harbours, roads, bridges, &c, were likely to have a prominent place in the deliberations of the Session. 11. B. M.'s Ship DcerMus, Captain WEM.Esi.r/jr, was at Honolulu, laden with stores for the Qitkkn's ships in the Arctic Seas. The o/licers were presented at Court by the British Consul on the 29th of April, when Captain Wj^lbslky took occasion to bear testimony to the wise and liberal policy pursued by the Hawaiian Government towards foreigners; at the same time congratulating the Kiko on the progress of his interesting Islands, and expressing a belief that, whenever steam communication should be established, they would be visited by many travellers j from distant countries. A project for the erection of an additional Place of AVorship, for the special use of the foreign residents at Honolulu, was exciting attention. For sixteen years past the residents have had only such accommodation as the American Seamen's Chapel could afford. This is now found insufficient, owing to the increase of the numbers both of seamen visiting the port and of residents and their families; and it certainly seems liigh j time that the foreign population should (as they arc well able) make provision for themselves. The potato crop was later than usual in coming to perfection. This was owing partly to a severe frost in March, and partly, says the Polynesian, to the fact that " the demand, last fall, was so great that everything fit to be dug, and many j that ought to have been left in the ground, were taken off; the planting beinr? at a particular time, but few arc now ripe." When the crop did come in, it was expected to prove abundant. An increased cultivation of Figs, with a view to the establishment of an export trade in that fi nit, was spoken of. The Polynesian describes some very fine specimens of the Turkey Fig produced on the Islands,—one measuring eight and a quarter by nine and a half inches. Mr. Henry O'llejij/v had laid before the American Congress a plan for a Telegraphic and Letter Mail communication with the Pacific, which naturally excited interest at the Sandwich Islands, as it was calculated lhat it would reduce thi'ir communication with New York to twenty instead of sixty days, and with Europe to_ thirty, bolides being "the precursor of the Railroad." The following is an outline of Mr. O'Ukilly's scheme:— He a<-ks neither money nor favor from the American Goveinmont, but only " (hat Congress shall pass si law providing tint, instead of establishing forts with hundreds of men at long intervals apart, the troops designed for ptotectiug the route shall be distributed in a manner hotter calculated to promote that and other important objects—nnmely, by stationing parties of twenty dragoons at stockades, twenty miles apait: And providing, also, that two or three soldiers shall ride daily each way from each stockade, so as to transport a Daily Express Letter Mail across the Continent; while at the same timo protecting nnd comforting the emigrants and settlers; and thus incidentally furnishing all the protection which the undcisigned invokes as a pielimmaiy for completing the comparatively short link of Telegraph between Missouri and California— short, comparatively, as contrasted with the 7,000 miles of Telegraph constructed under his arrangement in the First Division of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph." This reference to rapidity of communication leads us to remark that these papers afford an additional evidence of the advantages which we might realize here by the Panama route. They contain European news to the middle of February. Had the Moa not happened to arrive just when she did, we should have been indebted to the Polynesian—received by the chance dropping-in of the Iris at our port—for the Quekn's Speech and other important English intelligence. Report of Commit i-le on Customs' Duties. Your Committee for reporting' upon the syatem of levying Customs' Duties in New Zealand, in bringing; up thpir Report, have to express their unanimous opinion that a system of fixed duties to as wide an extent as practicable will be found to be more pioductive to the revenue, more protective to the fair trader, and more beneficial to the public interest than the present system of ad valorem duties. Your Committee, however, believe that a rery nice or elaborate system of levying fixed duties will, in the piesent stage of the colony, be found inconvenient and probably inexpedient; and they have therefore confined their remarks to tho most important and staple articles, together with ouch as appear most easily and simply available for the application of a fixed rate of duty. The annexed schedule enumerates such articles amongst the usual imports of this Province as under the above view present themselves to your Committee; and they submit it in the hope that a proper application j of the "fixed duty principle will be found to be so ! generally advantageous as to render its extension from ! tune to time desirable. | Your Committee feel bound to make some remark upon thp oppressive and vexatious duty of 30 per cent. ad valmem which, under the denomination of munitions of war, lijis been levied on manufactured lead and small axes; and Imvo to expiObs their hope that this may be amended. Your Committee would fui thci recommend that the duties which have boon lutheito levied on whale and Since writing the above, we have, on searching through the Minutes of the New Minister Provincial Council of 1849, been fortunate enough to find the Report of the Committee, on which, as the GovttitNOit-LN-Ciiirn? stated in his last Opening Address, "the measure is altogether based;" —and also the Schedule referred to iv the preceding remarks. The " Minutes" are so little known here, that this information will be new as well as interesting to nearly all our commercial readers; and we lay ifc before them—without deeming it necessary to suppress on that account the views we had embodied in our article—we frankly confess in ignorance that by such a search as we liave now made we could light upon this Heport. We must add that it would be only a due attention to the just claims of the public in this Province, if a document of such general inteiest had been re-published in the New ULster Government Gazette before the present Customs' Amendment Bill was introduced to the General Council. passed an Act, tlio principal feature of which was expected to be the establishment of a General Council for the whole of the New