The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 451, 21 August 1850, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

Ho just and fear not : TiCt all the ends lliou .lims't .it, be thy Country't, Thy God's, and Truth's.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUS T_2_l, 18 50.

We have with much pleasure ascertained duling the last few weeks that the propriety and importance of forwarding specimens of our colonial produce, and tangible evidences of our colonial capabilities and resources, to the Grand Exhibition of 1851, have not only not been lost sight of here, but have engaged the attentive consideration of several of the parties whose co-operation would most effectively secure the successful accomplishment of the object. Such an opportunity of bringing before the world, in striking aspects, what New Zealand is, and what it may be made, has not occurred befoie, and is not likely soon to occur again. The products of almost every civilized, and of many semi-civilized, countries will be presented for appreciation in London next year before a body of spectators which Avill include many of the most learned, skilful, and influential of living men ; and it would be badly in accordance with the

spirit which we desire to see prevailing our growing and rising community if such an occasion should be permitted to pass without some vigoious attempt to tiunit to good account. The neighbouring colonies are awake and active on the subject ; the Southern Piovince of our own colony is not asleep upon it ; and we cannot beliove that New Ulster will be indifferent or lethargic. We are assured that our local Government will be ready to render its cordial aid in any judiciously arranged movement in the matter which may be made ; and we know that numerous individuals only wait to be brought together to combine their energies to forward it. We can therefore have little doubt that if a Public Meeting were convened, and a Committee (including, as it should, persons of various classes in society and of all political parties) were appointed by that Meeting to take the necessary steps, there would be an immediate action, which — while it could not possibly do any harm — might issue in results, the future benefits of which to New Zealand might be almost incalculably great. Time presses, however; and whatever is to be done at all in the case, should be done without further delay. We only embody in this suggestion the idea which has been expressed to us in various ways, and from various quarters. We trust that this will not prove a new illustration of the truth of the old saying that " what is everybody's business is nobody's business."

Wn have had in the course of yesterday a thorough exemplification of the old saying — " It never rains but it pours." After a protracted time of absence of arrivals, we have had almost simultaneously the Joseph Cripps, from San Francisco the 4th of June ; and, as if in hot chase of the Cripps, we have had the Daniel Webster, bringing California intelligence to the 28th of June. Then again we have received by 11. M. S. Fly, Sydney papers to the 30th of July. As the ship sailed on the sth of this month, we suppose later dates than this may have arrived by her, and probably it is only owing to the courtesy of the gentlemen in the Post Office department that we have even so many papers available. While naming courtesy, however, we should not forget to make our acknowledgments to Messrs. Macky and Daldy for their ready aid in enabling us to make up our Californian columns. The English news given in the Herald reaches nominally to the 12th of April. It is confessedly a meagre and unsatisfactory report, and we do not ourselves find much intelligible information in it. But as we cannot make it any better, we give it just as it is as the " Latest English News"— By the Oliver Cromwell., which arrived from Greenock yesterday, we received a few London newspapers of the last week in March, and a Glasgow paper of the 12th April. We lmve not a London paper of the 23rd March, tnd ure therefore unable to give a report of the decision in Committee oh the Australian Colonies Bill, but we take the following from the Edinburgh Courant of that day. It bad bt.cn received by the electric telegraph. " On the motii n of Lord J. Rusßell the llouic went into Committee upon the Australian Colonies Bill, when Mr. Hume ohjectcd to the preamble, and advised the repeal of all the bills affecting the Government of the Colonies, with the viuvr of re-enuciing in a consolidated form such portions as might be found deairable. The preamble was postponed, and the first clause wai agreed to, after a short discussion. On the second clause being moved, Mr. Mowatt proposed as an amendment the omission of such parts of the clause as left to her Majesty the nomination of the third part of (he members of the legislative coun • oils. Mr. Labouchere objected to the amendment, brosuse it tended to alter the existing constitutions of several colonies without their consent. Mr. Cobden said the Government appeared, from that argument, to be of opinion that the colonies de» sired a system of nomination, which he believed, no Englishman in the world ever did. Mr.J Gladstone, though thinking the amendment raised the question inadequately, iihould support it, because he was dcsiiious of giving two chaaiburt>, both elective. Sir R. Peel opposed the ammdment. Lord J. Manners said he should vote for the amendment. After some further discussion, the Committee divided, and the numbers were — For the amendment. 77 Agninst it 105 Mr. Wiilpole then moved the omiision of the clnuie altogether, and the subititution of one enacting that in each of the colonies of Australia and New South Wales there should be two chambers. The motion was resisted by Mr. Hawes and Mr. Aglionby, and supported by Mr. Hume. Here the report breaks off witli the tantalising announcement of *> left sitting." We believe, however, that Mr. Walpole's amendment was lost by a majority of fifty. The committe on the bill did not get through nil the clauses, and from an article from the Morning Chro7iicle, and Mr. Adderley's letter, it will he seen that there wan tome dunger that tho meutture would be postponed for another Session. Parliament was adjourned for the Easier recess from the 2Gth March to the Bth April. On that day the Government was defeated in the House of Commons by a mnjority of eight, on a motion that better accommodation was required for assistant sugeons in Her Majesty'a vessels, and a motion for the abolition of the window tax was only rejected by a majority o\ threo. Lord Seymour had been appointed First Commissioner of Woods and Forest*. The Marquis of Westminster hud been appointed Lord Steward, Lird For* tescue having been compelled from ill health to resign. Mai'lborough House wus to be appropriated as a residence for the Prince of Wales, hut for Home years the Vernon collection of paintings is to be placed in it. Among the deaths we notice the names of Generals Sir J. Macdonald, (Adjutant-General) and Sir A Gulloway ; Vice-Admiral Mackay, and the Deun of Salisbury. Weobierve nothing of special interest in the Foreign nenri.

