New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, April 7, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 176, 7 April 1847, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, April 7, 1847.

It is currently reported that an attempt will shortly be made to bring over from Nelson the Examiner, and establish it in this settlement in opposition to the New Zealand Spectator. As there are already two newspapers in this settlement it may be fairly presumed they are amply sufficient for the requirements of the settlers. Each has its supporters and its own class of readers, but it is worthy of remark that both journals agree in condemnation of the New Zealand Company, and in praising the general line of policy pursued by our present Governor. When therefore we see in a small community two journals established, which are otherwise opposed to each other and yet agree on these main points, they may be fairly taken as the index of the opinions of their subscribers. To attempt then to establish a third paper in the same community on the same principles would be a manifest absurdity, " a wasteful and ridiculous excess." But, as we have before said, this attempt will be made avowedly in opposition to the Spectator, and therefore the principles and policy of the new journal must be antagonistic. If, for example, we represent as the opinions of the community in which this journal circulates and by which it is supported, that the New Zealand Company is viewed with general distrust, that it has forfeited the confidence of the settlers, because after the struggle for existence against the common enemy was over, in which both were engaged, and in which, but for the hearty and zealous co-operation of the settlers, the Company must have failed, they (the Company) sought only their own advantage and repudiated their liability to the settlers ; if we assert that the Company are falselyrepresentingtheirinterests.and those of the settlers as identical, and that their scheme of a Proprietary Government which they cling to with such pertinacity, and which even yet they have not altogether abandoned, is universally denounced and rejected in the southern settlements ; an attempt must be made by means of this projected journal to show that these are not the sentiments of the settlers, and that the interested representations of the Company are correct, j Again, if after a -careful review of the policy pursued by his Excellency we find him actuated with a sincere desire to promote the best interests of the settlement, if on comparing the condition of the colony on his accession to the Government with its present state, and duly weighing the advantages which have resulted from his firm and consistent administration, we give our honest unbiassed testimony in his favour, and describe the satisfaction of our fellow settlers with his measures and their confident reliance on his judicious decision of the difficult questions which still remain to be disposed of ; our future contemporary will no doubt be employed to represent the press as having " prostituted its power to dishonest '"purposes" in expressing these sentiments as the general opinion. In a word we believe that in this threatened opposition an attempt is to be made to establish a journal which shall advocate the interests of the New Zealand Company and offer a factious opposition to his Excellency's Government. We come next tb consider who are the originators and promoters of this scheme. There can be little doubt that the Company's Agent would gladly give to such a project all the assistance in his power to secure some

organ which shall advocate in the future ca- ' pital of the southern settlements the interests of his employers : the correspondence which has recently appeared in our columns will also enable our readers to form a conjecture as to others connected with it, if indeed this scheme was not with the parties we allude to a foregone conclusion; deliberately formedlong since and only waiting a pretext to be carried into execution, and perhaps our present notice may save these agitators further trouble in canvassing the community. No one will be greatly surprised at the violence of our correspondent who has been doing double duty under different signatures (like two single gentlemen rolled into one), we could wish him a little more taste, but we may safely leave his letters to the good sense and judgment of our readers without our wasting urther thought upon them : but the course pursued by Justitia has excited general disgust andfcstonishment. Is it possible that he who could formerly repel with so much energy the bare imputation of a coldness towards his Excellency, who could glow with such virtuous indignation at " the underhand and dishonest schemes of the Company" in attempting to procure his Excellency's removal from the government of New Zealand before they had even heard of his arrival there, — is this the chosen instrument to traduce the Governor, to misrepresent his acts, to confound two questions essentially different, and to use the names of the honoured dead as a weapon of faction ? After having poured forth his furious diatribes, and emptied the vials of his wrath upon the New Zealand Company for their contemptuous indifference to the interests of the settlers ; after demanding compensation from them in the name of the settlers for the loss they have incurred from the Company's inability to fulfil their contract now of seven years standing, is he the first to reproach the Governor because he has placed the Company, in a position to discharge some of these obligations ?—? — "Who but must laugh, if such a man there be ! Who would not weep, if Atticus were he !" We denounce this attempt of a few factious individuals to cause division in the community, to misrepresent their sentiments t and endeavour to create a diversion in favour of the Company by attacking the Governor. It remains to be seen whether the settlers will tamely submit to the imperious dictation of these interested agitators, and change their opinions every six months at their bidding ; — or whether they will by a firm and public expression of their opinion put down these plotters, and render their insidious attempts abortive. If our opponents represent, as they aver, the sentiments of the settlers — if, as Justitia asserts, the settlers halt between two opinions, and heI sitate to give their sanction to the arrange- | ment effected by his Excellency, why do they not throw aside the thin disguise which serves to cover their present proceedings, and boldly meet their fellow-settlers face to face. Then, after their Coryphaeus has vented his bitterness on his Excellency for putting the settlers in a position to hold their properties by the best title the British law allows, instead of continuing tenants at will of the Maories, after he has exhausted his invectives against his Excellency for restoring tranquillity to the settlement, for removing the impediments which opposed its progress and checked its prosperity, and for having placed the New Zealand Company in aposition to dojusticeto their purchasers ; let them move a resolution condemning in the strongest terms the late settlement of the land claims, when we pledge ourselves to move the following amendment — " That the settlers view with great satisfaction the recent settlement of the Land Claims at Porirua and Wairau by his Excellency Captain Grey, and consider that in these arrangements his Excellency has consulted the real interests of the colony." We dare them now to this course, and are content to leave the decision of this question to the good sense and right feeling of our fellow-settlers. If, contrary to our confident belief, the suffrages of the community should decide in condemnation of Capt. Grey's policy, and declare their willingness that the New Zealand Company should

again obtain the ascendancy in these settlements, and sq pave the way for a Proprietary Government ; if, by joining with these plotters, they shall justify the taunt of Cap-* tain Fitzroy's friends — that no Governor — not even an angel from heaven would satisfy the factious settlers of New Zealand — we shall be ready to acknowledge we have strangely mistaken the public sentiment ; — till then, we shall believe we have -given a faithful expression to the feelings and opinions of our fellow-colonists — and have refused to " prostitute the power of the Press to the dishonest purposes" of a small and interested faction — by allowing them to misrepresent the public opinion.

The detachment of the 65th Regiment, stationed at the Hutt, under Capt. O'ConnelL has liberally subscribed the sum of £1:3:0 towards the purchase of a horse and cart for the boy John Cuthby, who lost his arm by a gun shot wound a few months since.

The Royal William arrived yesterday morning from Queen Charlotte's Sound with the spars, &c. forming part of the cargo of the Susannah Ann, which was wrecked there a short time since.

"Wellington Savings Bank. — Mr. Mocatta, Mr. Northwood, Mr. Perry, and Capt. Sharp, the Managers in rotation, will attend to receive deposits at Messrs. Johnson & Moore's store, from seven to eight o'clock on Saturday evening, the 10th April, 1847, and at the Union Bank of Australia, from twelve to one o'clock on Monday forenoon, the 12th April.

Statement of all monies received by P. J). Hogg, Esq., Sub-Collector of Her Majesty's Customs at the Port of Wellington, from the 6th January, to the sth of April 1847, both days inclusive :—: — Spirits, 6691 13-60 gals ,at ss. 1672 16 1 Cigars & Snuffs (Cigars)s63 Jibs, at 2s. 67 7 0 Tobacco 1 8393 lbs# at ls _ 419 13 0 manufact. J Do. unmanufactured lbs. at 9d. Ad Valorem Dnty 1908 3 11 Total amount of Duties . . £4057 0 0