The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 637, 22 May 1852, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

Be just and fe.ir not : Let all tne ends them aim'st at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1852.

We have received, by the Elizabeth, Wellington papers to the beginning of May. There is very little news. Flour had continued to fall from the extravagant price at which it was quoted a few weeks before. On the 30th of April it was reported at 20s. to 245. per lOOlbs. Bread, sd. the 21bs. loaf. Sir George Grey had promised to preside at a S6iree in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Wellington Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institute, which was to take place on the 6th inst. Captain Barry's company of the 65th Hegiment had returned to Wellington, being relieved by the C. company, under command of Lieutenant Trafford. • A Memorial to the Governor-in-Chief was in course of signature at Otago, to the same effect as that recently adopted at Wellington. The object of the Otago settlers apparently was to obtain cheaper land than they can get under the scheme of their Association at home, and with this view they ask that the Waste Lands of the Crown may be brought under one uniform system throughout the colony. The barques Tory, Duke of Roxburgh, and Oriental, and the schooner Perseverance, had all arrived at Lyttelton with cattle, the lory bringing 1200 sheep and 60 head of cattle. The Perseverance had lost nearly 400 sheep. -Captain Mitchells station at Mount Grey, about thirty-six miles from ChristChurch, had been sold by auction. The run of 20,000 acres, with the improvements, was purchased for £400 by Major O'Connell, who also bought most of the cows. The sale altogether produced about £2320. A new weekly newspaper was to be started under the title of The Guardian and Canterbury Advertiser. The Spectator observes, " The attempt to establish another paper affords strong evidence that the settlers are not content that Mr, Godley's organ should be taken as the exponent of their opinions."

Flour sold at Auction at Lyttelton, on the 20th ult., at £33 per ton, and at 30s. in barrels of 1961b5. Tea realized £10 ss. per chest, and Coffee 9£d. per Ib.

