The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 248, 14 October 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear nut: Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1848.

It may be remembered that, in October, 1846, whilst the estimates were passing the Legislative Council, His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, with reference to the postage upon Newspapers, took the opportunity, in the most manly and emphatic manner, to deprecate such an abominable exaction, as one most detrimental to the interests of Newspaper proprietors, as a preventive to the free and equitable current of Editorial exchange, as a barrier to the acquisition of foreign material for the extended information of the Colonial public, and as a tax and a trammel upon kaowledge which he regretted should exist, and which he expressed a determination to do his utmost to remove. His Excellency's words were these — He (the Governor) believed that the restriction* which the Po»t Office place i upon the transmisiion of newspapers, was really the greatest misfortune that could happen to the Golony— in fact, it was tantamount to a tax upon the spread of information ; he could hardly imagine how it was possible for editor! of news papers to turniih the columns of their journals with a lufficieut quantity of intelligence from abroad ; and the news of the Colony itself vias hindered from spreading by the charge required for the despatch of newspaper!. Altogether, it was a system that existed in no other Colony, and one that required immediate alteration. This Journal took occasion, at that time, to thank His Excellency for the kindness and liberality of his intentions — and we now, that those intentions have proved to be no mere words of course, beg to reiterate our most sincere and grateful acknowledgments for the rescinding of an impost, which must have been as obnoxious to a liberal Governor — himself a man of letters — as it was unjust and oppressive to us. From yesterdays-all honour to Sir George Grey | — no postage is to be charged for any newspaper despatched from, or received at, any of the Post Offices in New Zealand. Trifling as the sum hitherto exacted may appear to have been, we know that it has prevented many from subscribing to the journals of this and other colonies. We, therefore, hail its disap-

pearancc, as an earnest of greater and more essential reforms. Our leaders will find a notification on 'the subject in our columns, taken from yesterday's Gazette; — which also repeats the advertisement of sale of Crown lands at Howick, Auckland, Epsom, Takapuna, &c. It contains, likewise, Her Majesty's Warrant for the use of the new seals prepared for the colony. Notice is also given that Crown lands, not disposed of at auction^may be'purchased at the upset price within three months of the date of their being publicly offered. The Quarterly Immigration Return, ending on the 30th September, exhibits a total of 18b' inwards — emigrants 82 — being 104 immigrants in excess. Ere many more returns are made we hope to find the balance very much larger in favour of this province. The Return of Revenue and Expenditure of Auckland, during the like period, is satisfactory, the gross amounts being —

The Principal items of Revenue are Customs £7,411 19s. sd. Laud Sales,&c, £988 45. 4d. Parliamentary Grant, £4,625.

Our attention was forcibly drawn to the leading article of the Sydney Morning Herald of the 26th ultimo, by the quaintness of its title — " How to Form Villages" — and we eagerly pored over the editorial expositions, in the anxious hope of catching something that we might turn to the particular advantage of our own adopted land. But the subject matter of Australian lucubration is as yet " too rich and rare" — too uncertain, even in that more ardent clime — to bear transplantation to New Zealand : nay, as the Sydney journalist avers, is such as to defy anything like competition either from us or from Van Diemen's Land. That subject is the culture of silk, in attainment of which desirable end a sum of money has been raised by subscription, a piece of land procured, and all the initiatory arrangements confided to the superintendence of a Mr. Beauzeville, a gentleman said to be everyway qualified for the task he has undertaken, and of which, indeed, he seems to have been the anxious and indefatigable promoter. We have to acknowledge the receipt of the prospectus of this institution. But, in reply to its Secretary's appended note, if the Herald's saw be sooth, and New Zealand competition the hopeless thing by it proclaimed, we fear our advocacy of New Zealand subscriptions in furtherance of New South Wales individual aggrandizement, would prove to be anything but a labour of love, either to the soliciter or solicitee. Even with a contingent — if remote — hope of participation of benefits, we fear we should encounter more crosses than coin ; nevertheless, should there be any philanthropic individuals disposed to cast in their mite to the silken treasury, we shall be happy to receive their donations and, in due couise, to transmit them to the fountain head. The arguments adduced in favor of the successful production of silk in New South Wales are most feasible. tJpon a small scale the raw silk of commerce has been frequently grown, and we have ourselves beheld some very beautiful samples, wound from the cocoon by Mr. Thomas Forster, of the Australian Journal — samples, submitted to competent judges, and by them pronounced to be of such a quality as to render the commodity one of certain and profitable export. Mr. Forster devoted much time and trouble, but without means on an extensive scale, to feeding and rearing of the worm, and to the reeling of the cocoons. His avocations, it is true, would not admit of his making the matter a commercial pursuit, although he unquestionably established thus much, namely, that the climate of New South Wales is favourable to the growth of the mulberry tree, and that the worm can be easily and healthily reared j so as, with ordinary care, to insure a reasonable return of an article, " anciently sold at its weight in gold, and that has become an important source of national riches." Mr. For - ter | avers that, in Australia, three acres are required to produce a fleece of, at an excessive value, seven shillings and sixpence — whilst " one acre of properly cultivated mulberry trees would feed from forty to fifty thousand silk worms, which would yield a nett profit to the breeder of about £20 pel acre" — an estimate, the correctness of which the writer asserts, upon the authority of official documents presented to the Congress of the United States. The annual consumption of raw, waste, and thrown silk, in England, is about five millions of pounds weight; the produce principally of India, China, and Italy. I is, therefore, matter of deep interest to us, in the far South-East, that the experiment now in progress in New South Wales, should be successful, .because one source of success is almost invariably the parent of another, and if New Zealand cannot compete (an asseition yet to be proved) in the growth of raw silk, she can assuredly more than compete in production of the bread stuffs which the mulberry planters, moth breeders, cocoon vi inders, and the long train of operatives, — to whom a successful developement of the traffic will give birth— must require,