Zealand Wands; which General Council, as Sir Gkougu C!r7;y .significantly intimated to his Council at Wellington, will no doubt possess ''full power to .amend or modify in any manner that it may think fit, any subordinate measure for the constitution of Provincial Councils winch you may pass," should such subordinate measure " be found faulty either in its general principle? or its details." So again with respect to the Marriage Ordinance Amendment Bill,—one which in various aspects is scarcely second to any in interest and social impoitancc. The draft of it was published in the New Ulster Government Gazette many months ago ; and although soyie foreshadowing of opposition might be seen in the anomalous course of the Colonial Treasurer for New Minister, who, while he moved the second reading, declared that he "disagreed with the principle of it," yet it is not likely that the Govjirnok-in-Ciiiuf would abandon or seriously modify on that account a measure which he assured the Council "he had reason to believe would be received a?, in all respects, a most wise and satisfactory one by all classes of Her Majesty's subjects." While, however, with regard to these and other measures submitted to the Council, we probably Jm\ o not much more to learn, there is one on which further and even minute information ia undoubtedly very desirable. It will be anticipated that we allude to the Customs' Duties Bill, the beneficial or detrimental operation of which must depend to so large an extent on its details, that we cannot but repent the expression of our regret that our mercantile community generally had not an opportunity afforded them of pronouncing an opinion on the Schedule before it was presented for legislative adoption. Mr. Dillon Bkll's pioposition that the rates should be investigated by a Select Committee, as will be remembered, was negatived in the Council by a majority of twelve to three,—on the ground that the calculations had been carefully made both by mercantile men and the oflicers of Government, and were ascertained to be fair and accurate on the scale of the existing duties, only substituting a fixed for an ad valorem charge. Still it would obviously have been satisfactory to commercial men to know all the particulars. But here we are left'to a great extent in the dark, e\en by the reports of the decisions arrived at in the Committee. Our Wellington contemporaries repeatedly state that duties were agreed to "according to the Schedule i" but (by an omission which it, is difficult \o account for) neither of them had published that Schedule up to our latest dates, although the items were undergoing discussion in Committee. However it may have been circulated in Wellington, we have not met with a single merchant here who has seen it, or who is at all acquainted with the particulars of its contents. This remark, however, applies to the details, ' which, after all, we trust may be found on the whole satisfactory to the mercantile public:—we say on the ivhole, for it would not be possible to construct a tariff so as to adjust all the multifarious matters which must be included in it, in such a manner as to meet every view and obviate every inconvenience. But the principle of the change—" the substitution of a fixed system of levying Customs' Duties in lieu of the ad valorem Duties at present levied,"—supposing it to be judiciously and equitably carried out—has advantages so great and obvious that it is calculated to command the assent of all who desire that the real interests of honourable commerce, and, at the same time, the necessary support of the Public Revenue, should be together placed upon a secure and satisfactory basis. An amount of certainty which the fluctuating ad valorem system could never afford will thus be obtained, to the mutual benefit of the exporter and importer, the consigner and consignee, the seller and the buyer; and, moreover, the upright, and respectable dealer will be protected from the injury which he might sustain from the unfair competition of a less scrupulous rival under an ad valorem system which leaves so much as to the amount to be paid to bo determined according to the conscience or noconscicnce of individuals, There is force also in the remark made by the Mover of the second reading,—that " the ad valorem Duty acts as a sliding scale the torong ?ra?/;"—that is instead of the Duty diminishing even upon the necessaries of life in proportion to the scarcity of them, it rises higher and higher as the exigency becomes greater. An apt illustration may be found in our own market just now in the all-important article of Flour. Its price being £30 per, ton, the Duty is £3; were it to rise to the famine price of £100, of course the duty would rise accordingly to £10 ;—whereas, by the new scale it is fixed at the moderate rate of £1 per ton, and no augmentation in the market value of the article would raise it higher. For these and other reasons, our leading merchants would, we bolieve, unhesitatingly avow their acquiescence in the principle of the fixed system,—however they might prudently reserve a definite opinion on particular charges, until the detail of those charges were fully before them. For this and other information respecting the proceedings of our Legislature, however, wo must be content to wait,—hoping that we shall live to see the long-promised steamcommunication between the settlements established,—shall we say,. before another Council meets ? We have received, by the Iris, Honolulu papers of the 26th of April and the 3rd of May, from which we compile the following items of* intelligence. The Hawaiian Legislature met on the 30th of April to make,the necessary preliminary arrangements for iti Session. The House of Nobles was organized by the appointment of His Highness John Young, as Chairman p?-o. tern., and of G. P. Judd as Secretary. The House of .Representatives unanimously chose William L. Leu as its Speaker. The Speaker, on taking the chair, congratulated the House on the circumstances in which they found themselves. "Here, where a few years since, the will of the King was the law of the land, we, through the enlightened liberality of that same King, this day assemble as the chosen legislators of the people. * * We meet, too, divided by no party spirit embittered by long political strife,—not as the representatives of any particular class or interest, but as the representatives of all classes, of all interests, native and foreign."