ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 732, 20 April 1853, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander. Sir, —The disgraceful state in which a certain class of men and women, chiefly of the half-caste and native race, are permitted and even encouraged to live in Auckland, renders it absolutely necessary that the attention of a Christian and thoughtful public should be drawn to the subject.

Some months ago when a portion of them became a nuisance on Government land in the vicinity of Mechanics’ Bay, the local authorities wisely and properly interposed by ordering them promptly away, and by removing their raupo huts. Since that time private houses have been opened to them in the very centre of the town, where they shamelessly indulge in the habits of idleness, drunkenness, and debauchery. It is not in the power of a few individuals to stem this fearful current of vice; the whole Christian public is called upon to arrest it by all legitimate means. In fact all who have an interest in the welfare of the community of Auckland, ought to consider that such a state of things as it here referred to, must degrade and consequently injure our town; that it will breed disease in the midst of salubrity, and that the proverbial carelessness of the natives in the use of fire is rendered still more dangerous by intemperance. . It requires therefore no supernatural vision to foresee that if this disgrace is allowed to continue, Auckland will at no distant period be in a conflagration. “ Prevention is better than cure.”—l am, ike., P. Auckland, April 18th, 1853. To the Editor of the New-Zealander. Sir,—l think nothing can be more gratifying to the people of Auckland, at the present juncture, than the announcement in your issue of Saturday last, from which it may he inferred that there exists a confident hope that the late Lieutenant-Governor would he willing, on a properly respectful requisition, to accept the office of Superintendent of the Province, and by that means prevent the rebellion or ebullition of party feeling in the first essay towards an exercise of local free administration, in which it is so necessary to our future political position, in the general governorship of which we are to form a part, that no one jiarty or political influence should be able to carry the bias of preponderating rule. The position of Superintendent, so far from requiring any such assistance, requires some one wholly detached from every preceding party politics, so much so that any one party preponderating in that position, although they might derive particular benefit from the accession of power, would become the means of swamping every other interest in the Province, and thus we would fall under the rule of the single opinion and policy of one man ; the benefit of discussion from opposition principles w r ou!d he lost, and the rod become as severe on the one buttock as it may ever have been on the other. Looking, however, at the political position of the individuals who have now offered themselves (and the Lieutenant-Colonel must excuse us that we are from the circumstances compelled to notice each individually), we are all aware that as most measures ‘will emanate from the people, the mere Executive will in reality occupy only a secondary place, and that hemmed in on the one side by the people and on the other by the Governor-General and the little power (merely negative) left to him, it is more to be desired that all his influence be exerted in a passive and conciliatory spirit. We all know that, nevertheless, the Lieutenant-Colonel may not have been long engaged in leading purely civil matters, he will have every assistance, political and legal, which the circumstances can require, aud in this position shall preserve to our councils all the energy and talent of the democratic element of our Province; and in the person of the Lieut.Colonel we shall preserve that degree of aristocracy which will ensure respect both internally aud with regard to every foreign accident that may come into contact with any portion of our Province or its relations. With reference to the Lieutenant-Colonel individually, no one hut must admit that he has always filled the office in which he has been placed with kindness, urbanity, and true gentlemanly demeanour towards persons of all classes that he has had occasion to meet; —he has taken sufficient interest in the colony to have its interests truly at heart; — he has held a free and gentlemanly intercourse with as .large an extension as his high situation would permit, and at all times preserved the tone of society in an honorable and creditable comparison with any other station or colony. With regard to the next candidate—Mr. Bartley—we must admit we shall have all the needful legal talent in himself, and also every other requisite to fill the situation with credit to himself and honor to this district; and, in my opinion, the stated objection that he has never yet taken any decided lead in colonial politics is the strongest argument in favour of such a choice, —the only thing in fact against him being that his position is not sufficient to save the Province from the effects of a hard and perhaps bitter contest. The next party who has entered the field is Mr. Brown, and, however qualified we must admit him to he to fulfil the duties of the office, we must remember he has come forward and sought this position ; ho was not, as appears by his advertisement, called forth, and Mr. Brown must remember that if he takes up the position of Superintendent he voluntarily abandons the great field of contest for protecting this Province from the overwhelming influence and combined policy of. the Southern Settlements, —a more critical position Auckland has never yet been placed in,—and the voice and judgment of the people must be allowed to be heard as to the best positions to place our forces, according to the requisite talent; not only to regulate our internal affairs, hut also, in the General Assembly, to maintain the propriety of our doings, and to oppose, with discernment and success, any political or legislative measure likely to detract from the advantages or interests of our Province. We shall presume that Mr. Brown should he able to rule or perhaps pack the Provincial Council so as to cany all such measures as his views might lead to. Now the very fact of such a principle, if opposed to the views of Governor Grey or his Legislative Council, would produce in all probability a dogged determination on the part of such Council as might lay this Province open to be sacrificed in the General Council to the sinister policy of other provinces, or perhaps from the violence already displayed of personal antipathies, if repeated, Governor Grey might seek a remedy by removing Mr. Brown from the Superintendentship, —a measure^.which in all probability would throw the Province into such a state of confusion as would leave her entirely at the mercy of opposing colonial interests. But Mr. Brown has assumed the position that to his exertions the Province owes her present position, cheap land, free institutions, and all. We can all form our opinions on these subjects ; lut without thinking it at all needful now to discuss them, we can only say that if Mr. Brown feels that his talent is alone sufficient to the work, let him remember that it is in the General Assembly where the great battle will have to be fought, whether this Province is or not to be swamped to the conjoined interests of all the speculative Company’s establishments. We shall not find many both able and willing to devote their time to defend our interests at places remote from their business, and no person ought to be allowed to take up the more idle position of Superintendent while the unformed state of our new government requires the careful scrutiny of every one who is interested in and professes himself anxious for the real general welfare of the province. From the numbers required in the provincial and general councils there is abundant room for all persons that are ambitious of disr tinction and for the representation of all possible interests without exciting any animosity anion" ourselves, and if Mr. Brown is seeking an elevation of distinction rather than an empty honor he could not do better than immediately take the lead in bringing his party to the placing Lieut.Colonel Wynyard, in the Superintenduntship of the Province, thereby showing a due regard to set all animosities at rest among the people, and offer

