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THE COLONIZATION DEBATE. (From the Daily News, April 17.)

Mr. Ha. wes and Mr. Gladstone may differ in their virws of colonial policy, but they are resolved to admit no interlopers in the field of debate. They club their forces to put down Mr. Scott as a poacher in their prfiervn. Last night, Mr. Scott moved for " a iclect commit, tee to enquire into the political and financial relations between Great Britain and her dependencies, with a view to reduce the charges ou the Britiih Treasury, and to enlarge the function! of the colonial legislature*." Mr. Hawse, of course, resisted euch a motion. The committee might let an awkward light into the penetralia of the Colonial Office, and might propound a definite practicable plan of reform not easy to parr y. And Mr. Gladstone, who has of la'e been assiduously labouring to build up a character ai a colonial reformer, chimed in with Mr. Ha wes. Nay, he transcended the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in his demonstrations of zeal against the motion, Mr. Hawes was contented with making a speech against it, hut Mr. Gladstone perpetrate! an anticipatory article against it in the Chronicle of the morning-, and spoke his own article over again in the House of Commons in the evening. Both in the speech and in the article, Mr. Gladstone's real objections to the motion are revealed with singular naivete. If Mr. Scott only meant to give rise to debate, Mr. Gladstone would "give him credit for his intention.'' "By all meant let us hare on every occasion colonial debates." Mr. Gladstone is eager to baVR at many opportunities a* possible of attacking the present administration and administrators of the colonies. He will revel in exposures of their faults and mistakes. He will be happy to expose them to public odium, and to drive them from their places ; and may possibly therefore be woo, 4< with coy, reluctant, amorous delay,'' to step into their ihoes. Mr. Gladstone's panacea for the ills of the colonies, is to substitute himself for Earl Grey ai their ruler. We must be permitted to remain rather sceptical as to the efficacy of such a remedy. We have hud Mr. j Gladstone in the Colonial Office ere now f and it does not strike us that affairs * ere much better managed under his auspices than under those of its present occupants. If anything was to be gained from the mother couitry and the colonies, by a mere change of ministers, the relations of the two parties ought by this time to have been on a more satisfactory footing ; for during the last quarter of a century we have had on an average a new colonial minister every year. And still matters go on ill as ever, or rather from bad to worse. * * * * The truth is, that all the little that has of lale years

been gained for the colonies has been by the initru* mentality 'of select committees— or, as Sir William Molesworth suggested last night, of commissions. Lord Durham's commission in North America ; Mr. Ward's committee in 1830; the committee on the settlement of New Zealand ; the committee on the affaiis of South Australia ; have done more to rectify and give definite taugible form to opinion respecting colonies and colonization than all the skirmishing of parliamentary debates in the lump. And this ii the very reason why Mr. Scoit's motion was so vehemently opposed by the allied occupants and expectants of office. It is in vain to lioj.o for any satisfactory reform, in the administration of colonial affaiis until the respective fields of action of the imperial miniitors in Downing»street and the local ministers in the colonies are more precisely defined. The great end to be attained is the imposing of some limit and restriction upon the ignorant and pragmatical inteiference of Downing. street in the local affairs of the colonies. Downing-itreet will allow honourable members to talk as long, and as loudly, and us bitterly as they please, provided the spheres of action of the central and the colonial governments are left in their present undefined and unsatisfactory state. They know that while they are If ft thus vague and uixertain, the routine and formal knowledge of the bureaucracy is more than a match for any parliament or any minister. Parliaments and ministers may rail and remonstrate as they please— may struggle to cimply with the just demam's of the colonists — but they must woik by the agency of the bureaucracy; and tlie bureauciacy, by its adroit use of forms and rechnicaliiies, makes them unconsciously work out its wik Against the combined Ifawea and Gladstone forces it was in rain for Mr. Scott to struggle. But his motion has the merit of pointing out what is wanted ; and it ia to be hoped that he or tome other member will renew the effort, heedless of the present defeat. The extension of the functions of colonial legislatures and minister», ami the restriction of Downing-strcet interference, with a view to reduce the cost and increase the efficU ency both of imperial und local government, is pre* cisely whst is wanted.

