The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 475, 2 November 1850, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

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

SATU R dTyT^O V E M~B fill ~2 , ~1 8 50

It will scarcely be expected by our readers generally that we should condescend to answer in any detail the tirade of vulgar abuse of us in which the Southern Cross indulged yesterday. The article is, we confess, a very tempting one. It furnishes both in its matter and its manner much that there would be little difficulty in. holding up to the alternate derision and condemnation of every thoughtful and jndicious man. But it involves no principle of public importance •• — the question of Representative Institutions as connected with Sir George Grey's proposed Provincial Councils Bill (out of which this controversy arose) is not even by remote implication referred to in it. There is nothing but an unbroken tissue of the most approved "Billingsgate," spiced with a few colonially acquired vulgarisms, and all directed — not so much even against our journal — as against ourselves. We have never entered into a contest of this kind, and are not willing to do so now. We could follow our contemporary step by step through his yesterday's display, and exhibit himself editorally, and his " professional subordinate," in a truer light than that which he has supplied. But this would only be an impertinent intrusion of comparatively private concerns on the attention of our readers, who reasonably require that the limited space of the local newspapers should be occupied with matter of more importance than criminations and recriminations between their respective conductors. We are quite content to leave everything ia our contemporary's last attack to the decision of that public opinion the verdict of which — though sometimes temporarily warped — is usually in the end sound and just. Any body who may think it worth while to look into the past numbers of the New Xealander and the Southern Cross can judge for himself who has been the habitual "aggressor," and who has really "waged no war of offence," but has "again and again forborne unseemly and unprovoked tirades." That our contemporary should have charged all this upon us indicates to an extent which is equally amusing and instructive, the extraordinary degree in which he possesses what in Scotland is significantly called " the power of face." We shall leave him to the undisturbed enjoyment of whatever laurels he imagines he has gathered in the present controversy. We have a few words to say, however, which

Ivill not at all bear upon our own disputes vith our contemporary. They will leave vholly untouched the questions whether the M^itor of the Southern Cross is, or is not, a ! Ruiltless pattern of what a respectable journalist j ■night to be, and whether, personally, he is or ' is not, as perfect a model as a sculptor or la painter could desire to sit for an Adonis. ■They will entirely bear upon public topics. ! I We first refer to this redoubtable Memorial. We are told that it has obtained 335 signatures, including " the names of many who perhaps never signed a public Memorial of any hind before." We have little doubt that the latter assertion is quite true ; although it might have been more discreet if the private concocters of the Memorial had not been themselves the persons to publish it. The inexperienced in political manoeuvres were obviously the most likely to be caught in the net of the Southern Cross. We should greatly like to see the names : —hut, we suppose, our contemporary, ultra-above-board as he wishes 'to be considered, will not venture upon the experiment of printing them. He asserts that " public opinion was never more fully and completely represented." We are compelled to contrast with his statement the fact that not a few of those who, from their social and commercial position in our community are beet entitled to consideration, have not signed it, although they were ashed and urged to do so. Let the concocters and puffers of the Memorial deny this if they can. How would they like, let us blandly suggest to them, a Committee of Inquiry — (they are doughty champions for Committees of Inquiry into every Colonial matter at home) say a Committee of Inquiry into the circumstauces under which the Memorial was prepared, and the number of persons who signed it absolutely without knowing what they zvere affixing their names to. We have heard some curious facts on this subject, and we are told that many more could be furnished, should we need them. It may be enough now to say that the Memorial is not a Public Memorial in any light sense of the term. The " Public " have nothing to do with it except in so far as individuals of the public may have, (with a facility of obligingness, which ought not to be brought into operation in affairs of so much importance,) affixed their names to it without reading it. We have no hesitation in reiterating our description of it, as a thorougly "hole and corner" affair. Let its promoters if they think otherwise, defy us to the proof of this assertion. But, we suspect they will think that in this, as in some of the other matters, into which they have made a rash and head-long plunge, "discretion is the better part of valour.' One word more. The exclusive readers of the Southern Cross do not up to this moment know what Sir George Grey's " Provincial Councils Bill " actually is. We need not say how much in accordance with the usual policy of that dishonest piint it would be to keep them in ignorance of the real character, and the almost extreme liberality of the measure. But we do ask the readers of the Southern Cross, as one of those matters of propriety which their own common sense would dictate, to withhold their opinions until they have the case fairly and fully before them, They have as yet only seen his Excellency's proposal through the distorting glass of the Southern Cross. Should not our contemporary accommodate his friends — and make an effort — even though it were a dying i one — to show some political fairness, by placing the Bill before them in its completeness, and thus giving them an opportunity of judging of it for themselves ? j

