The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 261, 29 November 1848, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

He just and fear not: Let all the ends thou ninis't at, be ttiy Country's, '1 liv Goo's, aud Truth's.

WEDN^SDA.Y^NOVEMiiEiI 2 <>, 18 48.

If our readers will turn to our paper of the 4th instant, they will, there, find the debate in the House of Commons, exponential of the systematic jugglery of the Colonial Office, and which elicited one of the most charming faction fights of modern date. We have since received the sequitur to that memorable contest, waged with quite as cutting, (however courtly,) energy in the House of Lords. With reckless generosity, Earl Giey undertook the defence of the Colonial Office collecthely, and himself individually, fioni the chaiges, preiVned against himself and his subs, of having wilfully and designedly withheld impoilant despatches fiom the Commons commiitee, lately sitting on the subject of West India dishos.?. In the course of his vindication, Earl Grey disclaimed any feeling of anger against his accuspis ; — but with such studied " meekness of disposition " — such " mildness of temper "—" — th.it, for the life of us, we could not drive Sir Anthony Absolute out of our head, at the moment when he exclaims — " Ilark'ee Jack ; — I ha\ c heard you for some time with patience — I have been cool — quite cool •, but take care — yon know I am compliance itself — when I am not thwarted ; — no one more easily led when I have my own way ; but dont put me in a frenzy." "He hyped," — observed Earl Grey — " he was not guilty of undue presumption in saying that having now for nearly two and twenty years been a member of one or other house of Parliament, and taken some share in public affairs, and having never before (?) during that long period had imputed to him a mean or dishonourable action, he did think he had earned a character which was proof against such an attack." We should he happy to re-echo the chaunt of his Lordship's trumpeter, did not his interpretation of the treaty of Waitangi, like the "Amen" of Macbeth, "stick in our throat !" Apropos ! We have heard that a new reading has been given to that treaty, in Her Majesty's letter to Te Whero Where— that Chief being graciou&ly assured that the tieaty will be sciupulou&ly fulfilled with reference to himself and all those who signed it ! ! Was the Treaty a National or an Individual treaty *? Whatever may be thought of Earl Grey's exculpation ; in our opinion, his explanation conveys the most hitter condemnation of the Colonial Office system. His excuse for error, bpcause of the pressure of business to be performed, is the most biting denunciation of the Official incapacity to perform it. If the bandying of papers, from clerk to clerk, and from secretary to secretary, be productive of eiror and inconvenience, on the spot, may it not, must it not, be pregnant with distress, if not destruction, to Colonies many thousand miles removed ? Can anything exhibit more clearly the wholesome truth that Colonial Legislation should never be initiated by the Colonial Office, but should merely be controled and rendered amenable to the general interests of the empire ? The determination to work the Colonies in Downing-street, is like an attempt of superannuated pigmies to wield the strange and ponderous weapons of youthful and aspiiing giants. They*may, for a time, be hurled with reckless indifference ; but this very intrusion which is the immediate bane of the Colonies may also become the eventual ruin of the empire •, by estranging and exasperating the minds of colonists victimised by a set of men unable to comprehend their affairs, which, hoAvever, like a birthright, are insanely transmitted to their periodical and irresponsible mangling. Can we have stronger evidence of the overbearing despotism and unconstitutional privileges of the Colonial Office than in this monstrous avowal of Lord Stanley — " that it would be sometimes inconvenient and mischievous to lay the whole of a despatch before Parliament V Does not this conclusively show what abject pocket perquisites of the Colonial Office the colonies aie ? " But" — continued Lord Stanley—" the noble Earl (Grey) extended that doctrine" — that of despatch mutilation — " and claimed on the part of Go\enjment that they should only lay befote Parliament so much of any despatch as met their own views, and should exclude fiom every despatch whatever ran counter to those views. The practice of the noble Earl would seem to confirm the strong charge made by his noble fiiend (Loid George Bentinck) in the House of Commons that they adopted the •principle of suppressing and perverting the inform a - I tion which they had in their possession and which had not been laid before Parliament ! !" That our opinions of Colonial Office obstructiveness — in exposition of which we have laboured assiduously, in. England and in the Colonies, for the lj\st twelve yeais- -aie, now, no

