AUCKLAND. [From the Southern Cross, April 7.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 389, 25 April 1849, Page 3

AUCKLAND. [From the Southern Cross, April 7.]

Court Martial. — A General Court Martial commenced its sittings on Monday last to investigate, by command of the Major General, the following charge against Lieutenan Owen Wynne Gray, Staff Officer of New Zealand Pensioners : — " For scandalous infamous conduct unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman, in getting up, and attempting to support, in an unjustifiable and improper manner, disgraceful charges agaiost his senior officer, Captain Charles Henry Montressor Smith, Staff Officer of New Zealaud Pensioners — which charges so got up, and so attempted to be supported by Lieutenant Owen Wynne Gray, were found by the General Court Martial by which they were investigated at Auckland, New Zetland, from the Bth day of February, to the 3rd of March, 1849, to be totally without foundation ; such conduct on the part of LieutenaMt Gray being subversive of all discipline and subordination in the Pensioner Corps, and calculated to bring discredit on Her Majesty's Service." The Court is composed of Colonel Bolton, President, Captains Henderson and Parrot, Lieutenants Petler, Herbert, and Page, and Ensign i Cervantes ; Brigade Major Greenwood acting as Judge Advocate. At this stage of the proceedings, it would of course be improper to -make any remarks on the case, and we should not do to. We cannot refrain from saying, however, that investigations of this description, affecting so deeply the character and. status of officers in her Majesty's service, have a very painful interest anywhere, but especially so in a small community like this. We have lately had a very long and disagreeable investigation of charges of a very serious nature against Captain Smith above referred to — these charges were declared to be unfounded by a Court Martial — and, as a sort of counter-part to these proceedings, the prosecutor becomes the prosecuted in the present case. The charge is couched in language of the strongest character, — doubtless in accordance with the practice of such courts, — though we must say it sounds very harsh in our civilian ears, before conviction, , Hokianga. — We are happy to' ftnd from the following remarks, of our correspondent, that the serious native quarrel between two powerful tribes, the Kaituttes and Te Hikutu, have at last been settled without bloodshed. "The natives here have made peace jujsU^ they were about going to fight in good earnest! i

A report was spread in Hokianga that the long talked of town at Okaihau had been actually commenced ; upon which Te Atua Wera (native priest and astrologer), went to the Kaitutaes and called up Na Kihi (the evil spirit), who declared that he (Te Na Kahi), was about to have a great war with the pakehas, and that he requested the maories to make peace with each other, so that they might be at leisure to watch the motions of the foreigners, and be ready for action. Upon this the Kaetutaes at once agreed to make peace with the Hikutu, and all was settled. The report about the township,, I believe, originated in some preparation that Waka is making for building a mill. But although the report turned out to be false, it shows very plainly what the native feeling is on the subject. There bad been some skirmishes between the two tribes, but as no one was killed outright, they were satisfied to make peace. Had any deaths occurred, however, one of the most serious native wars that has taken place for a long period would have ensued. The Kaitutaes, at one time, mustered 400 men. Te Kitutu did not send to the other Ngapuhi tribes, being determined to try what they could do alone. Our Bay of Islands correspondent mentions that a case of horse-whipping, followed by a challenge, and posting, had just taken place. The parties were a private gentleman aud one of the officers, but as the latter has been placed under arrest preparatory to further proceedings, we deem it at present improper to state particulars. — Ibid., April 24. The Rev. Thomas Buddie, by request of the committee appointed at the public meeting, has, we are informed, prepared a memorial, in the native tongue, addressed to her Majesty the Queen, praying that she will graciously be pleased to avert the curse of convictism from these shores. This memorial having been drawn up for native signature, it strikes us that it might not only be well to cause it to be circulated by means of the Maori Messenger, but that it might, moreover, prove judicious, were his Excellency the Governor, through the same channel, to direct the native attention to the subject, and endeavour to elicit their opinion thereupon. — New Zealander.

