The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 276, 20 January 1849, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

He just and fear nott Let all the ends tlion airus't at, be thy Country's, Tliv firm's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 18 49

The admirable addtess, and subsequent, comprehensive explanations of the Governor-in-Chief, to the Legislative Council of New Munster, furnish new and brilliant indications of the fertility of his Excellency's genius, whilst they minister still further to the triumphs of his profound diplomatic skill. The astute perception of character, the intuitive knowledge of mankind, the prompt adaptation of circumstances to his purpose, and the ability to turn and mould even rancorous opposition to his will, have again been forcibly exemplified by the facility with which sir George Grey has veered the adverse hurricane of Constitutionalism, into the favouring breeze of Nominceism ! His Excellency has charmed the poor New Zealand Spectator — recently a vociferous champion of free institutions — not into an apologist, but into a positive advocate of their Nominee scarecrow. That journal, so late outrageous that we should presume but to smile at the pertinacity with which it clamoured for the cumbrous impossibility of Earl Grey, has read its facile palinode ; and, with the usual zealotry of apostacy, has discovered in Nomineeism, not only all the cardinal virtues, but an exquisite political plaster, admirably adapted for the peculiar requirements of New Zealand. The hinted abstraction of British gold, has, we fear, impaired our contemporary's vision. Preserve but that, and with a feeling of exultation — the converse of that which distinguished the gallant Francis — he appears willing to exclaim •. " All is saved, except our honour !" The address of the Governor-in-Chief is as skilful as it is masterly. It deals equally adroitly with men as with measures. It sugars that which is unpalatable so deftly and so dextrously that malcontents are almost tempted to deal with their past opinions as with those of ignorance or of error. • At all events, half a dozen converts in Wellington have so dealt. We designated that address a truly statesmanlike production, and we imagine that in that opinion those of our readers who have given it their fixed attention,- will unanimously concur. It is an address calculated to tell everywhere, and it will lose none of its point by transmission to Downing Street.