longer singulai, tlio foiegoing illustration may seive to piove ; but, we appeal, besides, to numerous other examples given by the bulk of the intelligent and the influential of the London Journals. In a long and able aiticlc of the 12th July, the " Morning Chronicle" thus dismisses the consideiation of another glaring case of Colonial Office evasion. "It is melancholy to reflect that the chief obstacles to the development of colonial prosperity are created ami maintained by those whose special business it is to promote it, and that the lirst step f owaids improvement of colonization must be — a 1 evolution in the Colonial Office /" Let us trust that the dawn of a blighter day may shortly streak the colonial horizon — to dispel the prevailing gloom, and to cheer the anxious watcher with happier, holier, hope. Absorbed as England is, in the terrible European question, she will nevertheless be driven — ii" not by a sense of justice, at least by the dictates of necessity — to investigate the claims and to redress the wrongs of her patient, suffering, colonies. Even now, she is, in a measure, compelled to look to those colonies as the sole practical vent for the accumulated and accumulating masses of "British misery, whose craving stomachs and naked limbs arc, in very extremity, become perilous to the safety of the btate. Obnoxious as colonial questions notoriously are to the members of Saint Stephen's, as at ptesent constituted : — difficult, as it may be, to secure a House to consider a colonial subject ; we, still, imagine we can read the signs of the times sufficiently clearly to discover, that those who disdain to make a House to legislate for the weal of the empire by redressing the grievances of its mightiest, however distant, props, will, ere long, be thrust indignantly from the councils of a House whose trust they abuse and whose character they disgrace. The disclosures of the trickeries of the Colonial Office, resulting from the onslaughts we have just detailed, will do much to shake the rampant domination of that irresponsible autocracy. The debate on the West India question, but above all the able and argumentative speech of Sir Robert Peel — impress us with a hope that the power of the Colonial Office for evil has experienced a sharp and a salutary check. During his last tenure of Office, whilst speaking of the colonies, Sir liobert Peel adopted an old colonial motto, that the colonies ought to be considered as integral parts of the empire. In this opinion — which was assiimed to be but an oratorical flourish of the hour, — Sir llobcrt has evinced his sincerity. — He has demonstrated it to be a conviction, not a sentiment — and, on occasion of the debate, to which we allude, he has amplified the sense in winch he desired that previous opinion to be regarded by, tlm emphatic avowal — "I wish to see the alliance between the Colonies and the Mother Country maintained. I wish to recognize them as subjects of the Queen, entitled to every sympathy and consideration to which the inhabitants of Lancashiie and Yorkshire are entitled." The tone and tenor of Sir Robert Perl's entire speech afford incontestible evidence that he is sinceie in the wish thus expressed. The system of colonial amelioration he propounds — the amount of colonial concession he suggebts — and the field of colonial ambition he vouchsafes to colonial intelligence, are ample guarantees that, in Sir Rom:rt Peel, the Colonies have acquired a liberal and an enlightened friend. If, then, a coalition ministry — a contingency of some probability, — should ensue, what may not the Colonies hope from a minister, who proclaims his desire to render offices of trust more accessible to the natives of the colonies, — who avows a wish to stay the plague of the patronage locusts, — the drones of Downing Street, and its hangers on, — whose ignorance and anogance drive from their natural position, the native Colonists, by biith, intelligence, and identification with colonial interests every way better qualified to advance the Colonial and Imperial prosperity 1 How strafe (says tlia Sydney Herald, in omtieni taiy uf Sir Robert's masterly expositions) does all this souad in colonial eais! How different from what our ears and eyes have besen accustomed to ! The ruling policy has been, from time iinmemoiidl, to make colonial offices as numerous, and their salaries as high, as the Minister's authority could manage to ordain ; and then, in the distribution of these offices and sabries, to consider, not tho work to be done, but the men to be provided tor — not the qualifications of the candidates, but their claims as family or political con nexions. Any man having these pretensions was good enough for colonial nppoiutments ; the only question being, whether the appointments were good enough for him. Interest was everything— merit nothing. To these corruptions, so bane f ul to the colonies, so repugnant to the utilitarian spirit of the age, and co dis u graceful to the moral character of the nation, Sir Robcut Puel would put an end for ever. He stands pledged to do so to the utmost of his power, whether as a mere member of Parliament, or as the future First Lord of Her Majesty's Treasury. The principle of throwing open colonial appointments, or, in Sir Robekt's own words, " making them more accessible," to natives of the colonies, is as wholesome as it is sound. Such persons bring better acquainted than strangers " with the loca: interest i and wants of the place," and feeling naturally a warmer inteiest in the local welfaie, would bu more j likely to serve their country with effioieney and zeal. i And patronage would be less likely to be influenced by sinister motives. At any rate, it would be more subject to the healthful control of public opinion. The appointments wonli be made under the eyes of the colonists. Character and competency in the nominees would be insisted upon as paramount to favouritism. The popular branch of the Legislature, aided by the co«

