The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, FEB. 26, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 717, 26 February 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, FEB. 26, 1853.

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

We have noticed in some of the English newspapers that last reached us pleasant strictures on the exaggerated importance which journalists occasionally seem to attach to comparatively trivial matters when theie is a "real dearth of topics in the political world,—a phenomenon that does occur now and again even in the Great Metropolis itself. Even the Times, with all its vast resources of talent and information,—so soon as the Elections were over, ana the subject of the Duke’s death had been discoursed on to the extent of its capabilities large as they were—’had been under the necessity of devoting column after column to matters which, under other circumstances, would probably have been condensed into a paragraph or two of very moderate dimensions. ■ If this be sometimes the case with the magnates of the Press situated at the centre of cosmopolitan intelligence, it may well be so more frequently with journalists here , where the native produce in the way of topics of general interest is so much more limited, and where the arrivals from abroad, while they often seem by some fatality to come in an embarrassing abundance at one lime, not seldom leave vis for a dreary interval in entire want of Home, Foreign, or Colonial news. Still, the reader looks for soniclhiufj, and thus there arises a temptation to give more prominence at such junctures to whatever dues present itself than we might deem it entitled to at otligr limes.

As such a scarcity just now exists —notwithstanding the if umber and magnitude of the subject; especially relating to our Colony and Province which are ready to start into practical importance so soon as the hourly expected steps for bringing the New Constitution into operation shall be taken —we ingenuously confess we may be more or less- influenced by lids slate of things in recurring to the Memorial for Protection to Whaling Vessels, and the course taken by our contemporary in connection with it. We can scarcely strain our charity so far, however, as to believe that the very long article in yesterday’s Cress on the subject was written merely for want of another topic; for, old readers and observers here are well aware that our contemporary lias shown in a number .of instances that to assail an object of his dislike or envy is to him a gratification which he would pursue in preference to any other; and it would be easy to select from his file instances in which interesting news on topics of general importance were either omitted wholly or dismissed with the most meagre notice, while attacks upon individuals or bodies of the community were elaborately set forth “regardless of expense" in time and type. ft is now his pleasure to avail himself of the facilities which command of a journal affords to assail Mr. Bunt, —one of the most inoffensive of our fellow-citizens — who has, however been guilty of the unpardonable crime of thinking and acting for himself, notwithstanding that the great JDictatou of the Cross had taken up the matter, and would brook no rival near his throne. Mr. Bunt, in his official capacity as ViceConsul, wrote to the Government representing the necessity for some steps to protect Foreign Seamen visiting the Port, and obtained an answer which at all events manifested a willingness on the part of the Lieutenant-Governor to do what lie could in the case. But Mr. Burn did not, on mature consideration, choose to identify himself with a subsequent movement in the same direction organized in Shortland Crescent. Whether he was justified in this is a point on which every reader can judge for himself, the whole correspondence having been published in our columns on Wednesday, and republished in the Southern Cross yesterday. If it were a merely personal dispute between the writers we should have nothing to do with it; but it is a public duty to point attention to the system by which our contemporary is wont to persecute and attempt to write down any man who has independence enough to disregard his dictation. The power of the clique is broken, however, and now so many men have been in turn subjected to its abuse that its detractions have little effect beyond manifesting the animus in which they originate, and, perhaps, now and again eliciting some facts illustrative of the purity , disinterestedness , and lofty honour of those who arc known to be the authors and circulators of so much viluperaton of persons in all classes and offices in society. In the present instance,. by a common piece of strategy, the attack on the individual is covered under the pretext of zeal for an object of unquestionable value. As to the expediency of extending such protection to Foreign Seamen as will in their estimation render the Port of Auckland in this respect, as it is in others, equally satisfactory as the Ports in New South Wales or Victoria, there is no second opinion. Nor is there any second opinion as to the expediency of giving assurance to the Foreign Captains now or lately in our harbour that the leading mercantile men are so fully alive to the importance of the matter that they will exert all their influence to procure the enactment of a sufficient Law on the very first opportunity at which the end can be attained. This undoubtedly was the motive that induced many to sign the Memorial, who would have withheld their names from that document (whatever other steps they might have taken to show their sympathy in the object) if they supposed that they were appending their signaturesTo a request so preposterous as that the Lieut.--Governor would immediately take steps to enact a law on the subject, and that they were, thus; however intentionally, strengthening the absurd demand of the* Southern Cross that the Provincial Council of last year should at this ju Retire be convened. This, for reasons belter known to himself than apparent to the public, has been a pet scheme with our contemporary, —that a Council including one -

V* .• . ... r i> -. j third of nominees, and including, moreover, members elected for a Province now by Imperial Legislation actually and wholly seperated for Provincial purposes from the Province of Auckland, should be brought together to forestall the deliberations and decisions of the forthcoming Council which will consist exclusively of elected representatives of the people. It is unnecessary to discuss the competency of the Provincial Council to legislate on the subject even if it were assembled, or to point out'the propriety that such a measure as i| desired should be not a local Act placing one Port in New Zealand on a different fooling from others, but a general law establishing uniform provisions throughout the colony. Nor is it needful to dwell upon the unfairness (to give it the mildest name) of pulling the Lieutenant-Governor in the position of appearing to refuse an interference which is really entirely out of his power. True that would be only an apparent refusal to forward the object, which could deceive only very ignorant persons, and is abundantly contradicted not only by His Excellency’s well-known disposition to forward every effort for the good of Auckland, but by the distinct expression of bis disposition to aid in this particular object which is already before the public. What he will say in answer to this Memorial we do not know; but we cannot imagine what he can say except that he has already declared his sympathy in the object, and perhaps that he will lay the matter before the Govcrnor-in-Chief although the question still arises, What can even he do until the coming Elections shall have taken place. But fairness towards Governors has never been a portion of the system of our contemporary. A voice from the grave of the first Governor of New Zealand might speak to this fact; and the political history of the Province since Captain Hobson’s day down to the present hour would afford an almost unbroken chain of evidence in corroboration of it. One remark more and we have done. If Mr. Brown considers a measure for the Protection of Foreign Seamen so full of vital : and urgent moment to the prosperity of the Province as he declares, how was it that, when he had a seat in Council before, he did not himself bring it forward, if not immediately for the sake of Auckland —the advantages of which were not then appreciated by Whalers as, on better acquaintance, they now arc, —yet at least for the benefit of the more Northern Ports which have always been frequented by them? He might then have had the credit of anticipating a step in which uow he only follows in the wake of the legislators in the neighbouring colonies. It is true indeed that although New South Wales is a colony of seventy years standing it was only when the Gold Discovery placed it in new circumstances that the necessity for such a measure because so evident as to induce the Legislature to enact it; but when Mr. Brown’s convictions of its pressing necessity lead him to urge that the Lieut.-Gover-nor should take a step which only some extraordinary exigency could justify by calling together —the Provincial Council which is virtually superseded by the Act of last Session—and when he becomes an advocate for the assembling of a partly nominee Council, rather than wait a few months for an elective Council—it seems a reasonable question, Why was he asleep on the subject when he was in a position himself to bring it under the consideration of the Legislative Council ?