The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 352, 8 September 1849, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

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

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1849.

The " Maukin " arrived here from Sydney on Thursday, but brings no intelligeuce from England later than that which reached us by the""" Susan." There is nothing of much importance from Sydney. The Legislative Council continued to sift the Estimates with an unsparing scrutiny, which Joseph Hume himself could not surpass. . .A Select Committee on the Darlinghur&t Gaol had presented an elaborate Report of the grounds on which they arrived at the conclusion that before it '• is made what it ought to be as the Metropolitan prison, the model gaol of the colony, great changes must be made in its condition." They urge " the immediate adoption of measures necessary to rectify those corrupt and demoralising piactices which it has been their painful duty to expose." The excitement on the convict-ques-tion seemed to have shared the fate of many other ebullitions of popular feeling ; the effervescence having died away before the stronger passion of getting or keeping lucre by the em- I ployment of convict labour. The Herald of the 24th ult. tells us, — " There are applications lodged with the Superintendent of Convicts for more men than he is able to supply. A great number of the convicts by the " Randolph," were engaged yesterday, and by this evening they will probaWy all be engaged." Our contemporary bitterly complains in another place ; — "some of our elected representatives are the most anxious among the Mammonists, who are ready to take the convicts from the moment when they arrive." Most "lame and impotent conclusion" to allthe"sound and fury" of the Sydney popular orators ! Why, we were actually kept in alarm here by reports of something like a rebellion to be apprehended at Sydney from the determined opposition of the people to the introduction of c mvicts ; and this is all the result ! The Proi'LE's Advocate, with an amusing attempt at indignation, talks of the "degradation," " insult," " injustice,'* &c, inflicted by the government on the colonists by sending the

