The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 570, 1 October 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just aii'l fear not Let nil the ends thon .iims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and 'I ruth's.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 1, 1851.

By the Venus schooner we have leceived Sydney papers to the 12th ultimo, being two days later than had previously reached us. There had been n,o English arrivals ; but we transfer a summary of some of the proceedings in the House of Commons on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which give a few particulars that we had not before seen. It appears that some fuither alteration had been made in the Bill ; but what its actual import was, it is'noteasy to make out. We shall enable our readers.however, to try their own ingenuity in the inquiiy and lay before them the whole of the information that has come into our hands. It is plain that no progress of any moment had been made, and it would seem that day by day the measure was only becoming involved in confusion woise confounded. The latest intelligence from the Gold Field will be found in our other columns. It presents no new feature calling for notice hereThe quantity of Gold received at the Colonial Treasury on the 11th instant weighed two thousand nine hundred and seventeen ounces. With the exception of three hundied and thirty ounces received from the Wellington Valley, the consignments were from the Tuion. By the Post, about seven hundred and twenty ounces were received on that day. The Moreion Bay Free Press reported that Gold had been discovered in the Wide Bay District. The want of candidates for some of the Districts at the impending Elections had been well supplied. The Herald says, "It is encouraging too to find that a decided majority of the candidates are men of some standing in the colony, who have a deep stake in its prosperity, and whose declared sentiments on the leading political subjects of the day are in accordance with those entertained by the great bulk of the intelligent colonists." The Empire of the 1 2th has along article complaining of the stringency of the provisions against Bribery and corruption in the Electoral Act. Some of them do seem needlessly minute, — but the failing is surely one that leans to virtue's side, and there is little danger in New South Wales of too pure a constituency.

Amongst the colonial papers which reached us by the Maukin were Adelaide journals to the 23rd of August. We postponed our referenc c to them only until some of the more immediately interesting news contained in our other files had been disposed of, so that we might devote larger space to their contents. The most important is the opening of the Legislative Council of South Australia which took place on the 20th of August, and claims attention as the first Council which has commenced the woik of legislation under the new Australian Colonies Act. Regarding the opening Speech of the Lieut.-Goveunor, Sir Henry Young, as a document deserving of circulation and pieseivation, we copy it in extenso. It gives a view of the condition of the colony which affords most satisfactory evidence of its piogression both in population and in commercial and financial prosperity, and of its pqssession of capabilities, moral and material, for fuither and rapid advancement. Within six or seven years the population has been neaily trebled, and a state of public bankruptcy has been superseded by a revenue so flourishing that a clear surplus balance of £40,000 is calculated on at the end of 1851. The measures to be brought before the Council were in keeping with this promising state of things. A supply of pure water to the city, the erection of a new Council Hall, a light-house on the Troubridge Shoals, and — most valuable of all — a railway to the Port, were amongst them. It was proposed to raise aloan of £500,000 on the security of the Revenue of the Colony, one-third to be applied to augmentation of the Emigration Fund, and the remaining two-thirds in making railways on main lines. All these propositions seemed to be received with general approbation, as indeed was the entire Speech, with one or two exceptions on points lespecting which the concurrence was far from universal. These were, the endowments for religious purposes, to the principle at least of which Sir Henry is evidently attached ; — and the appropriation of the Land Fund, the accounts of which, His Excellency stated, would be laid before the Council " not for the purpose of giving them a control over the Fund, or of inviting any interference with its application, but to keep them informed upon a subject of public importance." Both these questions were likely to be a matter of earnest discussion duiing the Session, but it will be seen from the debate on the Reply on the Address that, although strong opinions respecting them were expressed, the difference were not permitted to mar the grace of a courteous and loyal Reply. . The constitution of the New Council, (we do not mean merely as to iis theory bul as to the men of whom it was com posed), was much canvassed. Many thought that the overwhelming preponderance given to the question of State Endowments in aid of Religion had led to the choice of members decidedly inferior in general abilities to candidates who were rejected because,— although confessedly well-qualified in all other respects,— they did not come up to the standatd of unyielding vo