We coincide, frankly and fully, with his Excellency, in the belief that New Zealand is not yet in a position to be benefited by free institutions. She lacks the requisite machinery, moral and material. Her legislation wonld, we apprehend, degenerate into class legislation-— it would, we doubt, prove that of a clique, rather than that of a commonwealth. Legislation has partaken in some degree, of such a character, even in New South Wales, where there are popular checks against popular defections, which do not and cannot exist here, until the scale of population shall be mightily extended, and until the interests of the separate settlements shall merge into one, and actually acquire for them the dignity of a colony, possessing a thriving interior to fall back upon. But, though we agree in questioning the advantages of free institutions to dissevered handfuls, we do not coincide in considering Nominee Legislation as a counterbalance for their absence. So far from a panacea, we look ■upon such imposthumes as the most intolerable aggravation of a galling sore. We regard the solitary will of the ruler to whom, as Mr. G. White says, our destinies have been committed, us a much more rational and constitutional safeguard of good governance, than that likely to be obtained through those solemn mocke lies, Nominee Councils; and to demonstrate the accuracy of our view of the subject, we 'would merely contrast the civil and. social liberty of New South Wales, under the dictation of Macquarie, with the oppressions of the same province, under the dovnineerings of Darling and his pliant Council — the dictation of Colonel Sonel in Van Diemen's Land, with the long reign of terror of Arthur and his conscripti, in the same " crushed " possession. The examples are neither antiquated nor remote. There is, probably, little fault to be found ■with the general line of policy indicated by Sir George Grey. We only regret that he should hesitate to carry it out himself alone. It were an act of true magnanimity to risk a share of possible censure, especially when, if successful, he is sure to earn all the praise. However, as the die is cast, and as Nomineeism is now the law of the land, we must bear its irksome burthen as best 'we may. When doctors differ, who shall decide ? By implication, Sir George Grey asserts that representative government is costly •, ergo, that Nominee adminstration must be cheap ; such, at least, is the inference we deduce from his Excellency's expositions in 1 elation to an " orderly regulation of the finances and a frugal expenditure of the public resources, the fact of the colony being able to defray the expenses of its internal government from its own resources being a necessary preliminary to the introduction of a complete representative form of government." Sir William Molesworth has so recently and so utterly demolished the pretensions of Crown governed colonies to cheapness, that it were idle to waste time or temper on this point. With her first instalment of liberty, New South Wales went "frugally" to work, lopping off the idle runners and suckers of Nominee and Courtly patronage, and curtailing the burthens imposed by irresponsible government with a firm and faithful hand. Again, contrast figures and facts. The expenditure per head in enfranchised New South Wales amounts to twenty-eight shillings — in nominee Van Diemen's Land to four pounds six shillings. This, we should imagine, to be a proof not easily to be set aside. With reference to the Parliamentary grant so opportunely cited to burke the infant throes of freedom, we look upon it as a delusion — a delusion, too, which we have had significant hints of being speedily withdrawn. Is it a subsidy worthy of the smallest consideration^ when the question is of popular or the most unpopular form of government to which Englishmen ever we\e subjected 1 ? We think not. If we are to sell our birth-right for a subsidy, it should be of an amount of adequate consideration. In that subsidy, Nelson has never participated, and, look at her — is she the least piosperous of the New Zealand settlements ? Sir George Grey points to " the great lines of road now in progress" around Wellington, as part of the fruits of this subsidy. Fully alive to the vast benefit resulting from easy means of communication, and personally familiar with the Porirua country, thus opened up, we must nevertheless be pardoned our scepticism if we doubt whether those roads Tvere constructed so much with a view to the advantage of the settlers, as for the facility of miltary cccupation. We admit — fully admit, the necessity of these openings, and we also admit the great benefit they have conferred, and will yet confer, on the prosperity of the district ; but Port Nicholson having become a British settlement, and the possession of its neighbouring lands having been disputed, it strikes us that, had there not been a settler to prolit by the roads, they must still have been undertaken as a military measure. Sir George tells us that these roads will open " by easy lines of communication with immense tracts of fertile country, which will, I trust, be shortly in a great measure the property of the Crown, and which will then be fully laid open to the industry and energy of the settlers." At what price, we would fain inquire 1 At five, ten, and fifteen pounds per suburban acre *? — at twenty and forty shillings per wild, bush, acre ? If so, cvi bono ? The

