New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, March 24, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 172, 24 March 1847, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, March 24, 1847.

The late hour at which we received Justitia's letter, must be our excuse for not entering into any lengthened comments upon itWe were certainly surprised to find our remarks last Saturday considered as a warm eulogium of his Excellency's conduct. Our chief anxiety was to give a .correct matter of fact account of the settlement of the Land Claims in this district and at Wairau, from such sources as are open to any inquirer, for we do not profess to have received any peculiar information, or to have any fresh lights upon the subject, and in giving this account we expressed our satisfaction that this harassing question had been finally disposed of ; we stated that the arrangement had been made in a fair and liberal spirit, and attributed to his Excellency's firmness his success in accomplishing what all who had previously attempted it had failed in effecting — namely the settlement "of the Land Claims. We do not think that our observations were calculated to draw forth the angry and violent attack of our correspondent, still less do we think it necessary to vindicate ourselves from any charge of unworthy truckling, — or of prostituting the power of the Press to dishonest purposes — we are not conscious of being actuated by any other motive or feeling in the expression of our opinion on the different acts of his Excellency's administration than that which must influence the judgment of every settler who contrasts it with that of his Excellency's predecessor, and sees an earnest desire to promote the good of the settlement operating on the part of the Local Government, in the place of an inveterate hostility towards it. Above all, our opinions on the subject of the Wairau Massacre are too well known and too often recorded to allow us to suppose that any one can fairly impute to us a desire of casting a stigma upon the memory of its unfortunate victims. Without entering then into any laboured examination of our correspondent's statements, and certainly without indulging in the bitter spirit he has displayed, we think it is a subject of satisfaction that, the Land Claims are disposed of by the Government without again recurring to force. What has been the chief cause of the distraction, the harassing anxieties, and troubles endured by the settlers? What but the different annoyances and evils arising out of this complicated question, which at length had got to such a height , at the period of Capt. Fitzroy's recall as to threaten the destruction of the settlement. What but the troubled state of the colony consequent upon the non-settlement of the Land Claims has prevented emigration from the MotherCountry ?— And has not, enough blood been

force rather than by peaceable means ? Does he wish to have a renewal in this district of the disturbances and contests of last year, until intending settlers shall despair of any termination of the troubles of this colony ? We may well consider it a source of satisfaction that this harrassing question has been got rid of, without deserving our correspondent's taunts of retracting our former opinions ; — and his Excellency may claim credit for having consulted the real interests of the colony in his late arrangements without incurring in the minds of any dispassionate person the odium our correspondent would endeavour to throw upon him,.

A Proclamation was issued by his Excellency before his departure for Auckland, bearing date the 18th of March, in which the town and district of Wanganui, as laid down in the New Zealand Company's charts, is excepted from the Proclamation " repealing Martial Law," which will continue to be exercised in that district " until the Ist day of May, 1847."

Loss of the " Susannah Ann." — We are very sorry to have to record the loss of this fine schooner, belonging to W. Fitzherbert, Esq., off Queen Charlotte's Sound. The following we believe are the particulars. About 3 o'clock a. m. on Saturday last, the vessel got under weigh from Okokori in Queen Charlotte's Sound, and in half an hour reached the south entrance of the Sound ; the wind had died away and the tide swept her in shore towards the rocks. The anchor was let go, and as much chain as possible was given the vessel to keep her clear of the rocks ; but about a quarter of an hour afterwards she struck on a sunken rock by the stern, when the ship's boat was sent away with three hands to Mr. Thorns' station for assistance, but before they could get back the chain parted (the vessel having anchored on a rocky bottom) and she drove on the rocks. On the return of the boat the crew were unable to render any assistance, as the boat could not get near the vessel. About six o'clock the^ schooner knocked a hole through her larboard quarter, when the crew contrived to leave the vessel by the rigging. The lives of the crew were saved, but the vessel and cargo which consisted of spars are both lost. From the increasing coasting trade of this port the wreck of this vessel will be a severe loss to the community as well as to its enterprising owner.

In publishing the following rejoinder from Z. to Mr. Swainson's last letter, we may observe that in stating we did not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our correspondents, we wished the remark to apply to both j. arties, being desirous of remaining impartial in the controversy, and leaving our readers to form their own conclusions. We still regret the " Notes on Pastoral Agriculture," treating on a subject of great importance to the settlement, should have terminated so abruptly ; but since this has been the case, we may close the subject in the words of the poet : " Claudite jam rivos pueri, satprata biberunt."