The following description of the evils of Convictism is extracted from the Neic Zealander: — We shall best discharge our own duty by submitting a few of the fruits of convictism to the public gaze, and as our fields of observation have been variousj and our opportunities of acquiring information have been ample, we trust our exposition may assist our fellow colonists in arriving at a just and honourable conclusion. In its earliest stage, transportation caused an appropriation of the felon labourers almost exclusively to the service of the Crown. But, as convicts became more numerous, and, as the officers and men of the Marines, (the original guards,) were tempted to settle in New South Wales and Noifolk Island, an arrangement was entered into with the local government whereby the prisoner was transferred from public to private service. This was emphatically termed takiny a government man off the store / It occurred first at Norfolk Island, in January 1792, and was the origin of that Assignment System, which, in conjunction with the free grant system, not only/breed New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, to a pitch of prosperity unparalleled in all prevous history, but proved to be the undeniable cause of the creation of Western Australia, Southern Australia, Port Phillip and New Zealand, and pari passu, of the immense traffic now ranging the previously savage and disregarded Southern Ocean. Whatever its comparatively trifling defects of detail, the assignment system, as a whole, was the perfection of prison discipline. Every alteration has been but a farther departure from the common sense practicability of its work, which dealt with men — bad men though they were — as reasoning beings, not as with automatons to be moulded into shape according to the crude and crotchety misconceptions of an ephemeral clerk in office. When a convict ship arrived, the mechanics and artizans having been drafted for government employ, the remainder were disposed of to the inhabitants of the towns and the settlers in the interior. The men were thus distributed and dispersed, their bad connections were broken, and they were placed in a condition to begin the world anew ; — a ticket of leave in eight, emancipation in fourteen years, and an ultimate feee pardon, being the inducement to the good behaviour of life convicts ; a proportionately less term being awarded for those under a seven or fourteen years sen- j tence. For misconduct, there was the lash, (a great mistake), and the road gang. That great private tyranny occurred, no one ! will attempt to deny, but it was the exception, not the rule, and for this very simple reason, that it was repulsive to a humane master, and inconvenient to an oppressive one, who had

frequently a great distance to travel to a police magistrate, and who often failed to substantiate bis charge. The master of an assigned servant, if he did his duty, was likewise his mentor ; no.t perhaps so much from inclination, as from an anxiety to possess a quiet establishment — Mid that such successful results were achieved, we need only point in triumphant demonstration to the Ticket of Leave Men ofVan.Diemen'a Land, from 1824 to 1840, the very elite of the labourers of the colony. And these men, of the most anomalous and incongruous materials, were the morally and socially reformed by the assignment system. But assignment had its dark as well as its sunny side. It placed a perilous amount of filthy patronage at the disposal of a convict Governor, and his cringing satellites. In short, assignment was but- a faint and chequer* ed gleam of doubtful light in relief .of the sombre colouring of a dreary picture. In the distribution of assigned convicts, the most unfair and unscrupulous patronage wis observed. The requirements of the colopy were naught when brought into contact with the character, or rather, the no character, of the applicant. A sturdy, independent, English farmer, regardless .of king or kaiser, would have a weaver, spinner, chimney-sweep-er, or swell mobsman, assigned to his service ; whilst a cringing, crawling sycophant — even if a townsman — would, as if in very despite, be awarded an excellent ploughman, bullock driver, horse-keeper, or other practical farm labourer. A more debasing means of tongue-tying a community — a more' feudal system of villainage, it would be impossible to imagine. A governor could, (and, in more cases than that of Mr. William Bryan, Sir George Arthur did), trump up the most false and unjust pleas to damage individuals by denying them this colonial indulgence, and by summary withdrawal of all their assigned servants. The minions of power could have any number, and change that number as they pleased, whilst the man who dared to act and think for himself, would be scantily supplied, and then only with the refuse. It would fill a volume to give but an inkling of the many malversations in tbe assignment system. An ignoramus, but a pander, frequently obtained credit for that good husbandry which was essentially attributable to the good servants his plastic disposition secured for him. We have said that artizans and mechanics were appropiated by government. Here, again, arose a fertile means of subjecting a people anxious to improve their circumstances, acquire a competence, and return to their native land. From out the government artizans, there were loan gangs formed, such as sawyers, carpenters, stone masons, brickmakers, bricklayers, plasterers, and the like. These artificers were lent, for various periods, to settlers, to assist them in the construction of their bouses, out-buildings, and other improvements. In these loans, favouritism still reigned triumphant, and it has been broadly asserted, and as firmly believed, that many officials and privileged persons not only perverted the praisewerthy design in the establishment of such gangs, by prostituting their interest to obtain remission of sentence for the felon workmen, but even " danced" the use of crown materials in private buildings. Hard winking, however, always has, and always will work wonders. Under the best defined system, convict labour will always prove infinitely less productive than free labour. Fortunately we can substantiate the assertion by peculiarly applicable and undeniable proof. The Crown land at Norfolk Island, cleared and cropped in September, 1791, three years and a half, after its occupation, amounted to one hundred and ninety acres, whilst that of the handful of settlers, who did not commence till long after, reached to Wo hundred and fifty acres, a tolerable good proof of the superiority of free industry. An ad captandum cry of " convict slaves," elicited by the transportation committee of 1837-8, sealed the fate of assignment, and called forth a splutter of much virtuous indignation — to achieve what ? Not to subvert transportation, but to cause it to assume a more pernicious form, and to pour its stream, which had hitherto been divided between New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, in one unbroken volume upon the latter colony. The generality of the Tasmamans, indulging in indistinct visions of a mighty commissariat expenditure, hugged the pollution. They did not see that the coin for the beef and mutton, which they could not supply, would find its way to enrich emancipated Australia; nor, were they sufficiently prescient to discover that the felon probation stations were soon to become rival farms, to the destruction of their own settlers. The denouncers of the alleged horrors of assignment were silent with respect to the in»finitely greater infamies, inseparable from the banding of men in gangs of three and four hundred in the solitudes of primeval forests.