his services to watch our higher interests in the field that will be open to him in the general assembly.—l am, Sir, yours, &c., William rowniTcii. Epsom, Monday 17th April, 1853. To the Editor of the New-Zealander. Sir, —“ All diseases,” says Professor Morrison, “ have one single origin,—impurity of the blood — therefore there can be but one single remedy—my pills.” “All the evils of the colony,” says Opposition, “have one single origin—misgovernment — therefore there can be but one single remedy—myself.” Propositions both of them of great simplicity and force, upon which creeds have been established by which each professor has profited handsomely. But there is a limit even to gullibility, and as the philanthropic Morrison from the dock of a Criminal Court has had occasion to exclaim against the ingratitude of a world to which he had devoted his time, his talent, and his pills, so must “ Opposition” grieve that the virtues “ of unwearied exertions, singleness, and sincerity of purpose, devotion to the advancement and prosperity of our adopted country during so many years,” should be doubted by that insane country, precisely at the very instant when perfect faith was most necessary to its salvation. “If,” said the injured Professor, “ the young lady (whose death he was charged with having caused) “ had persevered in taking two boxes of pills No. 1, and one box of No. 2, three times in the day, she must have recovered, but her friends called in doctors, and so she died.” “If,” “Opposition” may exclaim, “ the complete Superintendence of the patient had been intrusted to me, soon the body politic would have been purged of its evil,” —charges against the Governor of treason, murder, robbery, arson, slander, and the rest of the deadly sins, compounded In the Southern Cross office, and administered twice a-week by the staff of that noble establishment, must speedily have dislodged the enemy;—but the friends ! of the colony have called in a practitioner of a different order, and the result must be fatal.

It is so, sir. The friends of the colony, aroused by its critical condition, and fearing that a further perseverance in the old system would be destructive to its best interests, have come forward to declare that it is desirable in order that the greatest possible good may be derived from the changes about to take place in our mode of Government, that the new' system should be inaugurated in peace, that w r e should apply ourselves diligently and quietly to remedy, so far its we can, what may be found defective, and to make the best of that which we cannot remedy,—that the man whom they desire to invest witli the highest authority in the Province is a practical man, and not a visionary nor crotchelty man, —one who will not be above seeing that roads are mended, and bridges built, and the means of communication improved throughout the country ; one who has no private piques, or public quarrels to carry into office, —a gentleman, in fine, of character and standing, who during his administration of the duties of LieutenantGovernor of this province, has deserved and secured the good-will and esteem of its inhabitants, excepting “opposition.” To those at a distance, as well in these islands as in England, who, unacquainted with the character of our community and the thoroughly practical habits of a people earnestly and prosperously engaged in industrial occupations, and who, forgetting the usual indifference of people thus prosperous to speculative points in politics, have imbibed the erroneous opinion that a small party, remarkable for nothing but its noise and effrontery, represents the public opinion of the province, I commend a careful perusal of the list of names appended to the address to Lieutenant-Colonel Wyn} r ard, which was this day presented to that gentleman. In it will be found the signatures of ministers, merchants, shipowners, professionals, farmers, stockholders, labourers and it represents, I venture to say, by far the greater portion of the wealth, intelligence, and respectability of Auckland and its neighbourhood,—that being the only portion of the province to which time has been given to pronounce an opinion.—l am, &c., April 10, 1853. X.