The New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 366, 17 October 1849, Page 2

The New Zealander.

lie just ami fear not: Let all the ends tbon aiius't at, be tliy Country's, Tliv God's, and Truth's.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1849.

We understand that a Petition, signed by a number of the most influential inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood, has just been presented to the Governor, setting forth the necessity of an Asylum or some similar place to be appropriated to the reception and care of Lunatics, and praying that the Executive may take fitting and immediate steps towards supplying that want. The " Lunatics Ordinance" (Ses. 7. No. 21.) clearly contemplates the appointment of a Public Hospital or Asylum for the purpose, and the absence of it renders that Ordinance wholly ineffectual for some of the highest and best purposes which should be contemplated in all legislation on the subject. In its present operation it is little, if anything, more than a mere measure of police arrangement, warranting Justices of the Peace to seize and imprison persons whom, on account of their insanity, it may be dangerous to the public to leave at large ; but no provision is practically made for the due care of the lunatics themselves : no facilities exist for the application of the treatment, either medical or moral, by which they may be restored to their reason, and to society. It would be superfluous to dwell upon what must be so evident on the slightest consideration as the importance of erecting and maintaining such facilities. All the arguments by which the support of an ordinary Hospital for bodily diseases can be urged apply with equal strength here, together with others of peculiar and obviously deep interest. And unhappily theie is no such rarity in the occurrence of cases of mental maladies as might extenuate the neglect of them. They are found in greater or less number everywhere ; and we believe that the experience of medical men in this colony would bear us out in asserting that such cases are more numerous in proportion to the population here than at home. Inquiry into the probable causes of this is not necessary to our present purpose ; and, indeed, until there shall be a much larger accumulation of observations on the subject than have yet been collected, could be little better than vague speculation. It is enough that such cases are not infrequent (as a visit to our gaol just now would painfully prove); and there is no possibility of placing the afflicted persons under such care as affection and common humanity would suggest, or as medical skill would direct, — as might also be shown from circumstances which have taken place within the last few days, but on which we forbear from commenting more specifically. Let us, however, advert to a case which illustrates the matter in one of its aspects. A respectable Settler in the interior has made application to the Medical Gentlemen in Auckland, stating that his wife has unfortunately manifested unequivocal symptoms of insanity ; that, in his locality and circumstances, he cannot procure for her proper care, whether remedial or restraining ; — that he is able and anxious to pay any cost that may be connected with her maintenance in an Asylum ;— and asking what course he should pursue. What answer can they return *? However they may sympathise in the distress of this family, they are unable to point to any such means for its relief as a well-conducted Asylum would immediately afford. The 11th Clause of the Ordinance provides for such a case in words ; but that is all. The enactment that it shall be lawful for the Superintendent of any such Asylum as the Governor may appoint, to make such an agreement as is here referred to with the Relation or Friend of a Lunatic who may may be possessed of sufficient means to defray the expenses of his or her maintenance, is plainly useless while the Asylum does not exist. Practically, the Council might as well have enacted that the Lunatic should be sent to Hanwell and placed under the care of Dr. Conolly — unquestionably a very desirable arrangement, but limply impossible. We have little doubt that the difficulty of meeting the cost of such a step as the Memorialists ask for, would, if necessary, be met, at least in part, by voluntary local contribution. Even the comparatively low motive of selfinterest would induce men to aid in providing a refuge which, for aught they can presume to say, may at some future day be needed for themselves or for some whom they love, as much as it is now needed for others.

We return to the general contents of the papers received from the South by the Acheron ;—