operation of a doe and observant Press, would bo sufficient to pi event any gross or systematic abuse iv the tocil distributions of office. The emigration movement is on the vapid incicase. Journalists and reviewers, one aflei the other, expound theii several views, and, almost all, in sanguine advocacy of a panacea, which, in the hour of their prosperity, was ndiculcd as a meie selfish device of the Austialias to entrap labour to their shores. The Parishes long to expoit their burthens — Orphan Institutions aie greedy to paiticipate the <pri-> vilcge — Political Economists have, at last, detected that, in the integrity of the Colonies, is seated one of the main resources of British power — Statesmen echo the cry — and even the people begin to regard emigration more as a boon than a ban. It is much to be regretted that this enlightenment of public opinion had not occurred at an earlier date ; — because, it could have been conducted, some half a dozen years earlier, I with an energy and a success which the prostrate condition of the tinkered colonies of Australasia cannot now hold forth. The ties and the trammels which have bound eveiy spring of Colonial enterprise arc now beginning to exhibit their crowning results. The twenty shillings an acre oppression has stript New South Wales of her land fund. The monstrous impolicy of suddenly ■ -withdrawing her convict labour, without substitution of some other channel by which her wants might be supplied. The prohibition thus placed upon the beneficial investment of capital, and the impossibility, even for squatters, to employ labour at its inordinate price, and, with a yearly falling wool market, live — these are circumstances which are likely to militate most injuriously against a system of National Colonization or Emigration, if, of the poorer classes alone, — because they Avill arrive at the period of a second, and most likely a woisc, monetary crisis than that which, in 1 812, shook New South Wales to its foundations. The causes of this second crisis may, in some degree, be attributed to some of the dregs of the fiist, — to the outstanding difficulties now enforcing by the ruin of numbeilcss shareholders of the Bank of Australia, called upon to make good the debts, incurred in former years by their fraudful directors, to the Bank of Australasia, in payments of one hundred per ront., pro rata, for the capital paid up. The general and individual raiseiy entailed by this measure — one, however, of strict commercial justice — it would be as heart lending as unnecessary to dwell upon. The main cause, however, of the present distress is unquestionably in consequence of the closing the door against the pin chasers of Waste Lauds. It drhes capitalists to othci shoies. It pi events the leasonable supply of the needful labour, and it compels production at a price that will not return the prime cost. It is this that has crushed Australia. It is this which piecludes the possibility of the advancement of Now Zealand. And it is this which ■will, in all probability, cause the emigiants of this •' too late" National Colonization scheme to regard Ihemsehes as victimized lather than an benefitled by a measure of the greatest importance to the Colonies, and which might so easily be made as desiiable to the people as beneficial to the empne. The Colonial Office, at every stage of its ruinous flounderings, has shown how utterly incompetent it is to effect any thing with a Colonial question, beyond the infliction of misery and oppiession, and the engendering of disaffection and disgust in the Colonial heart. A scheme of National Colonization should not, therefore, be enti listed to it. It should be a Parliamentary measure. And, before any stops are taken to pour cmigiation forth in a mighty tide, the absuid lestriclions upon land should be unloosed. Every facility, nay, every inducement, to its conveision by capitalists should be held out, and a home for the reception, and a field for the industry, of the emigrants thereby created. National Emigration would, with such precautions, become a monument of National worth — not a memento of inconsiderate, national disgrace. The prairies of Australia — and the agrestial soils of New Zealand, which, properly pioneered, can be made to yield ample and profitable sources of I wealth and competence to thousands upon thousands of England's stragglers, and to give employment and aggrandizement to hosts of England's languishing manufacturers — would spring into life and activity, and that in a manner that would astonish even those who now crush them into insignificance. This is no hallucination of a " heat oppressed brain." For its leality, we appeal to Australia— (ere Wakefield was permitted to destroy) from 1820 to 1840— and to the same Australia fiom 1840 to 1848. The natiual accumulation of population, and the casting of her felon slough has, no doubt, imparted a character to Sydney — but for Colonial solvency, not to say a woid of Colonial prosperity, we would ask any unprejudiced commentator to— " Look upon this picture, — and on this" — and, then, if he cannot detect the ruin caused by the Waste Lands Act of modern application, we would bid him consider the United States, whcie, (cheap, good, and easily acquired Land the attraction) emigiation is in the proportion of about eighty to seven, as contrasted , with crushed, misgoverned, Australia.

