The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 766, 17 August 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1853.

Be Just and fear not: Let all the ends tkou aim’st at, be thy Country’*, Thy God's, and Truth’s.

The rapidly progressive advance of the Auckland Settlement, respecting which we offered some remarks on Saturday,—as it is illustrated by the amount of our exports, particularly of agricultural produce, and the enlarged scale upon which our farmers are conducting their arrangements for the opening season—has since received, in another but a kindred aspect, a very gratifying confirmation. We refer to the evidence afforded by the official returns of Revenue and Expenditure for the quarter ending on the 50th of June last, as compared with the Revenue and Expenditure for the corresponding Quarter of 1832, which have been pohlished in the Government Gazette , apdwiHbe found in anotherpart of our present number. The Returns embrace the w hole of the ‘'Province of New Ulster,” —a designation which, we presume, will not again appear, as since the commencement of the quarter to which ihe document relates the introduction of the New Constitution has pul an end to the distinction, by establishing altered divisions of the Colony, and erecting New Plymouth into a separate Province. Our immediate object, however, is to call attention particularly to those portions of the Returns which have reference to the Port and Settlement of Auckland.

The Auckland Revenue for the last quarter amounted in the total to within a trifle of Twenty-four Thousand Pounds, being considerably more than twice the total of the preceding (March) quarter, or of the corresponding (June) quarter of last year. It will be noticed at once, however, that, although the ordinary Revenue exhibits a very satisfactory improvement, the great increase has been in the Crown Land Revenue. This, which in the June quarter of! 832 was under Three Thousand Pounds, has reached, in the June quarter of 1835, to nearly Thirteen Thousand Pounds.

lii accordance with this were the comparative amounts of Fees the on Crown Grants and the Fees for the Registration of Deeds, m the two quarters. In the June quarter, 18% they realized more than twice the Revenue from the same sources in the June ruarierof of 1832. The exact figures ©f these and in® other sums—which we have here given m round numbers—will be found in another pag® as they have appeared in the Gazette. It is scarcely necessary to say that this large investment of eapjtah j®--the purchase of Land is to be attributed t° the reduction of the price effected by b*r George Grey’s now honourably celebrated “Cheap Land Proclamation” of the 4tn 0 March. Such results have already been actually realized from a measure on accounts which Mr. Gibbon Wakefield and bis pup l,s and sympathisers so vehemently abuse the /°* vernor,—not indeed on the ground of a thoroughly avowed hostility to the alteration itself, (the public feeling in favour of it is strong and general to permit that), l^ 1 cause it was not deferred until the meeting® l the General Assembly, and then at all -on such terms as a majority of chamber, made up of members representing the five other Provinces, as well as the representatives of Auckland, should determine* Assuming that, had this been done, In® cheapening of land would have been agree

in some form, vet there would have existi Umiiinsenciesas to theconditions, and as to pvtent to which the reduction should be u’Hed; and, at all events, there would innblv have been a prejudicial postponee ' o f a step with which the welfare of the timin’ is most intimately connected. But, hj ihe'course which His Excellency has had ,L sagacity to devise, and the moral courage rear?? into execution—in spile of the obnuv which it has been attempted to cast mon his conduct, and the subtlety with Sell schemes have been laid to embarrass p movement- this large quantity of land ! passed into the possession of men who, “I /rust will both themselves derive great from it, and make their possession of U the means of widely diffusing beneto others around them. Money has come into the Treasury, a considerable portion of ivhich has been set apart beyond the icach of future reversal of the approprialion-to L purposes of an emigration, based on ' wise and benevolent plan of enabling oersons resident in Hie Province to get their friends brought out here on easy terms—while an important surplus remains available for other uses. These advantages have resulted; similar advantages still are resultjn(T from the Land Regulations of thcTih of March; and in [the face of such facts as these practical men, who have a genuine interest in the welfare of the province, and who understand what is promolive of its real good will not be greatly moved by the appeals or arguments of theorists or agitators who would fain persuade them that, for political reasons, it would have been better if the whole matter had been allowed to stand over until the meeting of the General Assembly, and then—suffered it to lake its chance! We have said that, independently of this most important source of income, ihe ordinary Revenue of the quarter showed a marked improvement. The Customs produced about Three Thousand Pounds more than in the corresponding quarter of 1832. The table taken altogether exhibits in a most gratifying point of view the prosperity of the Province of Auckland, and shows, moreover, the magnitude of the financial means which will be at the disposal of the Provincial Council, provided its session be held, and its voles agreed to, before the meeting of the General Assembly. From the date of the meeting of the Assembly, the control of the entire General Revenue of the Colony will be in the hands of that Body, and (according to the specific provision of the 06th clause of the Constitutional Act) our Provincial Council will have the appropriation only of a proportion of any surplus which may remain after such appropriations as may be made by an Assembly—in which the reprelenlalives of Wellington, New Plymouth, Canterbury, Nelson, and Otago (the whole of which, collectively, scarcely produce an amount equal to that produced by Auckland alone), will have voices and voles. Now, while we appreciate highly the services which the General Assembly may confer on the country, and while we arc even anxious to sec improved legislation at an eirly day on one or two of the subjects which the Provincial Council is restricted by the Imperial Act, from interfering with, we yet S3C no sufficient reason,—after balancing one consideration fairly against another,-for desiring that the Session of the Assembly should be held forthwith. The Provincial Council, on Hie other hand, can scarcely be called together 100 soon. Without imputing to the Southern Representatives (whose names we do not yet know, and some of whom have probably not ’yet been elected) such an amount cf selfishness as would impel them to any acts of conscious injustice, we confess we should wish that,—at first, when the New Constitution is only in its initiatory stage of practical development—the large funds raised in the Province of Auckland should be appropriated, as far as may be, by a Council composed exclusively of the representatives of the people of the Province.