NEW ZEALAND COAST SURVEY.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 14, 16 September 1842, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND COAST SURVEY.

We copy the following from the Nelson Examiner of the 3rd instant, and fully concur with, our contemporary in his remarks on the importance of the subject. The numerous vessels lately lost on the coast, shews the urgent necessity of having, at least, those bays frequented by , shipping, accurately laid down on the charts We rejoice to learn that the attention of Parliament has at length been directed to this important subject. It is quite notorious that every chart of the coasts of these islands hitherto published, is grossly incorrect, and calculated rather to endanger the safety of shipping than to be serviceable in assisting navigation. We have repeatedly heard masters of vessels assert this to be the case, and many well acquainted with the coast have pointed out to us some most remarkable inaccuracies. The following extract gives us hope that this evil will be speedily rectified :

In the House of Commons, on the 28th of April, Viscount Ingestre moved that an. humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to order a maritime survey of the coasts and harbours of the islands of New Zealand. At this late period of the night, the noble lord said he would not enter into the subject' but he believed it-was generally known that the greatest necessity existed for this survey to facilitate navigation about a very valuable colony. He begged, however, to qualify his motion by the addition of the words “ when vessels can be spared for that duty without inconvenience to the public service.” The charts at present were most incorrect, and some wrecks had occurred already. Captain Pechell was glad the noble lord had brought this motion forward, but he thought it discreditable that no such survey had taken place before. The hydrographical department of the Admiralty was very valuable and meritorious, but shabbily paid and provided for, (hear). Money was well laid uut in maritime surveys. The motion was then agreed to.

We copy the following high encomium passed upon Lord Palmerston, the late Foreign Secretary of State, from the Doncaster Gazette, of April 1: — “It is impossible to consider the high and commanding position occupied by this country, with respect to foreign powers, in connexion with the wide extended empire placed under the authority of the British government, without being impressed with the conviction not only as to the weight and importance of the duties which devolve upon the Foreign Secretary, but as to the great means for the accomplishment of the highest national destiny which are placed at his disposal. It is, indeed, a matter of difficulty to overrate the power and extent of English influence, for all the purposes of good, as well as of evil, which fall under the guidance of the minister. The character of. the administration of the late Foreign Secretary will bear the severest scrutiny; and it may*be fairly questioned, whether, taking, all.inatters into due consideration, any minister has exercised the powers with which he had been entrusted with more sound discrimination and perfect efficiency, with more honesty of purpose, and with greater success, than Lord Palmerston. He has, it is true, been exposed to the severest, the most unmerited obliquy; he has been loaded with abuse; and the shafts of party warfare, however much they may have fallen short of reaching his coleagues, have been hurled abundantly at the noble lord, throughout the whole progress of his official career, not only with regard to Europe in particular, but with respect also to both hemispheres. “ The late attacks against Lbrd Palmerston have had particular reference to the Syrian question, as if the object for the accomplishment of which the five great powers sighed the treaty of July had been attended with a total ■. V ;

[ainßuUire—-as ; f Mchemet AH had been perfectly mi \ the pu-poses which' M. Thiers '■ (l ], a( l in \ '.ew were accomplished. It igjjK* wcn known that the reverse has been the Weßasc; and if the French government, under M. » liWbicrs, refused to sign that treaty, after having ofScknowledged the propriety of its provisions, woßnd agreed to its terms, it should at least be n Hdiuittcd, that the French minister had other laiiHurnoses of a sinister and selfish character. in f*; cW) v/Hcli purposes, if they had not been it wliecked by the dismissal of M. Thiers, and the larßrniointmcnt of M. Guizot to his post, would xMavc plunged the whole of Europe in all the Paßon'ors of a sanguinary war. Lord Palmerston, l cas t r was no party to this warlike demonjf Htration. He opposed the views of the French •ciiMLiiiistcr, in liis state of isolation, with an unffoM’uching fnunless, and with an energy which, laSwlide it sufficiently attested the capabilities, as lce m c ]i as the correct views entertained by the iiJHoblc lord, were crowned with the most trisuccess.. Notwithstanding oU the rertlßrcaclics which have been unsparingly heaped ot Mp°n the- late Foreign Sccretaiy,' he has disrdSlaycd a strength of mind,’ and an energy of daSharacter, surrounded, as he was, by innumeoilßable and almost insurmountable difficulties, daSducli wifi cause the name of Palmerston to , ’M tan( l high in the just, estimation of after times, irSlhen the present party rage has spent its fury, i when, those who have far less pretensions ‘ H, the possession of the same qualities evinced t Hy his lordship, and who are now extolled as 1C perfection of wisdom and the arbitrators of Ae destiny of nations, have sunk into their mcnrtHded oblivion, and become wliob.y and justly

gJHjrgottcn.” We arc gratified in seeing this opinion con<jißrmcd by an impartial and intelligent foreigner no less a man than Frederick Yon Raupm er( Professor of Histoiy in the University of •jJRei-ljn, in a worki recently published, cnJtled ve ]HEngland in IS4l,’—a pub-’.cation winch w" 1 ! to tlic well-earned reputation of its excelauthor. * He- -is- a man, and that is □ Sough.’