The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 774, 14 September 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14, 1853.

Be just and fear not: » "~"~ Let all the ends thou aira'st at, be thy Country' Thy Gor/a, and Truth's. " *.?

The claims of one subject of engrossing } oca i interest having demanded nearly the entire of our available space on Saturday, \ye were compelled to postpone the principal partof the intelligence received by the late arrivals from Sydney. We endeavour to-day to make up for that unavoidable omission 'jby extracting a number of items of English news from the summaries given by°our Australian contemporaries. As we have! only these summaries, we can do no morel than present them as we find them, selecting and arranging them as we best may. Our Sydney files, as brought by the mails of the Marmora and the Moa, were very incomplete, the bulk of the papers having bem placed on board the Delmar; but, by the courtesy of friends, the deficiency has been so far supplied that we have a continuous Gle of the Herald since our previously received dates to the 30th of August, and several numbers of the Empire. These journals contain a variety of news from the neighbouring colonies. We proceed to sum up the chief information.

The leading topic of political excitement in New South Wales was the proposed Constitution, an outlineof which we have already laid before our readers. The Bill for its enactment had been brought into the Legislative Council, and was undergoing the most lengthened and elaborate discussion,—some of the speeches, (especially those of Mr. Wentworth, Mr. Darvall, and Mr. Martin) displaying an ability that would do honour to any Assembly. The debate had to. be ad» journed three times, and was likely to occupy m ach more time. The probability, however, seemed to be that the obnoxious proposition, of a hereditary Upper Chamber \sou\d be either withdrawn or negatived, and that then? the Council would fully adopt the principle of a nominated Chamber. Still, the democratic movement in opposition to even this modified arrangement was energetically carried forward out of doors. An aggregate I meeting for the purpose of makinga "graod demonstration of determined protest" bad, been fixed for the 29th ult.,but, the weather proving exceedingly unfavourable, it was not held on that day. It would probably lake place on the following Monday. i Several measures proposing objects of immediate practical utility were before the Council, and were makingsuchprogressasihe debates on this leading question left timeand inclination for. Amongst these were, a Bill to amend and consolidate the Marriage Law of the Colony, a Bill to improve the system of Saving Banks, a Bill to render Vaccination compulsory, a Bill for the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and(just introduced by the Government, and of obviously vast importance)— Bills for the better sewerage and cleansing of Sydney, and for supplying the. city and suburbs with water. . . .

The foundation stone of the Sydney Exchange, about to be erected in Bridge-street, was laid with great ceremony on the 25th ult. After an appropriate address ana prayer by the Archdeacon of Cdmfaerland, the stone" was laid by the Governor General. In the evening, there was a diuner in connexion with the occasion, at which His Ex* cellency and the members of the Executive Council were preseut. . - • The Jews in Sydney had held a meeting to devise means for promoting the education oi their youth. There was considerable difference of opinion respecting the propriety 0 ' using the Synagogue buildings for scliooi purposes. The point was decided, in Jj negative, and a subscription was opened »r the erection of a scbooK- , , .... Lieut.-General Wynyard and his iann'j had sailed for England by the Argo. In a summary of news compiled by Jg Herald for transmission by this steamer, «» slated that rents in Sydney are now, —for odinary dwellings about three times, amrw good business premises about five u what thev were two vears since, ana u" thev are" still rising. : Small threertjg cottages in the outskirts of the town *eiw thirty shillings a-week; five-roomed cottage, from K/lOs: to 4/. a-week; a good wn» j house in the city is worth 500/. a .yf ar [. nS for business" premises in good sitoau ••> 700/. 800/., or even 1000/. a year can ■? obtained. -j ma A curious illustration of "two swes w storv" has been presented in the &&* the 27th and 29th ult., the subject being * financial condition and prospects or South "Wales. On the 27th an arUcW-*r peared.--under the head "Commercial teiligence," and with the usual sig na * "R. Harnett, Broker,"—in which ffgg clared that "notwithstanding the iOP\ be wealth of individuals, the colonists in aggregate are bankrupt;" that the seen"" to meet the immense liabilities of the i» "will be found within the next two or'"" years to be worth as much as the on which they are engrossed;" wit" n» _ * similar appalling predictions. But » next issue, the Herald comes out ■*»?'■ editorial repudiation of all these characterising the entire article as Cl^ ihe and erroneous, and averring -

lonV was never so prosperous before,— ihat the danger of rash speculation arises not from the poverty of the people but from the increased abundance of their means, and 55 »«the colonists in the aggregate could at ibe present moment pay forty shillings in the oouod."

