The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 525, 26 April 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Bo just and fear not : Let all Die ends thou aim^'t at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1851.

His Excellency the Governor-in-Chif.f sailed from Auckland for Wellington in H.M.S. Fly, on the afternoon of Thursday. In our last we copied from the Government Gazette the welcome announcement of the appointment of Lieut.-Colonel Wynyard, C.B.^ to the office of Lieutenant-Governor of the Piovince of New Ulster. Another Gazelle, issued on Thursday evening, contained the following notification : — " Notice is hereby given that His Excellency Lieutenant-Colonel Wynyard, C. B m will take the Oaths as Lieutenant-Go-vernor of this Province, publicly, in the Grounds of the late Government House, on Saturday next, the 26th instant, at twelve o'clock, noon. All Naval, Military, and Civil Officers, Clergymen of different denominations, Justices of the Peace, and such of the Colonists as can conveniently attend, are invited to be present on the occasion." It will be gratifying to the community generally that Colonel Wynyard's formal entrance on the duties of his high office should be thus publicly celebrated ; and we have no doubt that as many of the inhabitants of the town and its vicinity as can make it conve~ nient, will feel it both a duty and a pleasure to be present on so interesting an occasion as that which invites their attention to-day. We have been requested to state that the Drapers have resolved to close their shops during the time of the ceremony.

The Maufcin rather unexpectedly arrived in our port yesterday from Sydney. The mail had been forwarded by the Moa, which sailed the same day. But by the kindness of Captain Bowden we have several Sydney papers, the latest date being the 1 2th inst. As however the files are incomplete, and as we are much pressed to-day by other matter, we shall for the present merely state in a few sentences the leading particulars of intelligence in the journals which have come to hand. There was English news to the 18th of December. The Queen's answers to the addresses on the Papal Aggression had been looked for with much solicitude, The following was her Majesty's Reply to that from the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London :— " I receive with much satisfaction your loyal and affectionate address. I heartily concur with you in your grateful acknowledgements of the many blessings conferred upon this highly favoured nation, and in your attack meat to the Protestant faith and to the great principle! of civil and religious liberty, in the defence of which the city of London has ever been conspicuous. That faith and those principles are so justly dear to the people of this country, that I confidently rely on their cordijii support io upholding and maintaining them againit any danger with which they may be threatened, from whatever quarter it moy proceed." The Premier Peer and most exalted Roman Catholic in England, the Duke of Norfolk, ; had declared his strong disapproval of the Papal I measure. .. Cardinal Wiseman had been " enj throned" at St. George's Roman Ca;holic Chapel with great pomp ..The Legal Obterver states that a wealthy individual in the North of England had taken steps to try the law of the case, by himself instituting a prosecution against one of the newly created Bishops for a misdemeanour. The following, from the report of the last wool sales in England is interesting :—: — All descriptions ot rolonial were in good demand. Some quantity of New Zealand wool created much competition, and realised full prices. The uneven packing, and the mixing in of greasy fleeces, in many instances, still continues ; more attention to washing is, also, highly necessary, and, until these drawbacks are remedied, thii article, which il growing in favour, cannot be fully appreciated. Lord John Russell had granted an interview to a deputation on the subject of steam communication with Australia. Earl Grey and Sir Charles Wood were also prt-

sent. Nothing was elicited from the Premier beyond a general promise that he would use his best efforts for the attainment of the object. Thus, says the Morning Chronicle of Dec. 11, " the question stands essentially wheie it did." The Rev. Mr. Bennett (to whose Puseyite antics at the Church of St. Barnabas, Pimlico, we referred in our last) had, after a long correspondence with his diocesan, resigned his living rather than abandon his " mummeries." i

The Legislative Council of New South Wales assembled on the 28th ull. Its attention was of course chiefly occupied with the consideration of the Bills introduced by the Governor in accordance with the Australian Colonies Act. It had taken time, however, to perform one highly meritorious deed, —voting £2,000 for an expedition in search of the enterprising Dr. Leicikvrdt. The apportionment of the representation for New South Wales under the Electoial Bill was condemned by many as unequal, and a Public Meeting had been held to remonstrate against it. The Delegates from the Anti-Transportation League who had visited Sydney from Van Diemen's Land and Victoria, had been received with a welcome little short of enthusiasm. The New Sonth Wales Association was to merge in the general '* League." Dr. Lang had been found guilty of a libel, in his newspaper The Press, on Mr. Icely, M.L.C.The trial of the proprietors of the Herald for a libel on Mr. Tiiurlow, and that of the proprietor of the Empire for a libel on Mr. Hill were to stand over until June. A dreadful murder—if not two—had been perpetrated in a notorious haunt of vice — Durand's Alley. The victim was a woman named Mooke ; and an old man named Harris, the master of the house, who it was supposed interposed to save her, was so fearfully beaten [ that little hope of his recovery was entertained. | The murderer had not been captured,—indeed it appears he was not known. Bread stuffs, we iegret to find, had advanced I yet higher in price. The following is from the Sydney Market note in the Herald of the I 12th— Flour anc Bran.—Fine flour is quoted by Messrs. Barker and Co. at £\B, second quality £16, per ton of 2000 lbs. Bran 11*1 per bushel. Mr. Briellat: A furlher advance has taken place in flour, which is now quoted at £20 ppr ton for fine, and £18 tor second quality. B>an £5 per ton of 2000 lbs. Mr. Smart: Fine flour of superior quality has advanced io £20 per ton, at which price it is firm and very much in demand ; seconds Dran £b per ton. The price of wheat ranged from 7s. to 7s. Bd, per bushel. Bread was 4-^d. for the 2ft>. loaf.

