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The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear not: Let all the ends thou aiins't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1850.

We suppose we may now calculate on the necessity of compiling, — for a little time to come, — our accounts of home and foieign intelligence from the materials already in our possession ; as — unless some favouring wind should blow us news from an unexpected quarter — we are likely, for a week or two at least, to have one of those periodical dearths of arrivals which we are so frequently called on to endure, and which we may as well endure with good humour, seeing that we cannot at present help ourselves. And, truth to say, the gloss of novelty had been, (as our readers need not be reminded), taken off the intelligence brought by the Lord William Bentinck, — intelligence so much later than its dates having been previously presented to them in our columns. We find, however, in our English files matter amply sufficient to fill up the interval until the next probable arrivals, in a way that we trust will not prove devoid of interest. Getting news in the irregular and frequently disjointed manner in which it reaches us here, we must i not be fastidious as to a week or even a month in its date, provided it be really news in the sense of being of moderately recent occurrence, and not having been published by us before. There is, no doubt, a difficulty when we receive journals older than some already in our hands, in preventing confusion in the statements which we take from them. But we must only do our best so to dovetail, while we condense, as to give, to the utmost that our local circumstances admit, views sufficiently connected to be intelligible to those who honour us by being our " constant readers." The proceedings in Parliament, of course, claim precedence ; but here we have been enabled to anticipate, more than in other matters, the old- new information now before us. As respects the Colonies, the decision ot the House of Commons on the most important point of the most important colonial measure before it — (that of a single or double Chamber, under the provisions of the Australian Colonies Bill, was announced to our readers on the 24th. instant. We find, however, some gleanings worth gathering, even in this part of the field. Earl Grey had introduced, and carriel successfully through the House ot Lords, a measure of some importance, entitled"" the Convict Prisons Bill." This measure empowers the Secretary of State for the Home Department to appoint visitors of the Juvenile Prison at Parkhurst, of the Pentonville and Millbank Prisons, and of the hulks, — thus concentrating the authority which had been hitherto divided, and placing the establishments under the supervision of members of Parliament, and professional gentlemen of eminence, whose duty it would be to place the penal establishments of the country on the most satisfactory footing, and to see the secondary punishments of imprisonment and transportation carried out in the manner most likely to conduce to the reformation of the criminal and the welfare of society. On moving the second reading of the bill, on the 14th of March, Lord Grey had the subject all to himself, no other noble lord rising to speak. His lordship entered at large on the general question of secondary punishments, and reviewed at considerable length the progress of opinion, and the " gradual progession through temporary expedients towards a more satisfactory and permanent system." The third reading, (which was moved on April llth) did not pass over so easily, — though it did pass over successfully. In the course of the debate, Lord Grey did not shrink from taking the ground that convict transportation has been the grand lever by which the Australian Colonies have been raised to their present position. "In the memory of men now alive," he said " what a nation has been created ! And was it not the creation of a system of transportation ? By no other means could they have created in so short a time infant communities of equal prosperity and ; magnitude," This was as to the past ; but, as

