New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, September 22, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 432, 22 September 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, September 22, 1849.

In allading last Saturday to the observations which appealed in the Independant on the previous Wednesday, referring to the dinners to Mr. M'Donald and the proceedings connected with them, want of room compelled us reluctantly to defer our remarks upon them to another opportunity ; and though the occasion was of so ephemeral a nature as of itself scarcely to deserve notice, yet the observations themselves require some comment. It is generally understood that the article to which we refer emanated from the pen of Mr. Fox, the present Agent of the New Zealand Company who, since his accession to that office, has had the credit of the authorship of most of those attacks on the Government and those connected with them which have appeared in the columns of the Independent. We do not think we shall do that gentleman injustice in believing this report, and in assuming him to be the author of the article, although it is just possible that its malignity may have been heightened, its scurrility increased by some of the distilled venom supplied by his fidus Achates. The article however, which, if not the production of Mr. Fox, with some superadded bitterness contributed by Dr. Fea-

therston, at least received their hearty concurrence, as well as that of the Faction, of which it is a sort of manifesto, is a direct attack on the Government Officers for not being present at a political dinner given to Mr. M'Donald. That it was was -a political dinner, although denied in the former part of the article referred to, is expressly admitted towards its conclusion, when an excuse is made for the absence of the Judge, or, as it is expressed "of the highest judicial officers of the colony," since they " of course are bound to keep themselves aloof from all political movements ;" —perhaps another excuse may be found for his Honor in his observations from the bench which may have been accepted by them as an equivalent for his attendance, and which would certainly have been more appropriate as an after dinner effusion on the occasion in question. The dinner was a political movement then, admitted to be so, as we have shown, b} this writer — and Mr. M 'Donald's claim to this distinction, if he had any, was that of determined and personal opposition to the Government, an opposition which derived its importance from his position as Manager of the Bank. He did what Mr. Fox is doing now — he took advantage of the accident of his position to use the influence it gave him to oppose the Government, although it might be that in both cases such a line of conduct was opposed to the interests of their employers. We think we can expose the injustice and malignity of this attack and place the question in its proper light by a reference to some previous analogous circumstances. In the early part of last year, on the receipt of Mr. Cowell's Report on a letter addressed by the Resident Land Purchasers to the New Zealand Company, certain resolutions in answer to it were prepared by Dr. Featherston, one of which in no measured terms referred to certain passages in the private life of the late Colonel Wakefield, then>Principal Agent of the Company, that occurred twenty years previously, long before the colonization of New Zealand was contemplated, and this unjustifiable attempt to make questions of a public nature the vehicle of personalities and private resentments was strenuously resisted, anc l the resolution was considerably modified. Now if the admirers of Dr. Featherston on that occasion had given him a dinner, and Mr. Fox had been in Wellington, would he as an Agent of the Company, have attended such a demonstration from " feelings of friendship ?" Would he not have the ught it an outrage to common sense and good feeling to have expected his attendance? And here we may point out another inconsistency in the conduct of these persons. To gratify his resentment the iframer of the resolutions in answer to Mr. Cowell's Report, quoted with approbation the authority of Mr. Hanson, and of the Rev. R. H. Turton with the view of damaging the character and destroying the credit of Mr. E. J. Wakefield ; — now that their spleen is to be vented against Government Officers, the very passage in Mr. E. J. Wakefield's book that called forth these animadversions, is selected for quotation. This writer, in his attacks on Government officers, seems to be influenced by that " feeling of bitter disliks which" Mr. E. G. Wakefield tells us " commonly actuates a renegade in his dealings with those from whom he has differed." When he talks of those who seek "to make themselves formidable to Government to sell themselves at a better price," does he wish us to forget that Mr. Fox, after having refused the office of Attorney- General at £400 a-year was, at the time of Colonel Wakefield's decease, on the point of leaving Nelson for Auckland, having accepted employment from Government, with pay at the rate of three guineas a day — and of course after having resigned his situation under the Company, when the prospect of £1,000 a-year caused an alteration in his plans, and induced him once more to return to the Company, whose service he had just deserted ? If Mr. Wakefield's view of the present position of the Company be correct, that the Directors, in promotion of its interests f desire above all things to maintain a good understanding with the Government, the

opposition offered to the Government by their Agent in New Zealand, is hardly compatible with the existence of this good understanding. Their long experience of the value of Colonel Wakefield's services, we should imagine, would lead the Directors to expect that his successor would in seme degree follow his example instead of acting diametrically opposite ; and we think Mr. Fox would best exhibit his consistency by imitating Mr. E. G. Wakefield, and resigning his present appointment when he found his opinions were at variance with those he represented, and that he was using the influence derived from his position as their Agent, in a manner calculated to injure their interests.

At the request of a meeting of merchants Mr. Roberts, of the Kngineer Department, has drawn a map of the town of Wellington, exhibiting its various public buildings, residences, warehouses, stores, &c. The map is to be sent home by the Mariner, addressed to the 'Alliance Fire Insurance Company, London/ for the purpose of inducing that Company (already addressed upon the subject and found to be favourably disposed) to establish a branch of their business in Wellington, New Zealand. The map is now to be seen at the countinghouse of Hervey, Johnston, & Co., with whom all parties desirous of affecting insurance against fire are requested to communicate, as it is considered advisable that a statement shewing the amount sought to be insured, and the premiums willing to be paid, should accompany the map. — Communicated.

The Sussex, whaler, of Hobart Town, six months out, with 200 barrels of black oil, arrived on Thursday. She has been cruising about to the southward in the neighbourhood of New Zealand, and is last from Pigeon Bay.

The brigantine Agenoria, from Hobart Town, on her way to California, put into port yesterday for a supply of water. She left Hobart Town on the 9th inst. The Queen, from Port Nicholson, had arrived at Hobart Town, and was to sail very shortly after the Agenoria, so that she may be daily expected.