The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, DEC. 10, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 799, 10 December 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, DEC. 10, 1853.

be just and fear not: Let all the ends thou aim’st at, bo thy Country’s, Thj Goo’s, and Truth's.

By the Overland Mail, which —although it would not have been due until this day—arrived on Thursday, we have Wellington papers to the 12th ult. (our file of the Independent being incomplete however;) —also the Taranaki Herald to the 23rd ult., —and the Nelson Examiner io the 12lh ult., the latter having been brought from Nelson by the schooner Rapid, which called at New Plymouth to “collect produce,” on her way to Sydney. The contents of these journals include a considerable amount of interesting intelligence. We have already laid before our readers an account of the opening of the Provincial Council at Wellington, on the 28lh of Oct., with a full summary of the Superintendent’s Address. The Council then adjourned to the 31 st of October; and —as we now learn, —having met on that and the three following days, again adjourned from Thursday the 4lh of November, for a month, namely, until Saturday the 3rd of December. The object of this long suspension of business was to afford lime for elections rendered necessary by decisions of the Council which we shall proceed briefly to slate. The enactment of a measure to establish an Executive Government for the Province was deemed of such paramount importance that almost everything else was forced to give way to it,—even the completion of the Standing Rules having been postponed for the purpose. This Bill was carried rapidly —although not without warm discussion—through its several stages, and received the assent of the Superintendent on the 3rd of November. We have a copy of the Ordinance, hut its provisions may be condensed into a few sentences :

1 lie entire administration of the Provincial Executive Government shall be vested in the Superintendt.int alone, acting by and with the advice of an Executive Coimci’. The Superintendent shall keep and use olficialiy the public Seal of the Province, which Seal he is to provide “with such device and inscription as he may Think fit There shall be a Secretary for the Province ; a Solicitor for the Province, who shall be the Legal Adviser of the Supei inten

dent; and a Treasurer for the Province who shall receive and pay all monies’ But no public money shall be paid by the Treasurer without a warrant from the Superintendent registered in the Secretary’s office. The Treasurer shall give bond tvilh’sufficienit security for the faithful discharge of his trust; and shall not engage in any business of trade or commerce, or act as broker agent, or factor for any merchant or trader > The offices of Provincial Secretary and Provincial Treasurer may be held by th e same person : The Executive Council shall consist of the Secretary, Solicitor, and Treasurer of the Province, to whom the Superintendent may add any other person or persons, not exceeding two. All these office-bearers shall be appointed by, and hold office during, the pleasure of, the Superintendent:— The offices of Secretary, Solicitor, and Treasurer shall, upon the election or re-elec-tion of every Superintendent, ipso facto become vacant: — The Superintendent, with the consent of the Executive Council, may create other offices, if expedient, and may fill up vacancies, and prescribe rules for the transaction of business. He shall also have power to suspend or remove any officer, but the officer discharged or superseded, (except the Secretary, Solicitor, Treasurer, or other member of the Executive Council),, if he deem himself aggrieved, may appeal to the Executive Council, and have his case investigated. The Ordinance, of which this is the substance, not being judged sufficient, however, to carry out the prevalent views of “Responsible Government,” Mr. Fitzherbert afterwards proposed, and the Council adopted, a Resolution that—“ Members of the Council accepting any office of emolument under the Government shall resign their seats, and subject themselves to the ordeal of a re-election.” It was in consequence of this that the month’s adjournment became necessary. Mr. Fitzherbert (one of the members for the City of Wellington) bad been appointed Secretary and Treasurer of the Province, and Mr. A. l)e B. Brandon (a member for the Country District) had been appointed Provincial Solicitor,andthesegenllemen were, of course, obliged to come again before their constituents. The election for the City was to take place on the 21st, and that for the Country District on the 25rd, of last month. A long Address from Mr. Fitzherbert to the electors concludes with what may, we presume, be taken as an exposition of the policy of the Provincial Government on certain important questions. The new Provincial Secretary says,—after declaring his general adherence to*the principles of the Superintendent’s Opening Address, — “ Allow ms to add that amongst the various points which characterise that Address, I regard as of primary importance—- “ The raising loans for the purposes of carrying on public works and emigration, “ The imposition of a tax on the land of absentees as well as residents, “And the maintenance of the present low prices of land, as opposed lo (he If. an acre, or suflicient price system of Mr, Gibbon Wakefield/’