State or Ireland.— As the season advances all the sources of misery and demoralization are increasing. The clearance system it extending|to districts and estates lieretufoie unaffected by this mode of disencumbering the land of its half-famished occupants. la two south-western counties, Clare and Kerry, evictions by wholesale are now in pi ogress to a much greater extent than at any former period during the famine. From one district in Kerry, from a property under the Conn of Chancery, one thousand human beings were turned out last week. From another, belonging to Trinity College, a vast number of occupants have been evicted. In all probability thoie miserable people paid little or nothing in the shape of rent since the potato failure ; but the expulsion of such numbers, augment* ing the already fearful amount of pauperism, is not the less to be regretted ai an aggravation of our social evils, and a new cause of embarrassment to the gentry and rate payers, still smuggling to maintain their position in the country. In Clare, a portion of the parties evicted had been substantial farmers, and the loc&L Conservative paper, the Clare Journal, states that somei of the dwellings levelled by the bailiffs appeared to be comfortable farm houses. The tenantry attempted re-* sistance. but tJis aid of a party of constabulary wag obtained, and the lingleader was wrested. There is on« fact that deserres attention in connection with these evictions. The Government, acting on the sug« gestion of Mr. Pouletfc Scorpe, in a letter addressed to the Morning Chronicle a month or two Bince, have taken steps to obtain a return of the numbers evictedAt the grea' clearance in Kerry, last week, the police, by direction of government, took a list of the persons; evicted, for the purpose of making an accurate return. The moit deplorable accounts of the increase of destitution are daily received from all parts of the south, as well as from the west. Deaths from starvation are increasing to an alarming extent in the rural districts of Limerick and other southern counties. The dyien« tery, caused by want or by unwholesome food, is far more fatal than cholera in those localities. The dock* at the quarter sessions courts are crowded by halfnaked creatures, charged with plunder of cattle or provisions. Whilst destitution and crime are thus progressing, the difficulties and embarrassments of aIL classes are becoming more formidable ; and in many instances those who used to give to the poor— for instance, the community of monks at Mount Mellaray, in. the county of Waterford — are becoming claimants on. the public benevolence themselves. This is a sad and most gloomy picture I have drawn, but it is simple truth, and, in the present circumstances of the country, it is right that the truth should be known. There ia one hopeful circumstance — the general and early cropping of the hnd — which affords a prospect of alleviation after harvest time ; hut, in every other respect, we me retrograding from bad to worse.— Dublin Com«-\ pondent of the Morning Chronicle. The desire to promote emigration from Europe i* becoming prevalent in every part of South America. It is proposed in Chili to appropriate funds, say .£ J 50,000, to be expended in inducing Europeans to emigrate and come and settle in that country. An agent, despatched to Europe for that purpose, had arrived in England.

Mr. La Tuobe. — It will be remembered that about this time last year a petition, wai adopted at Melbourne, praying the Queen to remove Mr. La Trobe fiotn the office of Supeiintendent of Port Phillip, Lord Grey has acknowledged the receipt of the petition ia. the following despatch: — " Downing.strcec, 17th March, 1849. Sir,— l have to acknowledge your despatch, No. 188, of the 18th of August last, enclosing a petition to the Queen from the Towu Council of Melbourne, pr.iyrog that her Majesty would be pleased toremove Mr. La Tiobe from the office of Superintendent of the Port Phillip district ; and also, your despatch. No. 215, of the 29th of September last, enclosing a petition to the Queen, to the same effect, from certain, inhabitants of that district. 2. You will inform the petitioners that these petitions have been presented, respectively to the Queen, but that I have not been nble to advise her Majesty to accede \o the prayer of them. 3. You will also inform Mr. La Trobe, that I retain my confidence in him, notwithstanding the representations of the petitioners, and trust that this confidence is shaied by a large proportion of the community of Port Phillip. It is difficult, or rather scarcely po^sib'c, to administer the government of a district so circumstanced, without opposing on various occasions, the wishes of certain portions of the people ; and I am far from supposing that errors may not hate been committed by Mr. Li Trobe, as well as by other gentlemen in his position in shaping their course so as to avoid or surmount the many difficulties which beset it. But lam bound to add, that I find no distinct statement of such errors, nor any allegations sufficiently precise to admit of my appreciating the force of the charges made ugamst Mi. La Trobe, in the expressions of these petitioners, or in the reported language used at the meeting at which that of the Town Council was •doptcd. I am, &c, (Signed) Grey."

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18490908.2.7

Bibliographic details
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New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 352, 8 September 1849, Page 3

Word count
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1,753

THE COLONIZATION DEBATE. (From the Daily News, April 17.) New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 352, 8 September 1849, Page 3

THE COLONIZATION DEBATE. (From the Daily News, April 17.) New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 352, 8 September 1849, Page 3

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