The New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 668, 8 September 1852, Page 2

The New Zealander.

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

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8, 1552.

It is gratifying to observe that although a considerable number of our residents have thought it for their interest to visit the Australian Gold Fields, (many, however, with the purpose of returning at no distant day to New Zealand), and although so far the Gold Regions may bo deemed productive of temporary injury to us, still we are not without compensating results from the influx of population to Australia, and the consequent demand created for articles which this countryman abundantly produce, aud the cultivation of which is now to no small extent neglected in New South Wales and Victoria. At present several vessels are in our port rapidly filling up with New Zealand produce shipped for sale in the Australian colonies. The William Hyde's cargo includes potatoes, hams, and bacon as well as timber : the Spencer will take sawn timber, framed houses, doors, and window sashes, and also hams, bacon, pork, potatoes, flour, rope and wool-lashing : the DanicJ Webster will also have a full cargo f *. wheat, potatoes, and timber. The Cresa^ -"> 100, may be named here, although her destination is England,— not Australia. She takes spars, baulk timber, copper ore, kauri gum, $c. On the whole, the cargoes in course of shipment just now exhibit a satisfactory evidence of the variety and value of our colonial produce., and an encouragement to look for further and larger results from our Auckland export trade to supply the increasing demands of markets which are so near our shores,

In connexion with the subject we maynote that, if we arc losing some of our population we are gaining important accessions The Joseph FUicher has brought upwards of seventy emigrants, the great proportion of whom, we believe, intend to settle in this district. Some arc experienced agriculturists. Well would it be if that reduction of the upset price of land for which tho colonists are earnestly and unitedly striving could be so speedily obtained as to enable us to hold out to actual and intending new-comers, the assurance of getting at a cheap rate such portions of our rich soil as, notwithstanding the limited means some may possibly have at command, would enable them to settle down hero comfortably at once, without needing to look in any other direction for a sphere of remunerative occupation.

We do not know that we should havo again referred to Mr. William Brown's election for the City, any more than to that of any of the other members, if that gentleman, like his colleagues, had been content with the usual expressions of thanks for past support, and general promises of future zeal and honesty. And we are certain we felt no annoyance at the attack made by his newspaper on the New Zealander because it had canvassed his fitness as a candidate, which could for a moment excite in us a spirit of retaliation. But the boastful selfsufficiency with which Mr. Brown's alleged services to the colony are eulogized in his own address to the electors, and in an editorial article in the Southern Cross of Friday, renders the matter one which— whatever our personal willingness to pass it jby may be — a duty to our readers, especially to those at a distance, seems to demand that we should not altogether overlook. Mr. Brown's qualifications to act ashisown trumpeter are not likely to be disputed, but if they were, his last address to the electors would quickly ratify them. We have read many addresses of the kind, but we sinI cerely decla-e we never met with one pervaded by such sustained and self-compla-cent egotism. Mr. Brown " all along felt confident that he should occupy a position at the head of the poll"— (by the by, his confidence on this point was but very narrowly borne out by the numbers, notwithstanding the amount and character of the efforts made to swell them) ; — his " long, arduous, and anxious devotion to the cause of the colony, in which he has spared neither painsnor expense ;"-rthe "assistance he has been in redressing and exposing grievances ;" — these form part of his own catalogue of his merits in past years ; while, for years to come, he appears to think it amply sufficient to express a ''trust that he will not bo Jess zealous or urgent for our country's weal." The editorial summary of Mr. Brown's excellencies in another column of the Cross, is wound up with the conclusion, — ''His majority of nine Is indeed a triumph, and demonstrates the estimation in which his great and unwearied exertions in the cause of colonial independence have all along been held." Vaunting like this not only warrants but forces tihe enquiry, "What has Mr. Brown done to entitle him to be thus panegyrized?" We know that he has said much, and written much, but what has he done to justify his being singled out from amongst his fellow-colonists as pre-eminently a benefactor and saviour of the country 1 "We appeal to the evidence of practical results : what measure of public benefit has he ever been the instrument of carrying ? what evil of great magnitude has he ever been the means of averting or frustrating? There* are amongst out readers many who have been close observers of the affairs of New Zealand since Mr. Brown first began to intermeddle in them ; let them tax their memories to recall, if they can, one measure of real importance, either political or social, the enactment of which, they can conscientiously attribute to Mr. Brown's exertions. If the number of his services be so large as is alleged by himself and his admirers, there can be no difficulty in particularizing a few as specimen -instances, — only, they must be actual benefits, as distinguished from those which are merely sonorous lipservice, or those in which a charitably imputed " good intention" is made to do duty for a tangible performance. Mr. Brown once before occupied a seat in the Legislative Council, — what fruit of his presence in it remains ? We may find in the records an embarrassing question here, an unseebnded amendment there, a ponderous protest in another place, but where is the piece of statesman-like, well-considered and salutary legislation which he can claim as his? We may be told that that was a nominee Council in which he was overruled and out voted, and that in a representative assembly he would have accomplished great things : the supposition is just matter of opinion, and our present point relates not to what he might have done under other circumstances but to what he really did — or rather did not — accomplish in the circumstances in which he was placed. The course pursued by the Southern Cross, however, with respect to public men and public measures, constitutes in the minds of the majority of Mr. Brown's supporters his grand claim to popular approbation. In referring to this, it is proper to bear in mind that Mr. Brown,- when interrogated on the Hustings, directly denied his being the editor of that journal; but he is notoriously its proprietor, and no very long trme has elapsed since he wrote to the Colonial Office that he was its real Editor. His admirers may, find it convenient to play a game at " fast-and-loose" of this kind, — claiming for Mr. Brown the merit of whatever is creditable, (say, a forcible article on the necessity of reducing the upset price of land), and repudiating on his behalf whatever gives offence (say, an illnaLui*od attack on so quiet and generally respected a gentleman as Mr. Bartley ) : but the intelligentcoinmaMitv will not be thus trifled with. Mr. Brown n~~uer identified with the oracular " We," or he is not : he cannot havo all the commendation for what is right, and none of the responsibility for what is wrong ; he must be content to take both or neither. Assuming, however, that the prevailing opinion which regards him

