WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1848.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 249, 18 October 1848, Page 2

W E D NE S D A Y, O C T O B E R 18, 1 8 4 8.

Our Contemporary, thp Cross, has transferred to his columns of Saturday, an article from the London New Zealand Journal, of the 22nd of April, which professes to be a picture of the " State of the Colony." " Mr. E\rp," says the Cross, " is advancing by parallels to undermine the reputation of his quondam favourite, Sir George Grey." The phrase undermine is characteristic, and in admirable keeping with the aiticle to which it refers. Had the pationymic of the London commentator been CARr or Warp, it would have been charmingly synonymous of his vocation, since he twists fact and fiction with marvellous ingenuity, demonstrating how adroitly upon a pin's point of possible truth, a web of most palpable falsehood may be made to depend. If, however, Mr. Earp can mine, Sir George, we have little doubt, can quite as ably countermine, and — if he be the great mathematician the Anglo-Maori Warder proclaims — blow Mr. Earp and his parallels across this Asses bridge of flimsy inventions. People at a distance are, proverbially, better acquainted with events, than are the good easy folks among whom they are passing — we presume, therefore, that it is by virtue of some such agency, that the perspicacious Mr. Earp has been able to discover that " to the turmoil in the Northern Province, there is not only no probability of an end, but every probability of a renewal in a more formidable character than before." Owls that we aie, not to be able to detect the faintest glimmer of those alarming dangers the Seer of New Broad-Street so vividly discerns ! Can it be that we are in the midst of an emeute without being aware of the appalling fact * Wretched Northerns ! With all the fly-flapping of an Earp that we should continue in a state of blessed ignorance still ! Mr. EARr's theories, aud Mr. Earf's commentaries, may be all very ingenious, very delicate theories, veiy responsive commentalies; — but we grieve to be compelled to say they are of the precise value of " the instructions of the Colonial minister " — the god of Mr. Earp's idolatry — "waste paper !" However grandiloquently Mr. Earp may censure Sir George Grey because of his just estimate of that Minister's monstrous instructions, we believe that not only the colonists of New Zealand, but, those, likewise, of all the neighbouring possessions, entertain the highest respect and the most lively gratitude towards Governor Grey, for the ability and firmness •with which he got rid of an abomination calculated to paralyze the provinces of his own immediate rule ; and whose deformities were threatened to be imposed upon every indignant member of the Australasian family. Long may we have Governors with wisdom to detect the absurdities " of the Colonial Minister," and with manhood to risk office rather than stoop to their injurious infliction. But, says Mr. Earp," the Governor has practically succumbed to the land shark interest !" To which shark, good sir? — To the Company's? If so, would Mr. Earp himself be now so violent ? It cannot be to the Penny-an-Acre shark, for that is as ravenous and as clamorous as ever ! We fear our London contemporary must have been indulging in an after dinner glance at the " State of the €olony," otherwise he would hardly venture to tell us that the Suspension Bill would " find representative government in jull swing, only to be laid by the heels again." In military manoeuvres ,<Mv. Earp is positively facetious: — hehandles a fleet and an army with the genius of a Nelson and a Napoleon combined ! What a pity that to him the conduct of the New Zealand war had not been confided ! What marches and what countermarches — what frays and what forays — what " hair breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breech, 11 would it not have been his to recount and ours to admire ! From the vigour with which Mr. Earp condemns the defects of others it is plain that in him New Zealand would have beheld a second Bobadil — a genuine foigh a ba/lagh, one who would have shown " how fields were (to be) won," and demonstrated how disciplined troops were to be brought to the scratch with savages upon whose tails, leaders, less gifted than Mr. Earp, endeavoured to lay salt, in vain. And yet, in the estimation of many sensible and practical soldiers, this very impatience to pickle the Maories has been the capital error of the New Zealand contest. The sanguinary conflict at Owhaiawhai should suffice to show that the Fabian rather than the Terentian system of tactics are those to be adopted in New Zealand. Had Despard " advanced by parallels," rather than by forlorn hope, the ranks of the gallant 58th and 99th regiments wo.uld