...A few other ofliccrs having been appointed, and rules for the management of business having been adopted, the Houses adjourned until Tuesday the 6th of May, when the National Legislature was to be opened by His Ma justs' in person. We gather from the Pa/i/ne&ian that plans for the construction and improvement of works of public utility, such as otbei fish oils and whalebone of foieign fishing be abolished. lstly. That (he numerous whaling vessels fishing- in lliCho boas should be induced and oncoinace'd lo visit 0111 port for supplies, to u-fit, and for tho sale of then cargoes. 'iudly. That the duties liilheito deiived from this souice aie small m amount and aftoid no adequate compensation foi the loss to the tiade of the colony occasioned by their restrictive influences. Your Committee theiefore propose for the consideration of this Council the adoption of the following lesolutions:— l&t. That it appear fiom all the information to be obtained on this subject, and fiom the expenence of those most engaged in commerce in tins colony, that a system oi fixed duties will bo most beneficial. 2nd. That this Council do submit to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Goveinoi the necessity foi some such alteration in the system of levying customs duties as is embodied in this report, and do recommend that tho s.une be foi warded to His Excellency the (Jovernoi-in-Chief foi consideration by the General Assembly. Wm. HIOkSON, Chairman of the Committee. Council Chamber, Wellington, 28th June, 18W. Ale, Boer, and Porter, in ca^k, ppr gallon 0 0 4 in bottles, per doz. } of 2 gallons .. $ Arrowroot per cwt. 0 3 6 Bai ley, Peai 1 pcrlb. 0 0 ()£ Bi-cuit anil Biead porlOOlbs. 0 16 Blankets per pair 0 2 0 Bran and Pollaid per bushel 0 0 1 Bricks, 15atb pei 100 0 2 0! „ Fn c and other per 1000 0 .1 0 Bottles, glass ami Btone, empty . .per dozen 0 0 1 ' Butter pcrlb. 0 0 1 Candles tnllow ditto 0 0 (>i „ wax, composition, and sperm, ditto 0 0 1] Canvas per bolt 0 3 0 Casks, empty ..per tun 0 2 6 Cement, Roman per cask 0 2 6 Chalk w per ton 0 2 0 Cheese per lb. 0 0 0\ Chocolate and Cocoa ditto 0 0 1 Coals , pprion 0 3 0 Coffee perlb. 0 0 0] | Copper and Composition Sheathing, bolts, / and nails per lb. \ Cordage, Emopo per cwt. 0 4 0 „ Manila ditto 0 4 0 „ Coir ditto 0 3 0 Coiks, bottling.. per gross 0 0 3 Fruits, d tied „...porlb. 0 0 0\ „ preseived, Foreign ditto 0 0 3 „, „ British or Colonial...ditto 0 0 1^ [ „ fresh , per bushel 0 18 Flour per ton of 2000 lbs. 1 0 0 Ginger , perlb. 0 0 1 Glass, Cioivn and Shoot pei IOOf 0 2 0 Glue pei lb. 0 0 0} Gr.un, wheat, bailey, oats and ryo per bush. 0 0 4 Flay per ton OHO , Honey ♦ perlb. 0 0 1 Hops do. 0 0 1{ lion, bar, bolt, rod, and hoop, .... per ton 150 „ Naili per cwt. () 3 0 „ Anchors, chains, and chain cables 1 per ton J " ° ° „ Pots and camp ovens do. 2 0 0 Junk per cwt, 0 1 6 Laid per lb. 0 0 0\ Leather, Sole do. 0 0 0; „ Kip do. 0 0 l| „ Calf do. 0 0 2 „ Basils per do?. 0 0 9 „ Kangaroo do. 0 3 0 Lead, manufactured, per cwt. 0 2 0 Lemon Syrup, in bottles per doz. 0 16 Lemon and Lime Juice per gal. 0 0 9 Lucifer or Congreve Matches.. ..per gross 0 0 0 Maccaioni und Veimicelh perlb. 0 0 2 Maize per bu.ibel 0 0 3 Mustard, in bulk per lb. 0 0 1 „ in lib bottles per doz. 0 ] 6 „ in half-pound ditto do. 0 0 9 Nutmegs per lb. 0 0 9 Oakum per cwt. 0 3 6 Oatmeal per lb o 0 CM Oil—Linseed, Rape, Hemp, and Cocoa-1 * nut per gal. J ° 0 4 „ Olive, Castor, and Vegetable .. do. 0 2 0 Paints and White Lead per cwt. 0 3 0 Pens, Split ppr bushel 013 Pepper, black perlb. 0 0 o\ „ white do. 0 0 0] Picklos, in quait bottles per doz. 0 16 „ in pint do do. 0 0 9 Pipes pergioss 0 0 4 Pitch, Coal per barrel 0 1 6 „ Stockholm nnd American dd. 0 3 0 Piovi&ions, Beef. per tioil-e 0 6 0 „ do perbaird 0 4 0 „ Pork do. 0 6 0 Rico per cwt 0 1 0 Rosin perbarrel 0 2 0 Sago per cwt. 0 3 6 Salt, coano per ton 0 6 0 „ fine do. 010 0 Saltpetre per cwt. 0 3 6 Slates, Ladies per 1000 0 10 0 „ Countess do. 015 0 Soap, common per cwt. 0 3 0 „ fancy do. 0 6 0 Soda do. 0 2 4 Spades and Shovels per doz. 0 3 0 Spices, Cassia and Cinnamon .... perlb. 0 0 2 „ Cloves... .....do. 0 0 3 „ Maoe do. 0 0 6 „ Pimento do. 0 0 2 Starch per cwt. 0 4 8 Steel do. 0 4 8 Stones (hearth) blabs and flags .. ..per ton 0 5 0 StDno, blue perlb. 0 0 1 Sugar, Refined and Candy per cwt. 0 18 „ Moist do. 0 2 4 „ Molas3es do. 0 12 Tar, Stockholm and American per bar. 0 3 0 n Coal., do. 0 1 6 Tea perlb. 0 0 2 Tin Plates, per box of 1 cwt. 0 3 0 Turpentine ..per gal. 0 0 6 Vinegar , per gal. 0 0 2 Wines, in cask do. 0 16 „ in bottles, .... per doz. of 2 gallons 0 5 0 Wood, sawn or split per 100 feet 0 10 „ Ccdir do, 0 2 0 „ Oars, , per foot 0 0 0)| „ Shingles and Laths per 1000 0 10 „ Palings do. 0 10 0 Zmc per cwt, 0 3 6 All other articles, not otherwise enumerated or( desciibed, viz.:— British or British Colonial 10 per cent. ) Ad Foieign \2\ percent. J Valoiem. Spirits, Tobacco, and Cigars at the present rates of fited duties. FRtE OF DIHY. All articles eiumeiated as fiee in the present Tariff, with tho proposed addition of all Fish and Whale Oil, and Whalebone or Pins of Foreign taking. We can sympathise in the desire expressed by many to know more fully the details of the measures which were announced as under the consideration of the Legislative Council at Wellington ; for nothing can be more natural or reasonable than that men should be anxious to be informed of the nature of enactments which they •will be bound to obey, particularly of such of them as may more or less closely affect their own business or other arrangements. We need scarcely say, however, that ice have no means of affording such information to the extent that we, equally with our readers, could wish. Immediately on the arrival of the Government Brig we published in extenso the Address delivered by the Govern on\H' Chief on opening the Session, and were at some pains to compare the reports of the subsequent proceedings given by our Southern contemporaries, so as to gather and condense from them whatever of interest they contained. We at that time promised to re-peruse those Reports with a view of ascertaining whether we had omitted anything which it might be worth while to quote at length. We have done this attentively, but have not been requited for our trouble by the discovery of aught additional which we deemed it necessary to transfer to our columns. It may be observed, however, that the character of the majority of the measures was already