The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 558, 20 August 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear not * Let «11 the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, 'lhy God's, and Truth's.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1851.

The apprehensions which some were beginning to entertain respeciingthe safety of the Norfolk were happily set at rest by the arrival of that tessel in our harbour on Saturday night, after a voyage of one hundred and sixty five days from England. We have received by her a portion of our long overdue files of metropolitan and other journals, the latest date being the 12th of March, — that is, more than a month older than the news which had previously reached us through indirect and circuitous routes. Our present position with respect to the receipt of intelligence from England, furnishes an instructive illustration of the manner, in which the communication between this colony and the'mother-country is mismanaged. The case stands thus : — of the papers which are regularly posted for us, from the establishment of one of the most punctual and trustworthy news agents in London, we have not a single number from the fifth of December last, to the fourteenth of January ; the papers from the latter date to the thirtieth of January, did arrive by the Stately : but from the thirtieth of January to the twenty-fifth of February, there is another hiatus ; while now, we have by the Norfolk only papers from the twenty-fifth of February to the twelfth of March. It is to be admitted, indeed, that the Duke of Bronte and the Steadfast have ptobably brought the wanting mails to the South ; they are somewhere in New Zealand, and we may expect that some day or another we shall get them. Meanwhile, we are left to chew the cud of meditation over the fact that letters and papers for Auckland, posted at St. Martin's-le-Grand in the first week of December, 1850, have not reached their destination on this the twentieth day of August, 1851 ; — consoling ourselves as we may by the recollection that last month we heard by way of Sydney, and by way of Hobart Town, and by way of New York, San Francisco, and Honolulu, more recent European intelligence than that which has just reached us by one of our own direct and " fast sailing line of packet ships." The private annoyance, and the commercial inconvenience and injury inflicted on our community by this tardiness and uncertainty of communication, need not be pointed out. Is there no remedy ? The absurdity of sending mails for Auckland to Canterbury or Otago seems veryapparen t, considering that in the present state of inter-communication between the settlements of the colony— (if we may repeat an illustration which we formerly used) — a merchant in London might write to his correspondent in Calcutta and receive an answer, in a shorter time than' that in which a resident in the Northern Province of New Zealand could similarly correspond with one in the Southern. In the present case it is clear that if the mails for Auckland had been forwarded in vtssels sailing directly for Auckland, some of them, although they would not have left England so soon, would have reached their destination much sooner. If indeed the long promised intercourse between the settlements by steam were once established, and carried forward with regularity and a steady view to the public accommodation, the matter would assume a different aspect. Then, considering that, (so long at least as the tide of emigration continues to flow so freely towards Canterbnry), a greater number of vessels may probably be despatched from England for the South than for the North, it may be open to doubt whether, on the average of the whole year, we might not fare as well under the existing system. We are aware of the possibility — not to say probability— that a Government steamer may be used as the Government brig now is, chiefly for purposes connected with the arrangements or the pleasure of the Government,ministering to the convenience of the commercial and general public only so far as doing so does not interfere with such primary objects. But the objection which is thus, not unreasonably, started, might in a great degree be met by the simple expedient of engaging one of the small vessels already trading on our coasts to undertake regular voyages between Auckland and Wellington, — being bound under ofßcial stipulations, to make her trips subservient to the conveyance of mails. The expense of remunerating the owners would be little, compared with the benefit ; and we have no doubt thaf a Legislative Council which at all regarded the wishes and wants of the public would pass a grant for such a purpose as readily as any item in the Estimates. But, as matters now stand, we cannot but think it would be an improvement that our mails should be sent only by vessels bound first for this port ; and perhaps a still greater improvement if the old plan of sending them by Sydney were reverted to. The arritals of English ships there are comparatively constant, and will undoubtedly become much more frequent in consequence of the discovery of the Australian gold-fields. Steam communication, (however the Government and Parliament may doze over the subject, con tent with referring it to Select Committees, as it will be seen by a report of proceedings in the House of Commons which we this day copy, had just been done), will soon be in active operation. Probably the Sydney Herald was not much too sanguine when (in its number of the 31st ultimo) it predicted, " Within thirty days more the gold news will be in London ; it

will take them thiity days to ' realise ti.e fact ;' and in thirty days more steamers will be on their way to Sydney." Should this anticipation he verified, there can scarcely he a second opinion as to the superiority of the Sydney route for our mails, — talcing into account the regularity and admirable sailing capabilities of the vessels now regularly trading between this port and that. At all events, we are pretty much in the situation of those who may be excused for hoping that any change must be for the better, as it would certainly be difficult for Post Office mismanagement, by whatever exercise of perverted ingenuity, to make our condition in this respect much worse than it is. Desiring to lay before our readers the latest information, we do not to day draw much upon the news (?) brought by the Norfolk, but rather select our English extracts from those which the colonial papers have copied, and from the intelligence which has reached ourselves from England via Sydney. The engrossing topic, both in the Parliamentary reports and in the leading articles of the journals received bv the Norfolk, is the " Ministerial Crisis," with which, just then, the Papal Aggression question, might be regarded as combined, — for, as the Times of March 3rd observes, " It has been the destiny of this question to be the pivot upon which all the recent political negociations have turned, and the one insoluble difficulty against which so many statesmen have struggled without being able to overcome it." While, however, we give precedence to the intelligence, possessing most of novelty as well as of importance, that has arrived through other channels, we notice in the papers of this arrival various matters which we may be able to present in future numbers, so as to prove interesting — especially if further arrivals, either of the arrears which we expect from the South, or of fiesh news from Home, should render more complete, materials which, in several instances, we now possess only in a disjointed and fragmentary condition.