The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27, 1854.

New Zealander, Volume 10, Issue 882, 27 September 1854, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27, 1854.

Pe just am! fear nut : Let all the ends thou aim si at, be thy Country’s Thv God’s, and Truth’s.

In London, “ when Parliament is up,” not only llic Session, but wbal is conventionally called “ tlicscason,” lias terminated. Everybody who can leave town is on the wing; and, although still the busy bees of that enormous hive swarm so thickly about tin* orgeat centres of commercial activity that a foreigner, jostling his way through Eheapsidc or Eornhill or Elect-street, may well be puzzled on being told that London is “cmplv,” still a great change has imquosLonably taken place. There are no more Levees or Drawing (looms, or Slate i alls; the Court Circular is dated, not from Buckingham Palace, or even from Windsor or Osborne, but from the recesses of a remote Highland glen. Statesmen are gone to shoot grouse or while away their lime in some oilier relaxation, except the more advenimoif, who employ lhe recess in travel (a recreation which, we apprehend, the slate of Europe will, this year, sadly restrict): Ihe Loinlsof Law and the principal places of amusement are closed ; publishing enterprise sinks into comparative lethargy ; and if citizens themselves cannot wing their flight from their scenes of daily toil, their families are off to walering-places, or away upon those nearer and less venturesome Continental “lours,” for which, of late years, so many facilities have sprung up. So that, after all, it is not an altogether extravagant hyperbole to say that there is “ nobody in town,” and “nothing moving but stagnation.”

Our New Zealand Parliament is now “ up” also, but no similar results follow in any cor responding degree. True, our Southern senatorial visitors have nearly all left us, — left ns with many wishes that the Nelson may steam and sail most prosperously, as she bears them to their homes. True, also, those whom business, or an absorbing interest in politics, made constant attendants at the sittings of the Assembly, are now beginning to enjoy some breathing lime, and political quid mines are less agitated by exciting speculations about majorities and minorities,—responsibility ami ine: iiousihiiily,—■ministerial crises, resignations, and reconstructions, —or the feats of gladialorship, whether intellectual or physical, on the floor of the House. But busy, bustling, thriving Auckland remains just as it was,- in the steady pursuit of those useful and profitable engagements which have raised it in a few years to its present prosperous position. Auckland is not deserted, though the Session is ended. On tin' contrary, the activity of the lown and district is rather increased by the return of several of the most intelligent and energetic of the merchants and agriculturists to that undivided attention to their own business, from which, as members of the Legislature, they word necessarily to a largeexlent drawn away while the Assembly was siltirtg. The results of the meeting of our Parliament must, however, engage the serious attention of every well-wisher to the country. What has the New Zealand Parliament actually accomplished by its labours during its first two sessions‘/—for (without meaning

any disrespectful allusion) wo may describe | llie laic meetings of the Assembly as the re- j verse of “ iwo single gentlemen rolled into one,” having been rather like one single j gentleman split into two. We pass by now j jibe grand theme of debate — Responsible 1 | Government, —having shown at considerable ,

1 length how, after one Responsible Ministry bad lasted for about eight weeks, and another for about forty-eight hours, the colony finds itself in the end precisely in statu quo antebellum , without a vestige of Ministerial Responsibility in the Executive. We wish at present lo confine our view lo the Acts placed upon the Statute-book. These, as they wore enumerated in an thirteen in number (including the Provincial official notification which we recently copied from the Government Gazelle , were, in all, Waste Lands Rill, which can scarcely be said in strictness to Ire yet added to the Statute-book of the Colony, having been reserved for the signification of Her Majesty’s pleasure). Now these certainly ought to be good laws, when we lake into account the money they have cost the people. The sums voted for the accommodation of the Assembly, for lire passages and expenses of members, and for other charges connected with ihe Session amount to a total which would show an average, in round numbers, of about seven hundred pounds sterling for each individual Act,—not excepting lire special little Act passed lo indemnify the wor thy contributor to the snstentation of the Slate v, ho supplied li refreshments” lo honourable member's, against tire (otherwise) penal consequences of driving a coach-and-six. through lire Licensing Ordinance. In these utilitarian days lire l. s. d. consideration is a cogent one, and many will think that a young and as yet thinly-peopled colony like Ibis might reasonably expect to get its bomemainiuiclured laws pul out of'rands in a very workman-like manner, at such a figure as seven hundred pounds a-piecc, one with another.