defined with considerable distinctness; and that the solicitude which is usually felt respecting the progress of Bills in the Imperial Parliament, (where they are frequently so altered in their various stages as that their original frjuncrs could, in the end, scarcely recognize them as their own conceptions), is greatly subdued, if not wholly excluded in the present instance, in which there is little likelihood that the Ordinances, as finally passed, will materially differ from the drafts laid before the Legislature. The Bill for the settlement of titles to land within the territory formerly vested in the New Zealand Company was published some time since; and, so far as we are aware, was generally approved of, as a wise and effective mode of dealing with the difliculties which the selfish policy and intricate mismanagement of that unscrupulous Body had accumulated. The proposed addition of a provision enabling holders of scrip takeft in exchange for land to fund that scrip by the purchase of Government Debentures, was stated with sufficient clearness by Sir George Grey. One point, indeed^ connected with this measure excites some special in terest here,—that, namely, of the suggestion that scrip-holders should be allowed to purchase land in any part of this Province ; but upon it we have no information beyond the fact of the presentation of the Memorial to that effect from this neighbourhood. The New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Bill was, as a matter of form, read a first time on the 29th of May, on the motion of Captain Smith ; its second reading, on v/hich the desired information would probably transpire, was fixed a fc\/ days after; but •our intelligence does not embrace any report of it. Except this point, however, there was not much relating to the Bill on which further information was to be expected. Nearly the same may be said of the Provincial Councils Bill. The draft of it also was previously in the hands of the public; and the interest which its introduction of Representative Institutions was calculated to elicit, is, in no small degree, qualified by the fact that, (unless a change of Ministry at home should have frustrated the intentions of Lord John Russell's Government), it is tolerably certain that before now the Imperial Legislature has WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 185 1. It may be in the recollection of the readers of the New Zr, ylajcdek. that, more than two years since, —(with a view of keeping pace with the advancing population and commerce of the district)—an intention of enlarging the Paper was signified. The diiUcii'lics connected with procuring here a suitable press and the printing requisites for the regular issue of such a sheet as was contemplated, necessitated, however, a postponement of the accomplishment of that purpose. It was only on the arrival of the Mary Catherine, in May that we found ourselves in a position satisfactorily to carry out the plan. We had thought of making the enlargement in the first week of June, when our journal had completed the sixth year from its establishment; but the commencement of a New Quarter being so close at hand, we decided to ■wait until this day, when we issue the first number of the Enlarged Series, as it is now in the reader's hands. It would not become us to speak vauntingly of the past, nor are we disposed to indulge in any exaggerated promises for the future. We shall content ourselves with tendering our warmest thanks to our friends for the kindness with which fiey have received our efforts in former years, and for the extensive support—both in subscriptions and advertisements—with which they have favoured the New Zealandkr ;—adding merely the expression of our hope that, with the more ample means now at our disposal, we shall be able to cater for their information in a manner which may render the journal increasingly worthy of their patronage. In future, each number will contain from one-third to one-half more type than a number of the former Series; and it shall be our care to occupy this wider field in such a manner as may supply political, commercial, and family readers with an increased and moi'e varied supply of the articles adapted to their several pursuits and tastes. Ik* just and fear not. T,ol all the cuds thou amis't dt, bo thy Country's, 'IJiy God's, and Trutli'i.. €|)e JUto^&calairter.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 511, 2 July 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

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

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 1851. It may be in the recollection of the readers of the New Zealander that, more than two years since, — (with a view of keeping pace with the advancing population and commerce of the district) — an intention of enlarging the Paper was signified. The difficulties connected with procuring here a suitable press and the printing requisites for the regular issue of such a sheet as was contemplated, necessitated, however, a postponement of the accomplishment of that purpose. It was only on the arrival of the Mary Catherine, in May that we found ourselves in a position satisfactorily to carry out the plan. We had thought of making the enlargement in the first week of June, when our journal had completed the sixth year from its establishment; but the commencement of a New Quarter being so close at hand, we decided to wait until this day, when we issue the first number of the Enlarged Series, as it is now in the reader's hands. It would not become us to speak vauntingly of the past, nor are we disposed to indulge in any exaggerated promises for the future. We shall content ourselves with tendering our warmest thanks to our friends for the kindness with which they have received our efforts in former years, and for the extensive support — both in subscriptions and advertisements — with which they have favoured the New Zealander; — adding merely the expression of our hope that, with the more ample means now at our disposal, we shall be able to cater for their information in a manner which may render the journal increasingly worthy of their patronage. In future, each number will contain from one-third to one-half more type than a number of the former Series; and it shall be our care to occupy this wider field in such a manner as may supply political, commercial, and family readers with an increased and more varied supply of the articles adapted to their several pursuits and tastes.

