The New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 272, 6 January 1849, Page 2

The New Zealander.

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

~ SATURDAY, J A N*U ARY 6, 184 9.

The motion of Sir William Moleswoiith, involving, as it has even already done, a searching investigation into the causes and effects of Colonial Office misgovernment, is one of those fortunate strokes which take mankind by surprise, whilst they reanimate the despondent with fresh confidence and hope. It is not that Sir William has so utterly dumbfounded his opponents by propounding a series of sound and practical remedies of evil, long and artfully cloaked. It is not in consequence of his having projected any startling or statesmanlike innovations — nor yet because of his general truthfulness of detail. But, it is because of the great and glaring wrongs of the system, he has so forcibly exposed, that the motion of Sir William Molesworth has acquired the importance of a vast colonial boon. Sir William's has been the first ray to pierce the Cimmerian gloom of Downing-street, and his praisewoithy efforts to render visible its official darkness have been followed up by a flood of light, such as threatens destruction to the moles that have so long burrowed there — to the utter destruction of all colonial prospe • rity, and to the not less certain undermining of the national weal. The accuracies or the inaccuracies of Sir William Molesworth's details ate matter of very little moment. They have, hitherto, been unanswerable by his adversaries, and they have, on every hand, been fortified by his friends. It has been the privilege of Sir William to set a text which has furnished a theme for countless commentators, throughout the length and breadth of England's unexampled empire. Nay, more ; the reality of the greivances which he laid bare were so self-evident to the inflictors, that their public exhibition caused as much consternation as would a shell thrown into the camp of an enemy fearful of his position ; converting him at once from the aggressive to the conciliatory. Sir William has proved himself the friend of the colonies. Let the colonies show that they recognise and approve him as their champion. He has manfully assailed their aggressors. It is their duty to arm him with the knowledge, which is power, to overcome those aggressors. And how is that to be done ? Not by stoically looking on at the fight which is for their freedom ! How, then ? By supplying ample and authentic information on every point that militates for or against the colonial interests, and not by leaving our advocates or our adversaries to interpret dogged silence into a happy state of content. Colonists are but too prone to ridicule the ignorance of British legislators in local, colonial affairs ; and to censure, and that in no measured terms, the apathy of Parliament in the frequent counting out of the House, when a Colonial question is sought to be considered. "With what justice can they ridicule the first which they themselves are either too selfish or too indifferent to obviate — or why should they overlook their own apathy in stultified amaze of that of a Senate, not personally interested in their weal, and to whom their affairs are a bore? Let us bring the question home to ourselves, and let us take, as an illustration of our demerits, the land obstructions, which causeJNew Zealand to pine in distant and disunited poverty, instead of pushing her to sure and rapid prosperity. Broach the land question as a subject of street or parlour conversation, to whomsoever you may. Touch it ever so tenderly, and mark the torrents of indignant eloquence that will teem from almost every lip. What glowing and (we willingly admit) what truth* ful pictures of industry and prosperity are sketched as the infallible result that would attend the removal of the insane restrictions i which, by demand of an impossible purchase money, render New Zealand a natural, or rather an unnatural, Waste. With what enthusiasm, and with what undeniable accuracy they will demonstrate how a fair and practicable price would convert her into the very finest ! agricultural and pastoral colony of the Australasiatic group ! j This is a subject which works our colonists i into frenzy, and yet the chances are at least a

thousand io one that it is a grievance unknown either to Sir William Moleswortii, or to the Home Government ! Yet the very men who waste their isolated eloquence on the desert air — who long to pitch into Governors — and who can mutually emhitter each other. These very men lack the unity of purpose to collect their tiny rills into one respectable current of public opinion, such as if embodied in an energetic and rational memorial, would, even if it failed to achieve its aim, be a recorded fact with which men of the mould and in the station of Sir William Molesworth, might be j enabled successfully to grapple. i In our this day's impression, we give the comments of two London journalists on the debate caused by Sir William Molesworth's motion. We commend them both to the careful consideration of our readers. If^they choose, they will there discover that the Canadas compelled the Colonial Office into redress of their wrongs — that New South Wales snubbed that irresponsible despotism into attention of her's — and that even the cries and prayers of cruelly outraged Van Diemen's Land have terrified the autocrats into a promise of ameliorating the suffeiings of Tasmania Such is the condition of the remonstrant colonies. South Australia and New Zealand are the examples of successful Colonial O/Jice colonization cited by the ingenious Benjamin Hawes, the younger ! South Australia is too busy with her mines, and too much favoured by immigration to have much to complain of. Her crying grievance was the imposition of a royalty, but that gave way to the force of a well considered and combined remonstrance. But New Zealand — Pet New Zealand— that superlative specimen of successful colonization — like a spoiled child, pouts and whimpers because it has not courage to break its leading strings. It cries over its locked up territory, denouncing the Colonial Office, disparaging the Governor, and, all the while, letting slip the time and opportunity of which nations and colonies are making so much. Up, men of New Zealand ! If the land restrictions be indeed the general and the galling grievance you depict them — memorialize your Queen and country, and show that, while the land is compelled to lie waste, New Zealand, though she may create a few settlements, cannot virtually became a colony !