New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 15, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 248, 15 December 1847, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 15, 1847.

We have reprinted from one of the numbers of the Australian recently received, an article on New Zealand affairs originally published at Adelaide in the South Australian Register, The editor of the Australian, who " heartily commends this paper to the perusal" of his readers, imagines he " can discover in the accomplished writer, a gentleman whose forensic talents not long since, shone pre-eminent in the principal of the Southern settlements." And our readers will find little difficulty in detecting in its artful sophistries, in its subtle perversions, the style of Captain Fitzroy's legal adviser in this settlement. j The writer, under a specious affectation for philanthropy, really desires to gratify his old grudge against the New Zealand Company. Into this quarrel we do not choose to enter, but when he can coolly compare Rangihaeata's rebellion and the outbreak atWanganui to the noble struggle of the Tyrolese aganist the tyranny of Napoleon, when he attempts to excite a sympathy in favour of robbers and murderers whose voluntary advocate and champion he claims to be, we know not ! whether to wonder most at his modest assurance, or the credulity and ignorance oi those on whom his statements may impose. " The war in the South," on which this writer expatiates, consists of two distinct series of operations, the expulsion of the rebels from the Hutt, and the murders and subsequent outbreak at Wanganui. In referring to the former he enlarges on the destruction of the crops, the piunder of the property, the burning of the houses and chapel of these maori patriots, on the land *' which they claimed as their property," by the direction of Captain Grey, " without any legal formalities." But he carefully suppresses the fact that these men who were expelled from the Hutt had no rightful claim to the land, that even Mr. Spain in his report expressly states that if their claim had been brought before him "in his judicial capacity, in the exercise of his best judgment, he should have decided against it." He omits to state that the land had been twice paid for, and was acknowledged by the Commissioner to have been fairly purchased ; that these men were thieves and murderers (some I of them notorious as principal actors in the | tragedy of the Wairau), outcasts from every tribe ; he abstains from all allusion to the j cold-blooded and detestable murders of the Gillespies anJ Rush, or of the plunder of the settlers on the Hutt and Waiwetu, when upwards of two hundred settlers were driven from their homes by these patriots, of whose cause he is the special advocate. He omits to mention (from modesty no doubt) the share he had in the matter ; and how he, along with the other officials on whom Capt. Grey relied for information and advice, misled the Governor on' that memorable occasion. Or let us refer to Wanganui, one of the " smaller settlements in the neighbourhood of Port Nicholson, which has been destroyed or abandoned," as another instance "of the rash and arbitrary proceedings" of the Government, as " a signal instance of combined injustice and folly." — What are the facts of the case ?—ln? — In the midst of a general and unsuspecting confidence on the part of the settlers and troops, women and children were murdered by the natives without any provocation under circumstances of peculiar and aggravated atrocity; and the prompt execution of the murderers became the signal for a general outbreak in that settlement. The policy pursued by the Government at Wanganui has been remarkable for its moderation rather than for any-harsh or arbitrary proceedings, it has been rather a system of defence than of aggression, ending at last in a peace of which no one is proud, and of which the result is very questionable. If ever severe measures were warranted by the justice of the case, the blood of these victims of maori violence cried aloud for a signal retribution — Again mark the perversion of one " skilled to make the worse appear the better side" — the" art-

ful colouring which would elevate thieve* and murderers into honest laborious cultivators of the soil, into heroes and patriots:— by descanting "on their advancement in the arts of agriculture, their election* of a mill to grind their produce" — attributing" to them the labours of natives friendly to the settlers and in alliance with them — But we trust we have sufficiently exposed the sophistries and perversions of this writer to prevent his misleading any of our readers out of New Zealand — in this settlement his statements are not likely to deceive any one.

The Woodstock arrived on Saturday after a favourable passage of fourteen days from Twofold Bay. She has been remarkably fortunate with "her stock having lost only one out of one hundred and fifty one head of cattle, and twenty-five out of six hundred sheep.

The Supply which arrived on Sunday evening from Nelson, brings intelligence of .the arrival of- the Ralph Bernal at that settlement on the 3rd inst. The Ralph Bernal sailed on Thursday for New Plymouth and Wellington, and has on board the Wellington mail. The Racehorse arrived at Nelson on Friday last.

Programme of the Performance by the Band of tbe 65th Regiment at Te Aro* mn Friday, the 1 8th December : — 1. Overture — Fra Diavolo Auber. 2. Ballad— Scenes that are brightest— Maritana Wallace. 3. Grand Quadrille Ernani Jullien. 4. Original Polonaise Jullien. 5. Fleur de Marie Valse Barret. 6. Selection — Crusaders Benedict* 7. Galop Walck. 8. Camelia Polka Jullien.