Our other columns will show that we have given our best attention to making the most interesting extracts from the Californian papers within our reach. There is little in the intelligence to he summed up, as it is very much a repetition of what we have before again and again stated. Even the dreadful fire at San Francisco on the 14th June is unhappily not a new occurrence. It is only the infliction in a more aggravated form of a calamity which has taken place twice before. Commercial affairs seemed much as at our last accounts. Timber down to almost nothing, and with no hope of any better prospect ; but potatoes and vegetables generally more likely to pay. We say this with the full knowledge that the very latest accounts show a serious falling off here also ; but we are willing to believe that this was attributable to the arrival about the same time of a number of vessels laden with such articles, and that it was merely one of those fluctuations — determining nothing beyond the day — by which the California market has thioughout been characterised. We have other matter in hand on this subject which we expect to find room for in our next.

Before the arrival of the Fiy we had been favoured by W. S. Graiiamb, Esq., with some numbers of the Sydney Herald, brought to Kawau by the Sarah, which contain matter of considerable interest. The election of a member to serve in the Legislative Council for Sydney, in place of Dr. Bland, resigned, has terminated in the return of Dr. Lang, the newly-rejected of the Port Phillip constituency. The best fiiends of the Australasian colonies will deeply regret this result. Even if the very sweeping assertion weie to be conceded that this person has come with clean hands out of the pecuniary transactions in which his unfortunate emigrants have been involved there would still have been enough in his ultra-democracy, his coarse and insolent vituperation of that large portion of the English nation which saw through his schemes, and treated him and them as they deserved, and his openly avowed project of dismembering the British Empire, and bringing Australia into a position of rebellion against Her Majesty's Government — which (as the Ministerial declarations respecting the analogous movement in Canada plainly demonstrated) could never be carried out until the colonists were mad enough to engage in a struggle of arms with the naval and military power of Britain, and strong enough to defeat England in that struggle, — there would, we say, have been quite enough to prevent any electoral body which had not already made shipwreck of its loyalty from fixing upon him as their representative. The Sydney men, however, have taken this grave responsibility upon themselves, contrary to the anticipations of those who, like the Sydney Herald deemed it " scarcely conceivable " that " such a grievous and disgraceful circumstance," such " a national calamity " — would really be inflicted on their adopted country by the constituency of that city. The poll which took place on the 24th ult., shewed a majority of fifty-six votes for the Doctor, — the numbers being, for Mr. J. 11. Holden, 931 ; for Dr. Lang, 987. It appears that this result was mainly attributable to these two facts, — first, that the political views of the gentleman opposed to the Docroß were not clearly known to stand out in such well defined resistance to his, as would make the contest a matter involving energetic principles ; and that, moreover, his personal influence did not stand high: — and, next, partly (on this account), that scarcely one half of the qualified electors voted at all. No doubt many of these firstclass patriots would be amongst the most vociferous clamourers for the widest extension of a franchise which they themselves thus practically treat with a contemptuous disregard ; just as they made the earth and air ring last year with their shouts of execration of convictism, and then rushed in headlong competition to get for their own service the very next batch of convicts that was landed on their shores. The Sydney Jlarald moralizes sadly, but with prophetic truth, on this new exhibition, when it says — " We fear this election will do us much harm in the eyes of our friends both in the neighbouring colonies and in England, where the conduct of Dr. Lang is duly appreciated." It will not do much harm to our contemporary himself, for he has acted the part of an honest journalist in trying to avert the