as the presiding mind of the Southern Cross is correct, we ask,— What has that journal really effected through the whole of its lengthened and violent career ? What single important end, amongst all those for which it has strenuously laboured, has it (succeeded in accomplishing-? To g-o no farther back than the intelligence received by the last English mail, we have there illustrations of its impotence. The darlingobject of the Cross has for years been to damage Sir George Grey's reputation at home, and to procure his ignominious recall. What do we find ? Why, the late Colonial Secretary avowedly waited for his suggestions before he framed the New Constitution Bill for the Colony, and the present Colonial Secretary confessed his obligation to those suggestions, and, in short, the Bill, in many of its leading features has been moulded according to his recommendations; while in Parliament, and out of it, without a solitary exception so far as we have seen, every reference to His Excel- [ Jency occasioned by the measure, has been of a complimentary character. We are not now discussing the question of Sir George Grey's merits as a Governor; we only poiut out how utterly unavailing have been the efforts of the ( 'ross to shake the confidence reposed in him at home. Again, the Cross has striven with unremitting anxiety to procure a i*epeal oi* the Native Land Purchase Ordinance. Has it succeeded? On the contrary, the New Constitution Bill explicitly embodies the principle of the Ordinance, and declares the illegality of purchases of land from the Native Tribes by any person other than Her Majesty, Her Heirs, or Sucessors. We cite these instances of failure because they are most recently brought under our notice ; but it would be easy to adduce othors. It may be tim c enough, however, to iollow out this part of the subject when any admirer of the Cross specifies some great Colonial benefit which it is certain, or even probable, would not have been as soon and as fully obtained without its interference. It would be equally easy, on the other hand, to point out the mischief our contemporary has done, — by fomenting a spirit of discontent amongst both Europeans and Natives ; by assai ing personal character, by setting man against man ; by disgusting one after another persons who, from official or other relations, were in a position to confer benefit on the town and settlement ; by reiterating such descriptions of the misgoverned and downtrodden state of Auckland and the Northcm Province as could not fail to deter intending immigrants, who read and believed them, from fixing their choice on a district so tyrannised over and so hermetically closed against industry and enterprise ; — and all this too while Mr' Brown himself has been no small partaker of the prosperity arising from the steady onward progress which has marked our district for several years. We might point to other ill-judged and injudicious steps of his which have acted against this Settlement in many injurious ways — but wjb gladly refrain from enlarging on so disagreeable a theme. Some may think it a sufficient reply to all this to point to Mr. Brown's position on the poll ; but men of experience and reflection need not be reminded how fallacious a test of true patriotism or genuine public service that is, or how frequently the order in which candidates have stood at a popular election has borne an inverse ratio to their merits. It is so now and again even in England, and certainly may be so in a colonial constituency, and with a franchise scarcely removed from universal suffrage. Moreover, Mr. Brown was below Captain Salmon — (a gentleman known in connexion, not with the political movements of the City, but almost exclusively with its prosperous commerce and shippingtrade) — during a considerable part of the day, and, it is believed, would have been below him at the close, had not some' very special efforts slightly turned the scale. We may add our conviction that, if the election were to take place over again, not a few Who reluctantly voted for Mr. Brown, because they had thoughtlessly promised to do so before his letter on Education had appeared, and before he had on the Hustings claimed support on the ground of his steady opposition for years to the Govern - ment of the colony — would take good care neither to promise nor to vote for him again. We have felt bound to offer these considerations to any who may be in danger of forming their estimate of Mr. Brown's services and status in the opinion of the thoughtful and intelligent portion of the constituency, — and consequently of the prevailing views and principles if that class, — from the high-flown representations given by himself, and the echo of those laudations in his newspaper. None will be more'gratified than ourselves if Mr. Brown should in the course now set before him practically prove himself the benefactor of the people that he -wishes to be thought.

