The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 554, 6 August 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

He just and fear not ■ Let all the cikU tlion aiim't at, I)o thy Country's, Thy God's, and Trutli'si.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1851.

The Overland Mail from the Southern Province, which we have been expecting for some days, arrived yesterday afternoon, bringing Wellington papers to the 28tli of June. We must reserve for our next any full report or even summary of the details which they contain ; but we note to-day in a few words the principal points of intelli-

gcnce respecting- the proceedings of the Legislative Council. The Provincial Councils Bill had virtually become law, as it had passed through committee, and the Report had been brought up and adopted on the 26th of June. The progress of the Marriage Amendment Bill is not mentioned in the newspapers; but we learn from private information that it was read a second time on Friday the 27th of June. Our correspondent has also supplied us with an abstract of the discussion, which we shall publish on Saturday. The New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Bill was still in Committee. Various amendments had been proposed, the fate of which remained undecided ; but no objection had been made to the Attor-ney-General's motion that scrip should be available for the purchase of land in any part of New Ulster, not being within the limits of any Hundred. On Thursday, the 26tli of June, a Letter from Mr. Godley, requesting that Canterbury should be constituted a separate Province, and the Governor-in-Ciiief's reply, were laid on the Table. These documents are so interesting that, pressed though we are for space, we subjoin them :

Lyttelton, June 19, 1851. Sin, — I have been instructed by the Committee of the Canterbury Association to place myself in communication with His Excellency the Goveinor-m-Chief, in consequence of a re -arrangement of the Provinces of New Zealand. It would appear that Lord Grey has lately intiruuted to the Committee that this matter would be left altogether to His Excellency's decision. It therefore remains with His Excellency to determine whether the hopes so confidently held out by Lord Grey to Lord Lyttelton, in his letter of 81st Slay, 1848, on the subject of erecting Canterbury into « •eparate Province shall be fulfilled. The words used by His Lordship were as follows: — "As to the second point to which you have called my attention, I shall be prepared to instruct the Governor of New Zealand to leport to me whether the district which may be ultimately selected for (lie Settlement can be formed into a distinct Province in the manner in which you recommend, without mjuiy to existing interests, and regard being had to the policy which the Governor may find it necessary to pursue with respect to the Native tribes ; and if it can, what boundaries can be conveniently assigned to it. l( For this purpose, it will probably be advisable that the Agent whom you have selected sbould communicate the site on which ho may fix, immediately to the Governor, in order that I may receive that Officer's report at the same time that the Association i 9 informed of the choice made by its Agent ; and, as I comider it highly deshable that the wislws of the promoters of the entei prise should in thu, respect be complied with, I shall learn with satisfaction that a district is fixed upon which unites tlio advantage of being capable of erection into a distinct Province, with other favonrable conditions for colonization. " In transmitting copies of the correspondence to the Governor, I will not fail to express to him the desire I entertain, as far as possible, to meet the wishes of the Association, as I am convinced thai the success of tins untei taking will be attended by very great advantage to New Zealand and to this country." It is needless for me to point out to His Excellency how powerfully the hopes thus raised must have already operated in promoting the rapid colonization of the, Canterbury Settlement, or how much of its future success depends upon their realization. It is also needless, and would be impertinent for mo to enlarge upon the advantages which would accrue to this Settlement from its people having virtually in tlieir own hands the management of their own affairs. With the arguments in favour of local government, His Excellency is no doubt familiar, and he will, I feel convinced, attach to them such weight as, under the circumstances of the case, they may fairly claim. To the Canterbury Settlement, founded as it is on a peculiar and exceptional plan, those arguments apply with a peculiar and exceptional force. But the special point, in the case of the Canterbury Colonists, to which I would entreat his attention is the understanding, almost amounting to engagement, given by Government before the Settlement was founded, that it should, at no distant period, be erected into a separate Province. To this understanding, it was appended as a condition, that the Settlement should pay the expenses of its establishment, and by tins condition the Association, on behalf of the cplonists, are fully prepared to abide. They believe that it may even noxo be fulfilled by an economical arrangement with respect to the few offices which a Province so small {is ours would require, and they instruct me respectfully, but earnestly to entreat that, if such be found to be the case, the hopes held out to them by Lord Grey may be realised as soon as possible. I am, &c, (Signed) John .Robert Godlfy, Agent Cantoibury Association. The Honorable The Colonial Secretary. &.C., &C, &C.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 27th June, 1851. Sin, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receiptof your letter of the 19th instant, stating for the information of the Governor-in-Chief, that Lord Grey has lately intimated to the Committee of the Canteibury Association that the re-anvingement of the Provinces of New Zealand will he altogether left to his Excellency's decision, and requesting that in the case of the Canterbury Settlement his Excollency would fulfil the hopes held out by Lord Grey by constituting it a separate Province. In reply, I am directed to state that Sir George Grey has as yet received no instruction? from the Secretary of Slate on the subject alluded to by you, and consequently can give no definite answer regarding it. His Excellency can only say that it will in this case, as in all others in which he can properly do so, affoid him great pleasuie to conform to the well ascertained wishes of the settlers in the Canterbuiy Block; and that tbeiefore if the power is left in his hands His Excellency will, if they desire such a course to be pursued, raise no objection to the block of land at present vested in the Canterbury Association by an Act of Parliament being erected into a separate Province. Should it, however, be desired by the Canterbury Settlers that any addition should be made to this block of Innd, it will benecessaiy thai his Excellency should be informed what addition is sought to be obtained ; and further, whether, in the event of the Piovince being so enlaiged, it is intended th.it the peculiar regulations of the Canterbury Association for the tale of land should be put in force throughout the whole of the Province so constituted; or whether it is pioposed that although the entire Province would be subjected to the same Local Government, and to the same Legislature, the system adopted for the disposal of lands by the Canterbuiy Associalton should not be uniform throughout itshmits, but be confined to their own block, the unsold lands of which would alone be responsible for any debts which the Association may have contracted, or may hereafter incur. Because if it is intended to subject a larger District of New Zealand to the Land Regulations of the Canterbuiy Association, and (o entail upon it the present or future liabilities of ! the Association, it will be necessary that ihs Excellency should take mpans to inform himself what are the wishes of the large body of Her Majesty's subI jects who would be interested in this question ; so I that, in deciding upon the couise which he should pursue, he may be satisfied that he ia not acting in opposition to the interests or wishes of those whose I welfaie is involved in it. I have the honor to be, ; Sir, Your most obedient servant, (Signed) Alfhed Domett, j Colonial Secretary. John Robert Godley, Esq., Agent for the Canterbury Association.