The intelligence from the Cape of Good Hope (to the 16th of January) is of a most painful character. The Kaffirs were in open tvar With the Government, and had committed appalling massacres and devastations. Sir Harry Smith was in the midst of them, and on one occasion, narrowly escaped with his life. The troops under Colonel Somerset had been defeated and forced to retreat while attempting to open a communication with His Excellency. The Graham's Town Journal says, " Peaceful farm homesteads are abandoned ; property is a wreck ; the affrighted inhabitants aie fugitives ; life is in danger ; and ruin and suffering and desolation aie seen or heard in every direction, and among all classes."

The Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Hobart Town had met to consider the famous "Sydney Minutes," and had addressed the Bishop of Tasmania, stating, in temperate but firm language, dissatisfaction similar to that declared by tke clergy at Adelaide.

A movement js just now in progress, to obtain an amendment of the measure about to be proposed to the Legislative Council to provide ! for the completion of the contracts for the j disposal of Lands entered into by the New Zealand Company, which is of sufficient importance to the interests, not only of the j Colony generally, but of this Province in particular, to induce us to invite the best attention of our readers to a consideration of its charac- i ter and bearings. We introduce it to their notice by a few preliminary remarks. The issuing of scrip in certain cases to Land Claimants whose claims shall have been favourably reported on by the Commissioners, is amongst the most prominent provisions of the proposed Ordinance, — the cases most particularly specified being those in which it is not in the power of the Government to place the purchaser in possession of the identical section of land which the Company had contracted to dispose of to him. The recklessness with which the Company pretended to make over to purchasers lands which were never in their own rightful possession, rendered it inevitable that such cases would occur ; and they are now actually found to occur to a great extent, especially in the Taranaki district, were numerous dupes of the Broad Street Buildings speculators have for years been suffering most grievous and harassing injustice. It is not necessary that we should recapitulate the long and complicated facts connected with the history of that settlement; it is enough i that the one great fact — that it is not in the power of the Government at present to place I the settlers in peaceable and secure possession of particular lands there which they have parchased — is palpable and undeniable. The proposition to give them, in lieu of

these lands, transferable scrip, lo be received in payment for other lauds of, a? nearly as may be, equivalent value, is obviously equitable, and, so far as it goes, satisfactory. But the Bill connects this arrangement with a restriction which^materially detracts from its worth in the estimation of many of those for whose benefit it is designed. The land to be chosen by the scrip-holdeis must be within the boundaries of the Province of New Minister, Now most, if not all, of the New Zealand Company's claimants at Taranaki have a strong and deliberately formed preference for the Northern Province. This was manifested in the Resolution adopted at a Public Meeting of the inhabitants of the district some months ago, when a lumour that Taranaki was likely to be transferred to the Southern Province elicited the decided expression of opposition to any such change, which appeared in omcolumns at the time. The truth is, the settlers there have been long enough in the country to be able to estimate, — not from report or conjecture, but from their own knowledge acquired by observation and experience, — the relative suitableness of the respective Provinces for the purposes of their industry and enterprise ; and, in our magnificent extent of available coast, our numerous and increasing opportunities of commercial intercourse with the neighbouring colonies and the home country, the fertility of our soil, the openings for profitable traffic presented by our markets, oar position in the midst of a great Maori population who are yearly becoming better farm servants and larger consumers of our products and imports, — and in various other advantages which we need not stop to particularize, — they see abundant reason for desiring to cast their lot permanently in New Ulster ; or, to say the least, an adequate motive for striving to obtain such a modification of the proposed Ordinance as will leave them free to do so, if they think fit. But the question arises — How should we of the Northern Province regaid this wish? — should we co-operate with, or oppose it? At a hasty glance, its adoption might appear contrary to our interests, The appropriation of a large portion of the lands of the Province to the holders of New Zealand Company's contracts, would undoubtedly diminish the Land Revenue, which (especially since the introduction of the plan by which one-third of the proceeds of the sales may be transferred to the Wardens of the several Hundreds for the execution of Public Works), is, as a source of income for purposes not only of immigration but of general local improvement, of very high importance. Indeed, if this were duly considered, we might not unreasonably demand that, should the plan b,e acquiesced in, and extended to the New Munster settlers, a portion of the New Munster Land fund should be made over to New Ulster, to cover this inevitable deficiency in that particular department of our finance. But, however this may be, any sacrifice which it may involve would be unquestionably recompensed by an arrangement which would fix in this Province a number of the best class of settlers we could possibly have ; men of industry, more or less capital, acquaintance with the agricultural and general business of the country, and for these and other reasons far more desirable than newly arrived immigrants — even if there would not (as there certainly would) remain over and above the sections which may be appropriated to the old claimants, land enough and to spare for as many newsettlers as are likely to arrive for years to come. We now proceed to state the occurrences of the last kw days, of which the preceding remarks were designed to be explanatory. Several of the land claimants, either livingat Taranaki, or having claims to land there, although circumstances have led them to reside in other parts of the Province, availed themselves of the presence of the Governor-in-Chief in Auckland, to bnng under his consideration their views and wishes on the subject. This was done on Wednesday morning. His : Excellency intimated that he had reason to ! apprehend that the Auckland settlers would have objections to any such arrangement The point of immediate urgency now became tosatisfy his Excellency that such was not the fact ; but time pressed, as he was just on the point of departure. On the spur of the moment the following brief document was prepared and offered for signature in the town •.—. — - Auckland, April, 1851. Gentlemen,— ln answer to your inquiries, We, the undersigned Landowners and others interested in property in Auckland and its vicinity, state our opinion, that no objection exists to the extension of the repurchasing clauses of the proposed " New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Bill" to the Province of New Ulster, and that the right to re-select in any pa*t of New Zealand will be only fair to the Scripholders, and most beneficial for the general interests of [the Colony. We beg to subscribe ouTselres yours, &c To Mr. Robert Parris and other Land Claimants of Tarauaki, &c. So freely did the proposition meet with acceptance that as rapidly as the document could be laid before the inhabitants their names were appended to it, and in the afternoon it was forwarded to the Governor with the following accompanying note : — Sir,— l have the honour to enclose a document addressed to the Landholders at New Plymouth, by several of the most influential inhabitants of AuoklanJ, expressive of their opinion that no objection would be held to the exchange of land by claimants in New Minister for

