The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 543, 28 June 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

He just ami fo.ir not • Let nil the ends Hum auns't at, be thy Country's, Thy Oon'ti, <iml 'l'l ntli't..

SATURDAY, JUNE2B.IBSI.

Two Government Gazettes have been issued since our last. As we purpose transferring their contents in extenso to our columns, it may suffice to notice here, as amongst those contents, a notification that Lieutenant-Colonel Bolton, C.U.E., has taken the oaths as a member of the Legislative Council of New Ulster ; — that by the Lieutenant-Governor's direction, all documents signed " J. Coates, for the Colonial Secretary," are to be deemed official ; — and that an extensive Land Sale is proclaimed for the 28th of July, at which numerous allotments in Onehunga, Papakura, Karaka, &c, will be offered for competition.

Having in our last number summed up the chief particulars of New South Wales intelligence leceived by the Moa, we now proceed to glean and condense such items of the news fiom other neighbouring colonies as may possess interest for our readers. The Van Diemen's Land Legislative Council had re-assembled, and was engaged on the details of the Electoral Bill. The measure was likely to pass without material alteration. Mr. Leake had given notice of a protest against the repayment of the £60,000 obtained by Sir Eardley Wilmot from the Commissariat Department. Theological controversy, chiefly arising out of the "Sydney Minutes," had for some time been running high, and several reverend and lay polemics had written at len:>th on the subject in the newspapers. We now learn that the Bishop of Tasmania had declined to comply with a request that he would call a meeting of the members of the Church of England in his diocese to consider the " Minutes." Pie prefers " leaving to the lay members of the Chinch of England themselves the undivided responsibility of bringing into the arena of public discussion the delicate and grave subjects both of doctrine and of discipline, which are adverted to in the lleport of the Australasian Bishops." The question naturally occurs, By whom was the present discussion of these " delicate and grave subjects" originated in the Australasian colonies ? Was it not by the Bishops themselves ? And if so, is it altogether parental or pastoral to attempt to devolve the " undivided responsibility " on the laymen, whose highest interests are affected by these subjects, but who had no voice directly or indirectly in the Conference from which the published "Minutes" issued 1 ? Although it may seem somewhat out of place in a summary of news from Van Diemen's Land, we may mention here that, on the 18th of February, Sir William Molesworth gave notice, in the House of Commons, of a motion for the abolition of transportation to the colony, founded on a petition which he that day presented signed by 1700 inhabitants of thenoithern district of Van Diemen's Land. South Australia was bristling from end to end with preparations for the approaching elections. Great prominence was given to the question of State Grants for the support of Religion. The Austral Examiner, (an Adelaide weekly paper recently established, and, so far as we can judge from the numbeis befoie us, ably conducted), was doing devoted service in the cause of unqualified. Voluntaryism. The Official Returns of Imports and Expoits for the first quarter of 1851 presented very satisfactory results. The balance was largely in favour of Exports, which amounted to £248,298, while the Imports for use or consumption in the colony were £207,839,1 55. The Quaiter's Return oi Exports was, however, a large one, in consequence of including Wool to the amount of £101,779. The.Export for the Year ending Apiil 5, formed an aggregate of £543,001 11s. 6d. ; the principal items being, metallic copper, £232,712; copper oies, £127,294; wool, £133,4.15; flour, £28,743; wheat, £7,011; and tallow, £4,082. The Observer is loud in its praise of the Returns, as usefully explanatory in details, and elaborate and complete in classifications and valuations. Archdeacon Hale had published an earnest and touching Appeal on behalf of the Native Tiaining Institution at Port Lincoln, of the advantages of which fifteen individuals of the aboiiginal race are now partaking. The aid sought is only temporary, as it it expected that the Home Government will sanction such an appropriation of the Land Fund for its suppoit as will obviate the necessity of further appeals to the public. The fiist stone of the " British and German. Hospital" at Adelaide was laid on the Queen's Birth Day by the Provincial Grand Master of the Frei- masons, in the presence of the Governor, the Bishop, the Judges, and other distinguished persons. Information had been received at Adelaide that two immigiant ships per month would be despatched from .England during the present year.