We have not space to enter on the other sayings of the Council, during its short preliminary session ;—of doing there was nothing beyond what we have mentioned, except the granting of authority to the Superintendent to issue warrants for the sum of 900 1, for current expenses. There was much sparring between Mr. Fitzherbert and Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, and (as might have been expected) a number of long and strong speeches by the latter gentleman, on subjects of all kinds, and especially on the delay in convening the General Assembly. On this point he had an eminently zealous coadjutor in Mr. Brown, who himself brought forward—but afterwards withdrew—a series of Resolutions bearing upon it, introduced by a speech in which he compared the Superintendent to “a Slate Physician called to * act without a diploma,” and the Council to “ a monkey in King's garments ,” and went on pathetically to mourn over this state of things as “an evil, a deadly evil, inflicted on a young, innocent , and growing community.” Mr. Brown added a broad hint to the Governor, that, if the cause of delay was the difficulty of getting a sufficient number of nominees to form the Upper House, he (Mr. Brown) would oblige His Excellency by himself accepting a seat,— though (of course!) he should then “ votethe office a public nuisance.” ! Amongst the notices of motion given in , the Council, one by Mr. Fitzherbert was, “ to move on an early day for a Select Committee to take evidence and prepare a report with a view to the introduction of a Bill for promoting. Education in the Province.” In his Address to the Electors, Mr. Fitzherbert made marked reference to this intention; and surely a more important topic could not en- , gage the attention of the Council, or one \ more likely lobe fraught with benefit to the community, provided that the scheme be based upoy right principles. a ' A Government Gazette , issued at Welling- , ion and dated October 29, contained the following notifications ;~lbe transfer to the Provincial Government of New Plymouth of, the Road, the Harbour, the Police, and the Gaol Department, in that Province: -the appointment of William Guise Briltan Esq. to be Commissioner of Crown Lands Ac. in the Province of Canterbury, vice Lieutenant Colonel James Campbellthe appointment of Lieui.-Colonel Campbell to be Registrar of Deeds for the Province of Canterbury the appointment of Henry Boylon, Esq. to. be Inspector of Native Machinery *c. in- . * New Zealand the appointment.of Charles. - Simeon Esq. to be Sheriff of the District. oL v Canterbury:'—the following appointments in- i the Customs Department,—Charles Logie Esqr. to bo Collector for the Province of Otago, Edward H. Blackmore, Esqr.. to be Collector for the Province of Nelson, Charles C. Des Yonx, Esqr. to be SubCollector at Wanganui, and Messrs. C. Sinlfield, G. Hawkins, J. G. James, and Jr Webster, to be Tide Wailersat Wellington —iheappointment of Henry W. Pelre, Esqr. and Robert Stokes, Esq., to be Inspectors of the Wellington Branch of the Colonial Bank of Issue. The monthly Return of that Branch of the Colonial Bank was also published ; from this it appeared that, the Notes in Circulation on the 15th of October amounted to 22,922/., and the Coin held in' the office on that day to 7,922/;

Apropos to the subject of Banking in New Zealand, the following, which appears in the Spectator of the 9lli ult., will be interesting to many of our readers:— “A Prospectus has been issued in London of a new Banking Company, to be called “ The New Zealand Bank,” projected with the design of conducting the general business of hanking in New Zealand, with branches in the various Australian Colonies, the Cape of Good Hope, and Port Natal. The Bank to he incorporated by Royal Charter, or empowered hy Act of the Colonial Legislature, limiting liability. Capital, 500,000/. in 25,000 shares of 20/. each, with power to increase to the sum of 1,000,000/. The directors advertised are B. L. Baynham, D. Bridges, Leonard P. Cox, C. H. Edmonds, B. Golding, W. Goodwin, and H. Mollram, Esquires.”

A Provincial Government Gazette , dated November 8, notified the appointments, by the Superintendent, of Mr. Filzherben as Provincial Secretary, and Mr. Brandon as Provincial Solicitor, and also of Mr. Henry Samuel Knowles, to be a Clerk in the Provincial Secretary's Office, and the Hon. Bryan Stapleton to be a Clerk in the Provincial Treasurer’s office. The following paragraph from the Spectator affords gratifying evidence that, notwithstanding the opposition of Messrs. Sewell, Gibbon Wakefield, and Co., numbers have availed themselves of the great advantages brought within the reach of the people by Sir George Grey's Cheap Land arrangements:— “ The selection and purchase of land for homesteads by the holders of runs in the Wairarapa district, in accordance with the arrangement of his Excellency the Governor, took place on Wednesday last at the Laud Office. The total amount of land selected was 6780 acres, for which 2315/. was paid in cash, the remainder was paid for in scrip. The total amount of cash received for sales of land under the new regulations in this Province up to the present dale is, we believe, about 8000/.” The Rev. W. B, Boyce, general Superintendent of the WeslcyanMissions in Australia, (who was recently in Auckland) sailed from Wellington for Sydney by the schooner Despatch , on the 11th of November. The ship John Taylor , Captain Caw kilt, from Gravesend the 10th of July, which had arrived at Pori Victoria on the 1 Sth of October with 140 passengers, reached Wellington on the 2nd of November, bringing on 81 passengers. In an extract from the Lyttelton Times, summing up the news , brought by this vessel, we find the following,— “ We may state on the best authority that the Duke of Newcastle, in answer to enquiries made about his Excellency the Governor, said that “ Sir George Grey had applied for leave of absence only.” His not likely, therefore, that any successor to his Excellency is on his way out. Still less likely is it that there is any truth in the report that Sir George Grey had applied to be recalled.” The Nelson Provincial Council met for the first time on Thursday the 3rd of November. Donald Sinclair, Esq., was chosen Speaker. After confirming the Speaker’s election. His Honour the Superintendent (E. W- Stafford, Esq.) addressed the Council at considerable length; but we cannot to-day find space for any adequate outline of the address. Indeed it was, on the whole, rather of a common-place character. One of the first measures which His Honour proposed to bring forward was a Bill for imposing a tax on all the land in the Province, to be applied to the making of Roads and other Public Works. The worthy Provincial Councillors of New Plymouth seem to be ‘ 1 taking the world easy.” From the papers before us we find that they adjourned on the 12lh ult. to the 261h, so that we have little additional record of their proceedings. A Bill for regulating the appointment of Provincial Officers had been passed, and a Cattle Trespass Bill had been rejected. The question of most interest (to themselves) at the last silling was the propriety of a protest by a Member of the Council against a memorial adopted at a former meeting.