Since our last issue we have received, by the Overland Mail, Wellington papers to the 11th, and the Taranahi Herald of the 18th of August. A considerable proportion of the Wellington journals is occupied by reports, editorial articles, and correspondence respecting certain vigorous steps taken by Mr. Justice Stephen in a case of " Contempt of Court." The circumstances were bi'iefly these : — Mr. Samuel Kobinson, draper, had published in the Independent of July 17th, a letter imputing- to His Honour partiality and corruption in his office as Judge of the Supreme Court, because he had inflicted a fine upon him (Mr R.) for non-attendance as a juror, while he had permitted Mr. Clifford, whose case seemed quite analogous to his own, to escape without any penalty. Mr. Robinson's view was that His Honour feared if he offended a gentleman of Mr. Clifford's influence, popularity, and known readiness to denounce i abuses in high places, inconvenient publici • ty might be given to his own remarkable observation (when he was charged with an assault at Otago) that " he could not wait for the slow and tardy process of the law." Mr Justice Stephen hereupon proceeded by the summary process of attachment against Mr. Robinson, and also against Mr. McJKenzie, a, proprietor and manager of the Independent. When the case came into Court, Mr. King, as counsel for Mr. Robin-

son, contended with great perseverance that the proceedings of His Honour were irregular iii various particulars. The Court, however, overruled his objections, and, as Mr Robinson did not personally appear, issued a warrant for his apprehension. On a subsequent day, Mr. Robinson, acting on the advice of his lawyer, positively refused to answer the interrogatories of the Court ; upon which Mr. Justice Stephen sentenced him to be committed to gaol for a month, and to be then brought up to answer the interrogatories. He was brought up, however, at the end of a week, when he admitted the authorship of the letter, but denied that he intended to bring the Court into contempt; upon which His Honour, after giving him a sharp reprimand, released him from custody, as having purged himself from the contempt of refusing to answer. He was bound however, to appear on the 27th ultimo, to receive judgment for the original offence ; and His Honour inflicted a severe censure on Mr. King together with a fine of £20, for having advised his client to disobey the orders of the | Court. Mr. McKenzies case also was to i be finally adjudged on the 27th, the arguments of his Counsel, Dr. Evans, having proved equally unsuccessful as those of Mr. King in stopping the course of .the proceedings on grounds of legal informality. Such is a mere outline of a very long narrative,— especially long in the reports and comments of the Independent. We do not, on the whole, envy Mr. Justice Stephen's position in the affair. He may | have acted with entire equity in discriminating, on what he considered sufficient grounds, between the non-attendance of the jurors respectively; and it is not for us to dispute thii strict legality of his prosecution of Messrs. Robinson and McKenzie. Neither do we for a moment advocate the licentiousness which, under the name of the liberty of the Press, assails personal character, imputing motives which may exist only in the fault-finder's imagination. But we do take leave to doubt the discretion of so rigorous — not to say vindictive— an assertion of a right to exemption from public comments on his public acts, as His Honour especially not long since himself figured openly in another court as a defendant — whose respect for the majesty of the law was not so pre-eminently conspicuous as to give him any very special right to complain of indiscretion or vehemence in the language oj another man, who (however erroneously) believed he was unjustly dealt with. A Meeting had been held by the " Settlers' Constitutional Association" to decide on the disputed question whether the people (meaning that portion of the people who submit to be dictated to by the Association) should register, under the Provincial Councils Ordinance. Dr. Dorset presided, and Dr. Featherstone was or? tor-in-chief, supported by his usual staff of minor declaimers. Torrents of abuse were poured forth against Sir George Grey's administration . in general and this Ordinance in particular, relieved by a skilfully set-off compliment to 'Lieutenant-Governor Eyre, whose opposition to his Chief on this question has evidently been carefully embalmed for fresh production at every convenient opportunity in all time to come. But " bad, illegal, disallowed, and incapable of being brought into operation," as the Associationists declare the Ordinance to be, still they are wise enough to see the expediency of registering under its provisions. The resolution (of a long series) embodying this one practical point, is as follows'} its wording shows both the business conclusion, and the tone and temper of the Meeting : — Moved by Mr. Wallace, sen., seconded by 'Mr Schultze— " That with regard to the immediate question for consideration, whether passive' resistance shall be offered to the Provincial Council's Ordinance of 1851, by refusing to register claims to vote, or whether those votes should be secured, as a precautionary measure, even at the risk of appearing to sanction an illegal Ordinance. Considering the .general contempt of law that has marked the whole course of Governor Grey's administration, as evinced, amongst numerous other arbitrary acts,— By the illegal abolition of the Courts of Request, rendered still more offensive by neglect of Lord Grey's injunction to legalize that abolition without delay ; By the illegal trial and execution, under martial law, of a certain Nativeat Porivua, in 1846, when recourse might have been had to the Civil Courts at Wellington, for which act a bill of indenmitywas passed through a Nominee Council ; By the appropriation of theievenue of this province during the period extending from July 1, 1850 to July 1851, without the sanction of any Appropriation Bill, for which act also, a clause of indemnity was smuggled into the -Appropriation Blil for the year 1851-2, and passed by the late General Legislature. Considering that his Excellency may be expected still further to shew his contempt for law, by forcing the Provincial Councils' Ordinance upon the community, adverting also, in the event of such proceeding, to the fact, that no British colony is without persons, whose interest it is to support even the most arbitrary of governments, and that among them a certain, .number will be guided by that interest, adverting o the certainty that some, no matter how few, will be found to vote, and some lo accept seats ; adverting finally to the chances of Government, unparalled in the art of taking small advantages, being able to base some unfoiseen manoeuvre upon our neglect, the Association deem it their duty to urge the expediency of complying with the invitation to register, not indeed as giving thesmallest countenance to so obnoxious an Ordinance, but purely and simply as a measure of self-defence." A Committee was appointed to superintend the registration of voters, and another committee (consisting of Dr. Featherston, and Messrs. Fitzherbert, Lyon, and Brandon) to " analyze the Despatches in the last Blue Book, and prepare such Resolutions upon them as they deem expedient." The Government Gazette contained Returns embodying considerable information respecting the quarter ending June 30. The Immigration at Port Nicholson during the quarter had amounted only to 23 ; the Emigration to 148, — 134 of this number having been for New South Wa1e5....... New Zealand produce to the value of £7,810 12s. had been imported coastwise into Wellington; and produce to the value of £26,436 15s. exported during the quarter Seventy-six vessels, of 5,035 tons, had arrived in Port Nicholson, and seventy-five vessels of 5,320 tons, had departed, both items showing an increase over the corresponding quarter of 1851.... « At the Wanganui Hospital, 32 patients (9 Europeans, the remainder Natives) had been admitted during the June Quarter: 96 out-door patients had been treated; of these 69 were natives, and 27 Europeans,