We had not loom in out- last summary for much relerence to the affairs of Ireland, except in so far as they were involved in those pertaining to the United Kingdom at large. We now proceed to supply that deficiency, as well as the few papers before us containing direct references to that country afford means of doing so. . An active movement on the question of Lord John liuss ell's " Ecclesiastical Assumption Bill" was in progress, especially in the South and West. Previously, the agitation respecting the Papal Aggression seems to have been, to a considerable extent, confined to the Protestant party ; but, since the Meeting of Parliament, the Roman Catholics had entered the field with vigout ;— thus making a sagacious choice of the season in which to put forth their strength, as their remonstrances would derive additional effectiveness from being freshly uttered concurrently with the actual discussion of the topic in the Legislature, and might also possess increased pertinency from their being directed against a measure the provisions of which were " fully known to the public. Several of the second and third rate towns— as Gal way, Tuam, Clonmel,Fermoy, and othershad been amongst the eailiest to hold meetings in opposition to the Bill ; but the great cities weie about to adopt similar steps. Meetings were announced to take place in Dublin on the 20th of February ; in Limerick on the 22nd; and in Coik on the 25th; and on that day (the 25th) a conference of the Roman Catholic Bishops was to be held for consultation as to the couise they should pursue in the matter. Their clergy had already met in several localities ; and it is stated that at Nenagh and Loughrea the Roman Catholic soldiers had been oidered by their officeis out of the chapels, because the priests were about to address their congregations on the "new penal law." Under the influence of the excitement on this question, the constituencies in which the Roman Catholic inteie&t is powerful were keeping a sharp eye and a tight rein on their representatives. The support (qualified though it was) which Mr. Ciiisholm Anstey gave to the Government measure had been requited by a number of his constituents at Youghal with a call on him to resign his seat. The hon. member had replied in the following frank and manly terms . — " I do not consider myself either as a tool or puppet of any body of men in the pursuit of a course I deem consistent and straightforwaid. I have sedulously given my attention to the fuitherance of your local iuteiests, but I have resisted, and will ever resist, what I deem to bs pi i vate exaction. I have however, deteiinined to redeem the pledge you force upon uiy attention, and shall foithwith accept the stewardship of the Chi tern Hundieds; and whether I shall again successfully solicit your suffr.ij>i'S or not, I shall take with me into public or private life the honest conviction of having devotedly perioimeJ my duty to my Queen and to my country." The hostility towards Lord John Russell appears to have been carried so far as to demand that everything should be done, upon every qnestion, that would embarrass or overthrow his Cabinet, — although, in the prevailing tone of popular feeling respecting the Papal Aggression it is difficult to conceive how it could be anticipated that any Ministry, the formation of which was at all practicable, would or could on this subject adopt a course materially different from Ins. However this might be, we learn that the Roman Catholic electors of Westmeath and Westport had required — or were about to require — their respective members to resign because they had not voted against the Government in the cutical division on Mr. D'Lraeli's Protectionist motion, to which we refened in our last. At a meeting of the Repeal Association also, a Mr. Kelcii had severely castigated Mr. John O'Connell for absenting himself on that occasion. He did not indeed find much support in that " greatly diminished body ;" but still " Mr. John" judged it wise to express his regret for what he had done, and to promise to be a good boy and " not do so again." It had been repoited that an English barrister would offer himself for Dungarvan, backed by the interest of the Duke of Devonshire, which is great in that borough ; but the writ for a new election, after having been issued, was cancelled by the House, it having been asceitained that Mr. Sheil's acceptance of a diplomatic mission did not necessarily involve the vacation of his seat. An announcement that the Very Rev. Tobias Kirby, President of the Irish College at Rome, had been appointed R. C. Coadjutor Bishop of Dromore, had excited much comment. An extract from one of the London daily papers may be worth quotation, not only for Us sarcastic pungency, but because it was understood to he from the pen of the Rev. Francis Maiiony, the learned and facetious ecclesiastic whose writings as " Father Prout" have acquired such extensive celebrity. We may digress here for aj^oment to note that some severe criticisms onjßßdinal Wiseman which appeared in the Glcoe having been attributed to the same pen, 'the " Father" had addressed a characteristic letter to the Dublin Freeman's Journal, denying that he had called the Cardinal " Aichbishop of the Slums" (of Westminstei), and adding, "lie deplores, on the contrary, the utter neglect of the slums, and of the poor liish denizens thereof, by this new Archbishop, whose attention is otherwise absoibed by the composition of offensive faufaro-

