PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. [From the New Zealand Journal, August 29.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 157, 30 January 1847, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. [From the New Zealand Journal, August 29.]

House of Lords. — Tuesday, Aug. 18. The royal assent was given by commission to thirty public and private bills; among which were the Sugar Duties Bill (No. 3), the Religious Opinions Relief Bill, and the New Zealand Company Bill. Van Diemen's Land. — Earl Grey presented a petition very numerously signed from the colonists of Van Diemen's Land, stating the grievances to which they were subjected — grievances which he could not say were not substantiated — and urging the want of a representative government. The state of the colony was well deserving of consideration. It would receive the attention of Government duringthe recess, and next session they would bring the subject before Parliament. The Waste Lands (Australia) Bill. — The report on this bill was received. The amendments were agreed to, and the bill was ordered to be engrossed. House op Commons. New Zealand. — On the motion that the New Zealand Loan Act Amendment Bill be committed, Mr. Hume inquired whether any rule was laid down respecting the sale of lands in New Zealand, or whether matters remained as they had been ? Mr. Hawes observed that it was quite impossible for him at that moment to say that any rule was absolutely laid down, but the matter was before the Colonial-office. The bill then passed through committee. The New Zealand Government Bill went through committee. Mr. Hume complained of the complicated nature of the machinery laid down in the bill for carrying on the government of New Zealand. Mr. Buller said the object of the bill was to give a representative government to New

Zealand, and the arrangements were not more complicated than were found to be absolutely necessary. Wednesday, Augt. 19. New Zealand. — The Loan Act Amendment Bill and the Government Bill were reported. House op Lords. — Thursday, Aug. 20. British Possessions Bill. — The Earl of Clarendon moved the second reading of this bill The Earl of Ellenborough said, that as Parliament had been pleased to decide that this country should have no advantage over foreign nations, it was impossible to attack the measure on the ground of inconsistency ; but he thought it would be better to postpone it, and, having taken care to ascertain the wishes of the colonists in the interval, the Government might next year more advantageously introduce a measure which would have the effact of securing uniformity as regarded the duties levied in the different colonies. There was another subject to which he wished to refer, and upon which he desired to elicit some expression of opinion from the Government. If they acted on the strict principles of free trade, and on those principles alone, he did not see how they were to refuse a demand, on the part of the colonies, for free trade in ships as well as free trade in goods, freight being the most material element in the price of the article imported. He knew the deep importance of that subject ; and as public security was of infinitely more importance than the principles of free trade, he would be prepared, at any cost, to resist the claim, should it ever be made. It was true that our seamen aud shipping increased at present with the increase of our trade ; but then the seamen and shipping of other nations increased in a greater proportion, and, since all force was relative, it was upon our relative superiority, and not upon our absolute strength, that our security as a nation must depend. He was most anxious, therefore, to learn from his noble friend, as a member of her Majesty's Government, in what spirit the Government were prepared to deal with the navigation laws, and whether they were prepared to sacrifice those laws to the principles of free trade. Earl Grey said, that in tbe first part of his remarks, his noble friend had overlooked the present state of affairs in the colonies. Unfortunately there had hitherto been anything but uniformity in the levying of taxes by the different colonies ; and no new equality would be created by the bill under consideration, though it would give the colonial legislature the power of repealing the existing differential duties. Though it was impossible to do more than had been proposed in the present session he hoped it would not be supposed that, in passing this bill, Parliament abandoned the right it had always claimed, of regulating the general trade of the colonies and the mother country in the manner which it thought most conducive to the interests of the whole empire. With regard to the navigation laws, he would only remark, that their maintenance seemed to him to rest upon grounds totally distinct from those which were connected with duties on import. There were interests of a very different character concerned ; and the coloj nial interest enjoyed its full share of the advantages now attached to British shipping. In the North American colonies especially, the number of registered ships was very great, and the colonists, therefore, were interested in maintaining the existing navigation laws. That was a question involving very large and important considerations, and it would be extremely rash then to say more than this, that no alteration ought to be made in those laws which could in any way lead either to injure or to diminish the exient of our commercial marine. The Earl of Ellenborough expressed a hope that in any instructions which might be sent to India, the Government of that colony might be left to decide for itself whether it was expedient for the trade and interests of the country that the duties should be altered. The bill was then read a second time. The Waste Lands (Australia) Bill was read a third time. House of Commons. New Zealand. — The Loan Act Amendment Bill was read a third time and passed. The New Zealand Government Bill was also read a third time. Mr. Hume said be did not object to the passing of the bill, although it was one of the most complicated bills he ever knew. He valued it because it gave a system of representation to a portion of our fellow subjects, and he hailed it as the first of a series, which would confer upon every colony which was not now in possession of a representative government the power of managing its own affairs, instead of being dependent upon the Colonial-office at home. House oi Lords. — Aug. 24. Lord Ellenborough presented a petition from Mr. William Brown, against the New Zealand Government Bill.