The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 736, 4 May 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1853.

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

If we could believe that the colonists of the ; Southern Settlements universally, or even generally, approved of the attempts made in j their name to thwart the plan for cheapen- | ing Land, embodied in the Governor’s j recent Regulations, we confess we should apprehend the rapid growth of an alienation of friendly feeling between the North and South, such as has never been produced by any other cause of jealousy or disagreement, and one the consequences of which could j not be easily calculated or speedily checked. | Bat we are far from concluding that this is the, real stale of the case. However a comparatively few interested or factious persons may labour to deprive the country of this great boon, —making up, so far as they can, for the paucity of their numbers by the noisy clamour of their opposition, we would fain hope that the hulk ol the community, at all events in the Wellington Province, recognise the value of the new system, and are prepared to give it their full support. One indication of this may be found in the indignant repudiation, by a f 'i gc number of those who signed an address jo Mr. Gibbon Wakefield on his arrival at Wellington, of the construction which it was disingenuously attempted to put upon air concurrence in what they meant to be a mere act of civility,—as if it implied an approval of the violently abusive denunciation of the Cheap Land Regulations in which that peculiar gentleman congenially luxuriated in a letter to Mr. Tancred, published in nixla-position with his address. A yet more

significant and gratifying indication is presented in the fact that the working men of Wellington, and of the Unit and other country districts, have already met to conisider how they may best avail thcmsehcs of the advantages held out to persons of their class by the New Regulations, and have appointed a committee to take the necessary steps for purchasing about 40,000 acres of land. There is here a recognition of the great and salutary principle of the measure, —that it is for the benefit of the people,— l\ principle which we trust will be maintained in its operation so as to frustrate the schemes of monopolizing land-sharks, and to secure, as far as possible, that the plan shall be so worked as to give every facility, and when it is practicable, decided preference to the applications of industrious men of limited means, but who intend to be themselves cultivators of the soil. The real opponents at Wellington of the New Land Regulations wo believe to be the squatters, whose selfish and grasping monopoly will be checked by their liberality, the double-dyed political partisans with whom the mere fact of the emanation of the measure from the Government is a sufficient incentive to their bitter hostility,—and, though last not least in vehemence, subtlety, and pertinacity,—Mr. Sewell and Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, with those whom they can influence. This we regard as constituting mainly the confederacy lo the promotion of whose object of resisting the Cheapening of Land, Mr. Justice Stephen has given such sanction as can be conferred by his judgment in a matter which, we are happy to believe, it is beyond his power injuriously to influence. Rut it is a stirring confederacy, notwithstanding; and from all we can gather from the newspapers and letters lately received from Wellington, we apprehend that no effort will be left untried to interfere with the operation of the Regulations not merely in the Southern Provinces but in this Province also. Wo can smile at the impotence of the efforts, however. The blessing of Cheap Land will be maintained notwithstanding all that Mr. Sewell, Mr. Gibbon Wakefield and their sympathisers can accomplish. We have pointed out on former occasions some of the minor developments which Mr. Sewell has made of himself since his arrival in the colony; but perhaps due attention has not been turned lo the impertinence of his interfering at all in the present question, when the special and limited nature of the business on which he professedly has favored New Zealand with a visit, is borne in mind. That business was lo u wind-up” the affairs of the virtually defunct Canterbury Association. The Committee of the Association had thought fit lo jump nl the liberty afforded by the Constitution Act to transfer their functions lo the colony. They had done this with a seemingly impetuous celerity, and under circumstances of suspicion, which called forth from Sir John Pakington the scourging despatch which appeared in the Nkw-Zralandeh of the 20lh of March. To be sure, the haste with which they look the step may perhaps be in a good degree accounted for when we remember that Mr. Sewell —the gentleman always in a hurry — was then at home, and was an active and influential manager of the Association. At all events, the Association resolved on discontinuing all operations in England on and after the 30lh of September; and Mr. Sewell was sent out to the colony lo “wandup” its concerns. Now r , had this gentleman minded his own business —had he decently and with due gravity and reserve performed' merely his duties as the undertaker of the dead and unlamented Association—ice certainly should never have adverted to him, except casually, and in terms of respect. Rut he has chosen a different course. lie has meddled in affairs of the most vital concern to the Colony at large; associating himself with his fellow-passenger Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, of high-priced land notoriety, in an effort to prevent the beneficial operation of the New Land Regulations,—although the Proclamation bore on the face of it that the

Regulations did not extend to the lands reserved to the Canterbury Association. Mr. Sewell may have been a highly respectable gentleman, “learned in the law,” at home, but his appearance on the shores of New Zealand in company and in sympathy with Mr. Gibbon Wakefield was not likely to create any very strong prepossession in his favour. Whether a man’s private morality would be at all endangered by constant association with that gentleman during a voyage from Europe, might be too nice a point for discussion here, and perhaps not guile relevant; but his political morality we do apprehend would be in peril. Re this as it may however, Mr. Sewell and Mr. Gibbon Wakefield now r figure before the public as 1 working together to indict a great evil on the country; and—*over and above the impertiI nonces of detail into which Mr. Sewell has ! fallen in his hurry—he has set out from the great central impertinence of meddling in a matter which did not fall properly within his “ limited service”—as the object of his mission is generally understood —and in which, if he is not very mischievous, it will ; be only because the results of his efforts will | not be equal to the accomplishment of the object at which they are aimed, j Mr. Gibbon Wakefield is himself, however ostentatiously prominent in his hostility to the Cheap Land Regulations; and, if rumour may be credited, is adding to his more open displays the exercise of every personal influence within his reach to enlist partisans even amongst those connected with some of the departments of the Government. It may be curious to observe how far he will succeed., —for instance with his brother, Mr. Daniel Wakefield, the Attorney-General of New Munster—while New Munster itselfhad a provincial existence, but now we presume no longer Attorney-General, unless there should be some new arrangement to that effect. It seems reasonable to suppose that, as he was a law officer of the Crown, on the spot when the Regulations were first proclaimed, his opinion as to their legal accuracy would be taken. Was that opinion in favour of their legality? If so, he must now be in opposition on the question of law to Mr. Justice Stephen and on the question of

policy to bis brother Gibbon. We may bear by and by bow the case really stands. Another word as to Mr. Gibbon Wakefield. It has been said—we write on the authority of the Australian and New Zealand Gazette— that this gentleman has absolutely been suggested bv some of his friends as a fit person to succeed to the governorship of New Zealand whenever it shall be vacant! We advert to the story only as illustrative of the character of the stories sometimes pul in circulation on such subjects; for we cannot seriously entertain an apprehension that any Ministry would venture on such an experiment, especially now that the colony lias obtained so much power in its representative government to give effect to its decisions. Meanwhile, the Cheap Land Regulations will have the cordial and united support of all classes and parties in the North. We understand that the Address to the Governor —warmly thanking him for those Regulations and expressing no other desire than that the means for extending their operation yet more widely may be secured—is rapidly receiving signatures, and is likely to be a conclusive demonstration of the mind of the Province ol Auckland on this subject.