nades from the Flaminian gate ; pompous enthronizations ; foreign diplomatic recognitions ; importing bales of silk hose, and a stock of led hats ; replenishing his wine cellar ; and conversationes. The Father is personally cognisant of how matters go on in Westminster, having been the piiest of that distnct in the cholera year, 1832-33, in Dr. Magee's absence, at Bishop Brampton's lequest.") But to return, — in an article, believed, as we have intimated, to be " Father Prout's" own, the new appointment is thus dealt with in a manner of which the Freeman may probably s.xy, (as it said of the note just referred to from its " humorous but misguided countryman), " we doubt much whether it will very much improve his position in the eyes of the Catholic people of Ireland :" — " Who is this Dr. Kirby ? Is he the author of a Bridgewaler treatise, that every law should be set aside mJthe presence of his paramount claims ? Alas, he is neither a writer, nor much a reader of books, save, perchance, of Dens, Escobar, Ribadeneira, Cornelius a Lapide, and Jacobus de Voraoine. In ' Facts and Figures from Italy.' published by Bentley, 1847, at page 23, an official of the Liish seminary at Rome is found giving utterance to the ierocious sentiment that, ' the Irish Bishops favourable to the Queen's Colleges should be dented Christian bunal and their ashes thrown into the Shannon.' That oilicial was Dr. Kiiby, who tbus spoke in the piesence of the late R. C Bishop of Killaloe, Dr. Kennedy, and the present Archbishop of Corfu, Dr. Hynes The chronicler we quote marvels at the retention of such a person in the establishment at Rome, but adds, that ' it is customary in Turkey to keep an idiot in each mosque for luck.' " From what we learn of his acquirements, we do not anticipate that he will shed such literary lustre on the See of Dromore as to eclipse the fame of Di. Percy,: though he too may contribute 'reliques', and bring from Rome a wallet full of them. " The Pope must form a singular estimate of Irish intellect and the average understanding of the inhabitants, when he sends them such a luminary to be their philosopher and guide. A horse was promoted to Consular rank, without any election, by Caligula, and a kindred quadiuped may by the same Iloman supiemacy be dubbed a Bishop. But alas! ior the baik of i'eter when launched on the stormy sea of modern disturbance, if its only convoy be a fleet of ' donkey frigates.' " The project of founding a Roman Catholic University was eliciting additional zeal and liberality. At a meeting of the Committee, — Primate Cullln in the Chair— it was agreed to address the clergy for a simultaneous collection on its behalf, to be made on the 1 6th of March, the eve of St. Patrick's Day. Eleven hundred pounds were handed in during the sitting of the Committee, of which £100 came by post from an anonymous contributor in London... The Secretaries of the late i^ynod of Thurles I had officially contradicted the statement " ascribed to the Prime Minister, ' that the Address of the Synod had been adopted only by a majority of one. Th< j y declare " the said ! Address, having been read in full Synod, was unanimously adopted by the Fathers, and by them ordered to be published." Primate Cullen had issued a Pastoral ! against secret societies. He had also, in conjunction with his Clergy, forwarded an Address to Cardinal Wiseman, which, with the Reply of His Eminence, was published in the Tablet. A case which had long given profitable employment to the gentlemen of the long robe, 1 and which involved one of the largest fortunes in the country, had just been decided in the Dublin Court of Delegates. By the decision, £3,000 a year leal estate, and £950,000 personal and funded piopeity, had been transferred from the widow and administratrix of the late Mr. Edmund Kelly, of Mernon Square, to Miss Elizabeth Thewlis, the testator's fiist cousin and next-akin. The Ennistymon Board of Guardians had been dismissed, after inquiry by the Poor-law Commissioneis, for bad management, and repeated acts of inhumanity to the paupers ; and vice-guardians had been appointed to conduct the affairs of the union. The improvement in the agricultural prospects of the country which we lately noticed is attested by one or two additional evidences. There was increased demand for farms, and facility in letting them whenever icnts not disproportioned to the present price of produce would be accepted. The correspondent of the Morning Chonicle states that in a district of the county Cavan, where, at the commencement of last year, there were fifty farms to be let, there now is not a single one of those farms unoccupied, — the new tenants being chiefly the sons of experienced and respectable farmers. . , An additional impetus to the Flax Cultivation movement, which is now progressing so advantageously, may be anticipated from the determination of the liish Government to employ competent persons to investigate the various processes for the steeping and preparation of the flax, with the view of affording to those who are about to engage in this important branch of husbandry accurate information as to the best mode of treating the fibre after its growth.

Masonic Ball. —On Tuesday evening — it being the Festival of St. John — the Auckland Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons gave their now customary Ball at the Masonic Hotel. The attendance was numerous and fashionable, deriving peculiar interest from the presence of the Officers of the late unfoitunate French Corvette Alcmhie, and of those of H. M. Ship Fly. We are informed that the Room was brilliantly illuminated and decotated; — that the Supper was of first-rate excellence, doing great credit to the taste and liberality of Mr. Hunt, by whom it was provided;—that capital speeches were delivered,

(amongst which those of the Master, in proposing the health of the Officers of the Alcmene ; of the Lieutenant-Governor, in leturning thanks for his own health ; and of Mi. Gisborne in returning thanks for "Mrs. Wynyard and the Ladies of Auckland," were es )ecially felicitous) ; — that dancing was kept up with animation to an early hour on Wednesday morning ; and that, in short, the whole passed off in the most agreeable and satisfactory manner.

Land Sale. — A Sale took place on Thursday, but only a few buyers attended, — the proceeds being about £14 or £15. The allotments on the outskirts of the town which were not then purchased, are now, however, of course in the market, and may therefore (as is so frequently the case after the opening of Lands by the offer at Auction), be soon bought privately.