We have, via Sydney, intelligence from Victoria to the 2Sih ult., being nearly a fortnM ll ' ater n ibc/nwnctWe. There had been no official announcement 0 f a successor to Mr. La Trobe in the Lieutenant-Governorship of Victoria; but according to the Melbourne Herald, a letter received by the Victoria stated that Lord Marcus Hill had accepted the appointment. J We have already given an account of an "nterview between the Lieutenant-Governor and the delegates from the dissatisfied gold SSgers. On the 20th ult., His Excellency issued a long reply to their representations, which was regarded as an "extremely able nnd temperate document," and excited an extraordinary degree of interest. It enters into the claims of the diggers seriatim, and discusses them in a calm and conciliatory to ne. As respects the license-fee, His Excellency denies that it is a tax; it is only the charge made on the individual for liberty to appropriate the property of the public. At all events he has no power to abolish or reduce it, the amount being fixed by an Act of the Legislature; but that act will expire at the close of the present year, and then the subject can be fairly and fully considered. . His Excellency enters largely into the complaints against the police, declaring that lie never permitted a case where a specific charge was mnde to pass without investigation, or a delinquent officer to escape unpunished;—and he distinctly denies the truth of the allegation that he cast any imputation on the Germans, his only statement having been that foreigners, who were allowed more political freedom here than they fiijoyedat home, ought not tobediscontented. As respects the extension of the franchise to the diggers, he promises every consideration to the claim; which, however, is one that can be dealt with only by the Legislature, and one "which it is requisite to approach with caution." An interim arrangement was rumoured however, to which the Argus of the 22nd ult. thus alludes :--

■''lt is understood that before the meeting of Council, one or more gentlemen will be nominated by the Government, expressly to represent the diggers, with perfect liberty to vote upon all questions as they think proper. A little curiosity arises as to the particular gentlemen who will be selected for this rather singular position." It was hoped that this spirit of concession would allay the fever, of discontent at the diggings, where the excitement reached a point little short of insurrection. The Argus of the 19lli ult. gave a report of an immense meeting at Bentligo, at which a favourite and enthusiastically cheered topic wjs resistance by physical force, —that is, said the orators, " if the Government should become the aggressors,"—by insisting on a license-fee higher than ten shillings. The digging season had fairly set in, and great numbers were thronging to the gold fields. Amongst the effects of this, the correspondent of the Sydney Herald shrewdly notices,—that mechanics who had been earning 2o?. or 50s. per diem in Melbourne, were Hinging down their tools and trooping off to the El Dorado, and, that revolvers had risen from U. to W. each!

' Four men—Van Dicmonian convicts,—had been arrested on the charge of being concerned in the Gold Escort Robbery, on the information of a professed approver, named Francis; but this man afterwards cut his own throat, acknowledging before his dcalh that his statement was false.

The principal Merchants of Melbourne had forwarded an address to the General Screw Steam Shipping Company, commending their successful experiment with tie Argo, and expressing a wish that the Company may obtain the mail contract.

Adelaide papers, to the 20lh of August, describe the new Constitutional measure for South Australia, as progressing favourably. The ''Colonial Parliament Bill" had been read a second time, by a majority of thirteen to five. There, as elsewhere, the nomineeism of the Upper Chamber was a field of battle; but a compromise had been adopted, the clause which provided for life nominations being replaced by one which limits the term to nine years, being three times the duration of the Lower House.

An Insurance Office, on the plan of Lloyds, had been established at Adelaide; and a gentleman, named McKenzie, had arrived by the Victoria, steamer, for the purpose of establishing a new Bank, to be called the Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne Banking Company. He brought with him the highest credentials, including letters from the liuke of Newcastle to the Governor.