disgrace ; but it will lower the public character of his fellow citizens wherever the true state of the case is properly understood. The New South Wales Revenue Tables for the Quarter and Half Year ending on the 30lh of June, indicate on the whole a progressive improvement in the financial state of the colony. The total Receipts of the Quarter were £82,330, being an increase of more than eight per cent on those of the corresponding quarter of 1819, and the accounts of the Half Year shewed nearly as marked an advance. It is observable also that the increase has been most marked on the fixed and permanent sources of income, and those (such as the Customs, the fees of office, and the assessment on stock) which form the surest index to the commercial prosperity of the colony. The Postage item, however, had fallen off eleven per cent ; this will, no doubt, be urged by the Government as

a sufficient reason for continuing the obnoxious and mischievous tax lately imposed upon newspapers. A Despatch from Earl Grey to Sir Ciiaries Fitzßoy on the subject of Mr. Sidney Hkrhert's Female Emigration Scheme had been published. It seems to br wholly without practical point, and almost without definite meaning. However, as it has the merit of being very short, we subjoin it t — Dowing-stroet, 12th January, 1850. Sir, — You will doubtless have perceived by the public papers that an Association has been formed for the purpose of endeavouring to relieve some distressed classes of women by sending females to the colonies, and that a large private subscription is in the course of being collected for this purpose. The suggestion w.is one entirely of private benevolence, and it is not an undei taking in which the Government takes any part, or for which it can assume any responsibility Bui as some cnquiiies were addressed to this department on behalf of the Association, I need scarcely say th.it I was most anxious thnt the gentlemen who had engaged in this business should have the benefit of every light which could be afforded by past experience, or by the present practice of the Government, andlthcrcfoic readily m* thoriscd the Emigration Commissioneis to furnish to the Committee all the information in their power 1 enclose for your information the copy of n memorandum which has been drawn up acoordingly by tho Emigration Commissioners, and communicated to tho Association. I have, &c, GREY. Governor Sir Charles Fitz Roy, ke, Sec, &c. A series of long official communications had been piesented to the Council, announcing and accounting for the abandonment of the settlement of Port Essington. The claims of that settlement to support are stated consecutively by Mr. Herman Mjerivale, and demolished with a strong hand. The advantages which, on its renewal in 1838, were expected to result from it, came under the heads of — 1, the excellence of its harbour ; 2, the probability of the visits of the numerous ships which proceed from Australia and India to the China seas; 3, relief to the crews of vessels wrecked in Torres Straits ; 4, the prospect of a trade with the Malays who visit the adjacent coasts to fish; and, 5, the chance of its becoming a coaling depot for steamers. The seriatim replies to these allegations substantially are — 1, though the harbour is good when the ships are in it, the inlet is inconveniently far from the coast, and there is a dangerous shoal outside the settlement ; 2, few ships actually call there, as they pass it too soon after leaving Sydney to need refreshments, and masters are not willing to go into a port where neither cargo nor intelligence is to be obtained ; 3, it is situated at least 700 miles oil, across a stormy sea, from the reef where the wrecks at Torres Straits usually occur; 4, no such traffic with the Malays as was anticipated has arisen ; and, 5, the Company for conducting steam communication between Sydney and Singapore say that their vessels could not call there for coal without additional delay and expense. Under those circumstances, Lord Grey's conclusion is " that there are not sufficient grounds /or continuing to put the country to the expense of maintaining the post at Port Essington, which has never yet realized the advantages expected from its formation." The superiority of Cape York as a settlement, especially for a coal depot, seemed to be generally admitted, although Lord Grey stated that it was not in contemplation to take any immediate steps for its establishment.