These prison-discipline doctrinaires detected and deprecated the fostering of vice, " more precocious and more appalling than that of the worst London stews," in permitting assignment in families to take place, and, with virtuous fervour, they rooted the abomination from the land-. They were, however, most philosophically indifferent to the employment of a tenfold worse class of felons, called passholders, by those very families so much the object of their titular zeal. They could proscribe the employment of convicts assigned from the ships that transported and dispersed them the moment those ships arrived, but they could view with complacency, at least without remonstrance, the hiring of felons by private families after those felons had cultivatedmorality during a four months' passage, and perfected their education by an eighteen months' or two years' probation in prison massei. The abhorrent iniquity, and the helpless impracticability of the probation system, achieved its downfall in Tasmania, but merely, it would seem, to cause its attempted enforcement in England, Gibraltar, and Bermuda. The venae, not the tactics, appear to be changed ; the only difference which we can perceive being that, under the appellation of ticket-of-leave-men, or the delusive title of «xiles, the felonry of Britain are to be let I loose upon the colonies of these seas, to dispute the just rights of free labourers and artizans, and to drive them to other lands unaccurst by the convict presence. This is the sort of plague, whose introduction here, we are this day called upon publicly to meet in order to denounce — and we trust it will be denounced markedly and manfully. We repeat, assignment, despite its evils and its defects, did much, very much, to advance New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land ; but, still, it was merely a skilful mitigation of a galling sore. It is an infliction to which a colony once set free would never revert. And since its extinction, transportatation has been but a series of brainless devices to inflict the most overpowering, intolerable, and unalloyed injuries. As a proof, look at Launceston, with two hundred and seventy-three of its houses untenanted; its free and freed labourers hastening from it to Adelaide and to Port Phillip by every ship. Consider the accessions of population we, ourselves, receive by every arrival from Hobart Town. Reflect upon Che fearful amount of sheep, cattle, and horse stealing, with which Tasmania abounds ; of bushranging and other brigandage wherewith she is infested ; and, ponder, above all, the immense amount of her summary convictions which never meet the public eye. To those unfamiliar with convict colonies, no idea can be conveyed of the character their felonry entails. The Government is of a despotic complexion absolutely startling ; — and the dignity and purity of its staff may be sufficiently estimated when we find that even a Chief Justice can be attempted to be brow beat into resignation of his office, to serve the purpose of an ephemeral viceroj ! With a Fouche police, which plays havoc with the colonial finances, and which is so much the slave of its immediate superiors as to have acquired the appropriate cognomen of "the Jannissaries ;" with a population so utterly depraved that Sir Alfred Stephen, whilst Attorney-General, declared, in open court, that he could procure an oath, on any subject, for a glass of rum ; in a land, where the system forced upon the unhappy settlers, is productive of espionage, public treachery, and fraud, what can we discover but a Beacon set up to warn — a Monitor to urge us to use every endeavour to avoid or to avert a like calamity. From convictism we cannot draw even a passing advantage. Tolerate but once its debasing introduction, and from that hour our moral happiness, and our material prosperity is for ever doomed.

