New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, October 21, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 128, 21 October 1846, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, October 21, 1846.

By the Auckland we have received New Zealanders to the 3d October. In the Government Gazette it is notified that the Legislative Council would meet for the despatch of business on the sth ult., and Mess. ■W. Donelly, A. Domett, and A. Kennedy were gazetted as the non-ofifcial members of the Council. The-NewZecdander contains a list of' the Ordinances to be submitted to the consideration of the Legislative Council, which will be found in another part of our paper.. . The same journal contains a memorial of certain inhabitants of Auckland and its vicinity to his Excellency the Governor on the subject of obtaining a title to lands acquired under the authority of Captain Fitzroy's penny-an-acre proclamation, with his Excellency's reply, together with a minute of an interview which the memorialists had with his Excellency, which will be found

Gazette also contains a memorial from certain settlers in the district of Tamaki, who had purchased land from the Government, complaining of the injury they had sustained in the depreciation of their property from the effects of the penny-an-acre proclamation, together with his Excellency's reply: — which, for want of room, we have deferred to our next number. His Excellency's replies to. these memorials will, we are sure, give the utmost satisfaction to the great majority of the settlers in New Zealand, to all in short who are not immediately connected with the land-shark-ing speculations which have been so extensively carried out at the North, for which the penny-an-acre proclamation appears to have been expressly framed, and against which the settlers of the Southern settlements have constantly and most strongly protested. The proclamation was one of the most monstrous innovations attempted by Capt. Fitzroy, it was a deliberate attempt to destroy thevalue of land, as his debentures were to depreciate the value of all other property. The illegality of this proclamation, its direct opposition to the Act of Parliament regulating the sale of waste lands in the colonies, and to the Land Claims Ordinance, the injurious consequences that would result from its operation, its gross injustice and impolicy have been repeatedly demonstrated in this Journal. This is one of the legacies which Captain Fitzroy has bequeathed to his successor,, one of the tangled skeins that has been left for him to unravel, and every one who has the true interests of the colony, or of the aboriginal inhabitants at heart, relies implicitly on the firmness and integrity of his Excellency in applying a remedy to these evils, — "in doing such justice to all the interests concerned, as upon mature inquiry may be found practicable." The limits of a single article would fail were we to attempt to point out all the important interests affected by these claims; it may be sufficient for our present purpose to shew their suicidal effect on the prosperity of the Northern district by the annihilation of the revenue, which, under the operation of the Land Claims Ordinance, and the progressive increase of colonisation, would be derived by the Crown from the sales of land, and which would be applied to the purposes of immigration, to the construction of roads, bridges, and other internal improvements, and to the amelioration of the condition of the natives, and their advancement in civilisation. All these important advantages are to be sacrificed : — for what ? — for the benefit of a few greedy speculators who hoped to profit by the weakness and imbecillity of our late ruler, who desire to advance their private interests at the expense of the colony, and the destruction of all settled principles of colonisation. These men complain of the want of labour, and yet endeavour to destroy the source from which an immigration fund would be provided ; they affect to talk "of a just and equitable system for regulating the purchases of land from the natives," while they deprive the natives by these claims of the advantage accruing to them under the Land Claims Ordinance, by which from 15 'to 20 per cent, of the land revenue is set apart for their benefit. They clamour for roads and other improvements, and prevent this source from which a fund for these improvements is to be obtained from yielding any revenue ; they cry out for more land, although, it is notorious that not one-twentieth part of the land at the North for which Crown grants were so lavishly issued by Captain Fitzroy is beneficially occupied.. These are some of the mischiefs, resulting from Capt. Fitzroy's prodigality and capricious imbecillity ; and it is no light task imposed on his Excellency to restore order out of these jarring and discordant elements. Our great security lies in his determination to put an end to these evils, and to return to those fixed principles, the result of matured wisdom and experience, from I which his predecessor so widely and lamentably departed, but the steady adherence to which has produced such eminently succeisful results in South Australia, and which we may hope under his Excellency's judicious administration will be attended with equal success in this colony.

It is very generally reported that extensive I and important changes are contemplated in the Government of New Zealand, and that the Southern settlements will be united into

under a Lieutenant-Governor and a separate Legislative Council, with "Wellington as the capital. Representative institutions are also talked of, and important alterations in the present method of administering justice in the police courts, &c. We give these as reports which it is highly probable the next arrival from England or Auckland will confirm. In the mean time, we may state it to be the general opinion that this is the last time the Council will hold its sittings at Auckland as the Legislative Council of New Zealand.

The following gentlemen have been appointed magistrates of this colony: — Alfred Domett, Esq., of Nelson ; Alexander Kennedy, Esq., of Auckland; Richard Baker, Esq., of Wellington ; Alexander M'Donald, Esq., of Wellington; and David Monro, Esq., of -Nelson.

H. M. S. Calliope returned from Kapiti on Saturday evening. The .following* day the prisoners who had been tried by Court Martial were transferred to H. M. Steamer Driver, and towards the afternoon she proceeded to Auckland. Rauparaha, Charley, and the other prisoners taken at Porirua still remain in custody on board the Calliope.

Thb Barque Auckland, Capt. Cutter, arrived on Sunday from Boston via Auckland. She was built expressly for the New Zealand trade, and freighted with a cargo of Notions adapted to this market which will be sold by Auction To-morrow by Messrs." James Smith St. Co. She will take in a return cargo of New Zealand produce, and will be a regular trader to New~ Zealand. She is built on an excellent model, and is, we understand, a regular clipper.

Tutu. — Last week a settler living in the country, a short distance from Wellington, was induced to try an experiment with the young shoots of the tutu, which he had made into a tart, and of which from its agreeable flavour he and his family partook heartily. They shortly afterwards, however^began to suffer from the poisonous effects of the plant, and the experiment might have terminated fatally, if one of the family who had been absent at dinner time, had not in the mean time returned, and seeing what had happened, immediately ran to procure the assistance of their neighbours. Fortunately by their timely aid, and in the , absence of other remedies, -by the use of mustard as an emetic, tKe different members of the family who had partaken of this meal, were relieved from their immediate ' danger, and have since recovered from the effects of their experiment.

Wellington Savingsßank. — Mr. Thomas Waters, James Wilson, Rev. J. Watkins, and Mr. Henry St. Hill, the Managers in rotation, will attend to receive deposits at Mr. Ross's office, from seven to eight o'clock on Saturday- evening, the 24th Oct., and at the Union Bank of Australia, from twelve to one o'clock on Monday forenoon, the 26th October.