The price of First Flour, at Wellington, on the 11th ult. was £22 per ton ; Bread sd. the 21bs. loaf. The Taranaki Herald advertises a Public Meeting, called for the 25th ult., " to take into consideration the present price of lancl, together with the best means of reducing the same." We find the following notice'of negociations with the Natives respecting a land purchase : — . , Several Meetings have been held during the last week with the Puketapu tribe respecting the sale of a tract of land extending from the Bell Block to the Mangoraka river. As ection of this tribe is as yet opposed to the sale, but the numbers who favour it, including some of the most influential claimants, are gradually increasing. Upwards of one hundred of them were in town on Thursday and Friday, giving a statement of their claims to the lands they wish to dispose of ;and it. is raasonable to expect that the negotiations, which, from the interests concerned must occupy some time, may terminate in the acquisition of the land m question. A surveyor has been sent to Mokauto examine the extent of country which the natives of that district wish to sell to the Government. The Herald has some remarks with reference to a notice in our columns, on the return of the Cresswell from Taranaki, stating that a Mail for Auckland had arrived by the Lucy James, before her sailing, but was not landed in time for the Cresswell to bring it on to Auckland. We may mention that we have seen a letter from the Postmaster at New Plymouth, from which it appears that the only letters the Lucy James brought were for Taranaki, and that they were landed the night before the Cresswell sailed. We have also received Canterbury papers to the 29th of July. They contain little of interest. We observe that at a special meeting of the Canterbury Justices the Peace, on the 10th of July, it had been resolved that it was not desirable that the Resident Magistrate should be Chairman of the Bench; and this resolution was forthwith acted upon by the election of Mr. Godley as permanent Chairman A subscription list had been opened for the formation of an " Athenaeum or Mechanics' Institute" at Christchurch, which seemed to be a sort of opposition, or counter movement to the Colonists' Society" (which includes in its objects the delivery of lectures.. &c). There was considerable party squabbling on the subject, intermingled with propositions of an union between the contending parties which had as yet come to no satisfactory issue.