New Zealand Colonist. FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1842.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 8, 26 August 1842, Page 2

New Zealand Colonist. FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1842.

Our respected contemporary, the Gazette, is unwontedly petulant and intemperate in its reply fo our strictures upon a previous article. This is foolish, upon more than one account. It is liable to be interpreted as an indication of conscious error, goaded into irritation by exposure; and it can hardly fail to disturb the judgment, and render the perception ,of right and wrong, 2-ather less acute than would otherwise be the case. We trust we are not uncharitable, when we imagine that the article in Wednesday’s ■Gazette displays each of these peculiarities. We would venture, with much diffidence, to

recommend our own practice in this particular to our contemporary. When the Gazette, in its wisdom, chooses to enounce some proposition startlingly absurd, or to assert some fact utterly without foundation, we have always tenderly and reverently attributed the whole to a mistake. We have never talked about lies, by implication or otherwise. On the contrary, we have uniformly given the Gazette credit for all possible sincerity, though it might be a little at the expense of its discernment. We suggest this out of pure good nature, because we do not wish to see our contemporary fall into any such juvenile errors. But to return for a moment to the subject of the article in question, which we do with some reluctance, because it compels us to travel again over .ground which we have once trodden. Our contemporary has himself raised the shadow with which he is fighting. In a former number he had stated, that the reserves for the natives must be considered ample, because they amounted to 10,000 acres for the district of Wellington. To this we replied, that these 10,000 acres were scattered -between this place and Manewatu, and therefore could hardly be considered as ample, even by our contemporary. And there, so far as we were concerned, the matter rested; except that we admitted that the reserves proposed by the Company would be ample. It is obvious, therefore, that our contemporary could never for a moment have supposed that we. had fallen into an error, if he had not utterly forgotten his own statements of the previous Saturday. This forgetfulness is not perhaps absolutely unaccountable. But it would be as well if our contemporary would keep himself better informed as to what appears in his own columns.

We must, however, —to resume a serious tone —which it is not always possible to maintain in reviewing the lucubrations of the Gazette —protest against the principles implied in the article to which we are now referring. We can only understand our contemporary’s diatribe against the “ reeking receptacles of ioai-aki-aki, superstition, and sloth,” as lie calls the pahs, as intended to imply that they should at once be broken up, and their inhabitants scattered abroad to find shelter where and how they might be able. The destruction of the ancient habits of the Maories, as a result of the gradual adoption of the habits of Europeans, arising partly from a perception of their superior advantages, and partly from the altered circumstances in which the natives are placed, is a consummation to which we have always looked forward. But however desirable this consummation might be, we have never thought of any attempt to force it upon the New Zealanders by measures of violence or coercion. Even if such measures could attain the end for which they are adopted, we should protest against them as unjust. But the experience of every country has shown that such measures never can be successful in producing their avowed object. Civilisation is a plant of slow growth ; its .development may be fostered, but cannot be forced, You may destroy a race suddenly and violently, but you cannot thus root out their habitual usages, or create a taste for improved habits. We should be reluctant to suppose that our contemporary has viewed this subject by the light of experience, and that he argues for the breaking up of the pahs as the first step towards the annihilation of the race. But either this must be his secret desire, or lie is less informed upon the subject of his meditations than we have assumed him to be. As, however, we may have mistaken our contemporary’s meaning, we trust that he will, by stating what really was his intention, remove the possibility of misconstruction.