We can sympathise in the desire expressed by many to know more fully the details of the measures which were announced as under the consideration of the Legislative Council at Wellington; for nothing can be more natural or reasonable than that men should be anxious to be informed of the nature of enactments which they will be bound to obey, particularly of such of them as may more or less closely affect their own business or other arrangements. We need scarcely say, however, that we have no means of affording such information to the extent that we, equally with our readers, could wish. Immediately on the arrival of the Government Brig we published in extenso the Address delivered by the Governor-in-Chief on opening the Session, and were at some pains to compare the reports of the subsequent proceedings given by our Southern contemporaries, so as to gather and condense from them whatever of interest they contained. We at that time promised to re-peruse those Reports with a view of ascertaining whether we had omitted anything which it might be worth while to quote at length. We have done this attentively, but have not been requited for our trouble by the discovery of aught additional which we deemed it necessary to transfer to our columns. It may be observed, however, that the character of the majority of the measures was already defined with considerable distinctness; and that the solicitude which is usually felt respecting the progress of Bills in the Imperial Parliament, (where they are frequently so altered in their various stages as that their original framers could, in the end, scarcely recognize them as their own conceptions), is greatly subdued, if not wholly excluded in the present instance, in which there is little likelihood that the Ordinances, as finally passed, will materially differ from the drafts laid before the Legislature. The Bill for the settlement of titles to land within the territory formerly vested in the New Zealand Company was published some time since; and, so far as we are aware, was generally approved of, as a wise and effective mode of dealing with the difliculties which the selfish policy and intricate mismanagement of that unscrupulous Body had accumulated. The proposed addition of a provision enabling holders of scrip taken in exchange for land to fund that scrip by the purchase of Government Debentures, was stated with sufficient clearness by Sir George Grey. One point, indeed, connected with this measure excites some special interest here, — that, namely, of the suggestion that scrip-holders should be allowed to purchase land in any part of this Province; but upon it we have no information beyond the fact of the presentation of the Memorial to that effect from this neighbourhood. The New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Bill was, as a matter of form, read a first time on the 29th of May, on the motion of Captain Smith; its second reading, on which the desired information would probably transpire, was fixed a few days after; but our intelligence does not embrace any report of it. Except this point, however, there was not much relating to the Bill on which further information was to be expected. Nearly the same may be said of the Provincial Councils Bill. The draft of it also was previously in the hands of the public; and the interest which its introduction of Representative Institutions was calculated to elicit, is, in no small degree, qualified by the fact that, (unless a change of Ministry at home should have frustrated the intentions of Lord John Russell's Government), it is tolerably certain that before now the Imperial Legislature has

passed an Act, the principal feature of which was expected to be the establishment of a General Council for the whole of the New Zealand Isands; which General Council, as Sir George Grey significantly intimated to his Council at Wellington, will no doubt possess ''full power to amend or modify in any manner that it may think fit, any subordinate measure for the constitution of Provincial Councils which you may pass," should such subordinate measure "be found faulty either in its general principles or its details." So again with respect to the Marriage Ordinance Amendment Bill, — one which in various aspects is scarcely second to any in interest and social importance. The draft of it was published in the New Ulster Government Gazette many months ago; and although soyie foreshadowing of opposition might be seen in the anomalous course of the Colonial Treasurer for New Munster, who, while he moved the second reading, declared that he "disagreed with the principle of it," yet it is not likely that the Governor-in-Chief would abandon or seriously modify on that account a measure which he assured the Council "he had reason to believe would be received as, in all respects, a most wise and satisfactory one by all classes of Her Majesty's subjects." While, however, with regard to these and other measures submitted to the Council, we probably have not much more to learn, there is one on which further and even minute information is undoubtedly very desirable. It will be anticipated that we allude to the Customs' Duties Bill, the beneficial or detrimental operation of which must depend to so large an extent on its details, that we cannot but repeat the expression of our regret that our mercantile community generally had not an opportunity afforded them of pronouncing an opinion on the Schedule before it was presented for legislative adoption. Mr. Dillon Bell's proposition that the rates should be investigated by a Select Committee, as will be remembered, was negatived in the Council by a majority of twelve to three, — on the ground that the calculations had been carefully made both by mercantile men and the oflicers of Government, and were ascertained to be fair and accurate on the scale of the existing duties, only substituting a fixed for an ad valorem charge. Still it would obviously have been satisfactory to commercial men to know all the particulars. But here we are left to a great extent in the dark, even by the reports of the decisions arrived at in the Committee. Our Wellington contemporaries repeatedly state that duties were agreed to "according to the Schedule;" but (by an omission which it is difficult to account for) neither of them had published that Schedule up to our latest dates, although the items were undergoing discussion in Committee. However it may have been circulated