fidence of the Maori less* assured by the unresisting butchery of light-armed warriors w ho dashed in vain against impenetrable pahs. All experience has proved that, in bush fighting, disciplined troops are unequal to savages, who never.abide encounter, but pounce by stealth upon rheir antagonists ; if possible, cut off the stragglers, and disappear on the instant. The troops in New Zealand are now doing that which they should have done all along. They are maintaining certain positions. Affording security to the settlers, more by their concentration upon points, than by their dispersion after a foe from whom it were hopeless to expect battle. And, if Commander-in-Chief, Mr. E yrp, is desirous of beating the Natives, we would recommend him to organise an army of ten or twelve thousand men ; and even then, we incline to think, his corps would be more an army of occupation than of conquest. However, as he says," " the programmes of the performances of their united military bands " would make a glorious blazon in the local papers ! How we should enjoy the crash ! The band racket is a brilliant idea of General Earp, and, as "he is not the man to let a bright idea rest," we would suggest his carrying it out in extenso. Why not call the attention of the Duke, to the astounding fact, that llegimental Lieutenant-Colonels, in garrison,all the world over, are guilty of the unpardonable crime of occasionally regaling the public with the concord of the sweet sounds at their command ! Nay, why not lecture the Duke himself for permitting the band of his own regiment of Grenadier Guards, to make strolling players of themselves by performing, for hire, at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, Vauxhall, and other popular menageries <? Oh, Mr. Earp, Mr. Earp ! Your cause of complaint is pitiful in the extreme, when it drives you to such paltry shifts as these. If you are indeed the friend of New Zealand, and not the retainer of a grasping clique, you will advocate a more liberal and enlightened policy. You will not conjure phantoms for the idle pleasure of dealing with them. Pluck the mote from your own eye, and you may, perhaps, then discover that the beam which, in the instances you allege, distorts the vision of Sir George G rey', is a true light, whose guidance even his opponents give him credit for following ; except indeed, the few so utterly prejudiced against him as to be incapable of discovering any good in Nazareth. If, Mr. Earp, you are really the enemy of " expensive trifling," pray direct the attention of " Mr. Hume, or any other sum-tataller," to the cheap and easy way of insuring the peace and prosperity of New Zealand — European and Maori. That way is by pitching the Wakefield system and the Wakefield Company along with it, to the dogs. And, as Mr. Hume is rayther given to economy, whether political or social, he will pay not the less attention to your recommendation if you back it with the following illustration, from M'Culloch, of the practical accuracy of your views. " The mode of letting land by fine, that is, by the receipt of a large sum of money on the tenant's entry to a farm — the rent during the currency of the lease being proportionally small — has been severely censured by all the best agricultural writers j and for the very sufficient reason, that it deprives the tenant, on entering into his farm, of the greater part of his capital, and disables him from undertaking any considerable improvements at the very time it is most essential he should set about making them. And yet we are loudly called upon to do the same thing by the settlers in a new colony — who, for the most part, emigrate because they have little or no capital, — that is so justly condemned at home. This precious project has actually been trumpeted forth as a signal discovery that was to be productive of the very greatest utility ; and a society has been formed to promote colonization, on the avowed principle of rendering it much more difficult than it has ever hitherto been for a colonist in the lower walks of life to acquire land and become independent ! If slaves could be imported into a colony of this sort, there might be some chance of its succeeding. But while land of the very best quality, may be had in the valley of the Mississipi, for about a dollar an acre, or less, we think better of the common sense of our countrymen, than to suppose that any one able to carry himself across the Atlantic will resort to Australia (or New Zealand) under the auspices of any Company of the sort now alluded to." The Company — Mr. Earp— tire exorbitant price — and all the difficulties attending the acquisition of land. These, more than Governor Grey, are the Do Nothings of New Zealand ! Reduce the Land Maximum to Five Shillings an acre — Legalize sales between the Native and the European races. These are the grand, the infallible incentives to the progression of New Zealand. Concede but these, and peace and prosperity will be founded too deeply to be shaken.