" Randolph " amongst them : the patriotic colonists themselves seem to be very complacently pocketing the wrong. A strong contrast to all this is presented at the Cape of Good Hope, from which we have news to the 27th June. The South African Commercial Advertiser contains a series of advertisements showing the strength and universality of the opposition to the convict pollution. Five Insurance Companies have publicly notified that, sensible of the daager to which life and property will be exposed by the conversion of the colony into a penal settlement, they will not entertain proposals for life or fire assurance from any persons who shall apply for or employ convicts. The Trustees of the Savings' Bank declare that they will receive no deposits from convicted felons or their employers. The " Cape of Good Hope Bank." the " South African Bank." the " Colonial Bank," and the " Union Bank," have all notified publicly that they will enter into no business transactions whatever with persons " employing, applying for, or in any way holding connexion with the convicts." Creditors had given notice that they would call in their debts from parties receiving convicts, and landlords that they would expel them from their houses 5 while it was expected that " nearly all the Magistrates and Field Cornets, and others holding honorary appointments, would resign on the day the convicts were landed." This certainly looks like being in earnest in the matter. The further accounts from California received by the ''William Hill" corroborate the warning against inconsiderate emigration to " the gold regions" which we lately, under a strong sense of duty, pressed on our readers. The local journal — The Alta California, — although naturally desirous of giving the most rose coloured representation of the state and prosperity of the country that truth would warrant, makes such significant and instructive admissions as that " many of the new-comers are sorely disappointed, and some from the United States are about to return" ; that "the feeling is very general amongst the Americans and Califormans that foreigners should not be allowed to dig gold," — a new element of strife and distress having thus been developed ; and that, so far from there being any hope of the establishment of pacific relations between the immigrants and the Indians, " the "v\ hites are becoming impressed with the belief that it will be absolutely necessary to exterminate the savages before they can labour much longer in the mines with aecurity." Referring to the immense influx of new-comers, the same journal says, " this extraordiuary excitement and emigration fills us with an indefinable dread : * * * "We cannot but believe that there will be hundreds who will have abandoned comfortable homes to seek for gold in a land where privations only will be their reward." As a caution to exporters of goods in California, The Sydney Herald observes, "to judge from the advertisements in the newspapers, the maiket must be overstocked with goods of all descriptions. There are three closely printed pages of lists of merchandize for sale at the different towns." And again, as one intimation of the privations gold-seekers are likely to endure, thai journal says — "Should the coming winter (November to March) be as cold as the last one, the suffering among the thousands of unhoused people most be intense." If, in defiance or disregard of these and many similar warnings, multitudes will risk their all on the hazardous die of Californian adventure, the responsibility for the consequences must rest in all its weight on themI selves. Since the above was written, we have been favouied by Captain Kelly with permission to make the following Extract from a Letter which he has just received from a gentleman who resided in Auckland for some time, and who gives, from personal observation, a description of California as it is, which fully accords with all we had previously advanced on the subject : — '* San Francisso, Upper California, " May 15, 1849. "Dear Sir— l have this day forwarded your sped, mem of the gold in its natural state, as found in this country. It consists of two kinds, viz., lamps and dust gold. The dust is called Juba, a name derived from the river on which it is dug. The largest piece of lump gold yet found weighed a little over 6lbs. , for which curious specimen the sum of 23 dollnrs per oz. was paid. The current price of dust is 16 dollars per oz. Large quantities of the precious metal are also found on the Sacramento, American Feather, and other rivers, and the gold diggings extend over a tract of territory of about five hundred miles. The gold has been assayed, and found to be of superior quality, It contains 22 carats of pure gold. The number of people employed at the mines this season will probably be one hundred thousand, and they are crowding here from all quarters of the globe. It would seem that •• El Dorado" has at last been discovered. Working at the mines is attended with many difficulties and privations. The heat during the day is generally intense, sickness prevalent, hire insecure, and fever and ague lays three out of four uutler an embargo. Hundreds return after the hot season in a state or physical prostration and utter imbecility ; and after all digging gold proves no sinecure. "Agricultural matters ara entirely neglected. The price of provisions is enormous, and labour expensive. No man thinks it worth his while to work for lets than ten dollars per diem, a sum which thousands in the United Kingdom would be glad to earn per week. High wages are counterbalanced bjr the exorbitant price of every necessary article, and people ate very glad to crnwl into any place for shelter. Respectable parties pay as much as from 50 to 100 dollars per month for a bed room, or what is designated as such, besides 16 dollars per week for boarding expenses.

All buildings here are of wood. There are a few dobie houses, and bricks are a very modern importation, and speedily bought up. Sui ii the rendezvous for people of all nations, and its population i« doubtlesi the most mixed of any in the known world. "The place has two distinct climates during the day, up to noon warm, the lest of the day very cold — a thermoinetrical variation of perhaps 25 degrees. As to law a d order they are not known, at least not observed, and a state of anarchy is alane recognised. My opinions of California cannot as yet be otherwise than visionary, as my experience and observation ate in their infancy. As soou as I can I proceed to England."

