New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 14, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 560, 14 December 1850, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 14, 1850.

The defence which has been set up in the Independent, in answer to our observations in Saturday's Spectator, on Mr. Fox's conduct in connexion with the Compensation land scheme, is so weak and inconclusive that it would have been less damaging to the reputation of the Company's Principal Agent to have preserved a discreet silence, than to have failed so completely in this attempt at his vindication. Nothing has been

advanced in the slightest degree to invalidate our statements, which only derive additional force from so puny an effort to refute them. The writer affects to treat the whole affair very lightly, as not heing worth serious consideration, that nohody is to blame or, at all events, if blame rests anywhere, it does not rest with the Company's Agent. So miserable a failure precludes us from making any very lengthened rejoinder, since in fact there is nothing to reply to. The only argument put forward is, that the clause in the Act of Parliament referred to applies only to the demesne lands of the Crown and does not affect the Company's private estate, which they are at liberty to dispose of as they please ; and yet in the' same breath we are informed that, by the agreement with the Government, the Company could not sell their lands for less than 20s. an acre ; so that the first half of the sentence is contradicted by the other half. But the whole subject may be disposed of in a very few words. The Company in offering compensation to their land purchasers were bound to carry out and complete the arrangement in every respect ; they were bound to give a title to the lands which they offered as compensation, otherwise the arrangement could only prove a sham and a delusion. Now, if it should prove that the Government, in the discharge of the obligations imposed on them by their arrangement with the New Zealand Company, can issue Crown grants for the compensation land in the Sutne way and under the same authority as Crown grants will be issued for the lands originally purchased from the Company, then we admit that we have taken an erroneous view of the question. But if additional powers are necessary, either by Act of Parliament or by fresh instructions under the Royal sign manual or otherwise, to enable the Governor to give holders of compensation land a title to their property, then our case is fully established. To be told that the Government will grant substantial justice to the claimants, that they will repair the laches of the Company, is beside the question. If the Company or their Agent, or both, had done their duty, they would either have fully satisfied those claimants, or left them in a position to demand their titles as a right, and not to ask for them as a favour, from the Government. And while the Company were asking Parliament for the necessary powers to enable them to grant conveyances to their landpurchasers, it was very easy for them at the same time, unless through gross negligence i on their part or on that of their agent, to provide the means of doing justice to the Nelson settlers in the matter of the trust funds, and to assure titles to the holders of compensation land. Mr. Fox may choose to consider our strictures as an attack upon himself, but he knows very well that, in his private capacity, we should not waste a second thought upon him ; but when he holds an office to which a greater salary is attached than to any other in the Province, the duties of which are so light as to render it almost asinecure, and when we reflect that the money will eventually come out of the pockets of the colonists, the public have a right to complain when they find that even the little he has to do is done so very badly; and either as Agent of the Company, or as one who affects to be a leader of public opinion, he is quite as amenable to public criticism as those who are so frequently the objects of his attacks. The Independent makes some allusion to our being holders of Compensation Scrip, if we were or are holders of Scrip, it would only be an additional reason for bringing this question before the public, in addition to those general grounds which render it a legitimate subject of discussion.

On Thursday evening Mr. Hart delivered si lecture at the Mechanics' Institute on Terrestrial Magnetism, which was received with considerable applause by a crowded audience. This terminated the course of lectures arranged by the late Committee, the greater part of them having been given by different members of that body. These lectures have proved an agreeable recreation to the members and visitors of the Institute, and have formed an important feature in the management of the Institution by the late Committee.

Crickei 1 . — A match was played at Thorndon on Thursday afternoon between the 65th Regiment and the settlers, with Mr. Wood of the Commissariat and Mr. Hamley of the Ordnance. The 65th scored 86 runs in the first innings and the civilians 64 ; in the second innings the 65th scored 79. The Civilians then went in, and scored 92, and were declared winners with four wickets to go down. It appears, however, that a mistake was made by those who kept the score, as the Civilians have ten runs to get to win the game, which will be played out on Thursday next.