We intimated in our last that, in addition to those more prominent and generally important matters which we then laid before our readers, the papers received by the Raven, contained a variety of intelligence possessing considerable interest. We now proceed to sum up the principal items, and shall endeavour to present as much of the multifarious news in the journals before us as we can condense into the space at our disposal to-day. We begin with New South Wales and Victoria. Judging from the Sydney papers we should suppose that the Church of England Constitution movement was exciting a very deep and wide-spread interest. Columns upon columns of the Herald and the Empire are occupied with letters on the subject, a few of the writers concurring in the views of the Bishop, but the majority more or less strongly objecting, while one or two complain that the editors have too liberally admitted correspondence on the question to the exclusion of more popular matter. Amongst the writers who appended their names to their communications, perhaps the most prominent was Mr. Richard Sadleir, whose views — as well as his earnestness in declaring them— may be gathered from the following extract from the advertising columns of the Herald :—: — The Queen Supplanted. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve — the Queen or Bishop Broughton ? The Queen possesses Bishop Broughton iho right of convening desires the power, __ of convocations. convening synods and conventions. The Queen has the Bishop Broughton right of receiving ap- desires to abrogate this peals. right, and lodge the power either in himself or elsewhere. The Queen has the Bishop Broughton right of veto in certain desires this right vested acts of the Church. in himself. The Queen is at the Bishop Broughton head of the three estates desires to he at the head of the realm. °f the three estates in the Church. The Bishop asks for " no form of Church Government ;" hut he tells us " he is ready to lay down his life" rather than consent to certain proposals involving a form of Church government : thereby virtually declaring that he will not consent to any form of Church government which does not square with his own views. What these are, we learn in part from his address and subsequent speeches. Let the laity meet and consider their position. Being now free, let them not surrender up their freedom without a definite or clear comprehension of what they are about. Let us address the Archbishop of Canterbury on our views. Richard Sadleth. On the sth instant a meeting of Laymen (convened by circular) — at which from thirty to forty gentlemen, " including several of the leading merchants of the city, 11 were present, — was held in Sydney. Mr. J. B. Darvall, M.L.C. presided, and in his opening speech declared his conviction " that the proceedings set on foot by the Bishop were of a most dangerous tendency, infringing, as in his opinion they did, on the right of private judgment, which was the distinguishing feature of the Protestant Church," — and which (as Mr. Darvall afterwards argued at some length) it seemed the more necessary to maintain considering the manner in which the Bishop of Tasmania had disapproved of an assertion of this right by- some of his Clergy. With respect to the degree of weight which the conclusions of the late Clerical Meeting in Sydney should properly have, the Chairman made the following significant remarks : — There were many reasons why the laity, who were an integral portion of the Church, should express their own views upon this matter ; and one of these was, that at the late meeting of the clergy, the members of that body, many of whom were youngand inexperienced men, were so entirely subdued by the Bishop's supremacy of manner and of intellect, that they could not be regarded in any way as fit representatives of the lay members of the Church. (Hear, hear.) The clergy were not in that position of independence which would have enabled them to fearlessly express and urge the opinions of their parishioners. Most of them were entirely dependent for their position on the pleasure of the Bishop, and it could there • fore not be expected from them that they should incur his Lordshp's ill-will by a strenuous opposition to his views. (Hear.) He was of opinion that the interests of the laity ought not to be entrusted to any particular man, or body of men. lie felt that they werenot justified in surrendering one jot of their personal liberty for the sake of the supposed social advantage of belonging to a particular Church (hear) ; and he feared that if the present proceedings of the Bishop were suffered to go on, the lay members of the Church would be inevitably driven either into Popery or into Dissent. (Cheers.) After considerable discussion — in which Mr. R. Sadleir, Mr. T. S. Mort, Mr. W. R. Piddington, Mr. W. T. Cape, and Mr. J. W. Smith took part, — and in which the circumstance that the Bishop was believed to bo going home for the purpose of forwarding his own plan, was urged as a reason why the Laity should be prompt and distinct in the assertion of their views — the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to : — 1. That the petition to her Majesty tlie Q,ueen which, was adopted by the Bishop and a majority of the clergy of this diocese on the 15th April, 1852, does not represent the opinions or wishes or the lay members of the Church of England in this diocese. 2. That this resolution be embodied in a petition to her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, which shall, after being submitted for approval to a public meeting, be presented to his Excellency the Governor-General for transmission to her Majesty. 3. That copies of the petition be forwarded by the Chairman to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor of England, and the Colonial Minister. Besides the agitation amongst the members of the Church of England themselves on the subject, it had also been taken up by several members of other communions, who saw, or supposed they saw, in the movement of the Bishops an attempt to procure such an establishment and legal recognition of territorial rights for the Church of England as would endanger, and probably ultimately desti'oy, the religious equality now existing in the Colonies. The Empire takes this view very decidedly, and urges upon the Ministers and members of other Churches the " deep, vital, and even personal interest they have in this matter." The Rev. L. E. Thre'lkeld had advertised a form of Petition, for which he solicited the support of the " friends of Religious and