Well, we seriously believe that some of the measures w ill be found of great value lo the colony. No doubt several oflliem might have been made more perfect if so much of the actual legislation of the year had not been crowded into the last fortnight; but still it would be uncandid to deny that Acts have been passed which were urgently needed, and which there can be little doubt will operate advantageously.

Amongst the most complete wo must doss I the Acts of a legal character, which origin- i ated, am! were deliberate!y matured, in liie Legislative Connell, and most of which —af- j ter “ Con fere aces’’ had “managed” the amendments introduced by the House of] Representatives—have received the Governor's assent in very nearly the shape in which they at first came out of the hands (if the i Council. The Secondary Punishments Aid was imperative!v called for by the stale of tilings brought about by the cessation of transportation to Van Diemen's I and. To the honour of New Zealand it is to he recorded that its people, as with the voice of one man, protested against the infliction of the curse of convictism on the neighbouring colonies; hut it has had, in some degree, to pay a portion of the price for the great boon of ciikiik ipalion conferred on Tasmania. Offenders sentenced to transportation, of cour.se could not be sent Pu re, and it appeared that the existing law did not permit off their being kept to bard labour here; so that, while the pusillanimous offender whose crime did not overstep the jurisdiction of the Resident Magistrate’s Court, suffered a comparatively severe punishment, your more daring culprit, whose offence the law visited with what was intended to be a heavier punishment, might lake Ids ease in his gaol, enduring nothing more than a privation of liberty. The new Act, by living a se.de of penal servitude, under carefully considered conditions, in lieu of transportation, will remove this anomaly; while by legalizing the employment of prisoners at hard labour (iitsidc the gaols, it will secure that there shall be proper means of carrying out the sentences, and at the same lime helping forward public works in the colony. Then the Dower Act, and the Powers of Attorney Act, will, in various cases, facilitate and render secure the disposal of property, allhough perhaps they may occasionally rather diminish the length of the lawyers’ bills; but the lawyers, on the oilier hand, receive a henelil from the legislation of the Session, through the Genera! Law Practitioners Act, which, so to speak, amalgamates the branches of the profession on a principle which, although it may at some future period give place loan assimilation of the practice here to that established at home, is admitted on all hands to he expedient and desirable in the present 1 slate of the colony. . • . To these mea-

suits is !o be addl'd the English Acts Act, which will biing into immediate operation in New Zealand a number of the enactments by which the wisdom and experience of the legal sages of England have recently improved the administration of Justice. On the all-important subject of the Public Lands, there was, in the end, some really good Legislation. This, however, was only after the colony had had two escapes from the schemes of the Sewell-Eil/gerald parly. A full exposure of the demerits of the first Waste Lands Bill, introduced by those gentlemen while in office, would afford ample matter for an entire article; but that Bill never, we believe, stood much chance of actually becoming aw. Then came, in the second session, another Bill, having the same paternity, although differing considerably in some of its features. This may, in Parliamentary parlance, bo said to have passed into law ; but it was only as amended by the Legislative Council, and the amendments in this case resembled the “amendment” sometimes, wit hj a facetious semblance of gravity, said to be introduced into a resolution when all the words after “That” are left out, and new words of a totally different meaning substituted. Both the Bills, together with comments on them by Mr. Travers, having been published in our Extra of Monday week, our readers are in a position to compare and judge for themselves- The Act which received the Governor’sassenl, — while it declares beyond all possibility of future litigious cavil, that Sir George Grey’s Regulations of March 4, 18.G5, are, and always were, legal,—vests the future arrangement of Land Regulations virtually in the Provincial Councils, guarding, however, against the possible abuse of this power by any such Council, by securing, on the one hand, that the people shall have sufficient

previous notice of any alteration intended l be proposed ; and, on tbe other, giving t* l( ' Governor the power of veto. Ibis latter provision indeed was indispensable under lire Constitution Act, as by that Art the Provincial Councils are prohibited from legislating on the subject of Wastelands; and they can only, as is here provided, “ recommend” to the Governor the Regulations they deem expedient. Hut lire Provincial V\ aste Lauds Act comes in lo pave the way for a removal of this disability. When that measure shall have received the-sanclion of the Imperial Authorities, it will enable the General Assembly, notwithstanding lire prohibition in tiro Constitution Act, lo transfer its own powers over Waste Lands lo the Provincial Jurisdictions.