The Penxonvillains at Portland. — Sixty Pentonville, Parkhurst, and other prisoners, arrived at Portland, on Thursday morning, per Sophia, and were landed within an hour of the vessel dropping her anchor. A report soon became current in town that they were a band of desperadoes, and would require severe police supervision to keep them in order. A requisition was instantly drawn up by the inhabitants, and addressed to the police magistrate and the other justices of the peace associated with him, which being numerously signed, wai presented in the forenoon to the bench, sitting at the time, by a deputation of the inhabitants. In anewer thereto* Mr. Blair stated that, from his own observation, and the opinion of his -brother justices (Messrs. S. G. Henty and H. Flower), confirmed by the apprehension of the inhabitants, he should appoint (if possible) six night watchmen, as a temporary preventive against* the commission of crime. With this assurance the deputation was perfectly satisfied, and the inhabitants relieved of the apprehension which had at first been created on learning their character. — Portland Guardian,

Thb following Petition to the Queen against the introduction of convicts into New Zealand, was unanimously agreed to at a public meeting at Auckland : — TohermostgraciousMajestytheCJueen. The humble petition of your Majesty's most loyal subjects, inhabitants of the district of Auckland, in the Province of New Ulster, in the territory of New Zealand, sheweth — That his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief has published in the New Zealand Government Gazette a despatch, dated the 3rd day of August, 1848, from the Right Honourable Earl Grey, your Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which it is stated that, if such a measure should be wished for by the inhabitants, his lordship would " be prepared to take the necessary steps for including New Zealand in the places into which convicts holding tickets- of-leave may be introduced." That your Majesty's petitioners cannot but express their extreme surprise, as well as their deep regret, that such a measure should ever have been contemplated, inasmuch as this colony was founded upon an express and positive guarantee, that convicts should not be permitted to degrade the character of its settlements, or pollute its population, by their presence, and they at once distinctly and solemnly declare that they entertain tne most decided and insuperable objection to tie introduction of convicts, under the name of " Exiles," as proposed by Earl Grey. That although this Northern Province is suffering most severely from the want of an adequate supply of labour, and your Majesty's petitioners would gladly welcome to their shores the poor, but honest, subjects of your Majesty, who are starving in their native land, yet, however great the object, your Majesty's petitioners can never consent to sacrifice the character of their adopted country, and to risk the safety of their persons and property, by voluntarily admitting amongst them those whose qualifications for the boon of removal to a land where plenty awaits them roust, from the present mild administration of the criminal law of England, be a conviction for at least an offence of a serious and aggravated nature. That the experience of the neighbouring colonies has fully convinced your Majesty's petitioners, that whatever may be the advantages gained by an adequate supply of labour at a reasonable rate (and such advantages your Majesty's petitioners fully value,) yet they would be infinitely more than counterbalanced by the loss of character to the colony, and the degradation and the crimes, which your Majesty's petitioners feel assured must necessarily follow frdm the adoption of such an expedient as that proposed by your Majesty's Secretary of State. That your Majesty's petitioners have no faith whatever in the hope derived by Earl Grey from the reformatory nature of the previous punishment inflicted on the holders of tickets-of-leave ; and your Majesty's petitioners are enabled to speak with some confidence in this respect, as they have already been subjected to an experiment with Parkhurst boys. That your Majesty's petitioners humbly assure your Majesty, that after the arrival of even those juvenile convicts, in whom great reformation was supposed to have been made, property became much more unsafe, and subject to pilfering and loss, than it had previously been ; and although those young delinquents did not contribute one-twentieth to the European population of this Province, yet for two years after their arrival, the committals for felony were doubled as compared with previous years, and more tban one-half of such offenders were emigrants from Parkhurst. That in addition to all the objections which can be urged against the introduction of " Exiles" into any of the neighbouring colonies, the number and character of the aboriginal population of New Zealand render it, in the opinion of yonr Majesty's petitioners, not only inexpedient but dangerous to carry out such an experiment here ; and your Majesty's petitioners feel most strongly that it is of the highest importance to the peace and prosperity of this territory that the Europeans, brought into contact with the aborigines, shouid, as much as possible, be of a different description and character from those proposed to be introduced by Earl Grey under the name of " Exiles." Your Majesty's petitioners, therefore, humbly, but most earnestly piay, that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to exclude New Zealand from the number of those places into which convicts holding tickets-of-leave may be introduced ; and thus at once relieve your Majesty's petitioners from the apprehension of any experiment which if carried out, they could not look upon in any other light than a serious calamity. And your Majesty's petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever prty._