We mentioned some time since that the renowned New Zealand Chief Heki was in a state of health which rendered it unlikely that he would long survive. That apprehension has now been realized, the great warrior (as in some respects he undoubtedly was) having expired at Tautoroa on the 6th instant. Scrofula had in various ways been long making inroads on his constitution ; pulmonary disease had been especially developed ; and the bursting of a blood-vessel hastened the close of his career, in what is usually considered only the middleage of life. The Rev. Mr. Davis, of the Church of England Mission, visited him, we are informed, in his last days, and Heki declared that he found pleasure and comfort from his visits. He told his warriors, who surrounded his death-bed, that when he was gone, they ought to " be quiet for ever " and not infringe upon the rights of the Europeans in the lands which they had purchased. We have also to notice the death of Pomare, which has created a considerable sensation, as notwithstanding the contempt with which his vicious and dishonourable character was regarded, he was deemed and treated as a person of importance.

The re-organized "St. Patrick's Band" of Auckland gave their first Concert of Instrumental Music on Monday evening last, in the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute, which was lent for the occasion ; and the promoters and members of the Band may be congratulated on having secured a very crowded, very good-hu-moured, and evidently very well-pleased audience. The Treasurer of the concern must we think have been in especially high spirits* as he told over his proceeds — money, we are' informed, having been refused at the door, in order to retain accommodation for those who had previously provided themselves with tickets. We witnessed with sincere pleasure the interest manifested in the performance, as indicative of

the growth of a taste amongst our townsfolk for the lefining reciealion of music — a taste which, we need not say, it is social, political, and moral wisdom to encourage even in its humblest and least disciplined form. The performance on Monday night was on the whole creditable ; — a few poitions of it paiticularly so, but we must not in such a case as this individualize, lest we might seem paitial where ive desire to award some meed of commendation to all. It would be injustice to those engaged in the performance to say that they did not, generally speaking, do well — that is, consideiing the shoit training some of them have as yet had, and the necessarily straitened nature of the resources available for such a purpose at our antipodean position ; but it would also be injustice, and, in our estimation, unkindncss to themselves not to say that we hope to hear woie uniformly good music at their next Conceit. This we not only hope, but confidently expect, considering the progress they have already made. But, by the by, shall their future Concerts be made up, as this, all but exclusively, was, of foreign music 1 A diligent practice of National Melodies— especially of liusir Melodics — W ould be equally, if not more conducive to the advancement of the members themselves towards such musical attainments as they can reasonably expect to arrive at ; and the performance of such Melodies would— they may he assured— be far more acceptable to the gieat majority of their friends, as well as more in accoidance with the very designation under which they have associated themselves. St. Patrick •would have been giicvously at a loss to discover from the programme of Monday night " why in the world" the Band was called his.