l.mds in this province. Fiom tlio readiness with which so many signatuics weie appencled to the letter within an hour or two this morning, I am sure that, if theie \me sufficient time to visit the settlers in this district hefoie the time of your Eicellency's embaikation, the names of cvciy one ol them might be obtained. I have the honour to be, &c, Jas. Smart. His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief. We believe Ms Excellency was actually on his way from Government House to the place of embarkation when these communications reached him, and it was scarcely to be expected that any instant reply could be obtained. But it proved otherwise. With a promptitude in attending to the representations of the applicants which may probably indicate that he is not adverse to their request, he, during his short stay at the Colonial Secretary's office before he went on board the Fly, directed that the following answer should at once be given. Colonial Secretary's Office,

Auckland, 24th April, 1851. Sir,— With refeience lo your letter of this day's date, transmitting a letter addiessed to the Landholders at New Plymouth by several of the most influential Inhabitants of Auckland, expressive of their opinion tint no objection would be held to the exchange of land by claimants in New Minister foi land in this Province, I am instiucted by His Excellency the Governor to inform you tint a Memorial should be prepared and addressed to the Legislative Council ; and if transmitted overland 10 Wellington, it will reach the Council in ample time.— l have, &c,

Andrev Sinclair, Colonial Secretary. Mr. James Smart, &c, Exchange Hotel. Acting upon the suggestion thus given, the following Memorial has been prepared and is now in course of signature. — Those who desire to append their names to it should do so immediately, in order that it may, if possible, be forwarded by the Lucy James. We anticipate that it will be very generally signed, as we have heard no objection even hinted at, in addition to that we have before alluded to, except an apprehension that monied speculators may buy up the Scrip at a low rate — unfairly compete by these means with cash purchasers — and lock up still larger portions of the country. This objection, however, could, and we have little doubt, would be obviated in the final construction of the measure, as we are sure the Governor-in-Cuief would be watchful to guard the interests of this Province in so important a matter. To His Excellency Sir George Grey, X.C.8., Gover-nor-in -Chief, and to the Honourable the Members of the General Legislative Council of New Zealand, in Council assembled : The Memorial of the undersigned Landowners, and others, interested in property in Auckland and elsewhere in the Province ol New Ulster: Sheweth, That an Ordinance is about to be introduced at the ensuing Session of the Geneial Legislative Council, intituled the "New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Bill," to ascertain the contracts and engagements entered into by the New Zealand Company, for the disposal of lands in the Colony of New Zealand : and to provide for the completion of such contracts and engagements by the Colonial Government. That various parties having subsisting contracts and claims against the New Zealand Company, more particularly in respect of lands at New Plymouth, in the Province of New Ulster, have expressed a desire, in case any such ordinance be passed, to be allowed, if they shall so elect, to re-purchase their lands within any other part of the said Piovince of New Ulster — in the event of no sufficient objection being urged by, or on behalf of land piopiietois, or others inteiested in lands, within the said Province of New Ulster. That your Memorialists desire respectfully to state that, in their opinion, no objection does leally exist to the extension of the re purchasing clauses of the said proposed Ordinance to the whole of the Piovince of New Ulster, and that the Legislative Council, by conferring on such land claimants the light to re-select, as far as possible, in a«y part of New Zealand, will concede that which is only fair to the Scripholdeis, and most beneficial for the general interests of the Colony.