Mr. E. G. Wakefield's voluminous letter having engrossed nearly all the space we could devote to them in our last. A meeting of the Settlers ' Constitutional Association' was held, at Wellington, on the 17th ult., for the special consideration of that communication. Some of the speakers, particularly Dr. Featherston, made pointed strictures on Mr. Wakefield's inconsistency in now denouncing the arrangements of the New Zealand Company with the Colonial Office in 1847, and otherwise condemning a Company of which he had been so earnest an advocate and promoter ; on his present declarations of attachment to the Canterbury Association, whose colonising operations would be directed, not to the settlements already formed, but to the Middle Island ; and, above all, on his advice to the Company to dissolve, and his evident wish to induce the Settleis to back that advice. On the whole, however, his willingness—indeed, anxiety — to stand forward as a leader in the agitation for " Responsible Government," outweighed his other demerits in their estimation ; and a Resolution was passed " gratefully accepting the proffer of his services." The Spectator comments upon this alliance offensive and defensive between the Artistical Colonizer and the Constitutional Associationists in language rather candid than complimentary to the high contracting parties. Our contemporary says, — " Two years ago, but two short years, their leaders were raking Newgate Calendar for compliments to him. Now they accept him as their champion. * * Each party has its price. He wants power. They want the waste lands, and to gain their object would it seems shake hands with the Devil, and make friends at the foot of the gallows. The former misunderstanding was all a mistake. He called them names. They retorted. Now in the words of Peachum and Lockit it is ' Brother, Brother, we were both in the wrong.' " Another Resolution was adopted, acknowledging the force and justice of Mr. Wakefieli/s strictures on the compact of 1847, but expressing " entire dissent " from his conclusion that "the sooner the Company is dissolved the better. " On the contrary, considering " that all native disturbances are quelled," that all differences have been arranged and the most amicable relations established between the Company and its Settlers, and that some of the most fertile and available districts are now in possession of the Company, and open for sale and depasturing licenses, the Association urges the Company to persevere in its operations. It is added, however, — " But that in expressing its hope for the continuance of the Company on a more fixed and permanent basis than that on which it is at present constituted, the Association would in the most emphatic terms warn the Company that it is essential to iti success as a colonising body, and to its retaining the confidence and support of the Settlers, I.— That Free Institutions should be at once established ; 2. — That the most ample powers in all matters should be conferred upon their local agents, so a* to avoid the delays of references to the Court of Directors ; and, 3 — That the Company, if it retains the control of the Waste Land*, should give to the Settlers themselves a voice in the management of those Lands, either by means of the future Representative Councils, or of a Local Board of Directors elected by the Settlers." Experiments in the preparation of the Pliorrn'ivm Tenax continue to be made with diligence and spirit. At present, however, the following simple plan finds much favour :—: — " Procure very large iron pots or boilers ; place the green Flax in cold water, then boil it from half an hour to one iiour. Then take the Flax, and rub with the hand like washing j clothes, when the outer covering will speedily be removed. After boiling, if you beat the Flax with heavy pieces of hard wood, in a running stream, you will perform the work much more speedily, and save a considerable deal of labour, more than by rubbing. By this plan, one man should be able to clean from 60 lbs. to 1 1 2 lbs. per day. After rubbing or beati ing it, you may let the fibre remain for a few I hours in the running water, and then place it out to dry." Several of the Wellington merchants offer i to give "as the lowest price" 12s. per 112 lbs. dressed in this way. I The experiments on the Iron Sand were impeded, as a proper furnace could not be erected for want of fire-bricks. It was stated, however, that the smelting had been successful, and the Armourer of the 65th regiment had manufactured a good penknife from the steel. It was intended to send quantities of the Iron Sand to Sydney and also to England to be experimented upon, The first number of the new Maori newspaper, Ko Te Ao Marama, or The New World, appeared at Port Nicholson on the 20th ult. So far as we can judge from this specimen it is likely to prove both interesting and instructive to the Natives, who, we have no doubt, are prepared to welcome and value a periodical really adapted to their understanding and their circumstances. Another effusion of the Wellington press calls for a very different notice. The Independent has been in the habit of amusing its readers, and castigating the objects of its dislike, by enveloping attacks and sarcasms in articles which, from their headings and first sentences, would seem to treat of some topic of general interest, and so entrapping into the perusal of them readers who might otherwise have treated

them with contempt or indifference. Although we saw mnch in these articles from time to , time which was marked rather by personality and coarseness than by either wisdom or wit, we did not think it within our province to criticize them ; but, as having some stake in the character of the New Zealand press, we must record our indignant censure of an editorial article in the Independent of the 6th, which would be more in place in one of the most degraded of the journals that pander to the depraved taste of a London mob than in a paper that ought to be respectable. We shall quote but a sentence or two, just to enable the reader to judge for himself whether we are warranted in thus expressing ourselves :—: — " The Convict Rush. — It is not true as generalle reported that tliii unhappy malefactor persisted to thy last in denying his guilt. He made a full confession to the Chaplain of Norwich Gaol, admitting his guilt ami expressing the deepest contrition. He attributed his dfparture from the ways of virtue to the accidental circumstances of hi* h«ving received from a friend in New Zealand, a few weeks before the murder, several copies oft newgpaper entitled the Wellington Spectator after a perusal of which his whole mind ssemed t > be filled with the most malignant feeling Sec. It was under the imp-ession of this feeling that he singled outhu victims,'' &c, &o. We can assure our English readers that — however they may think us only semi-civilized here — oui New Zealand public, is not sunk so low as to regard with any other feeling than unmitigated disgust such loathsome trifling with one of the deepest tragedies in the annals of human crime, and with the awful question of the final penitence or impenitence of the wrerched murderer. We have scarcely any news from Nelson, except that, after an unusually long winter, the spring had opened with such beauty and promise that our staid friend of the Examiner waxes quite poetical, and melodiously "babbles o' green fields" in his description of it. " Daffodils that come before the swallow dare," and " pale primroses," and " violets dim," and " the pansy freaked with jet," and " cowslips wan that hang the pensive head," and " all the earlier flowers, now fully expanded," adorn his editorial parterre so luxuriantly as almost to make us envy his " sunny south," and murmur at our own late spring, and the wintry weather which still visits us here. Our contemporary has a just article on the importance of steam communication between the ports of the Colony ; but he was hasty in charging Sir George Grey with having failed to " keep his promise to put a sum on the Estimates for t'»e purpose. " Had the steam-com-mnnication for whichhe pleads been established, he would have known, before he wrote, that his Excellency at the late Council gave the subject a prominent place in bis " Financial Minute," and that a sum of £1,000 stands, at least formally, on the Estimates, as the contribution of this Province towards it. How much nearer we are to the attainment of the object, is another question altogether.