in Wellington, we have not met with a single merchant here who has seen it, or who is at all acquainted with the particulars of its contents. This remark, however, applies to the details, which, after all, we trust may be found on the whole satisfactory to the mercantile public: — we say on the whole, for it would not be possible to construct a tariff so as to adjust all the multifarious matters which must be included in it, in such a manner as to meet every view and obviate every inconvenience. But the principle of the change — "the substitution of a fixed system of levying Customs' Duties in lieu of the ad valorem Duties at present levied," — supposing it to be judiciously and equitably carried out — has advantages so great and obvious that it is calculated to command the assent of all who desire that the real interests of honourable commerce, and, at the same time, the necessary support of the Public Revenue, should be together placed upon a secure and satisfactory basis. An amount of certainty which the fluctuating ad valorem system could never afford will thus be obtained, to the mutual benefit of the exporter and importer, the consigner and consignee, the seller and the buyer; and, moreover, the upright, and respectable dealer will be protected from the injury which he might sustain from the unfair competition of a less scrupulous rival under an ad valorem system which leaves so much as to the amount to be paid to be determined according to the conscience or noconscience of individuals, There is force also in the remark made by the Mover of the second reading, — that "the ad valorem Duty acts as a sliding scale the wrong way;" — that is instead of the Duty diminishing even upon the necessaries of life in proportion to the scarcity of them, it rises higher and higher as the exigency becomes greater. An apt illustration may be found in our own market just now in the all-important article of Flour. Its price being £30 per, ton, the Duty is £3; were it to rise to the famine price of £100, of course the duty would rise accordingly to £10; — whereas, by the new scale it is fixed at the moderate rate of £1 per ton, and no augmentation in the market value of the article would raise it higher. For these and other reasons, our leading merchants would, we believe, unhesitatingly avow their acquiescence in the principle of the fixed system, — however they might prudently reserve a definite opinion on particular charges, until the detail of those charges were fully before them. For this and other information respecting the proceedings of our Legislature, however, we must be content to wait, — hoping that we shall live to see the long-promised steamcommunication between the settlements established, — shall we say, before another Council meets?

Since writing the above, we have, on searching through the Minutes of the New Munster Provincial Council of 1849, been fortunate enough to find the Report of the Committee, on which, as the Governor-in-Chief stated in his last Opening Address, "the measure is altogether based;" — and also the Schedule referred to in the preceding remarks. The "Minutes" are so little known here, that this information will be new as well as interesting to nearly all our commercial readers; and we lay if before them — without deeming it necessary to suppress on that account the views we had embodied in our article — we frankly confess in ignorance that by such a search as we have now made we could light upon this Report. We must add that it would be only a due attention to the just claims of the public in this Province, if a document of such general interest had been re-published in the New Ulster Government Gazette before the present Customs' Amendment Bill was introduced to the General Council.

Report of Committee on Customs' Duties. Your Committee for reporting upon the system of levying Customs' Duties in New Zealand, in bringing up their Report, have to express their unanimous opinion that a system of fixed duties to as wide an extent as practicable will be found to be more productive to the revenue, more protective to the fair trader, and more beneficial to the public interest than the present system of ad valorem duties. Your Committee, however, believe that a very nice or elaborate system of levying fixed duties will, in the present stage of the colony, be found inconvenient and probably inexpedient; and they have therefore confined their remarks to tho most important and staple articles, together with such as appear most easily and simply available for the application of a fixed rate of duty. The annexed schedule enumerates such articles amongst the usual imports of this Province as under the above view present themselves to your Committee; and they submit it in the hope that a proper application of the fixed duty principle will be found to be so generally advantageous as to render its extension from time to time desirable. Your Committee feel bound to make some remark upon the oppressive and vexatious duty of 30 per cent. ad valorem which, under the denomination of munitions of war, has been levied on manufactured lead and small axes; and have to express their hope that this may be amended. Your Committee would further recommend that the duties which have been hitherto levied on whale and

other fish oils and whalebone of foreign fishing be abolished. 1stly. That the numerous whaling vessels fishing in these seas should be induced and encouraged to visit our port for supplies, to refit, and for the sale of their cargoes. 2ndly. That the duties hitherto derived from this source are small in amount and afford no adequate compensation for the loss to the trade of the colony occasioned by their restrictive influences. Your Committee therefore propose for the consideration of this Council the adoption of the following resolutions: — 1st. That it appears from all the information to be obtained on this subject, and from the experience of those most engaged in commerce in this colony, that a system of fixed duties will be most beneficial. 2nd. That this Council do submit to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor the necessity for some such alteration in the system of levying customs duties as is embodied in this report, and do recommend that the same be forwarded to His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief for consideration by the General Assembly. Wm. HICKSON, Chairman of the Committee. Council Chamber, Wellington, 28th June, 1849.