Sarawak. — The following is a letter which appeared in the Englishman, in answer to a correspondent, who, under the lignature of " Tim the Broker," had enquired of the Edi-'

tor bow he could reach Sarawak, and what might be his prdßpecW in thfe Raja-lik of Sit James Brooke : — " I can inform your correspondent, Tim the Broker, that if he goes to Singapore, Rajah Brookes agents will inform him that they have orders to allow no one to proceed to Sarawak without permission from his Rajahship? and that should he by any means find his way there direct, he will just be politely requested to depart with all convenient despatch. When Sir J. Brooke first took the government of Sarawak into his harids, at the request of the Rajah Muda Hassim, and with the consent of the Sultan of Bruni, a considerable number of his countrymen came from the adjacent ports under the pretence of wishing to trade, but all occupied their time in smoking his cigars, eating and drinking his provisions, and debauching his subjects, and most of them came to untimely ends from the copious indulgence in brandy-pawnee. This naturally gave, him a very considerable horror of settlers, and induced him to adopt the apparently autocratic plan of refusing admission into his territory to all Europeans, whom he does not know, or who do not bring recommendations from some of his friends. I think, therefore, for many reasons, that Timotheus had better stay here, and work on at his half per cent., and hope this information may be of use to him, and others of your readers, if you have the kindness to put it in type." — Melb.Morn.Herald.

Labuan. — By the H. C. Steamer Phlegethon, we have received intelligence from Labuan up to the 22nd of September. The accounts are not favourable ; the colony having been left to its own resources for three months, has put a stop to its rapid advancement. The Sultan of Borneo is evidently using his utmost influence to prevent the arrival of supplies, and but little faith can be placed in his promises. Up to that date there had been no appearance of trade of any kind, and the majority of the settlers are already disheartened. Sir James Brooke bad not arrived, but was expected early this month ; he had been occupied with the boats of H. C. Steamer Meander, in quieting some insurrection in the neighbourhood of Sarawak. The Governor arrived by the H.C. Steamer Auckland, on the 12th, and landed privately with his family on the 20th ; the Auckland returned immediately to Singapore to bring over the troops. During the past three months the fever has prevailed to a most alarming extent; the statistics kept show that upwards of two-thirds of the inhabitants have suffered from this disease, and the mortality has been linl2 of the affected. From close obsei vation the inferences drawn during the last twelve months are, that the fever is primarily remittent, produced by the operation of the sun's heat on the marshy ground, or the stagnant water so near the surface — that it is not contagious, and will yield to proper medical treatment — that the mortality was much increased by the inability of some to obtain medical attendance, or refusing it altogether as in the case of several of the Chinese who died — also by the want of proper habitations ; for persons living and sleeping on the ground floor suffered in greater numbers and more severely than those living in upper apartments. — Hongkong Register, Oct. 31.