luntaryism adhered to by some of the constituencies. The nominated members seemed to possess a consideiable share of public conI (idence. The Observer says, "On the whole, we think that the lealization of the nominee pnnciple. could not easily have presented itself to us in a less objectionable manner. At any rate, it maybe said without any hesitation that, in his nominations, the Govfrnor has not happened to hit upon a single individual whom the public can look upon as at all likely to turn out a mere government tool, or as possessing a mere government conscience and estimate of things." The exclusion of Mr. Fisher — first by his losing his election at East Adelaide, and then by his being passed over in the appointment of nominees, — was felt to be a great drawback however. It excited so much comment that we subjoin a portion of the Observe) 's remarks upon it • — Public opinion lm pointed to that man as the fittest man in the whole colony for the honourable post of Speaker of the Legislative Council, to which he would have been elected by acclamation, had he been permitted 10 occupy a seat. The degiee to which he has deseivedly attiaced to himself the approbation, the esteem, the respect of (he entire colony, was abundantly exhibited at the late triumphant public demonstration. His talents, his identification of himself wiih the colon) fiom the fust moment of its existence, his appointment as Resident Comn-issioner, his foimer pro fetsional connection with the family of the picsent j Piime Minister of England, the very high teims of commendation in which the late Governor Grey on his pas sage to New Zealand wiote to the Secretary of Sta c for the Colonies respecting Mr. Fisher, his position at the Bar, his acceptability in the eyes of men of all parties — eveiything, in short, seemed to warrant the presump* tion that, whatever olher men His Excellency might be willing or wishful to nominate, whatever other 7nen might be baulked ol' their ambition, he could not fail to do the State a good service, and at the same time to fulfil the evpectation of the public, by offering in the first place a nomitieeslup to Mr. Fisher. We can only say that it is impossible for us to account for Mr. Fishei's exclusion on any other supposition than that there must exist some reason of a private and insur mountable nature, our ignorance of which must dis qualify us for forming a just judgment on the matter. Otherwise, Mr. Fisher is an injured man; and whatever be the cause, the Council will be depiived of what would have been its brightest ornament, and the country at laige will not cease to lament his absence fiom the seat of her LegislatorsEmigration was engaging much attention. The inadequacy of the arrangements lor the reception of emigrants at Adelaide seemed to be generally felt, and it was under consideration how far regulations corresponding to those observed at Sydney could be brought into operation. The project of encouraging the emigration of females from Orkney and Shetland had numerous and warm advocates.... Since Captain Chisiiolm's arrival he had received applications for aid to bring out from England no less than one hundred and fortythree relatives on the plan of the Family Colonization Loan Society. The Rev. Mr. West, from Van Diemen's Land, and Mr. Bell from Melbourne, had arrived as delegates to the province from the J Australasian League. The Wesleyan Body in Adelaide was agitated by troubles of thersame character as those stirred up by the " expelled Ministers" in England. Some of the Local Preachers at Adelaide — who had themselves been expelled for violations of the discipline of the Con- j nexion, — had become <( Reformers," and the Observer of August 16th has a long report of a meeting of their sympathisers at which it was resolved to form a " South Australian Wesleyan Reform Committee, in order to assist in procuring Methodistic Reform, and also for the ptupose of corresponding with the Reform Committee in London." The qualifications of these gentlemen to be religious reformers may be gathered from the character of their Meetings, which were disorderly in the extreme. As one illustration, we are informed by the Observer that, after " a personal squabble between Brother Whew ell and Brother Williams, in which the lie direct and the retoit com teous were freely bandied backwards and forwards," the Chairman actually called upon the Meeting by a vote to " decide which had told the lie." The opposition to State Grants was of course made prominent in the speeches, one of the orators describing " a State paid Clergyman," as being " a sleek-faced, chokerwearing, poultry-eating, tithe-seeking, demonlooking, proud-going, fox-hunting, &c.,man." We should think it was high time that such " Reformers" as these appear to be should be obliged to pursue their efforts to puiify the Church, without rather then within its borders' A Mechanics' Institute had been opened at j Port Adelaide, with a fair prospect of popularity and usefulness.