We have received, by the Iris, Honolulu papers of the 26th of April and the 3rd of May, from which we compile the following items of* intelligence. The Hawaiian Legislature met on the 30th of April to make, the necessary preliminary arrangements for iti Session. The House of Nobles was organized by the appointment of His Highness John Young, as Chairman p?-o. tern., and of G. P. Judd as Secretary. The House of .Representatives unanimously chose William L. Leu as its Speaker. The Speaker, on taking the chair, congratulated the House on the circumstances in which they found themselves. "Here, where a few years since, the will of the King was the law of the land, we, through the enlightened liberality of that same King, this day assemble as the chosen legislators of the people. * * We meet, too, divided by no party spirit embittered by long political strife, — not as the representatives of any particular class or interest, but as the representatives of all classes, of all interests, native and foreign.". ..A few other ofliccrs having been appointed, and rules for the management of business having been adopted, the Houses adjourned until Tuesday the 6th of May, when the National Legislature was to be opened by His Ma justs' in person. We gather from the Pa/i/ne&ian that plans for the construction and improvement of works of public utility, such as

harbours, roads, bridges, &c, were likely to have a prominent place in the deliberations of the Session. 11. B. M.'s Ship DcerMus, Captain WEM.Esi.r/jr, was at Honolulu, laden with stores for the Qitkkn's ships in the Arctic Seas. The o/licers were presented at Court by the British Consul on the 29th of April, when Captain Wj^lbslky took occasion to bear testimony to the wise and liberal policy pursued by the Hawaiian Government towards foreigners; at the same time congratulating the Kiko on the progress of his interesting Islands, and expressing a belief that, whenever steam communication should be established, they would be visited by many travellers from distant countries. A project for the erection of an additional Place of AVorship, for the special use of the foreign residents at Honolulu, was exciting attention. For sixteen years past the residents have had only such accommodation as the American j Seamen's Chapel could afford. This is now found insufficient, owing to the increase of the numbers both of seamen visiting the port and of residents and their families ; and it certainly seems liigh time that the foreign population should (as they arc well able) make provision for themselves. The potato crop was later than usual in coming to perfection. This was owing partly to a severe frost in March, and partly, says the Polynesian, to the fact that " the demand, last fall, was so great that everything fit to be dug, and many that ought to have been left in the ground, were taken off; the planting beinr? at a particular time, but few arc now ripe." When the crop did come in, it was expected to prove abundant. An increased cultivation of Figs, with a view to the establishment of an export trade in that fi nit, was spoken of. The Polynesian describes some very fine specimens of the Turkey Fig produced on the Islands, — one measuring eight and a quarter by nine and a half inches. Mr. Henry O'llejij/v had laid before the American Congress a plan for a Telegraphic and Letter Mail communication with the Pacific, which naturally excited interest at the Sandwich Islands, as it was calculated lhat it would reduce thi'ir communication with New York to twenty instead of sixty days, and with Europe to_ thirty, bolides being "the precursor of the Railroad." The following is an outline of Mr. O'Ukilly's scheme : — He a<-ks neither money nor favor from the American Goveinmont, but only " (hat Congress shall pass si law providing tint, instead of establishing forts with hundreds of men at long intervals apart, the troops designed for ptotectiug the route shall be distributed in a manner hotter calculated to promote that and other important objects — nnmely, by stationing parties of twenty dragoons at stockades, twenty miles apait: And providing, also, that two or three soldiers shall ride daily each way from each stockade, so as to transport a Daily Express Letter Mail across the Continent ; w hile at the same timo protecting nnd comforting the emigrants and settlers; and thus incidentally furnishing all the protection which the undci signed invokes as a pielimmaiy for completing the comparatively short link of Telegraph between Missouri and California — short, comparatively, as contrasted with the 7,000 miles of Telegraph constructed under his arrangement in the First Division of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph." This reference to rapidity of communication leads us to remark that these papers afford an additional evidence of the advantages which we might realize here by the Panama route. They contain European news to the middle of February. Had the Moa not happened to arrive just when she did, we should have been indebted to the Polynesian — received by the chance drop-ping-in of the Iris at our port — for the Quekn's Speech and other important English intelligence.