We can perceive no reasonable cause to doubt tbe success of the Silk Worm in Australia. The climate so advantageous for wool it is to be hoped may prove as favourable for silk — and we trust that the fleece, which, in some half-dozen lustres, has accomplished so much, may, in an equally brief period, be united with a not less fortunate auxiliary in the glossy skein ; from whose fruitful resources, the Herald has, most ingeniously, contrived to demonstrate "how to form villages," upon paper, at once profitable and picturesque. May they prove no mere Chateaux en iiipaqne, but downright, substantial, English villages, teeming with honest English hearts, and thriving with all the energy of English enterprise, of English industry. Villages, with which, if we cannot cope in one way, we must do our best to outstrip in another.

H. M. Ship Havannah. Tins vessel, so soon to be our Flag Ship, is an old eight and thirty gun frigate, of the eighteen pounder class, reduced to a heavy corvette of 19 guns. The " Havannah" was built at Liverpool, in a Merchant's Yard, in 1811, from lines furnished by Sir William Rule, the constructor of the Caledonia, the finest three decker in the British Navy. The " Havannah" has the reputation of being a very handsome ship, of 964 tons. Like the " Daedalus," " Aigle,' r " Curacoa," and other razeed frigates, her enhanced weight of metal is fully a counterpoise for her diminished number of guns. According to the " Sydney Daily Advertiser/ the " Havannah's" present armament consists of six eight inch guns of eight feet, weighing fifty two hundred weight — twelve nine feet thirty two pounders of fifty hundred weight, and one nine feet six inches thirty two pounder pivot gun. She is likewise furnished with two twelve pound howitzers, and a six pounder field piece. Two twenty-four, and one twelve pounder rocket tubes, with an ample supply of rockets. The same Journal states, that the equipment of the " Acheron" is the most complete, perhaps, of any vessel that ever left England. Our Colonial readers may, possibly recollect a very handsome merchant ship the " Thomas Lowry," lately employed in the transport service here. That vessel was constructed by the builder of the " Havannah," upon the frigates reduced lines.

H. M. Ship " Dido" has received orders to return to England forthwith. She is, in consequence, preparing for sea with all despatch. The date of her departure has not been permitted to transpire. The " Indian," with a valuable cargo of New Zealand produce, will this day take her departure for London. Several old colonists have availed themselves of this opportunity to pay a visit to their native land, some of them with an intention shortly to return.

Elegvnt Extract. — The following exquisite illustration of what is Coloniallj/ termed strong writing, is a morceau much too rich to be lost. It is an exestuation worthy of its cause. It is a process of ratiocination the most striking, if not the most convincing — and as a text to teach elegance in eloquence, we transfer it to our sympathetic columns — premising that all its noble indignation was elicited in behalf of an unfortunate convict, hanged for the very venial crime of violating a virtuous wife and mother, in the presence of her spreaming children, and under circumstances of the most revolting atrocity. But what has humanity to do with the crime or its victim ? 1 It is the criminal only who is the object of modern philanthropy !

EXECUTION OF THE CRIMINAL DIAMOND. Indignation, abhorrence, scum, disgust, pity, are words inadequate to expreis our feelings at the afro™ ci y which was yesterday mm ning committed under the sanction of the law. Law ! that noble science which in the hands of the wise and the good is exerted for the benefit of mankind, it in Sydney perverted from its noble object by infatuated and drivelling incapab'e*. A hanging Judge — aVarbaious Attorney Gene al— a sanguinary and i norant Executive— and an automaton Governor— any one of these is a blessing sufficient for any community, but when combined bow snail we sufficiently admire and envy the fortune of the colony which possesses them. We have forgotten to add to the catalogue of our inercias our unenlightened and docile Legi*l»tive Council, which so dutifully conconsigned its nasal organ to the guidance of PadJy Plunkett. * * * To it* honour be it said the press has almost unanimously condemned the punishing of Ihe unhappy cr minal with death. So far as we are aware there is but a single instance of a colonial journal [the St/d7iej Morning Herald] advocating the infliction of the penalty of death in this case, and defending the conduct of the Chief Justice, and this we have reason to believe was done with great unwillingness. The Yitu- of that journals advocacy and defence we have s ifficiently exposed ; ita infamy in thus degrading itself, needs neither exposure, nor exposition. * * S r Fitz Roy has thrown a foul blot upon h s administration by the execution of this unhappy ciimiual. This matter is not yet settled. There are men in the Imperial Parliament who will not lose sight of it. Ihe Colonial Government may despite the s ricturei of the Colonial Press, but an authority which they cannot, they dare not despise, shall be referred to. Beneath the unsparing strictures of Mr. Bright, Mr. Ewart, and a hundred others, who will be justly shacked at this instance of colonial barbarism, Chief Justice Stephen and Co., will writhe in wellmerited agony. To that tribunal, the British Parliament, we now appeal, to know whether British law Or the caprice of fantastic legislators in this colony is more powerful. To that authority we appeal to know w .ether the strangulation of the criminal Diamond, for committing rape, was a legal taking away of life, or W&erjier >t W»f murder,— iSycViey Alias,

Revenue ±i4,u00 a Expenditure £12,769 12 Balance £1,298 15 1