WELLINGTON EXTRACTS.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 410, 20 March 1850, Page 3

WELLINGTON EXTRACTS.

The Spectator of the 2nd instant has the following remarks with reference to Mr. E. Gr. Wakefield's letter to Mr. H. Petre, which appeared in exienso in the New Zealunder of the 6th:— In the letter of Mr. E. G. Wakefield on the subject of Colonial politics, which has recently been published, the author, having abandoned his former friends and coadjutors to their impending 1 fate, having quitted the New Zealand Company in time to save himself from being involved in the consequences of their irretrievable failure and approaching dissolution, appears to have undertaken the task of exciting political discontent, and to have become the voluntary and Self coni ftituted Agitator for the Southern Colonies. The principal motive which seems to actuate him in his new career appears to be a deiire to gratify, at all hazards, bis animosity against " the Colonial Office, and above all the obitinate Lord Grey. 1 ' It seems hardly to have entered into bis mind, however, that in preaching a crusade of the Southern Colonies against the British Government, it was not in the best taste to addresi these recommendation* to one holding an office of importance and trust in the Government, of thit colony; The principal information which Mr, Wakefield'i letter conveys is the fact that the British Parliament and public care very little about colonial questions, and that petitions to Parliament from the colonies are so much waite parchment, except they can be con* verted into party questions at home. To counteract this apathy he is desirous of operating by means of a pressure from without which, just stopping short of actual rebellion, shall, by organising a plan of combined resistance among the different colonies in the south, force the reluctant acquiescence of the Govern* tnent in the objects sought to be attained. To this end he proposes a kind of league among the Southern Co* loniei, which ihould act by means of delegate! to be sent to tome central spot; It will hardly be necessary to point out the absurdity of expecting that so many colonies in different stages of social progress, and with various conflicting interests, could be brought into any combined mode of action such ai that indicated by him, still less that any weight would attach to the proceedings of delegates so constituted. The best way in which question! of local interest can be successfully agitated is not by the single voice of some clamorous demagogue elected by a faction or clique for the furtherance of its ends, but by the temperate and unanimous co-operation of the whole community in the objects contended for. The idea of the National Independence of a colony like New Zealand as an alternative to be proposed to the British Government, of the separate existence from the parent state of a community so comparatively small and feeble and so dependent on the Mother-country for assistance, throws an air of ridicule on the subject which leads us to believe Mr. Wakefield can hardly be serious in his proposal, and would almost prepare us to expect his selection of Norfolk Island as the most convenient and " central spot" for the reunion of his delegates. Supreme Court. — The Criminal Sittings commenced on the Ist inst., before Mr. Justice Chapman. Hit Honor in hit observations to the Grand Jury said, that at the commencement of a new year he would according to custom notice the state of crime for the past year. In the five years ending 1848, 105 cases had been brought for trial before the Supreme Court, making an average of 21 cases a-year ; of these 30 were cases tried in 1844, 28 caves in 1845, 24 cases in 1846, .9 cases in 1847, and 14. cases in 1848, shewing a sensible diminution in the last two years. In 1849, 28 cases had been brought before the Supreme Court, shewing an increase on the previous years. Of these, 19 perions bad been convicted and nine bad been acquitted. His Honor observed that among the whole number tried during the past year, there wete only four original settlers, and one of these (for a nuisance) as he had previously taken occasion to observe, was more for a legal than moral offence ; another for keeping a disorderly house was the only woman who had been tried since he had the honor to sit on the bench. Without entering into a formal dissertation on education, he would remark that in proportion as

the elements of instruction were given to a community, in the same proportion does crime diminish,' and that not only in the number but in the gravity of the offence, and this was proved not only by the statistics of our own country but also from those of continental nations ; the character of the crimes varied also with the spread of education, as it would be found, as edit* cation extended, that the offender! resorted more to fraud than to force. In the statistics of Van Diemen's Land which, as a penal colony, might be regarded as a community of Englishmen iv the lowest state of moral progress, during the last ten years, in which great efforts had been made and large suras expended in at* templing to diffme the benefits of education, it was observable that the highest crimes have diminished in a marked degree^ He therefoi c felt very desirous of impressing on all who might be placed in a position to forward these views the great importance of education in diminishing crime in a community. There were six bills presented to the Grand Jury and eight prisoners to be tried.