By the anival of the L'mma,\\h\ch leached our haibour on Monday morning, we have Sydney journals to the 23rd ult., containing English intelligence to the 13th of April, brought to the Cape of Good Hope by the steamer from England, and thence to Sydney by H.M.S. Calliope and Pandora. The Russell Administration was still dragging on a feeble existence, presenting a pitiable spectacle of impotent and seemingly hopeless imbecility, and hanging together mainly by what the Times significantly though paradoxically called "the strength of its weakness." The votes and proceedings of Patliament were for the time ruled by little beyond the " chapter of accidents," the Government having no working force at command sufficient to determine the issue of almost any question, — no weight or solidity to prevent its being itself blown hither and thither by every wind of chance or caprice in the House of Commons. Its dissolution, which daily impended, was likely to be hastened by the result of a debate on the 1 lth of April, in which Mr. Disraeli's hand once more dealt the damaging, if not fatal, blow. On the motion for going into committee on the Assessed Taxes Act, the honourable member for Bucks moved as an amendment, " That in any relief to be granted by the remission or adjustment of taxation, due regard should be paid to the distressed condition of the owners and occupiers of land in the United Kingdom " The report of the debate, so far as we have received it, will be found in our other columns. It will be seen that Mr. Disraeli made the most of, what we cannot hut consider, the false step on the part of the Government, of withdrawing from their new Budget the concession which was previously proposed by themselves, for transferring the expense of pauper lunatic asylums to the Consolidated Fund; a relief which, as their dexterous assailant urged, though small in its actual extent, yet was important as involving the gieat principle that this kind of local taxation should not fall exclusively on one description of property. It was a cleverly conceived move of Ministers to take shelter behind the universal popularity of a repeal of the Window Tax, which, they contended, could not be granted if the amendment were carried. It effected little, however, towards winning their game ; as although the amendment was negatived, it was only by a majority of thirteen, which, in a House of five hundred and thirteen members, on so leading a question, and in such an imminent crisis, may be regarded (and, as the vociferous cheers with which the announcement of the numbers was greeted by the Protectionists plainly showed, was regarded) as tantamount to an actual defeat. Now as Lord John Russell, in stating to the House, on the 24th of February, the reasons of his resignation (see New Zealander, July 23) laid stress upon the narrovvneaa-of the majority (fourteen) by which Mr. Disraeli's former motion on this same subject was rejected, and declared that " he thought it a very dangerous course, and very disadvantageous to the countiy, that the Government should continue liable to defeats from time to time, hay. ing but a very small majority at any time, and therefore carrying on a kind of lingering existence during the greater part of the Session to come" — it may be judged highly probable that, connecting this discouraging division with the other disasters sustained by his Government since its resumption of office, he would feel shut up to the necessity of again, and in earnest tendering his resignation to her Majesty. But, of whom was the new Administration to be formed, supposing that his lordship did adopt this course 1 The juncture was one in which accession to office, as well as retention of office, was environed with numerous and formidable difficulties. Not to advert now to other knotty questions, there was the Papal Aggression, which must be dealt with in some way, and which it was impossible to deal with in any way with, out encountering vehement opposition : — and there was the Income Tax impost ; the adjustment of which could not be postponed, and fo r a re-modelling of which — to say the least — public opinion loudly and justly called ; and there was, of course, the task of steering between the Scylla and Chary bdis of Protectionist and Free Trade demands. Men's eyes naturally turned to Lord Stanley, as it was to him that the Queen confided the task of attempting to form an Administration a few weeks previously. But he had failed in the attempt then ; was he likely to succeed now ? The journals of " The Country Party" unhesitatingly affirmed that he was ; and it is stated that his lordship had himself made a declaration to the same effect, at a great Conservative Banquet which took place in the first week in April. We have no report of the proceedings at this Demonstration, but the (London) Morning Herald — in reply Jo a taunt in the Daily Keivs, that Lord Stanley had evaded giving as explicit " pledges" as might have been looked for on such an occasion — informs us,— " Two plain and unmistakeable declarations Lord Stanley has made : he promises to obtain for the suffeiing agiiculturists that fair and moderate protection which they justly claim as their due ; and he undeitakes to vindicate the national honour, thieatened by an 'insolent though not insidious' usurpation, without trenching in any, even ihe slightest degiee, on the civil rights and privileges of the Roman Catholic community." Still, we are at a loss to discover what change had taken place, either in public men or in the state of public affairs, to render easy to his lordship then, the accomplishment of an undertaking which, so short a time befoie, he was compelled to abandon as impracticable. A Coalition