to the future, Lord Stanley urged the knotty problem — as respects one of the colonies — • " expectations had been held out that, from a certain date, transportation to Van Diemen's Land would cease ; but it now appeared it was not to cease. What security had the noble Earl that that colony would not resist the reception of those convicts ; or, if they did not, what security was there that the colony would not relapse into a state of gross immo* rality, and that all the horrors that had formerly existed would not be renewed V After considerable discussion, Lord Grey wound up in these words — emphatical in themselves, and ominous as to the future prospects of our Van Diemen's Land neighbours in this particular, — " It was said that, as they were about to give free institutions to Van Diemen's Land, the authority of the mother country would be so far superseded that it would be impossible to continue to send out convicts to the colony : he believed, on the contrary, that the Government would be assisted in carrying out their plans by the existence of these free institutions, and that the influence which the Colony would thereby acquire would be made use of to support the Government in sending convicts to the Colony in the manner proposed." How will the anti- convict portion of the people of Van Diemen's Land receive this announcement? We shall see. The Bill was read a third time, and finally passed by the Upper House. la itself it may work advantageously as regards convict discipline at home ; the points of doubt or denial are to be found in the incidental statements brought out during its discussion, which we have now rather glanced at than dwelt upon as their importance would demand, — if we, in New Zealand, were not, as we happily are, free from all danger of convict contamination under Imperial orders. Sir Wm, Molesworth had returned to his question — whether, since the expiration of the Act providing for the temporary government of Western Australia, there existed any legal government competent to levy taxes in that colony, (which, with the Attorney-General's answer to it we gave in a former number.) Sir John Jervis replied more guardedly this time, stating that the Queen in Council could appoint persons so empowered, but declining to answer further questions unless they were proposed to him in writing. "The Army and Navy Estimates were discussed at considerable length, — Mr. Hume as usual taking the lead in calling for retrenchment, but being as usual unsuccessful, — " the House," according to the Spectator, " as little heeding the voice of Hume as if it had been the wind through a key-hole." Mr. Fox Maule, in moving the Army Estimates, made a general statement which is worth transferring :—: — "Last year, 103,254 men were voted; this year, the vote proposed in 59,308 for Home service, and 39,730 for Colonial service ; total, 99,1 28 men, — a reduction of 4,126 of all ranks. Mr. Cobden proposed to save £5,823,000 on the Army and Navy : take for the Army onethird—£l,94l,ooo—and deduct it from the £3,936,582 proposed for effective service, and you have £1,995,582 left j this sum will maintain, at £42 15s. lid. per man, (the cost of 1835,) but 50,000 men; whereas in 1835 the number was 81,275 men. It is contended that the Colonies should maintain the forces sent to them as police : he did not altogether repudiate that doctrine ; steps have been taken in that direction, and more will be taken as the Colonies increase in wealth and importance. Our army is not the ' most extravagant in Europe,' nor ' kept up specially for officers.' Deducting the cost price of the com" mission, with interest and charges, from the pay received, the net pay is the worst known anywhere, — for a Lieutenant-Colonel, but £107, a Major £93 155., a Captain (rather more) £108, and an Ensign £73 ss. lOd. Since 1835 the increase of officers has been in very small proportion : of course a decrease of officers is a very different thing from a decrease of men. It is economy, and a rule well observed, to keep up such a body of officers as enables the addition on the shortest notice of men enough to make the regiments efficient. la the standing army of North America, a small force of 17,000 men, there are 775 officers ; they have therefore one officer to every 21 men, we have one to every 20. As to the whole force, some considerations should be given to the times. France has 430,128 regular troops, 23,756 gendarmerie, and an innumerable host of National Guards; Prussia, 325,000 troops, and a Landwehr of 450,000 men ; Austria, an army of no less than 608,634 men. We must uphold our dignity among the nations." In the course of the discussion, Sir W. Molesworth urged especially the reduction of the number of troops in the colonies ; he contended that 5,000 troops might be spared from Canada, 2000 from the Cape, and 1000 from New Zealand. Mr. Hume's amendment was negatived bp a majority of 223 to 50, on which the hon. gentleman declared that he found it wholly useless to oppose the Government any further ; he would therefore let them take as much money as they pleased. This resolution of indifference gave way, however, when the Navy Estimates came on. He did indeed declare that he was so indignant that he was about to leave the House; but notwithstanding, he moved a reduction of 7000