Civil Liberty," praying' that Her Majesty — while she affords toleration to all classes — will not consent to the creation of a dominant Church to be by law established, or sanction, for the supposed benefit of any one Church, an introduction of the Ecclesiastical Laws of England which would be a "grave disadvantage to all the other Churches of Christ within the Colony." It is thus evident that, on more than one hand, elements of strife were in operation on the " Church Constitution question," and that politico-ecclesiastical contention was not unlikely to run high. Some official changes had taken place at Sydney. T. L. S. Mercwether,Esq. , late Postmaster General, had been appointed Audi-tor-General, in the room of Wm, Lithgow, Esq., resigned ; Wm. Harvie Christie, Esq., was the new Postmaster-General ; and the offices of Sergeant-at-Arms to the Legislative Council, and Agent to the Estates formerly held by the Church and School Corporation, vacant by the removal of Major Christie to the head of the Post Office Department, were to be filled respectively by Edmund Lockyer, Esq., and John Sterling, Esq. It had been proposed to celebrate by a holiday the discovery of the Australian Gold Mines; and as there are many to whom a hdliday on any account, or at any time, is naturally very welcome, a number" of letters had been addressed to the papers urging that the 10th instant should be thus honoured. The following note appended to one of these letters in the Herald of the 6th is interesting, as giving a view — not the less striking because incidentally presented — of the actual effects of the gold discovery as realized hitherto :—: — fAs our correspondent wishes our opinion we at once state that we do not think it advisable to follow out his suggestion. It will be time enough five or six years hence, when the actual working of the gold discovery is seen, to make the anniversary of that discovery a national holiday. Of its ultimate benefit to the community, that the gold will in a few years people the country, we have little doubt. But hitherto the benefits have been confined to very few ; the mass of the shop-, keepers, builders, landowners, and small capitalists have, from increase of wages, and prices, rather suffered than benefited by the change, although we hope that the increase in the value of landed property and increase of business will place the balance on the other side before long. We do not think there is«any desire or intention on the part of the employers to attend to the proposal, By-the~by, why is the 3 Oth May fixed upon as the anniversary ; what really took place on that The Governor-General had just returned From a tour through the Gold Districts where he had been feted, addressed, and otherwise welcomed to his heart's content. The new Postal arrangements had come nto operation on the Ist of May, from which date all letters posted in the colony must be prepaid, the prepayment being nade by postage stamps, not by money. Ail letters not prepaid are to be opened at ;he Dead Letter Office in Sydney, and re;unied to the writers. Sixpenny stamps were issued in addition to the usual penny md two-penny, The Bathurst Copper Mining Company was pursuing its operations with energy md every prospect of largo success. The irst shipment from the Summerhill Mine ■—consisting of about four tons of copper in ngots— had been made by the Pelham for London. The chief difficulty was the obiaining of experienced miners. The Empire states that the Company had sent 10 Germany for twenty-five additional hands, " and also to Auckland for others, whose passages to Sydney they will have to pay." The Moreton Bay pro-convict squatters — steeled by selfishness and avarice against setter principles and feelings — were moving ;o strengthen Lord Grey's hands. A meeting of " The Northern District Separation Association" was to be held at Brisbane on ;he 17th instant, for the purpose (as Messrs. Patrick Leslie, Rodger Hodgson, and Robert Ramsay, who signed the requisition were not ashamed to declare) of " adopting m address to the Queen expressive of their maltered views on the subject of separation, with exiles, and of thanking the Kight Hon. Earl Grey for his continuous determination" &c, ! The Empire heads an article >n this proceeding, " The Traitors of the North;" but, why call these thriving squatters, " Traitors ?" They are true men 11 their allegiance to King Gold ; steadfast and constant worshippers at the shrine )f their god Mammon. It will be for the mti-convict inhabitants of the North to resist, as in a matter of life and death, the 3vil which so ominously threatens their jest interests. We notice with pleasure :hat the Council of the Australasian League ntended to send a Delegate to Brisbane to issist in taking the sense of the people iairly on the question. Apropos to " exiles;" — We have a report )f the execution at Bathurst of a man — or •ather a lad, for he was only nineteen years )f age — whose career illustrates the charicter of unhappily too many of Lord Grey's ' reformed" pets. Thomas Willmore was i Parkhurstboy, convicted at Worcester of stealing his master's spoons, but sent out to New South Wales by the Randolph three pears ago as " a reformed exile." In the 3olony he became a bushranger, and (what3ver undiscovered crimes he may have perpetrated) it had been proved that within bhree weeks he had committed two murders, attempted two others, and professionally 3ngaged in highway robbery ! As another and more extensive evidence ;>f the working of the Transportation system, we notice the continued spread of srime in the Port Phillip district, a large proportion of which was doubtless owing to the influx of convicts from Van Diemen's Land. At the last dates, there were no less than two hundred and sixty-three persons in Melbourne Gaol. In one case of highway robbery, three of the culprits were found to belong to the Friars' Creek police force! A correspondent of the Empire, describing the state of things at Mount Alexander, says, " your pathway is amongst the most vile, incorrigible, daring villains. Try to ascertain by whom the whole amount of fiendish tragedies are being performed, — enquire who are the ringleaders, and when they are found, — Van Diemen's Land Expirees or Convicts is the only reply !" The trial of the Nelson robbers had been postponed till the next sittings of the Supreme Court.

