New Zealand Colonist. TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1843.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 69, 28 March 1843, Page 2

New Zealand Colonist. TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1843.

We have seen one or two recent numbers of the Auckland Chronicle, which do not appear to contain any news of peculiar interest The general progress of affairs appears to be satisfactory, and the place would seem to be advancing in most of the elements of prosperity.

The number of the 18th of this month contains an article upon the subject of the Church extension Ordinance, in reply to some remarks which had been published in the Australasian Chronicle, which are worthy of remark. The Australasian Chronicle had attacked the Government of New Zealand, accusing it of partiality and intolerance, because, as was alleged, a liberal stipend had been allotted to the Rev. Mr. Churton, a clergyman of the Church of England, residing at Auckland, while an application for assistance on the part of the Roman Catholics of that place, had met with a .refusal. To this charge our Auckland contemporary replies, that the sum paid to Mr. Churton was for only a single year, and might not be renewed ; and second, that the reason for refusing aid to the Catholics was simply that—the treasury was exhausted. We confess that neither of these answers appears to us to be quite satisfactory. In the first place, the ground for supposing that the sum granted to Mr. Churton was granted for only one year, is an apparently gratuitous assumption on the part of our contemporary, that the declaration required by the act to be subscribed by the persons attending the ministry of Mr. Churton, must be annually renewed. And that, if such be the case, the question comes before the Governor as an original application, to be acceded to or refused as though no previous grant had been made. We have our doubts upon the law and the practice; and we suspect that if it should happen that 200/. remained in the Colonial Treasury, applicable to the purposes of the Church extension act, Mr. Churton would stand in a far better position for obtaining it than any other person. We are not now arguing the question, whether this application of the public monies be right or not. It may be that it is the very best ’method in which they could be applied. But whether,the best or the worst, we suspect the fact to be, that the minister of the Church which has first ob.tained a grant would always be able, with a little judicious management, to obtain a preference.

And in the second place, we doubt the soundness of the excuse alleged for declining te furnish aid to the Roman Catholic Church at Auckland. Either the support of all religious denominations in the manner pointed out by the Government, is a duty, or it is not. If it is not, then the sooner the act is repealed, and the Colony is relieved from' what may be' an oppressive burthen upon its finances, the better. But if it is, then there can be.no reason why th&atipend of a Catholic priest or a •Wesleyan minister is not every whit as justifiable a ground for drawing bills upon the English treasury as the salary of a polioe magistrate, or of a judge. Our own opinion is against the principle of the

ordinance in question, and of all similar provisions for the indiscriminate maintenance of all religious sects: But we do not argue the present question upon any such grounds. We have a right to expect that the Executive should carry out the principle of measures introduced and passed under its sanction; and from the statement of our contemporary himself, we do not think that this has been done in the case to which he has referred. We may, at another opportunity, refer to the principle of the measure in question, and express in detail our objections to it; but we have not not now either space or leisure for the purpose.

By the Government Brig Victoria we have received Auckland papers to the 18th instant, extracts from which will be found elsewhere. In consequence of the arrival of the Chief Justice and the Registrar, the sittings of the Supreme Court will’ take place on Saturday tlie Ist of April.