ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 56, 1 November 1845, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator.

Sir, — In your observations concerning the sinecurists existing in the settlement in your last number but one, you appear to me to have omitted a very important consideration, which I trust, will not escape the new Governor. It is, no doubt, very unjust and very preposterous, that the southern district should be charged •with many thousand pounds for the expence of an official staff, that does nothing, but this is a trifle compared to the stigma attached to the inhabitants of the district for complaining that nothing is done. Strangers can have no idea that over and above being obliged to sustain a corps of idle government officers, we ure compelled to hear daily assertions, that in compliance with our request for a separate jurisdiction, the whole apparatus of an independent settlement has been confered on us, and that still we are not satisfied. People in Sydney or in England can hardly be expected to believe that at the time that a Superintendent and all the other officers were appointed it was carefully provided, that they should have no power of any kind whatsoever, and that consequently we are in reality still under the government at Auckland. We are obliged to pay for an independent jurisdiction, but we are as strictly dependent on the north for any measures of Government as the people at Auckland themselves. Add to this, that we have no communication with the so called capital oftener than once in two months, frequently not once in three months, and the picture of dependence and neglect with an expensive mockery of self Government is complete. I tepeat, that the amount of money given to the officers of Government is of trifling moment compared to what we suffer from the delusion which their existence has created and Better be under the Government of the Cape of Good Hope, between which and this place the communication might be as frequent as it is between us and Auckland, for the Governor of that colony might give us some useful hints respecting the management of the aborigines. He must be acquainted with the subject from dealing with the Caffies, and when be exercised his power, he would probably do it with some useful results. At present we are, as respects the Government of the settlement, in the most pitiable state that can well be conceived. Whatever measures respecting the natives are adopted in obedience to orders from Auckland, are dictated by the Chief Protector and must of necessity be erroneous, because the circumstances of Auckland and Cook's Straits are so essentially different. To those placed in the midst of a numerous native population measures may seem expedient which are sure to be inapplicable where comparatively no maoties exist. Thence it follows, that nothing is done. The officials here are purely obstructive, and yet we are obliged to pay them as if they were efficient public servants. Let us be independent of the north as respects the natives and we could manage the maories without difficulty, and without the cost of a farthing. We have no quarrel with them ; they do not wish to quarrel with us. They exchange pigs and potatoes for blankets and tobacco, and we are perfectly good friends, except when the Protectors interfere. Let the English law be administered impartially between the two races, and the settlers could obtain all the land they want. Let us also be independeut of the north as respects ourselves. We are a very peaceful community. A Police Magistrate could govern us with perfect ease. We warn none of the expensive machinery imposed on us by poor Fitzroy, and above all we pray to be delivered from a body whose only service rendered in return for its pay, is a continous assertion of its efficiency and a most offensive parade of reality. A new Governor ought to be informed that the settlements in Cook's Straits have not been governed at all, and that be may save the whole expence of pretending to govern them with perfect safety. Your's, &c, Q.