The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 222, 15 July 1848, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

He |ust, and lear not: f-.pt all the ends tliou aims't at, be tliy Country's, Thy (ioi)'s, and Tiulh's.

SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1848.

Wr. found ourselves in our last, compelled 1o make a passing observation on the beggarly result of the long proclaimed, pro iorma, Land Sales. If, by the proceeds of such sales, immigration is intended to be accomplished, it must be tolerably clear, even to the most sceptical, that on exotic and unceitain contingencies alone, must New Zealand rely for maintenance of that degiee of importance, she now possesses in the colonial family ciicle. The impossible pi ice demanded for the waste lands of Australia, — a canker which has gnawed into her vitals, — is enhanced in the most ludicrous ratio here. To warrant such pieposterous attempt at exaction, theie should exist something immeasurably superior in the soil, or in the climate, or in the return on the amount of capital invested, or in all these. But is this actually the case? Or, limited as the exports of Austialia are, have we any as yet here to put in competition with them '\ We may be told that the natural capabilities of our soil, the advantages of our noble ports and estuaries, the superior fertility, the result of a greater and unfailing moisture, arc all important qualities, calculated, at some time, to enable us to enter upon a course of sure and successful competition, but such argumentation is futile, for whilst land is unattainable at a price that will tempi 1 capitalists, it is evident New Zealand can not prosper. She cannot even preserve her present status, — but must retrogade whenevei the existing minister to adventitious aggrandisement — not natural stimulus to legitimate pmsperity — shall cease. A judicious policy — such an one as sought to render the soil accessible to purchasers capable of turning it to profitable account, — • would improve this golden shower, by directing its fcUeam in beneficial ducts instead of suffering it to accumulate in a few sterile, hands, who, when the source fails, will doubtless speed to other and more available fields of enterprise. It was not by locking up their lands, or by raising vexatious impediments to their acquisition that Australia and Tasmania sprung into early and unexampled prosperity. Quite the revei ssande — and the moment that an exloitionate demand precluded their passing into possession of the industrious, — from that hour their prosperity experienced a withering check, — emigration ceased, because capital was debarred from being sunk in a soil- incapable of yielding adequate return. Even they, the Land Magnates, who delighted to add field to field, and heap acre upon acie, were compelled to refrain fiom the ruinous indulgence. Will,' then a theory which has been found of impossible execution in more advanced Australia, become of practicable attainment in comparatively primeval New Zealand 1 ? Has it not already palsied a naturally fertile land, where little worthy the name of agriculture is yet to be seen, or if seen, still in such small and sundered patches, as scarce to meiit consideration. If the arbitrary value affixed to the lands of New Zealand be by Downing-street command, we condole with Captain Grey. If it be of his own free determination, we can only pity the delusion which prompts him to the present sacrifice of the piovinceof his rule, lie has surely had abundant proof that people will not pay a pound for a penny whistle, and that neither Minister nor Governor can by a scrape of an official pen, ckkaik a value which does not exist. It may be in the power of one or both to check the progress of the colony. It is beyond the possibility of cither to contioul its destinies. They may keep iv abeyance the lesourccs they might develope ; but they cannot altogether lepress the eneigies to which it would be patiiotic to give prudent and powerful encouragement. On the subject of land, colonization, and emigration, piactical men aie nearly unanimous. They would remove, and most judiciously, all unnecessary restrictions, — they would do more, they would oiler every facility to the acquisition of the one, and hold out every inducement iv promotion of the other.

We cannot belter conclude tins ailide lh,ni in the woids of Mr. Auciiiiiai n Uo\ n. If thai Gentleman's stnctuies he applicable, (as they have been shewn to he) to New South Wales, how infinitely more so must they not he to New Zealand, where this land grievance is so enormously aggravated. We submit them to the careful consideration of his Kxeellency the Governor,, who, we feel convinced, however much mistaken in this measure, has neveitheless, the interest of the colony sincerely at heart. The low fixed price of land in North America, and the cheering accounts iccoived from relation 0 who have acquired coiuloit or independence there, alike induce the cmigianl lo follow them with his capital and industry. Where land is dear, settlers ami capital are re*, polleil— where it is cheap they vie attracted. ' ; , No committee ol the legislature of New South Wales has ever touched on the pi ice of land without complaining of the extravagant amount exacted hy government, anil petitions to parliiimant from every quarter ot the colony lime repeatedly urged its reduction. In America and Australia the demand for lahour is great . in one the land heais its natural, in the other, an unnatuial price ; llritihh einigiation is redundant to the one. is deficient to the other. The wages of labour aie highest in Australia; the possession of capital is most attractive in America- So just is the remark of Mr. Arthur Young, •' Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden ; give him 'i nine years. 1 lease of a garden, and he will com fit it into ft desert." The amount of land sales in the United States during ten years has averaged more than one million and a half sterling annually, whilst the raising price 01 land in Austi alia contiary to the evpiessed opinions ol all thr governoisand the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemcns Land, fioni f)S. to £\ nor acre, has almost annihilated the lund derived iiom the sale of land. Hence the United states,— our rivals in the arts of peace, as they may become our enemies in time of w.ir — have for twenty yeais absorbed in foreign soil that emigration and capital which would have been, as will he shown, thirty-fold as reproductive had it gone to our own possessions. And some idea of the amount of capital ahstructcd and amassed may be founed from the lact that between the istJanuaiy, 184(>, and the Ist .January, 1847, the sums i emitted to residents in Ireland, tiom friends cinigialed to the U luted States amounted to €l(io,OO0.