Ale, Boer, and Porter, in ca^k, ppr gallon 0 0 4 in bottles, per doz. } , Q of 2 gallons .. S ° 1 Arrowroot per cwt. 0 3 6 Barley, Pearl per lb. 0 0 01/4 BNcuitnnd liieml porlOOlbs. 0 16 Blankets per pair 0 2 0 Bran and Pollaid per bushel 0 0 1 Bricks, 15atb pei 100 0 2 0 „ Fn c and otlier per 1 000 0 .1 0 Bottles, glass and Btone, empty . .per dozen 0 0 1 Butter perlb. 0 0 1 Candles tnllow ditto 0 0 (>i „ wax, composition, and sperm, ditto 0 0 1] Canvas per bolt 0 3 0 Casks, empty ..per tun 0 2 6 Cement, Roman per cask 0 2 6 Chalk w per ton 0 2 0 Cheese perlb. 0 0 0\ Chocolate and Cocoa ditto 0 0 1 Coals , periou 0 3 0 Coffee perlb. 0 0 0] Copper and Composition Sheathing, bolts, / and nails per lb. \ Cordage, Emopo per cwt. 0 4 0 „ Manila ditto 0 4 0 „ Coir ditto 0 3 0 Coiks, bottling.. per gross 0 0 3 Fruits, dued , ....peril). 0 0 0\ „ preseived, Foreign ditto 0 0 3 „, „ British or Colonial. ..ditto 0 0 1^ „ fresh , per butthel 0 1 8 Flour per ton of 2000 lbs. 1 0 0 Ginger , peril). 0 0 1 Glass, Cioivn and Shoot pei IOOf 0 2 0 Glue pei lb. 0 () OJ Gr.un, wheat, bailey, oats and ryo por bush. 0 0 4 Flay per ton OHO Honey ♦ perlb. 0 0 1 Hops do. 0 0 1{ lion, bar, bolt, rod, and hoop, .... per ton 150 „ Naili per cwt. () 3 0 „ Anchors, chains, and chain cables 1 per ton j ~ ° ° „ Pots and camp ovens do. 2 0 0 Junk per cwt, 0 1 6 Laid per lb. 0 0 0\ Leather, Sole do. 0 0 0} „ Kip do. 0 0 l| „ Calf do. 0 0 2 „ Basils per do?. 0 0 9 „ Kangaroo do. 0 3 0 Lead, manufactured, per cwt. 0 2 0 Lemon Syrup, in bottles per doz. 0 16 Lemon and Lime Juice per gal. 0 0 9 Lucifer or Congreve Matches.. ..per gross 0 0 0 Maccaioni und Veimicelh perlb. 0 0 2 Maize per bu.ibel 0 0 3 Mustard, in bulk per lb. 0 0 1 „ in lib bottles per doz. 0 ] 6 „ in half-pound ditto do. 0 0 9 Nutmegs per lb. 0 0 9 Oakum per cwt. 0 3 6 Oatmeal per lb o 0 CM Oil — Linseed, Rape, Hemp, and Cocoa- 1 * nut per gal. J ° ° 4 „ Olive, Castor, and Vegetable .. do. 0 2 0 Paints and White Lead per cwt. 0 3 0 Peas, Split ppr bushfl 013 Pepper, black perlb. 0 0 o\ „ white do. 0 0 0] Picllos, in quait bottles per doz. 0 16 „ in pint do do. 0 0 9 Pipes pergioss 0 0 4 Pitch, Coal per barrel 0 1 6 „ Stockholm and American dd. 0 3 0 Piovi&ions, Beef. per tioil-e 0 6 0 „ do perbaird 0 4 0 „ Pork do. 0 6 0 Rico per cwt 0 1 0 Rosin perbarrel 0 2 0 Sago per cwt. 0 3 6 Salt, coano per ton 0 6 0 „ fine do. 010 0 Saltpetre per cwt. 0 3 6 Slates, Ladies per 1000 0 10 0 „ Countess do. 015 0 Soap, common per cwt. 0 3 0 „ fancy do. 0 6 0 Soda do. 0 2 4 Spades and Shovels per doz. 0 3 0 Spices, Cassia and Cinnamon .... perlb. 0 0 2 „ Cloves... .....do. 0 0 3 „ Maoe do. 0 0 6 „ Pimento do. 0 0 2 Starch per cwt. 0 4 8 Steel do. 0 4 8 Stones (hearth) blabs and flags .. ..per ton 0 5 0 StDno, blue perlb. 0 0 1 Sugar, Refined and Candy per cwt. 0 18 „ Moist do. 0 2 4 „ Molas3es do. 0 12 Tar, Stockholm and American per bar. 0 3 0 n Coal., do. 0 1 6 Tea perlb. 0 0 2 Tin Plates, per box of 1 cwt. 0 3 0 Turpentine ..per gal. 0 0 6 Vinegar , per gal. 0 0 2 Wines, in cask do. 0 16 „ in bottles, .... per doz. of 2 gallons 0 5 0 Wood, sawn or split per 100 feet 0 10 „ Ccdir do, 0 2 0 „ Oars, , per foot 0 0 0)| „ Shingles and Laths per 1000 0 10 „ Palings do. 0 10 0 Zmc per cwt, 0 3 6 AH other articles, not otherwise enumerated or ( desciibed, viz. : — British or British Colonial 10 per cent. ) Ad Foieign \2\ percent. J Valoiem. Spirits, Tobacco, and Cigars at the present rates of fited duties. FRtE OF DIHY. All articles eiumeiated as fiee in the present Tariff, with tho proposed addition of all Fish and Whale Oil, and Whalebone or Pins of Foreign taking.