In re-examining our English files, with a view of ascertaining whether anything of immediate interest to our own colony had escaped our notice on a first inspection of them, we found in one of the Parliamentary Reports in the Times, the following moreeau: —

NEW ZEALAND. Mr. AddeuLtt asked the Uhder-Secietary for the Colonies whether the Governmeufc intended 10 introduce anymeasuie that session providing a repiesrntative constitution for New Zealand, on the approaching expiration of the suspending act ; ai-o whether ail further conespondence and papeis which had been received on the subject since the last presented would be speedily laid before the House? Mr. Hawts could not give a definite answer to the fiist question of the lion, gentleman at the piesenttime, but later in the session l<e might be in a position to aflbid the desired information. On referring to a Despatch from Earl Grey to the GovhRNOR-iN-CniEF, which appealed in the New Zeahndmi, of the 27th of August, the leader will find that ''definite answer" which Mr. Mawes could not give, communicated thus by the hon. Under-Secretary's official Superior : " I must now inform you that, upon a full renew of the various subjects which must nueessaiily bo brought before the Legiblalurr in the piesent Session, Her Majesty's Government ha\e comeio the conclusion that it 'piobably will nol be in iheu power, without »,' 'ifbiinj vnth incabutes of more pressing urgency, to intiodu'-e in this Session a Bill for determining the .uture constitution of the Go; eminent of New Zrnlnnl "

One of these oP^m! declaiations was made on the 19th FeLti'ary , the uiher on the Bth of April. But, which bore the earlier date, and which the la'er? The simple reader would naturally conclude that the expiession of uncertainty came fiist, and the announcement of decision aftei wards. Then, the readers simplicity would beguile him into a very erroneous conclusion. The dates occupy a precisely reversed position ;— that is, Mr. H awls' statement that the matter was one on which it was not in las power to give information until "later in the Session," was made six or sevtn weeks after that same matter had been so definitively settled in the " Depaitment" which he represents in the House of Commons, as that the noble Head of the Department judged it proper to make the Governor of the colony officially cognizant of the decision, and to give him important Instructions arising out of it. Ilerefllis a precious little specimen — wellmarked though small — of Colonial Office mystification and management. AVas Mr. Hawes's ignorance real or assumed ? Did he indeed know nothing about the subject then, (although it had been arranged in his own office after " a full leview" or the circumstances beaiing on it), and only hope that at some future period *' he might be in a position to afford the desired information V Or did he, as he should, know all about it, and merely design to throw dust in the eyes of Mr, Adder ley, and stave off an answer to an inconvenient question 1 ? The Utrum Jwrum — the choice between the horns of a not very creditable Downing Street dilemma — must be left to the hon. UndkrSecretary's own selection.

Lecture on Intemperance. — The Fouith Lectuie of the course on the Evils of Intemperance, in progiess of delivery by Ministers and Membeis of the Auckland Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, was given in the Wesleyan Chapel last evening, by Dr. Matthews. The Lecturer did not restrict himself to any particular division of the subject, but glanced at a number and variety of the evil results of the use of Alcohol, appealing with great earnestness to his hearers to embrace for themselves and recommend to others " Total Abstinence in connexion with the Gospel" as the great and sole remedy... The Rev. Messrs. Buddie, Ward, and Inglis took part in the devotional exeicises of the evening. ..It was announced that the next Piayer Meeting of the Alliance will be held in Mr. Ward's Chapel, on Tuesday evening next ; and that the Fifth Lecture will be delivered a month hence in the Presbyterian Church, by the Rev. Mr. Ward, — the subject being, " Intemperance as it affects Families."