A Public Meeting to consider " the difficulties of the Colony," and " what steps should now be taken on the part of the community to meet the present emergency," was held on Thursday evening in the Mechanics' lnstitute, which was crowded before the commencement of the proceedings. The meeting was addressed by Dr. Weekes, (who rilled the chair), Mr. Newman, Mr. Robinson, Dr. Forbes, Mr. T. S. Forsaith, Mr. Cleghorn, Capt. Daldy, Mr. Brown, Mr. Macky, Mr. White, Mr. Hart, and others. The speeches (some of which were forcible and eloquent), were for the most part so closely a repetition of statements (particulnrly on the exclusion of the land of the Natives from the general market) , with which our readers are already quite, familiar, that it is unnecessary to give them in detail ; and, indeed, we do not think that a verbatim report of the whole of them would be promotive (at least in England) of the object of the Speakers. That object avowedly was to procure the recall of Sir George Grey, at whose individual door was laid the blame of all the evils alleged to exist in the administration of the affairs of the colony. The line of argument pursued was in substance, that the Governor is the Government, and the Government the Governor ; and that Sir George is not only a bad Governor, but so incurably and irredeemably bad, that it would be vain to attempt to make him any better, and that effort must therefore be directed now not so much against the measures as against the man : — in short, that, as one of the principal Speakers pithily expressed it, " either they must leave the Colony, or he must leave it." A Memorial setting forth his alleged misdeeds was, (as well as the resolutions on which it was based), adopted nen. con. ; — those who were not prepared to go to such lengths having refrained from showing their strength — (or, as in that Meeting it would undoubtedly have proved, their numerical weakness) — when the several propositions were put to the vote. Some discussion took place on the propriety of inducing the Natives to get up a petition of their own with a corresponding prayer, but this proposition (although it met with considerable sympathy in the body of the hall), was objected to by some of the leaders of the proceedings, and was ultimately set aside, on the ground that, if a movement to obtain such a Petition were to emanate fiom that meeting, the Governor would dexterously avail himself of the fact to represent those who weie engaged in it as inciting the Natives to disaffection or rebellion. A Committee was appointed to obtain signatures to the Memorial, and no doubt many of our readers will be solicited to append their names to it. We are very far from attempting to dictate to them whether they should do so or not ; but we respectfully suggest the propriety o£ their carefully reading it before they sign it, and weighing the import of the declarations which it embodies. They will see that it is not an ordinary political petition complaining of incompetency or maladministration in the Government ; that it is not merely a strongly worded expression of want of confidence in the Governor ; but that in effect, and almost in terms, it charges upon Sir George Grey personally a dereliction of moral as well as political principle, a systematic disregard of the simplest requirements of honesty and truth, a settled purpose to involve the Colony in ruin, and, in short, an amount of turpitude for which a disgraceful expulsion from office at once and for ever would be but an inadequate punishment. If they are clearly satisfied that such charges are just and true, let them not shrink from the responsibility — great though it be — of giving to them the formal anthentication of their signatures ; but let them at least understand that they are doing much more than expressing their dissatisfaction with the mode in which the affairs of the colony, are conducted, or their desire that the management of them may be transferred to other hands. Our own honest opinion is that the effect of this Petition on the home Government will not be that which the Petitioners desire, but probably very much the contrary. We content ourselves for the present with simply placing this opinion on record in our columns, leaving it to time to determine— as time alone ean — its correctness.

We regret that the proposal of the vote for Education in the late Session of Council was not made the opportunity of bringing the actual and prospective operation of the Education Ordinance into greater prominence, and of keeping more fully under the public eye a subject which we believe to be freighted with deeper and larger importance to the future destinies of this colony than any —

