The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 401, 16 February 1850, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just iind fear not : Let all the ends thou aims't at, be (hy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

SAT U R D iTy , FE B RuTll Y 16, 18 50. Lieutenant Governor Eyre arrived in this town from New Plymouth, on Wednesday evening. By the Commodore, which arrived in this port yesterday evening we have Sydney papers to the 2nd inst., inclusive, The only English

news later than that which had previously reached us is contained in a short summary copied by the " Herald" from the " Melbourne Argus." It comes down to the 16th of October. The Bishop of LLANDAFFhad died on the 14th. Accounts from Austria had brought intelligence of the execution of Count Louis Batiiyany, one of the Hungarian patriots. News from America had anived, from which it appeared that a report by the previous packet of angry correspondence having taken place on the Nicaragua question was unfounded. There was no later intelligence from Turkey. The account of the massacre connected with the destruction of Mr. FitzGerald's beche-le-mer fishing establishment at New Caledonia, which we published on the 2nd inst., has been followed up by further and most melancholy particulars, brought to Sydney by the Mary Anne, by which Mr. Dr. W. Miller the Superintendent of Mr. FitzGerald's establishment arrived. The natives killed Captain Raby of the Mary and three of his crew. They then cooked the bodies and ate them ; after which they burned the vessel to the waters edge. From Cook's Bay, Erromanga, there is a similarly revolting narrative of the massacre of a boat's crew of the Rover's Biicle trading there for sandal-wood. Mr. Jordan, the first mate, and four seamen were murdered by the Bunkett native tribe.

The proposal for the introduction and maintenance of Steam communication between the several settlements of the colony, is a subject •which, while its importance would seem to demand from us lengthened consideration and comment, is really — as the case at present stands before us — one upon which it is difficult to say much, without either tritely repeating what has been said a thousand times before, . and what, indeed, from its indisputable obviousness, scarcely needed to be urged at all, or ; indulging in anticipations as to the future, . which — unacquainted as we are with the con- [ ditions and details of the scheme now in con- [ templation — might be only baseless speculations destined to be swept away at an early day by the development of the facts of the case. The political, commercial, and social advantages likely, if not certain, to result from the establishment of such a communication, require no formal exhibition, as they must suggest themselves with self evidencing conclusiveness to even the least reflective mind. It would be a waste of time and words to set about proving that facilities of inter-communication have not only always tended, but have been essential, to the practical evolution of a country's capabilities, and that steam has been found beneficial wherever it has been applied for this purpose, in full proportion to its unparalleled power of augmenting such facilities ; that the geographical position of our settlements relatively, renders it more than ordinarily necessary to introduce such facilities here, if we would have the connexion between our provinces and principal towns actual and operative, rather than (as, in some points of view, it now is) nominal, and occasionally embarrassing — as, for example, when the English mail for Auckland is sent to Otago or Nelson, whence it may not reach as until aft* a longer period than that in which a London merchant could write to , his agent in Calcutta and receive a reply, or could correspond twice over with the United States of America ; that our happily expanding commerce, and the brightening prospect which the Californian market opens up to our productive industry and mercantile enterprise, invests the matter with increased force and urgency of requirement ; — and that frequent intercourse between the settlements would, probably more powerfully than anything else, help to subdue any feelings of jealousy or mistrust that may have existed between them, and to link them more closely than they have hitherto been united in the bonds of common interest and mutual confidence and kindness. These and similar benefits, which both reason and the experience of other countries warrant us in anticipating, commend themselves^ so immediately and almost intuitively to every man's understanding, that, we say, they need no explanation or enforcement from us. The present project must, however, be tested by its own details, which we are not yet in possession of. We admit that its proceeding from the New Zealand Company casts a shade of suspicion on it, sufficient to induce thoughtful men to suspend their judgment. The magnates of that Company have only themselves to blame if a settler who has had opportunity of comparing their promises with their performances and who therefore knows their corporation to be what their own Edward Gibbon Wakefield (unkindest cut of all !) calls " a delusion," and a " great sham," is disposed to say of their most specious offers, Timeo Danaos, et dona ferenlcs. But while we may suspend our judgment, we must avoid the injustice of pre-judg-ing the case against them. We now find them tendering a great boon, and we are bound to receive it cordially and gratefully so far as it goes. When the plan is before us, we shall freely examine it, especially in its bearing upon the interests of our own settlement. We have heard it said that on the ground of their right to do what they like with their own, we are not at liberty to object to a plan for which they — not we— -are to pay ; no doubt, we, in this

settlement have not the same right to speak respecting it with the Nelson colonists, whose money is to contribute so largely to its accomplishment ; — but still it is a question in which we have a clear right to he heard. We shall he intimately concerned in its working whether we like or not ; and if the scheme should not he conducive to our welfare it will affect us, amongst other ways, hy preoccupying the ground as regards steam-communication, and possibly preventing our obtaining something better which might have been secured from the Government and our own resources. We do not make these observations, however, with any view of opposing a hindrance to a scheme which wears so smiling and auspicious an aspect. We would only guard against committing ourselves hastily to entire approbation of a large plan, of which we now see only the bare outline. It is also to be borne in mind that whatever the main features of the plan may be, they have been already determined on, and our suggestions for their alteration would come too late to prevent their being adopted at least in the initial operations. For instance, we may think with others, and we do think, that vessels of 300 or 4.00 tons will be too large for our present necessities, and that smaller vessels, — especially if there were more of them, — might for some time suit the purpose better. But the 4th of October was fixed for receiving the tenders : if the project has been acted out, most probably the vessel is on her way here ; objection therefore, would just now he useless. The announcement, let us remark in conclusion, gives indication of a new vitality in the Company, which contradicts the opinion that, as Mr, E. G. Wakefield confidently asserted, the Company was already virtually defunct, and would cease to exist in form as well as in fact, in May, 1850. If its extinction were so near, it would scarcely commence such an undertaking as this. Is it so that Downing Street and Broad Street Buildings have entered into a new alliance, and that this scheme is one of its first productions, — the forerunner, not improbably, of a series ? We must ivait for a solution of this natural and very su ggestive question.