! Van Diemen's Land. The intelligence comes down to the 20tr. ultimo. ! The probability that a remunerating gold-field would soon be realized in tin Fingal district had greatly increased Gold had been found not merely in scale.' as at first, but in very pure nuggets as large as peas, and one party of four had procured an ounce and a-halr. The LieutenantGovernor had issued a Proclamation asserting the Crown's right of property in al] gold mines, and all gold in its natural place of deposit, and declaring that all persons: who should remove, or "dig for and disturl the soil in search of such gold, metal, 01 ore," without authority from the Government, would be " prosecuted both criminally and civilly as the Law allows." This restriction on the privilege of searching for gold on the Waste Lands had excited much dissatisfaction. Mr. Chapman had arrived at Hobart Town, and entered on his duties as Colonial Secretary and Registrar of Records " In consequence, Mr. Eraser returns to the office of Colonial Treasurer, and Dr. Turnbull becomes Clerk of the Executive Council. The Conference of Delegates of the Australasian League was opened on the 20tli ult. T. D. Chapman, Esq., was electee! Vice-President, but the proceedings were delayed, awaiting the arrival from Sydnej of Charles Cowper, Esq., the President who was daily expected. Major Douglas, of the Ordnance Department, had returned from London, and resumed his old office, from which he had been suspended " through the misrepresentations of high authorities." He had received all arrears of pay, and the expenses I of his visit to England. A Public Meeting of Members of the Church of England— convened by the Committee of the Protestant Association, ancl the Launceston Committee on Church Affairs — was to be held at Hobart Town on the 22nd ult., " to take into consideration the recent condemnation of Ministers of the Church of England by the Bishop oi the diocese, and other matters oi importance to the Church." The Report of a Select Committee oi the Legislative Council on Distillation had been published, and had given rise to much discussion, especially the conclusion arrived at by the Committee — " that colonial spirits could not compete in the market with rum, even were both wholly exempt from duty." A most atrocious murder had been committed at Kangaroo Point. The victim was a man named Hibbard, 72 years of age ; — his throat had first been cut, but this failing to kill him, his brains had been beaten out by repeated blows of an axe. The Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against a convict named Castle. The Commissariat had accepted Tenders for a large supply of Wheat at from ss. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per bushel.