we advisedly say than anij — of those which occupied so much of the attention both of the Council and of the Press. We had hoped that the pointed intimation given by one hon. member (who might be supposed especially qualified to enter upon the topic) of his intention to raise a discussion upon it, issued in — not even an abortive attempt to cope with its magnitude — but literally in nothing at all ; — the vote having passed, as our readers will recollect, without a single word of explanation or comment. This was not fair to the scheme itself ; for although it is yet only in its incipient stage of development, statements might have been made which would exhibit a considerable amount of good actually acomplished ; — if it had only been by an account of the strikingly effective and interesting educational operations at the " Three Kings," near this town, which are known to the Governor himself, and which members of the Council interested in the matter might easily make themselves personally acquainted with ; — and which would at the same time show a foundation laid for greatly multiplied benefits to the country in years to come. Desirous of co-operating so faras we could within onr own sphere in the advancement of the undertaking, we designed to follow up the articles in former numbers on the general principles of sound Public Education, and on the extent to which the provisions of the New Zealand Educational Ordinance are framed in accordance with those principles, by some practical notices of the way in which the grants under the existing law have been employed, and, the character and extent of the work which, by the aid of those grants, is already in progress. In order to do this comprehensively and impartially, we made respectful application for information directly to the heads of the bodies to which those grants have hitherto been appropriated. As, however, — while we have received from all courteous expressions of willingness to communicate the information we sought for — we have not yet received from all equally available statements of facts, we prefer postponing such a general view as we contemplated until what are merely occasional and accidental causes oC delay shall have passed away, lest peradventure we should on insufficient grounds convey the impression that any one body has been less active or zealous in carrying out the objects of the Ordinance than any other. In the mean time, however, we may briefly notice two Schools, respecting which, some details have lately come into our hands, and both of which deiive aid from the Government grant. Both are at a considerable distance from Auckland, and may therefore be comparatively little known to some of our readers. At the entrance of the suburban district oC New Plymouth, within about two miles of the town, is " The Grey Institution," a school in connection with the Wesleyan Methodist Church. It is a large building, with wings, situated on the summit of an old Pa in tha centre of the Mission Reserve, which is on the sea-board, near the Sugar loaf Islands at Mo-« turoa ; and contains accommodation for fifty boarders, besides rooms for the teachers. Towards the erection of this building, a sum of, we believe, £200 was contributed from the Government Fuud, to which a grant of £50 for the purchase of oxen and agricultural implements was afterwards added. There are one Native and one European teacher now employed, the former of whom was for three years resident at the Normal Institution at Auckland, and is qualified and under special engagement to superintend the agricultural as well as the scholastic labours of the pupils. How diligently and effectively their training in work of a practically and immediately useful character has been attended to, may be inferred from the fact that, within eight months, about thirty acres of previously waste land have been cleared off and ploughed up by the native scholars themselves. "When it is remembered that contemporaneously with these manual exercises, a well-adapted system of intellectual and religious instruction has been steadily kept up, who would not desire, and according to his opportunities, aid in — not only the maintenance of this particular school, — but the establishment and support of as many of a corresponding character as can be formed. Different in some respects from this, but no less interesting, is a Boarding School for Native and Half-caste children, about to be opened, at the Church of England mission station at Otawhao, in the district of the Waikato, for which considerable Government aid has already been obtained, and more we are told is promised. We have seen a plan of the building, so far as it has been erected ; and we | regard the arrangements as very judicious. Another wing, however, will immediately be built, in order to secure a separation of the sexes — an object which, every where important, in all but infant schools — is here, in our opinion, so indispensable, that we should almost prefer having no school at all to having one in which this was not bona fide enforced. Various details of the scheme appeared not long since in our advertising columns, and have no doubt been laid before some of our readers by the Rev. John Morgan, the missionary resident at Otawhao, under whose immediate care the school will be conducted, and who has recently been zealously endeavouring in this neighbourhood to obtain sympathy and help

for it. We view the undertaking as especially important on account of its direct bearing on the welfare of the much neglected AngloMaori race •, for we cannot ourselves see any sufficient physological, metaphysical, or moral ground, for rejecting as visionary an expectation that, under a proper course of educational cultivation, many of them would present a development not of all the bad, but (begging the Colonial Secretary's pardon), of many of the g OO d qualities of the European and Native races, in vigorous and harmonious combination. However this may be, we think a portion of the Educational Fund is most advantageously appropriated in aid of a school like this, in which native children and half-caste children may on Christian principles be trained together in knowledge and industry. We refer to these two schools, as we have intimated, merely as illtustrations, which happen just now to be befora us, of what can, and •we hope will be, extensively done, under the joint patronage of the Government, the Missionary and other Religious Institutions, and the benevolent public generally, for the elevation and improvement of this country. While we are on the subject we may mention that we have heard the Chief Justice and the Attorney -General named as having undertaken to inspect the schools which obtain aid under the Education Ordinance. If it is to be an amateur inspection, the office could not be placed in more competent hands than those of these learned functionaries ; but such a general examination of a school as they can reasonably be expected to make, will necessarily, we apprehend, fall short of what is usually understood by official and responsible inspection , — at all events of what it is understood to mean in England, and what the friends of Education there would suppose from the phraseology of the Ordinance it is understood to mean here.