By the " Siste.is," nnived fiom llnbait Town, on Sunday, we have leccivcd a few straggling papers to the 3 id instant. They contain lilllo of interest to oui- readers. The Colonial Tim us quotes thus from our Journal, of the 7th ult. " Jn reply to n, deputation who waited upon Governor Grey, he is represented to Jiavc «.iul— ' Ai (ho present inomeni, thne ii piohabiy no pojlionof the woild in which "life and pjopeity tuc moic slcuio Ui.m in New Zealand, nor U tl hi o nny other country which holds out greater promise of piospmty ami happincsq to intnidinej cmißrnnts.' To tliis doctrine, the New Ztulamhr very properly (Ihscnts, and so will most of the emigrants who have ulieady visited Govejnoi Crcy'a Poradue." AYe invite attention to our " docliine," by a /aZ/poins.il of the ]xiper thus ciloil. Of the honesty of the Journalist, who seeks, in one line, so basely to pervert our statements, we can only think with pity. Would that life and propei ly weie as secure in Van Piemen's Land, as lieie. We could give some frightful pictmes of the very levcrse, from the journals now bcfoie us. We aie glad to welcome an old fiicnd and nallant delendei in the pel. son of LicutonantColonel llui.mk, wlio ictmns, beliu\e, to Willie amongst us. Thcie aic, also, we undeistand, some score of mechanics aimed, who will find plenty of work and good wages in " Governor Giiky's paradise." The UGth llcyimcnt, are repoiled, to l>c under onlers of almost immediate embaikation for India. Lieulenant-Geneial Wynyard, it is said, will proceed from Sydney to inspect them prior to then dcpaitmc. Their head qnailcrs have been between eight and nine years in Van Piemen's Land ; one lcgimcnt, will do the futuie Tasman'uin duty.

Scotch Cavacn. — On Monday cloning a mooting took place in Hie Hall of the Mechanic's Institute, to hear Ihe rcpoil of the Build.jiio Committee, and lo lake measures for the expediting the pi ogress of that edifice. In coiif.cqnencc of the lliin allciulancc, and the paucity of that attendance being attiibuted to the shortness of the notice given, the meeting was adjourned until Thiusday (to-morrow) evening at Ihe same place, at seven o'clock.

We aic glad to announce that one of our few roukts of enjoyment is, again, about <o bo opened up. The Band of the sSlh Regiment, .so lono; piecludcd pejfoiming, on account of the inclemency of the weather, will assemble in the "pounds of the lafe (-roveinmcnt lfou.se, eveiy TJmr.sdciy afternoon, fioni hall-past three until half-past t\\(> o'clock. The .spot selected h a mo.st rtppropiiate one, soft sccneiy and sweet .sounds hang; in hamionious keeping. — The following i,, thcpiogiainine of to-inouow'.s pcifomiance :—: — Ove.iluir — Op •' Fn Diavolo " Au'in. ]Nlfl.»i»»! — <>p " Tin' Maid ol Honor ".... U.ilf.-. clmkliilli'' "J'h'; £>vi s" .Tullirn. Cu. Op " Oifann cli Geneva" Rirvi. W.il / " Hie Flscn " Lnbitzky. I'olka " The Cucltet'" .Tullirn.