We uundestand from various quarters, that an active canvass of the inhabitants of this place for the forthcoming election has already commenced, and that more than one list has been prepared and put forth. To the list agreed to at the meeting of the working classes, various objections have been raised, altogether unconnected with the merits or demerits of the individuals whom it comprised. In the first place, this list did not give a preponderance to any one inteaest, and those who wish to see a particular interest paramount in the Councils of the settlement were naturally dissatisfied with it. And in the second place, there appears to have been what we cannot but consider an illgrounded jealousy, as through a particular class, had sought to dictate to the rest of the community. To whatever cause however, the result may be attributed, there can be no doubt that rival lists will be circulated and canvassed for, and that all hope of unanimity is for this election destroyed. ’ So long as a compromise was possible, we were its strenuous advocates ; but whenever its impracticability is demonstrated, then the duty and the policy of individuals is changed. In the one case, a sacrifice, for the sake of peace, is not merely expedient, but just; in the other, such a sacrifice would be wrong, as well as impolitic. Almost all persons will consent to waive their undoubted rights, so to postpone their opinions, in order to avoid conflict; but if their opponents will not thus be conciliated, and resolve upon hostility, those who were the most .leady to concede, while concession could

accomplish their object, will insist most sternly upon the very utmost that they may conceive to be their due. The independent electors of this Town have an undoubted majority. They can, if they please, decide the present and every election. And if their willingness to embrace, in their list of candidates, men of all opinions, so that each party should be efficiently represented, is to be made an occasion for seeking to impose upon them a list composed of the supposed favours of our party only, they will, we are assured, take care that the persons actually elected, shall not be exclusively from those who are thus sought to be forced upon them. It was rumoured some time since, though, we do not know precisely upon what authority, that the Company’s Principal Agent had power to advance to the Corporation a large sum for public works. We have heard strange reports as to the conditions upon which alone any advance will be made. We can hardly suppose that Colonel Wakefield would be guilty of such a dereliction of duty as these reports fmply; and, consequently, do not now mention them more particularly, though there will be few oi our readers who are not aware of them. Should they prove to be well fouuded, we shall have a few remarks to make upon the subject.

Having received no private letters from Auckland, we make the following extracts from the Gazette of the 24th instant. Our contemporary’s correspondent however, we think, paints in rather too unfavourable colors the features of our sister settlement;:—

“ Private letters have been received in the settlement from a tradesman who went to Auckland about six months ago, under a promise to inform his friends in Wellington of the actual state of the government settlement. Tile letter contains a plain statement regarding the writer’s position and prospects in Auckland, and we can assure our readers they are by no means promising. He draws a parallel between Auckland now and Wellington at the time he left the place, and states that Wellington was even then, six months ago, a much more thriving settlement. He states that there is actually no employment for working-men and labourers; that, in fact, there is no one engaged in any undertaking calculated to circulate money, and thus keep matters in a healthy condition. He concludes his letter with a decided and strongly expressed recommendation to his fellow-coun-trymen (Scotchmen) not to leave Wellington to come to Auckland, lie being at this moment merely subsisting, by acting as a servant in a gentleman’s family, a kind of life he had no intention of following when he left home.

* 1 A second private letter, states that by the last census, Auckland did not then muster quite 2,000 persons, and this census includes every thing which can claim their descent from the original stock. The society at Auckland are united, according to our correspondent, in one thing, which is, their deep-rooted antipathy to Port Nicholson; any one -presuming even to utter one word in its favour, gets immediately put down as a stupid fellow, (a flat in the vulgar phrase,) or he actually gets avoided at the Hotel, Club, or Billiard Room. Now as there are only one of each of these national establishments in Auckland, this conduct places the individual in by no means an enviable position. He has only, however, to utter a panegeric upon the admirable state of the streets, (the pedestrian seldom sinks deeper than the knee,) and the delinquent is forthwith admitted into the Hotel, and Billiard Room, but the Club requires something more, he must be recommended, there must be no doubts. Thus upon the whole, the agricultural pursuits are certainly progressing at Auckland, whilst the town and its commercial affairs, appeal’ by no means in a healthy or flourishing state. Yet, the expenditure on the part of the Governor is spoken of as being extravagant. If this wasteful expenditure is in the shape of “ money gold,” we would imagine that some part of it, at least, must ultimately find its way into the pockets of the Sydney store-keepers; yet our private correspondent, describes that class as being in a desperate way. The stores are crammed full of goods, and no purchasers.”