Ministry seemed to many the most feasible ; and, uo doubt, cousidering the ductility of political conscience which some statesmen have exhibited, setting up expediency as an idol at whose shrine principle was to be sacrificed, it is very possible that such a Cabinet might be constructed. In the then existing relations of parties, however, — and until some of the great questions on the tapis were settled, there must have been so much to be conceded on one or both sides before co-operation could be secured, that we apprehend there would be — if not great difficulty in forming such a Ministry — yet great, perhaps insuperable, difficulty in inducing the public to trust and support it when it was formed. On the whole, the crisis was one of real and unusual perplexity, on the probable solution of which it would be both presumptuous and hazardous to offer any confident opinion. Undesirable in various aspects as a dissolution of Parliament might be regarded, we should not be surprised if that — the constitutional — appeal to the country were found indispensable to the organization of a really strong Administration. The Parliamentary reports copied into the Sydney Herald are far from complete ; indee.!^ our contemporary seems to have received no> London papers for April but those of the 4th, the 11th, and the 12th. Such as the reports are, however, we transfer them, in extenso, to our columns. The principal topics in them are (in addition to Mr. Disraeli's motion), Lord John Russell's measure of Jewish Emancipation, and a motion by Sir William Molesworth, declaring it expedient to " relieve this country from its present civil and military expenditure on account of its colonies, and to give to the inhabitants of the colonies, which are neither military stations nor convict settlements, ample powers for their local self-govern-ment." Lord John's resolution, which was to be the basis of a Bill for admitting Baron Rothschild, and other Jews, to Parliament, was carried by a majority of 166 over 93 ; and there is little doubt that the measure founded upon it would be adopted by the House of Commons. It remains to be seen whether the House of Lords, which has twice before rejected a similar bill, has since last year become sufficiently liberalized to acquiesce.. . .Sir William Molesworth's motion was met by Mr, Hawes with a mere moving of the previous question, which, according to the usages of Parliament, is the mildest form of practical opposition, implying no more than "avoiding a decision" for the time, without either directly negativing the motion or denying its principle. Both he and Lord John Russell, however, in their speeches made a stand distinctly against it. The discussion took place on the 11th of April, and was adjourned until the following Tuesday (the 15th). It had Tjeen stated that the Financial Reformers intended to make a particularly strong effort for the withdrawal of the military from New Zealand ; but we do not find the name of this colony mentioned in the abstract of the debate which has reached us. We presume, however, that we have here only the summary from tlie Times, not the full report of the speeches. The general English news is scanty. We subjoin its most interesting points. Lady Franklin was arranging a new search, for her husband and his enterprising companions ; stimulated by the possibility that Sir John's expedition may have been stopped shortly after passing to the south-west of Cape Walker. The Prince Albert was being fitted out at Aberdeen for this service, and was to sail on the Ist of May. Dr. Chase, Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, had addressed to the Prelates of the Church of England and Ireland, a letter expressing sympathy in their resistance of the Papal Aggression, congratulating them on the protection of the " civil power," and praying, " May that union between you and such a Christian Government continue unimpaired till Popery shall be no more !" The Archbishop of Canterbury had acknowledged the communication with the joint thanks of his Episcopal brethren. The only items of intelligence from Ireland are that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy had addressed the Queen against "the projected penal law,"— it being noticed that, in signingit, " John, Archbishop of Tuara" had dropped his territorial title, and written himself down plain " John McHale ;"— and that Mr. John O'Connell had so displeased his constituents by absenting himself from Parliament on the introduction of the Papal Aggression Bill tha^> at a special meeting of the Limerick Corporation, resolutions were passed condemning his conduct, and calling upon him to resign his seat for the city, A " ministerial crisis" had occurred again in France also. We have no account of the circumstances that immediately brought it about. The following was published as the list of the new Ministry, but " nothing was positively settled" at the latest date : — Foreign Affairs M. Baroche. Justice „ . . . . . M. Rouher. Finances .M. Fould. Interior M. Leon Fauciier. Commerce and Agriculture M. Buffet. Marine M. Ciiasseloup Laubat Public Instruction. . . .M. de Crouseilhes. \y ar , General Randon. Public Works M. Magne.