The absoibing interest of the intelligence from Km ope continuing to engross an undivided public attention, we have, — to the exclusion of moic local matter, — devoted our utmost possible space to a variety of selections, culled with a desire to place the passing occurrences in the mo.st authentic shape before our leaders. Amongst our extracts we would venture to point attention to a loiter copied from the Timks of the i)lh March. That letter is evidently from a quailer well informed on the subject which it so graphically illustrates, and may be viewed as a living and a faithful commentary on the men and measures of the hour. From a hint, thrown out in one of the llobait Town papeis, we were led to expect that a copy of the debate on the New Zealand Government Bill, in the House of Lords, had found its way hither ; but, alter the most diligent enquiries, we could only discover the passing remarks upon that subject which we transfer from the Si'uci'Aroß of the 4th of March ; for the perusal of which wo were indebted to individual civility a shoit while pievious to our going to press. The French Revolution has not been suffered to pass without exciting the unwoithy animadversions of the Young Ireland party. — We have already noticed the demonstration to have taken place at Dublin on St. Patricks' Bay — we now refer to the sympathetic address from Limerick, which, with an excerpt or two from a splenetic epistle of Mr. John O'Connell, will be found in our columns of to day. The new liberator inherits none of his father's capacity save his aptitude for vulgar abuse of England, into which country (that so generously poured her millions in alleviation of Irish distiess) he would fain cast the torch of discord. Mr. O'Connell presumes that the moment is propitious for such a diversion, and that they who cannot conduct their own affairs are fitted to manage those of the Irish people. We rejoice, however, to think that th» Repealers aie likely to elicit no sympathy from France, the parly in that country so long the advocates of war being charmed into absolute love of England, because of her jpVompt and universal acknowledgment of the'right of the French to choose their own foimof Government.

Half Yearly Inspection. Whilst quietly ensconced within our sanctum, 1 on Saturday morning last, pondering' thfe probabilities of the French Revolutajjjrii^-j- the apposite tones of martial melody, snddfcnly attracted our sympathetic ear. Turning to the quarter, whence the spirit stirring strains proceeded, we beheld the brave old Black Cuffs, with band and banners, drawn up in maitial array, their gallant Colonel glancing proudly along their compact and soldiery lines. Perceiving those preux chevaliers, the field officers, bestriding their destriers, and. ingrande tame, we jumped to the conclusion that an inspection was about to lake place, and as we love to contemplate the mimic movements of war, as much as we dread the necessity for its' reality, " The hill we comb, And halting at its top," we found we had guessed might, and that we had been piecedcd by Geneial Put, and his staff, together with a goodly spunkling of the gcntlei sex, who lend to life " Its buauty and its churn*,' Despite the diawbacks of a "raw and gusty day," the valiant Rutlanders went through a long and mtcresling rcyicw, maich-

ing past in slow and quick lime, anil in column of quaitei distance. A .succession of mancvuvres, 100 complicated foi us Chilians to desci ibe, ensued ; we can only say, they appeared lo be admjrabjy and steadily executed. The right and lefl wings, having drawn up in separate lines, went through the manual and platoon exercise, in a manner highly creditable to their discipline. On the previous Thursday, the men, barracks and schools were inspected ; on Friday, the books : and on Saturday, as we have just stated, the battalion, in review order. Called upon, at a day's notice, the high encomiums deservedly bestowed upon the officers of ,11ns distinguished regiment, by the General commanding, must have proved as gratifying to' Colonel Wynyahd, as to his officers and men. TJhe officers entertained his Excellency the Governor, General Pitt, Captain Edward Stanlky, IT. M. Ship " Calliope," and several of the heads of departments, to a grand banquet on Tuesday.

Public NuisANcrc. — Wo have received several communications from the most respectable quarters, lequesting us to bring tinder notice of the authoiilics, an alx>minubly offensive nuisance ; namely, sundry dead oxen, (landed fiom the stock ships), whose carcases have been cast upon our streets, theie to fester, and to contaminate the atmosphere, to the great disgust and detriment of the neighbouring residents. We believe we have only to call the attention of the Inspector of Police to this outrage upon decency, to have the nuisance abated. It is smely not too much to expect of the importers of stock, that they will remove their carrion to where the tide can float it away. Sale of Stock. — Forty-nine head of cattle, by the IlAitiiiKirK Nathan, from Port Albcil, were brought to the hammer, by Mr. David Nathan, on Tuesday last, and averagcd£s 75. (5 d. per head. A lot of sheep were sold at the same time, and on an average of 9s. each.