The Public Reserves Rill also claims notice here. There can be no doubt that Mr. Sewell original I v intended it to obviate the difficulties in which he found himself involved with regard to Reserves at Canterbury, ami we can only hope that tbo measure will be as acceptable lo lire settlers of that Province as it probably will be found convenient for lire objects of the Association of wliiiAr that gentleman is the managing agent. Ry Mr. Whitaker’s care, however, it was altered in the Legislative Council so as to extend to other Provinces, particularly to Auckland, whatever benefits it may be capable of effecting in the preservation to the community of their interests in Reserves for Public Purposes. A great social question lias, we trust, been satisfactorily and finally settled by the passing of the Marriage Law, which, —although it may not be in every minute particular what its promoters intended —yet beyond dispute places the Law of Marriage on a firm foundation, —based on the two great principles for which they strove, viz., publicity and religious equality. When we have before us a copy of this Act, with all the verbal and other amendments, which it received in passing through the General Assembly, we shall—as the subject is one of universal interest—epitomize its provisions in as popular and intelligible a form as we can, so as to make ail who have “ intentions” in the matrimonial line, —be they bachelors or maidens, widowers or widows, parents with marriageable daughters,” or mere “affectionate friends” of parties so concerned fully acquainted with the requirements of a law, tinder the provisions of which alone it will be possible, a. few months hence, to solemnize a marriage legally. As. in some sense, a social question also, wo may mention the Naturalization Act. wide!) secures the rights and privileges of Rritisb subjects lo a number of persons, several of whom have for many years been known as sleadv, industrious, and loyal settlers in the colonv.

We have now, more or less fully, advened to all tin 1 Acts passed by tbe General Assembly, with the exception of the Appropriation Act, which, ns will have been seen, His Excellency singled out in bis closing address as the only one from which (although hr gave it his formal assent) he yet fell bound to withhold his “ unqualified approval.” Tins Act, in the shape in which it became (aw, is not vet in our hands, and, from what we do know ofit, we confess our inability to predict what will lie the consequences of the manner in w iiieh t lie House of Representatives dealt with those Estimates, which thcGovernor sent down in the form deemed by the Executive essentia! for the maintenance of the public service. So much must practically depend upon the course taken by the several Provincial Councils that it would bo rash to offer anv dogmatical opinion on matters which must,of necessity, be more or less con-' lingent upon the views which the majorities in those Councils may entertain. This is not the only pailicular in which the Provincial Councils will, during their approaching session, have in their hands a great trust, involving decisions of the utmost moment to the people. Meanwhile, as respects the Appropriation Rill, we commend to the serious attention of every reflective reader the discussion on the subject in the Legislative Council, of which a report appears in our columns to-day.

U is only just to add that the General Assembly adopted, during its sittings. Resolutions on various subjects, from which, (although we are fully aware that both at home and in the colonies, the more Resolutions of public bodies, as well as of private individuals, often lead to but Utile practical performance), we arc willing to anticipate future benefit to the country. Such are the Resolutions relating to Intemperance, to Education, and to some other questions. The same may be said of the Reports of Committees, which, however, have the additional advantage of presenting a large quantity of information, const inning so much valuable raw material, available for the work of well-considered legislation hereafter. Practically important, however, in the highest degree, are the Resolutions of the General Assembly in relation to the New Zealand Company’s Debt; particularly that which, after a full inquiry by-a Select Committee, of which the great majority were Southern members, has explicitly declared that the Province of Auckland ought, in justice, lobe wholly exempted from bearing any part of the burthen. This may ho regarded as tantamount to a formal release of A nek* land from what would have been an oppressive and monstrous wrong, hut w hat nevertheless, the Imperial Parliament had hern beguiled into sanctioning. On the whole then, the meeting of the General Assembly has by no means been unproductive of good fruit in several points of view; although still we cannot but painfully reflect how little the total is, compared with what could have been effected had the four months of its session been employed as they might have been.