New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 19, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 457, 19 December 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 19, 1849.

Our observations on the Company's affairs appear to have drawn forth its Agent to the rescue. He seems to feel it incumbent on him to make some excuse, however lame, for the little that has been done in colonizing New Zealand after the liberal pecuniary assistance his employers have received from the Government. He has taken considerable pains to make out a case in their favour, but his assertions will not bear the test of examination. He claims credit for the Company for what has been done at Otago, and what is to be done at Port Cooper by the Canterbury Association, though the former Mr. Wakefield tells us is but n feeble continuation of an impulse which took place in Scotland before 1846, and the latter is not the work of the Company. But further, with an effrontery only to be met with in such an unscrupulous partisan, he affects to consider the establishment of the Church of England settlement in the Southern Province, instead of in the neighbourhood of Auckland, as the exclusive work of the New Zealand Company, forgetting that its agents were in a dead lock from the claims of the French Company, at that time unsettled, from which they were only relieved by the interposition of the Governor-m» Chief. In the same way he informs us the -Company "has purchased with some of the parliamentary grant vast districts in the Middle Island, and the fertile and extensive district of Rangitiki, and is quite ready to purchase as much more, on either side the Straits, as it can get the local government to send its commissioners to negotiate for/ This certainly is a piece of modest assurance we were not prepared to expect even from Mr. Fox, since every one knows that all the negotiations and arrangements connected with these purchases, even to paying the money to the natives, have been exclusively conducted by the officers of the local government; all that the Company's officers have had to do in the matter has been to re-pay to the government the necessary expenses incurred in the different

purchases. When Mr. Fox tells us that the Company has supplied the demand for labour at Nelson, and partially also of Wellington, will he furnish an account of the number of emigrants introduced by the Company in these two settlements respectively within the last two years, that we may know what has been done ? The emigrants sent to Nelson are in discharge of an old debt due to that settlement, while we learn from the . Nelson Examiner that they are of a class likely to re-emigrate for want of employment, through the injudicious or careless selection of the Company, while the quality of the • provisions now put, on board the Company's ships is so execrable as greatly to reflect on the character of the Company itself. Mr. Fox makes a great parade of what has been done by the Company in satisfaction of the claims of its land purchasers in the different settlements, but in spite of his assertion that these arrangements are nearly completed, we think it will be found that another year will elapse before the lands are all distributed and conveyed to the purchasers, who will thus have waited eleven years from the payment of their money before they receive a title to their lands, but this in the opinion of their Agent is "not discreditable to the Qompany." It must be borne in mind that all this j is put forth with considerable ostentation on the part of Mr. Fox as the "bond fide work" of the Company, which he informs us has done " a hundred fold more for the Southern Province in the last two years than the Local Government has done during its existence," and as justifying the use made of the Parliamentary loan, and the extravagant expenditure in one year (that just past) in their establishment in London and in the colony of £18,000 ! And yet when the borrowed plumes are plucked away what a miserable object the daw appears ; take away what has been done by the Government, and we may well ask what has the Company done ? Oh ! we had forgotten, a considerable sum we are told is expending at Port Victoria. Is it to improve the flatness of the times that contracts have been entered into for the purchase of Van Diemen's Land timber for that settlement, instead of employing the sawyers of the Hutt and Nelson ? Is it to stimulate production in the Southern Settlements that the Principal Agent advertises for Van Diemen's Land instead of New Zealand flour ? Are there no friends to serve, no snug little jobs to be managed at Port Victoria ? These are questions that deserve an answer. The fact is, Mr. Fox, like a thorough going hack, is writing for his pay. When he hesitated between the Government and the Company's employment — irresolute, undecided — like an Ass between two bundles of hay, first turning his longing eyes to one and then to the other, if he had finally accepted office under the Government his pen would would have been as ready in its support and in putting down the Faction as it is now engaged in advancing the objects of the latter. He is a very Sarah Gamp of politicians, having as decided an aversion to fingering the public money as that worthy had to drink, and yet not objecting to help himself in a quiet way when he feels "so dispoged" referring on all occasions to the Company, which the settlers (including his familiar * the Doctor,' no unapt representation, by the way, of Betsy Prig) all know to be a sort of New Zealand Mrs. Harris, a sham and a delusion ; and it will be well for them when it becomes " as dead in form as it is in fact," so little does the colony derive any benefit from its existence.

On Saturday the remains of the late Capt. Smith, of the 65th regiment, were interred in the Cemetery at Wellington. The escort which headed the procession, was formed of the late Captain Smith's Company, made up to the strength of 100 rank and file, under the command of Captain Murray, and Lieu* tenants Trafford and Barnard. The hand of the regiment next followed, immediately preceding the body, which was borne on a gun carriage drawn by two horses ; the pall was borne by the following officers : — Paymaster Marshall, Captain Barry, Brigade Major O'Connell, Captain Collinson, ft. E.,

Captain O'Connell, and Brevet-Major Johnston. Lieut.-Colonel Gold, Major Patience, Surgeon Prendergast, Ensign Drought, the Rev. R. Cole, ar.d Dr. Feather ston, attended as mourners, followed by the officers of the regiment the settlers, friends of the deceased,, the non-commissioned officers, and the remainder of the regiment. . The procession, which extended a considerable length, passed from the deceased officer's quarters at Te Aro along Larabton Quay to the Cemetery. Out of respect to the deceased all the stores on the line of the procession were closed. Captain Smith had only joined his regiment in New Zealand about nine months, and by his general kindness of manner was universally respected and esteemed by all classes.

The learned editor of the Independent takes considerable credit to himself for having caused the appointment of a Board of Inspection to the Colonial Hospital, which he calls "an acknowledgment of the force of public opinion" on the part of the Lieutenant Governor. The fact is, it was intended to make this appointment some time since, but the intention was deferred by the Lieutenant- Governor's'journey to the south ; and the appointment has now been announced, together with others, in one of the first Gazettes published after his return. The public (as this self-constituted Sir Oracle well knows) is perfectly satisfied with the management of the present medical officer, and is desirous of leaving well alone ; if it were required to lower the efficiency of the hospital and destroy the confidence of the natives in the Institution, no readier way could be devised than to allow the " Political Doctors to take it week and week about."

By the Sisters two escaped convicts, Richard Rose alias James Haghe, and Thomas Warner alias Thomas Simpson, were sent by the Government to Van Diemen's Land via Sydney. They were both tried at the last sittingi of the Supreme Court on the charge of robbing Mr. M'Euen's store and were acquitted, but through the activity of Mr. M'Donogh, Sub-Inspector of Po- | lice were discovered to be runaway convicts and apprehended, and the community have thus been rid of two dangerous characters. Both prisoners were under sentence of transportation for life, Simpson who had been at large in New Zealand for the last eight years, had also been convicted for other offences in Van Diemen's Land, and had bden sent to the penal settlement of Port Arthur^

We are glad to find that the band of the 65th Regiment have recommenced their weekly performances of music for the season on Thorn don Flat, and that the inhabitants of Wellington have again the opportunity of enjoying this delightful recreation. The fol* lowing is the programme of this day's performance :—: — 1. Overture — Semiramide Rouini. 2. Selection — Maritana Wallace. 3. Rochester Quadrille Rogers. 4. Aria — Stanca di Pui Combatara — "1 „, T . Marino Faliero } ***»»•• 5. Bridal Waltz Jullien. 6. Aria — Pre aux Clercs Herold. 7. Vienna Galop Strang. 8. Hymen Polka **.... Davit*