land restriction is the rock-a-head of Sir George Grey's policy. It is the ruin of all the reasonable hopes of New Zealand. Whilst that policy is persevered in, it matters comparatively little whether the Government be nominative or representative, because the settlements cannot extend their arms to embrace each other in the rejoicing might of a colony. A few Utopians such as the " Canterburys," may, from time to time, glide un- ' perceived into the South, but the emigration will be confined to a trickling rill, it will never ' reach to the importance of a tide. What man can honestly say to his friend, " Come to New Ze\l\nd; you can here employ your capital to advantage !" The question has been asked of us again and again, and our answer has been this -.— « New Zealand, naturally, is the finest of all the colonies — her soil is of the richest — her climate the most favorable — and crops the most certain. She is superabundantly watered, and there is a moisture in the soil, even in the heat of summer, not to be met with in Australia, nor yet in Van Diemen's Land. The fisheries along her coasts might be rendered most profitable. She has many noble ports, and by arms of the sea, and livers, she has extensive means of internal communication. Stock of all descriptions improve immediately upon their landing from the other colonies. The droughts that ravage Australia are unknown, and we have seen upon her natural lands, grass and clover surpassing those of the highly cultivated and irrigated fields of Van Diemen's Land. Still, there is no prospect of your benefitting yourself by coming here. The land is not only reserved at a price no prudent per - son will pay ; but its means of acquirement are most vexatious, and, unless you desire Crown litigation, you must purchase of the Crown alone. Add to this, there are so many disputed titles already, that in this, the Northern and especially Crown province of the island, there is no attempt at legitimate settling, beyond the mere environs of Auckland, You I will, thus perceive, that New Zealand is, for the present, the Bar Harbour of Emigration, nJt the port for which a capitalist should bear up. We have it is true, a trifling drain now and then, from the other colonies ; but these are principally mechanics, attracted by the temporary high wages consequent upon the building extension of the town, but neither the adscript glehte nor yet the employers of such. We are but settlements, some of us more or less prosperous, but a colony — assuredly not !" We trust that our readers will do us the justice to believe that we write this with pain and regret, and in anything but a factious spiiit. The question is a great and a public question, on which the present and prospective welfare of New Zealand depends. We believe that the land restrictions are ruining the prospects of the provinces, and being so convinced, it is our duty, when examining the public expositions of our Chief Authority, to speak out fully and fearlessly, not in a spirit to gratify party piejudice, but in a tone to convince the calm and the reflecting that we deprecate no imaginary or exaggerated grievance. The views of his Excellency on the subject of the establishment of Steam communication between the several settlements are such as, in our opinion, entitle him to the grateful consideration of the whole community. The plan suggested, is so plain and practicable, and the results to be attained so important, that we trust no time will be lost by our lawgivers in reducing them into working " form and pressure." We must, hotvever, at the same time, remark, that the appropriation of the Nelson Steam fund for Emigration purposes is neither just nor equitable, nor do we think it will be quietly tolerated by the Nelson people, already keenly and sensibly astir in furtherance of that most important measure. That emigration must ever be a desirable object to every colony is an axiom we presume to be already sufficiently illustrated. Without however re-ttavelling already sufficiently beaten ground, we may simply observe that before importing labour, it is absolutely necessary to induce the emigration of its capitalist employer. Has such been done, or is it likely to be done ? At twenty shillings an acre for savage lands ? Whew ! In our present state of rural paralysis, we doubt if even fiifteen hundred labouters (about the number which twenty thousand pounds suggested, by his Excellency, to be raised by debenture, would provide,) could be absorbed, unless at long intervals. To speculate on the representative system recommended by his Excellency, to be, perhaps, introduced at the termination of four years, were to combat a shadow. It is to be hoped that long ere that the Whigs may have been taught "to learn of abler men." At all events, there are a thousand and one chances to render its introduction chimerical. We shall, therefore, leave that branch of the subject. We have present difficulties in plenty, and we have been wisely told that " sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.'' We should be sadly culpable did we omit to render justice to the judicious conduct of his Excellency, in disabusing the public mind of the panic caused by exaggerated details of the injuries sustained during the recent earthquake. It was wise and thoughtful of Sir George Grey, to furnish the Governors of the neighbouring colonies with authentic information, and still more prudent to request that that information

might be made public. If it cannot pluck out "the sting, it will, at least neutralize a portion of the venom. The proceedings of the Council, so far as we are in possession of them, call for little comment. They are, as usual, but echoes of the Chair. Members appear to have warmed in harness, and the naive question of Mr. Dillon Bell, " Whether the session was to be adjourned, or whether its sittings were to be permanent, " forcibly reminds us of the animated description given by James of the unequal conflict between the " Java " and the " Constitution." The " Java's " crew consisted principally of pressed men, and as " the ' Constitution ' after having effectually done her work, made sail out of gunshot to repair damages, the ' Java's ' mistaking the cause of the ' Constitution's ' running from them, or becoming more attached to their new occupation, by the few hours practice which they had had, the tyro ship's company of the 'Java ' cheered the American frigate, and called her to come back !" In conclusion, whilst considering the Governor's address, the brimstone and treacle scene of Do-the-Boys Hall has been dancing the hays before us. Not that his Excellency administered Nomineeism after the boisterous manner of the redoubted dame of that celebrated establishment. But, if the vice-regal neophytes were coaxed more blandly, they were still led quite as determinately and as effectually to bolt their potion. The New Munster puppets wriggled, indeed, and made wry faces, but a little soothing having induced them to swallow the well mixed pill, the flavour of the treacle appears to have predominated so much, that they actually smacked their lips in approval ; seeming to have become fully persuaded that Nomineeism Avill prove as radical a cure for the Colonial body politic, as Hollovvay's ointment for the Colonial body physical ! Mr. Bell, in point of fact, talks as if he gloried in his fetters. Such delusions are common. Lunatics frequently mistake bonds for objects of ornament and honour. .