do not as yet deem such ventures advisable, under our local Land regulations. — Communicated. A Barque was signalled nearly tbe whole of 4 yesterday, but in consequence of light and baffling winds was unable by sunset to reach the Port. Some of her passengers having come on in one of her boats we have ascertained her to be the " Swallow," fourteen days from Sydney, with upwards of a hundred and fifty head of Cattle ; only eight of whom died oa the passage. Supreme Court. — Civil Side. — As there are no Civil cases for trial, the Court will not sit this day, and Jurymen who have been summoned will not be required tg attend.