or 8000 men. This was rejected by 1 17 to 19, and the original motion agreed to, which votes 39,000 men, at the expenditure for the year of " £6,613,659— being a saving of £1,333,717, as compared with the expenditure of last year. Economy in the national expenditnre generally was, during the same week, the subject of an interesting debate raised on a motion by Mr. Henry Drummond, " That wheieas the present taxation of the country depresses all classes, especially the labouring classes, by diminishing the funds for the employment of productive labour, it is the opinion of this House that adequate means should be forthwith adopted to reduce the expenditure of the Government." The discussion ran (as almost every public question this session has been more or less forced to run) into the hackneyed arguments on Free Trade versus Protection. Ultimately the motion was rejected by 190 to 156 — rather a meagre majority in so full a house, on a division in which Sir Robert Peel lent his fullest aid to Ministers. The movements both within and without in favour of reduced expenditure are too powerful to be disregarded. It was no doubt in compliance with the spirit which they manifest that Lord J. Russell brought forward a motion, on the 12th April, for a select committee to inquire into the salaries and emoluments of offices held during the pleasure of the Crown by members of either House of Parliament, voted in the estimates ; into the salaries and emoluments of judicial officers in the superior courts of law and equity in the United Kingdom, and the retiring pensions allotted to the judges ; and also into the expense of diplomatic establishments charged on the Consolidated Fund. In the course of a three- quarters-of-an-hour's speech, the noble lord dwelt upon the reductions in expenditure effected by Government during the last few years. Within three years the Army expenditure had been reduced by £501,438 ; the Navy by £2,102,419 ; and the Ordinance by £680,801, making a total of £3,284,658. In the civil department a similar spirit had been manifested, and considerable reductions had been made without imparing the efficacy of the public service Mr. Disraeli, in one of his sarcastic speeches, ridiculed the proposition, and moved an amendment to the effect that the House already possessed information sufficient for the revision of salaries, that committees of inquiry would only lead to delay, and that the Government should on its own responsibility forthwith introduce every practicable reduction. This amendment was negatived by a majority of 250 over 159. • . . .Mr. Horsman next took up tne subject Qn his favourite giound, by moving that the inquiry be extended to the incomes of ecclesiastical dignitaries. He contrasted the sums paid to Archbishops, Bishops, and Deans, with the salaries of Officers of State, Public Boards, and Ambassadors, whose united incomes he averred did not approach the incomes of the Episcopal Bench. So, whereas few of our public men made fortunes, or died rich, the twenty-nine Prelates who have died since 1828 have left a million and a half of personal property. He declared, however, that " he made the motion, not because the people of England were overtaxed, but because they were undcrtaught." The amendment was rejected by a majority of 208 over 95, and the original motion was agreed to. The proposition can be viewed as little but a sop thrown to the agitators for financial reform, who will be met by the statement that a parliamentary inquiry is in progress on this branch of the national expenditure, and that the result of the investigation must be waited for. That result will be, the production in due time of a great Blue Book ! We shall be able to collect yet further gleanings from the proceedings of Parliament, as well as notices of other English news for future numbers.

Apart from politics, the subjects engaging most attention in England were the preparations for the Great Exhibition in 1851, (to which we shall again refer), and the ecclesiastical disputes,— in the Church of England, arising out of " the Goriiam case," and in the Wesleyan Church, consequent upon the expulsion of Messrs. Everett, Dunn, and Griffith, by the Conference of 1849. The state of the former question we have recently laid before our readers. The papers received since we last referred to the latter, show that the agitation was carried forward actively by the expelled Ministers and their sympathisers, and as actively resisted by the greatly preponderating portion of the body attached to "John Wesley Methodism." A Convention of Delegates from the movement party was held in London, in March, at which numerous Resolutions were passed embodying the substance of the reforms to be demanded of the Conference,—" reforms" which would amount to a revolution in the constitution of the Body as established by its Founder. On the other hand, a'• Declaration" protesting against the agitation, and avowing a fixed determination to maintain, in every important point, the existing constitution, had been issued under the sanction of the President of the Conference, and had received the signatures of nearly thirteen hundred ministers. Attempts had been made to " stop the supplies," by inducing members of the Society to withhold those voluntary contributions by which the operations of the Connexion are sustainedt The degree to which these attempts

may have succeeded with regard to some of the Funds had not been ascertained ; but as respects the Wesleyan Missionary Society (against which the attack was especially made) there had evidently been a vigorous effort on the part of its supporters to prevent any financial falling off. The income of the Society for the year 1849 had proved to be £1 11,000, being about £7,000 more than that of 1848.

A Supreme Court. — We remind those of our readers whom it may in any way concern that the Session of this Court for the despatch of Criminal business will commence on Monday next, the 2nd of September, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon. We regret to state that the list of cases for trial is unusually large, and that some of the charges are of a very serious character. They are the following: — Joseph Smith and Benjamin Campbell for stealing a watch, watch-cases, &c, the property of Mr. Keightley, and also for stealing tobacco, cigars, and gin from the bonded store of Mr. Rich ;—; — William Astlk for horsestealing ; — John Lurdy and Samuel Bidwell for stealing brandy, beer, and money from Mr. J. Lockiiead ;; — Josepii Martin for assault, with intent, &c ; — Richard Meredith, otherwise White, for obtaining goods under false pretences from Mr. G. E. Vaile ; — James Burns for stealing articles the property of Mr. D. Siieeiian ; — and Joseph Massey for coining.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18500831.2.7

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 457, 31 August 1850, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,731

The New-Zealander. New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 457, 31 August 1850, Page 2

The New-Zealander. New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 457, 31 August 1850, Page 2

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