India and China. There is intelligence from India to the 11th of December. We regret to say that there were serious indications of renewed troubles. Much uneasiness prevailed in the Punjaub, several of the tribes manifesting a turbulent and hostile spirit, which showed itself in the murder of unprotected officers, isolated attacks upon small bodies of our troops, and similar tokens of ill-will. But, on the other hand, it was stated that the Court of Ava had agreed to our terms, and that consequently there would be no Burmese war as had been apprehended. The first line of the first Electric Telegraph ever attempted in India had been opened for the public service under the direction of Dr. O'Shaughnessy, " who," says the Friend of India, " had thrown his whole soul into this magnificent undertaking during the year." Seventy miles of telegraphic communication had been already completed between Calcutta and Kedgeree, and the extension of the system throughout India was ardently anticipated. Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, C. 8., Quartermaster-General of the Bengal army, was dead. The Peninsular and Oriental Company's Dock Yard and Store Houses, with all their marine and general stores, had been totally destroyed by fire, afc Mazagon, Bombay, on the 2nd December. The Commander-in-Chief at Bombay had issued what is styled a " most important order," directing that all the commissioned and non-commissioned officers serving with native corps shall wear mustachios. It is said that " nothing gave the Aftghans so decided a feeling of contempt for their European opponents as their cleanly shaven faces !" The new Bishop of Bombay (Dr. Harding) had been installed on the 30th Nov., and was likely to be both popular and useful from his eloquence and " the decidedly evangelical character of his doctrines." A dreadful fire had occurred in Victoria, the capital of Hong Kong, on the night of the 28th of December. Pour hundred and fifty-eight dwelling-houses, a Chinese Christian Chapel, the London Missionary Society's Hospital, a theatre, and four English taverns had been destroyed. Even up to the 16th of January " it had been found impossible to form a correct estimate of the fearful loss of life." The Friend of China records the following frightful catastrophe :—: — Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Tomkins, R.A., Lieutenant Lugg, R.A., Lieutenant Wilson, R.E., and several gunners and bombardiers had gone in to plant bags of gunpowder for blowing up the three three-storied houses on Lot. No. 71. The bugle had duly sounded the retreat, and the explosions occurred, but horrible to relate, Colonel Tompkins, Lieutenant Lugg, Lieutenant Wilson, a boinbaz-dier and a gunner of the Artillery, were in the houses at the time. The first-named was dragged out fearfully mutillated ; he died at four this morning. Lieutenant Lugg is supposed to be beneath the ruins. Lieutenant Wilson is blind of one if not both eyes, and in great jeopardy, and the other two are also dreadfully injured.

United States. By way of California, news from New York to tli c 10th of January had been received. According to these accounts Lord Palmerglon, while yet Foreign Secretary,

had disavowed, and disapproved of, the act of the Captain of the Express in firing into the Prometheus, — an occurrence from which, it may be remembered, rumours of war arose a few months since. Jt is added that Lord Palmerston had also given notice that the British Government would abandon the Mosquito Protectorate. Congress had agreed, by a majority of 123 yeas to 54 nays, to give Kossuth a formal reception. He was introduced on the 7th of January, and after his presentation a Congressional Dinner took place. Still, a good deal of opposition to his doctrines was manifested, on "the calm, sober, second thought of the people," and it was much doubted whether he felt satisfied with the result of his mission. Henry Clay (whose health was rapidly sinking) is reported to have said to him, "As a dying man, I oppose your doctrine of intervention." A fire had occurred in the Capital at Washington which destroyed about sixty thousand volumes of the Congressional Library, including the most rare and valuable books, — together with the marble busts, and twelve hundred cases filled with medals and curious works of art. The dates from California are to the 28th of February. We find the usual records of a physical soil rich in gold, and a moral soil producing a constant crop of rank and loathsome weeds. Burglaries, murders, and outrages of every kind were as abundant as ever. Two more men had been put to death by the populace. The Alta California had published a letter -witten from Sydney by Mr. Thomas Hinnigan, in which the most exaggerated views were given of the bitter feelings alleged to be entertained in the colony towards California. The Polynesian (to the 20th of March) had two leading topics ; — a violation of the mail from San Francisco to Honolulu by the Game Cock, attributed to some prominent members of the Vigilance Committee who were passengers by that vessel, and were believed to have opened and abstracted the letters ; — and a brilliant and continued, but very formidable, eruption of the volcano on Mauna Loa, which had threatened the destruction of the town of Hilo, towards which the molten flood ran, turning the wood before it. The jet of lava is stated to have been at least 500 feet high, and 100 feet in diameter.

Mechanics' Institute. — A Lecture on "The Age we live in" was delivered by William Gisborne, Esq., in the Kail of the Mechanics' Institute on, Wednesday evening. As we avail ourselves of Mr. Gisborne's kind permission to publish it in extenso in our columns to-day, it will be sufficient to state here that its merits were fully appreciated by a numerous audience, who, by repeated applause, testified the gratification afforded by the lecturer's nappy and eloquent portraiture of some leading features of the wondrous Age in which it is our lot to live.