Statistical Returns of the Otago Settlement, made up to the 31st March, had been prepared by the Officers of the New Zealand Company for transmission home by the Mariner. They are lengthy, but the principal facts can be brought within a small compass. The population was, in Dunedin, 444 ; in Port Chalmers, 38 ; in the country, 263 - t being a total of 745, of whom 426 were males, and 319 females. The number under 21 yeais of a»e was 355 .... The number of married persons was 273 ; of single men above 19, 119 ; of single women above 15., 36. Under the head of Occupations, there were reported, — farmers, 36 ; shepherds, farm servants, &c, 128 ; mechanics and tradesmen, 86 ; merchants and storekeepers, 9 j female servants, 29 ; with, 3 medical men ; 1 lawyer ; 1 clergyman ; 5 inn-keepers j and 9 boatmen .... Within the year there had been 30 births ; 14 deaths ; and 1 3 marriages. As respects Religion, there were returned, 476 Presbyterians, 161 Church of England, 8 Methodists, 7 Roman Catholics, 1 Indepeadent, and 92 " Unknown." A note is added here, — " The number who declined upon this point to satisfy the gentleman who took the Census, appears large and is not easily accounted for." It does seem passing strange, that, in a settlement colonized as this has been, as an offshoot from a zealous Church, and under the assurance published at home that " care would be taken to enter into terms with persons only of high moral and religious character," there should be found at the end of a single year, one-eighth of the whole population, of whom the official report is virtually that they do not make even a nominal profession of any religion at all ! We should be glad to learn that this anomalous Return was satisfactorily explained. Under the head "|Lands Cultivated/ *we learn that besides preliminary arrangements within the year, crops of potatoes and vegetables had been taken from 42 acres in aIL "By the close of the season, however, fencing, clearing, and ploughing, had been commenced with spirit." The buildings erected in the district durkg the year were 163, at a cost of £9532. The number of householders was 170. The Meteorological observations were, from unavoidable causes, imperfect. There were 91 days of more or less rain. The lowest temperature, (on the" 9th of July), was 24 and a half ; the highest (in November), 77. The

winter was of very unusual severity,—" out of all proportion to that of 1848." By the same vessel, we received a Glasgow Daily Mail of May 9 ; containing extracts from a letter from Captain Cargiix to the Secretary of the Otago Association, dated Dunedin, 23rd September, 1848. It was written especially for the information of those who (as the writer expresses it) "with the proverbial caution of their countrymen could not be expected ' to make any decided move towards Ne«v Zealand until the reports of the first or pioneering party should be received." Its tone is throughout most encouraging to them. The Captain states that " with respect to every purchaser who came out with us, and every working man who had been well-doing at home, there is but one sentiment that their best expectations have been exceeded." Though the letter is evidently enough that of a zealous Company's Agent wishing to attract emigrants, we trust that, when the first difficulties are overcome, ilia predictions of good will be realized, and that Otago will recompense the toils of its Settlers.

The Phormium Tenax.— While our fellowcolonists in the South are, as we have seen, laudably busy in efforts to render more available the source of wealth to New Zealand which its Flax presents, the important subject is far from being disregarded in our own district We have lately heard with pleasure of the success which has attended the efforts of Mr. Holman, of Wangarei, to prepare the article by au easy and cheap process which brings it into a state— not of great fineness indeed — but such as secures for it a ready sale here at Mr. "Robertsons Rope-Works, and will, there is reason to expect, command a market at Sydney and other places. We hope to give at another time a description of his process — which we are informed is already well requiting the ingenuity and industry of its projector. We may add that, amongst others who have turned careful attention to the matter, Dr. Carter of this town has for some time been engaged in expeiiments the issue of which is likely to be made public at an early day, and which promises to combine the two great essentials of cheapness, and productiveness. His plan, we are informed can be worked with ease by a single Native, and can produce a large quantity of prepared Flax at almost no outlay beyond the original price of a portable and not expensive machine.