By the Overland Mail we have received Wellington papers to the 21st of September. They had reached us before the issue of our last number, but as they did not contain anything of much importance, ive postponed a reference to them in order to give insertion to the articles on topics of more immediate and local interest which engrossed nearly the whole of our available space on Wednesday. A curious illustration of the way in which affairs are sometimes officially transacted, had arisen out of the calamitous accident on the Wairarapa Lake, of which we published an account some weeks since. It will be remembered that the Coroner's Jury returned a special verdict in which grave censure was cast on the Government for neglecting to establish proper ferries. A reply ftom the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Domett) appeared, in which it was stated that " no application, within his Excellency's knowledge, had ever been made for permission to keep a ferry either at Wanganui or at the Wairarapa Lake, which would, it is conceived, have been the case, if considered necessary by the public." This assertion was met by proofs that the matter had been repeatedly pressed upon the attention of the Government, into the details of which we need not enter, but which seem quite conclusive. Under these circumstances, Lieutenant - Governor Eyre deemed it expedient to vindicate himself by declaring that his Colonial Secretary had " materially deviated" from the meaning of the Minute on whicli he was directed to found his communication. As this remarkable official explanation is not very long, we think it woith while to copy it in its entirety. Colonial Secretaiy's Office' We'hngton, 11 ih September, 1850. £rn,— 'Tlie attention of the Lieutenant Governor

hiving been diawn to a letter published in the Welling* ton Independent of the 28th ultimo, purporting to be the copy of ono addressed to you by his Excellency's directions, but in which he observes several material devia- | tions from the terms of the minute upon which that j letter was intended to have been founded, I am now ■ instructed by his Excellency to transmit to you a ccrJ tifie'l copy of the minute alluded to, and to request that you will communicate the same, accompanied by a copy of this letter, to the Foreman of the Jury assembled at the inquest on the body of Mr. Donald Drummond, lately drowned in the Wairarapa Lake with an expression of his Excellency's regict that, in passing throngh the offices, so great an alteration should have been made in the terms of the reply sent, from those which he intended should have been made use of, as materially to change the tenor of the whole communication. I have the honor to be Sir, Your most ooedient servant, (For the Colonial Secretary,) S. E. Grimstone. The Couoncr, Wellington. copy. Mr. Domett.— -The Coroner will inform the Jury that the Government regret extremely the loss of life which has on more than one occasion taken place at the Wairarapa Lake, but that they unjustly impute to the Government a negligence of which it is not guilty. The Jury must be aware that the District of the Wairarapa, not having been purchased is still in the hands of the Natives, and that the Government have neither right nor legal power to establish Ferries there at present, unless under the permission of the Natives, which has on more than one occasion been refused, as is also the case as the Manawatu. At the Whanganui there is a large European settlement, and there are boats as well as canoes — no app'ication that I am aware of, has ever been made for permission to establish a Ferry there, which I presume would have been the case if considered necessary by the public. AfWdittctu theFcnyhas been in the h.inds of the Natives, and I am not aware that it is insufficiently conducted, but will ciusc enquiry to bo made(Signed) E' Eyri:, A true Copy. J. D. Ormond, Private Secretary. Mr. Fox's now celebrated political Lecture at the Mechanics' Institute continued to afford weapons of warfare to our ever pugnacious Wellington contemporaries. The Spectator had alleged that the Committee *of the Institute had, formally or virtually, passed a vote of censure on the lecture. The Independent and its conespondents emphatically stigmatized this allegation as a wilful falsehood. The truth (so far as we can discern it in the clouds of dust raised about it) was, lhat the Committee did not actually in terms condemn Mr. Fox's lecture, but that, immediately after its delivery, they caused the Rules prohibiting the introduction of Religious or Political Controversy to be re-posted on their Notice Board ; and that to this very broad hint to the New Zealand Company's factious Agent was added a still les3 mistakeable expression of opinion in the refusal of the Sub-Committee, entrusted with the arrangements for the Lectures, to comply with a requisition signed by some of the members that Mr. Fox should be asked to give a second lecture. We should have augured badly for the futuie course of the Mechanics' Institute if its Managers had, even for a moment seemed to give any sanction to Mr. Fox's unworthy and indecent abuse of his privilege as a lecturer. We are gratified to learn that the effort on the part of the working classes to take their own share (and to try to reap their own portion of the profits) , in the preparation and exportation of the Phormium Tenax goes forward prosperously. We should be glad tn see — and to promote as we might be able — such an endeavour on the part of the working men here. The Spectator of September 1 1 has the following statement : — Flax. —We understand that nearly two hundred shaies of ihe WoiUng Man's Flax Company have been taken, the two first instalments have been paid up and from twenty to thirty tons of flax aro in process of preparation. It is proposed to obtain moje funds by means of additional shares for the purchase of machinery, and a solect Committee has been chosen to collect information on this subject, and to report to the general committee at their next meeting.

A Government Gazette was published yesterday. Its principal notifications will be found in our other columns. It will be seen that General Pitt, in the usual official style, proclaims that he has assumed the Administration of the Government of, this Province during Sir George Grey's absence; that Mr. Cooper is to perform the duties of Native Secretary during Mr, Dillons absence ; and that the Supreme Court is to sit for the despatch of Criminal Business on the second of next mo rah (Dec), and for Civil Business on the seventh. The tabular Returns of the Income and Expenditure of the Province occupy the principal portion of the Gazette. The lcsulls are very gratifying, as indicating progressive prosperity. Comparing the Receipls for the Quarter ending September 30, 1850, with those for the corresponding Quarter in 1849, the figures are : — Auckland, last year, £5,872 115. B</.j this year, £7,962 15s 2d.:— Russi-XL, last year, £301 Is. I^.; this year, £414 3s. del.: — New Plymouth, last year, £50 18s. Bd.; this year, £394 2s. Bd. Total, hut year, £6,227 Us. 5d.; this year, £8,771 l.y. Id. The diminution of Expenditure also claims notice. The Quarter's Expenditure for the Piovince was, last ycai\ £9,049 2s. s</.; this year, it has been only £7,38 i 12j. 9d,