AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 51, 27 September 1845, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

By the Government Brig Victoria we have received files of the Auckland Times and the New Zealander to September 13th ; from which we have made the following extracts : — The New Zealander in noticing the wreck of the Falco and subsequent plunder by the whites and natives, saye, " it is highly necessary that this notorious act of piracy by Europeans and natives should not pass without every effort being made to bring the offenders to merited punishment. A man-of-war should be sent to Table Bay, and a reward of a few pounds offered to the natives for eveiy Europeans they could capture and prove as being one of the prefatory gang, and then the whole would be very quickly taken, and could be brought to Auckland, tried by special commission, and punishment summarily and ful|y inflicted." A native war which is likely to be very obstinate and sanguinary, has broken out between two tribes at Manukau : they are said to muster two thousand strong on one side, and fifteen hundred on the other. The well known chiefs Jabez Bunting and Waiteri are engaged in this quarrel. Waiteri was in possession of eight horses, which were seized and destroyed by his foe on Tuesday night last. The interminable question of disputed territory is the cause of this quarrel ; one party having felled a large tree and converted it into a canoe, their opponents claimed it, as having been cut within their boundary, and hereupon the rupture arose. Both parties are thoroughly armed, and have abundant stores of powder and lead. It has been fully ascertained that the native chief Noble, with seven hundred fighting men fully armed, has joined the standard of Heki and Kawiti. — Auckland Times. News reached us to-day that Heki is in the mountains near Kaipara, he is quite recovered of his wound, and is busily employed building a pah, the natives consider him as completely beaten. Te Hataua, one of his principal men, has lately left him, all his party have left their former place (Taiamai) where Walker is now planting potatoes. His party have harrassed the rebel natives very much of late by destroying their food in every direction, and not allowing them to plant. We have now three vessels of war in harbour (Bay of Islands) the Hazard, North Star, and Daphne ; conjointly they will send five hundred men into the field, and when joined by the troops from Sydney, we expect to muster about fifteen hundred, or upwards, and about five hundred of Walker's fighting men ; he has been very active of late, visiting some of Heki's private allies, who used to supply him with powder and muskets, and has succeeded in drawing them off; two hundred of those Maories joined us this afternoon, and more are daily expected, so that Walker's men may far exceed the number stated. Kawiti is at Te Kawakawa with Pomare ; he has finished his pah, and is anxious to attack us, but cannot persuade his men to try it ; they say "it is dangerous to attack soldiers, but rather let them attack us, as we are now prepared to receive them." His men still stick to him, as far as I can learn, he has about five hundred in a very strong pah, which he has named Te Tuapekapeka, Anglicised, (the Bats Nest). Walker considers it must be attacked first, observing, that the troops and friendly natives ought to march there with nothing except their small arms, and when they have completely surrounded the pah, then let the big guns, shells, and rockets be brought ; but if we march with such formidable force, he says Kawiti and his party will take to the" mountain?, and cause

us a great deal of trouble. Whether the Colonel will adopt this plan or not, we cannot say, but to us it seems the best. The Colonel joined us with his detachment this afternoon. We are only waiting the arrival of (he troops from Sydney, when we intend to attack. — Auckland "times, September 13. In our last number, we animadverted on the improper influence which Missionaries and Protectors have obtained in the Councils of the Government of this colony. From most authentic sources we understand that the Rev. R. Davis, the Missionary at Kai-kohe> the residence and locality of Heke, has expressed his opinion that Heke has been sufficiently punished ! ! — and, also, states, that he (Heke) would now make peace with the Governor ; but that he does not, by any means, consider himself conquered. Now, we would ask — what business has the Rev. Mr. Davis to interfere at all in a matter not religions ? Let him, as it was said of the monks of old, keep to his " bell, book, and candle," and leave politics and war to those whose profession they are. It is the fear and apprehension that this i baneful counsel may, through the Protectorate here, have some influence, that we would call | particular attention to some most undoubted information which we have received. His Excellency declared in the Legislative Council that every movement throughout the island -was soon known to him : — with deference, — we consider our sources quite as abundant: and probably, the intelligence we, from time to time, receive of passing events, is much less distorted, and conveyed more simply in the language of truth, than sinister reports composed for particular purposes. Should the Governor determine that all further operations shall cease, and teiminate the war for the present, he will do just sufficient to make Heki the greatest chief in the colony, while, at the same time, he will sink the loyal Waka, and our other allies, below the level of slaves, in the estimation of all the other New Zealand chiefs. It would doubtless be most agreeable to Heki, if he could, through the plausible intercession of his spiritual patron and preceptor, persuade the Governor to make peace for the present, ~s it would give him an opportunity of organizing a rebellion ten-fold more formidable titan the present has yet assumed, in which he would no doubt be joined by Papahia, and many other powerful chiefs, who have, as yet, only been restrained by fear of consequences. A disgraceful peace would entail the ruin of the colony, and blight the cheering prospects now so happily developing. — New Zealander.