By the Cornelia, which arrived from Port Nicholson on Sunday, we have intelligence to the 30th ultimo. There had been no further arrivals from England ; but the Harriettb ,Na3>han had returned with a cargo of cattle from SPoit Albert. We regret to perceive that an ill feeling continued to exist amongst the leading sup-

lency the Goveinor-in-Chief, on the subject of representative institutions. A communication, signed by thirty-five persons, had been presented to Mr. Stokes, the editor of the Si'kct \tor, complaining of " a most gross, unpiovoked, and unjustifiable attack upon Mr. FitzHerbert," contained in the letter of " A Settler," published in the Spectator ; and requesting the name of the writer to be given up. To a demand, savouring so grossly of intimidation, Mr. Stokes could give no other than one reply — a prompt and peremptory refusal, which he accompanied with, what to us appears to he, a fair and moderate explanation of the motives that induced him to give currency to the letter so fiercely stormed. Mr. Stokes disclaims " anonymous slander," and " any disposition to permit personal attacks," but he claims, and we think reasonably too, the right both for himself and his correspondents, to review the public acts of a public man in the pages of a. public journal. To be brow beaten into surrender of a principle and a privilege, at the cry of numbers, would indeed be to cry Craven — to show Mr. Stokes unworthy of his position, and to degrade that Press whose freedom it is the boast of Englishmen to uphold unscathed. ! Both parties were heated with their subject, and hard words were bandied on both sides of the question. With these each should be satisfied. We would only put it to the requisitionists themselves, and ask what they would think of the independence of a journal which could be brought to give up its correspondents upon dictation 1 The Spectator of the 30th, has an article upon Representative Institutions. After the recent conflict on that point, the article smacks somewhat of the sour grapes. It is a just and sensible article, nevertheless, and a very befitting requiem for the suspended constitution. The Cornelia has been chartered by Mr, P. M. Hervey, and will positively load at Wellington, the Raymond, however, has been withdrawn. Mr. Fox, who had arrived at Wellington on the 26th ult., will for the present occupy the place of the late Colonel Wakefield, as principal agent of the New Zealand Company. Tenders are invited for the erection of a native hospital at Wanganui, the building to be 72 feet by 40, and thirteen feet high, the walls to be of brick, stuccoed, and upon a concrete foundation. Our extracts will be found in another column.

We have received copies of the Nelson Examiner to the 23rd ultinio. The barley exported thence to Sydney had been highly approved, and a market for the commodity to a large extent, was open at four shillings per bushel. The barque Victory had conveyed several hundred bushels, and the Despatch was about to load with moie. The Examiner contains a letter from Mr. Fox, declaring the withholding of representative institutions, to be the cause of that gentleman's resignation of office. The editor of the Examiner, is exceedingly complimentary to his fellow intellectualists of the opposite side of Cook's Straits, because of their recent constitutional' demonstration. But, as usual, he is bitterly invidious and unreasonably unjust towards us maligned Northmen, who, he avers, are too mnch occupied in money getting, to heed the enjoyment of civil liberty. The case is not fairly stated-. In that which the Examiner would fain hug as Civil Liberty, we perceive but Political delusion — an unskilful daub instead of a genuine picture. We quarrel not with his taste, then wherefore carp and cavil at ours? The tone and temper in which the Examiner treats of Auckland, is unworthy a writer of his acknowledged ability. We copy the memorial of the Nelson settlers, soliciting from his Excellency the Grovernor-iu- Chief, an equitable share of the public expenditure in their settlement. The document is a moderate and argumentative one. And we consider their industry and their success as powerful advocates of the justice of their claims.

The dedication of the New Wesleyan Chapel is advertised to take place on Sunday next, the 22nd inst. Morning Service will be commenced, at eleven o'clock, by the Rev. J. Watkin, of Wellington ; that in the evening, at six, will be conducted by the Rev. J. Wallis, from Waingaroa. At the close of each service there will be a collection in aid of the heavy outlay entailed by the erection of this noble structure. Every available accommodation, we understand, will be afforded to strangers desirous of being present on the solemn and interesting occasion.