New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, August 21, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 527, 21 August 1850, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, August 21, 1850.

In our present number we have extracted from the Blue book recently published on New Zealand affairs the communication addressed by the Directors of the New' Zealand Company to the Secretary for the Colonies, informing him of their arrangements for fiUiag^ the Office - of- Principal- Agent of the Company in New Zealand, vacant by the death of Colonel Wakefield, by the appointment of Mr. Fox as his successor. The Directors appear to have been particularly solicitous to assure Lord Grey of the good behaviour of their officer who, born to good luck, had thus suddenly and unexpectedly from a subordinate situation stepped in to a snug sinecure of a thousand a year as their Principal Agent, to become sponsors for his decorous conduct as their representative in the colony, for his ready co-operation with the Government and his zealous efforts to promote harmony among the settlers, for his desire, in short, in these respects to take example from the official career of his predecessor. How the expectations of his employers have been realized, the attention Mr. Pox has paid to the desire of the Directors, his anxiety to, promote harmony in the settlement and to co-operate with the Government, must be obvious to all those

who have read his misrepresentations of the acts of the Local Government, his gross personalities agaiDst the Government officials in the columns of the Independent, to which he is so frequent a contributor, and in which may be found the occcupation of his "spare half hours." The Directors appear to labour under the impression that because Mr. Fox, as their Agent at Nelson, subordinate to Colonel Wakefield and under his direction, with few duties or responsibilities, committed no very great mistake, he would be equally fitted for a higher situation. They must have been ignorant of>his incurable itch for scribbling which prompts him on occasion^ to rush into print, of his unfortunate propensity for personalities and part} misrepresentations which render his statements unworthy the slightest attention. By this time the Directors will have discovered their mistake although too late to repair it, they will 1 find to their cost that their Agent has not paid the slightest attention to their expressed desire, and by his unbecoming zeal as a political partisan has materially damaged their interests, and increased the general desire entertained by the settlers for the dissolution of the Company. They might have learnt economy from the example of the Government who, in substituting for Mr. Cowell at £1,500 a year a clerk- in the Colonial Office, at £300 a year, plainly intimated that they were satisfied no great responsibility would be imposed on their Commissioner by the extent of the Company's operations, and have reduced the present extravagant salary of their Agent to a more moderate and reasonable amount. Mr. Fox may also learn, from the impunity with which he has been permitted to indulge in his vagaries, the insignificant light in which he is regarded by the Government, since, if they attached any weight to his opposition, the Company would probably have been reminded of the difference between the conduct of their Agent and tneir professed desire of harmony and ready cooperation, and the slightest hint from- his employers that his comfortable sinecure was in danger would have a had wonderful effect in abating the ardour of his patriotism. The cool contempt with which Mr. Fox has been treated will in some degree account for the increased rancour which he has latterly exhibited.

It is with sincere regret we have to record the death on the 18th inst., after a short illness, of Captain Rickard O'Conneli of the 65th. regiment. The deceased officer was born at Ennis, county Clare, Ireland, he served in the Peninsula with the 43rd light Infantry from April 1812 to the end of the war in 1814, including the capture of Badajoz where he was severely wounded as a volunteer with the storming party, the battles of Salamanca, Yittoria and other engagements. He arrived in New Zealand in 1 846 and was present at the operations against Rangihaeata in the Horokiwi valley.' His loss will be deeply felt by his brother officers and by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

By the overland mail intelligence was - received of the total wreck of the cutter William and James to the South ,of tlje, Sugar Loaf Islands, Taranaki, on the flight of the Ist instant, and one pergon^^ female passenger, was unfortunately drowned. There was also a small mail on' board from Auckland which was saved and sent on to Wellington.

The Louis and Miriam arrived yesterday from Sydney after a passage of eighteen days. The latest English ne\rs received by this opportunity was to the 6th April. The William Alfred had gone to Newcastle to take in coals, and was expected to sail for Wellington ten days after the Louis and Miriam.

The ceremony of laying the first stone of the Roman Catholic Church at Thorndon was postponed, in consequence of the unfinished state of the road leading to the site, to the Bth September.