Financial Expedients. — When we conssider the large amount of debentures afloat, and the very trifling sustenance that the Customs now affords to the revenue of the colony, (£27 in Auckland for the last month /) it is not surprising that the Colonial Treasurer is catching at straws, and that the Governor is observant of a strict economy. As specimens of the former policy we have a Jesuitical circular sent round, requesting a return from all the buyers of land from the natives, of the method and amount- of payment in each <;ase respectively. The return will furnish, no doubt, an useful statistic, but we recommend the buyers aforesaid to — Ware Fox. The next scheme is to make a foray upon the delinquents in the late Property Rate Ordinance ; the amount due from this source is said to be very considerable, and the parties will now be sued for the penalties as well. If the original tax can be recovered, this will bring something handsome, but we think the penalties should not be pressed, and the collection of the tax itself is very doubtful, for although we are not lawyers, we cannot see clearly how the provisions of an act can be enforced after it is repealed. We are aware that in the act renewing the Customs, there is r clause for the purpose of securing arrears upon the Property Rate Ordinance, but it is so clumsily contrived that we doubt whether it will hold water ! Nevertheless, all ought doubtless to pay alike. Next comes an expedient of economy, the disbanding of the Militia, a measure which it appeaas to us was as unavoidable as its enrolment and active service was inexpedient ; but there is nothing in New Zealand so thorougly considered before its adoption as to secure its stability and continuance. The Militia has been of no public service; ; it has been useful in the disbursement of some money, or rather debentures, which have hereafter to'be accounted for; but for all the purposes it sets forth, it might as well have been let alone. We cannot forget the gratuitous declaration of the Governor -upon^its first introduction, that though the whole Council were for it, yet would" he put his veto thereon. No wonder it has come to a sudden and violent death. The dandies who have been at the expense of uniforms must feel rather disgusted. — Auckland Times.

The Defaulters in the late Property Rate Ordinance. — A brisk fire has been kept up during the past week upon the delinquents who neglected the provisions of

this late, now deceased Act of Council, and we are assured that all will be brought to amercement of tax and fine and costs ? The influx of military and naval men, and their expenditure, will doubtless do something towards reviving the smiles of Mr. Darch and Mr. Young. The tax-gatherer should not therefore be too severe upon the defaulters — many of whom probably have halted as much by reason of inability as disinclination. — Ib.

Forged Debentures. — Within the last few days there has been discovered another instance of forgery of the Government Debentures, and of much greater value than the former circulation. It will be remembered that the Government announced that a book, containing two hundred and fifty ten shilling debentures, had been abstracted from one of the Government offices : the present forgery, that we have seen, is one for Five Pounds. This secondary fact of forgery and circulation most clearly proves the extreme looseness, negligence, and incapacity of all the officials concerned in the manufacture of these monetary documents. How many more, — or to what amount — there may be in circulation of these spurious debentures it seems there is no clue whatever, for the Government authorities appear to be quite as much in the dark as the public. If there has been a book of two hundred and fifty of these five pound debentures clandestinely removed from some one of the offices, in their course of being signed by the several parties, necessary for their completion, it is clear that there is a further sum of twelve hundred and fifty pounds thus fradulently in circulation, — and, indeed, the number and amount of these forged debentures, we seriously believe, cannot, at all, be calculated. This delinquency is attributed, by some, wholly to one and the same person who forged and issued those of a smaller sum ; but we are of the same opinion as in the former instance, that there are more than one person implicated in this forgery aad fraud :—whatever may be the real truth, it is perfectly evident that those who have had the superintendence of the manufacture and issue of these debentures, are most highly culpable and reprehensible. The Government must do something, promptly, on this most important subject, or else the whole of this paper issue will be, not only considerably depreciated, but its currency will be dificult. If it is intended that debentures, under the value of £50, are still to continue to form part of the circulating medium of the colony, the Government should immediately recall all the outstanding small notes, and institute a proper office for their manufacture and issue, under responsible persons of talent and honesty, in whom confidence could be placed. The new issue should be printed with blue ink; and during the process . of printing them, there should be some one, ileputed by the Colonial Treasurer, present, and as soon as the number lequired was struck off, the " form" of types should be carried away and deposited in the custody of the Colonial Treasurer ; — and to prevent also, with certainty, any attempt, or possibility of forged issues, by abstraction of the printed forms from any one of the offices, there should be adopted the precaution — that after the signatures of the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, and of the Colonial Treasurer, are affixed, these Government Debentures should be stamped with the seal of the colony. This seal of the colony — most important as it is, is a stamp made with much labor and expense, in England, and consequently, impossible of correct imitation here — should be in the indvidual charge and keeping, either of the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, or the Colonial Treasurer, and never used but in their actual presence, in stamping debentures, or any other document. If the paper used for debentures was of proper consistency, this application of the seal of the coloDy, in the presence only of the officer made responsible for its use, would render them incapable of forgery, and thus impart confidence as to their validity* The present {system is as disgraceful to the Government as it is injurious lo the public. — New Zealander.