New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 22, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 588, 22 March 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 22, 1851.

The -files of Auckland papers received by the Victory contain very little local intelligence of interest. The eleventh anniversary of the foundation of Auckland had been duly celebrated by a regatta, which is reported to have “been superior to any previous anniversary sports of a similar kind. The annual exhibition of the Auckland Agricultural and Horticultural Society seems, at least in the Horticultural department, to have been a failure. The Report of the Committee at the annual meeting of the Auckland Mechanics’ Institute shews the Institution to be in a healthy and flourishing state; the total receipts for the year were £163 19 5, the expenditure £l6O 16 11; donations in books and mo<ney had been made, to the library, and lectures had been delivered on different subjects by several of its members. From the i eturns published in the Auckland Government Gazette we collect the following par-

ticulars, indicating the progress of the Northern Province. During the year 1850 the total number of emigrants was 527, of immigrants 629, showing an excess of immigration in favour of the Northern Province amounting to 102; 300 of the emigrants had gone to California. The revenue for the quarter ending 31st December, 1850, for Auckland amounted to £9,481 13 8, being an increase of £4,222 12 9 over the corresponding quarter of the previous year , the increase was chiefly in the ad valorem duties which had increased from £ 1,49 32 6 in the December quarter 1849 to £2,692 411, and the proceeds of the sale of Crown lands which had increased from £427 11 2 to £3,434 11 11. The trade between Auckland and California had recommenced, three vessels laden with New Zealand produce having sailed for San Francisco. Having few topics of their own to engage their attention, the Auckland Journals have been occupied in the discussion of the local politics of this settlement. The New Zealander, speaking of the report of the soi-di-sant Constitutional Association, considers it •more likely to “ retard than help forward the extension to the colony of really constitutional and British Representative Institutions, and as calculated to raise in the minds of Englishmen a doubt, whether men who seriously make such proposals are fit to be entrusted with the powers of local self-go-vernment.” Even the Southern Cross finds it impossible to believe the absurd and ridiculous falsehoods put forth by the Independent about the Government influence exerted at the late meeting, and attributes such statements to the “ energy of their reporting.” That the Southern Cross should speak of the Spectator as ’ ‘ the Government organ” is one of those mistakes of our contemporary which is not to be wondered at. We give an honest unbiassed support to Sir George Grev’s policy because we believe it to be eminently calculated to promote the prosperity of the colony, and every year’s experience sufficiently demonstrates this, while the unscrupulous rancour, malignity, and political dishonesty with which he is assailed, show his opponents to be actuated by personal or factious motives, and produce a re-action in the minds of all honest independent settlers. This has been abundantly proved by the demonstrations at Nelson and the Hutt, and by the respect and esteem which the settiers generally entertain for Sir George. By the wav we observe the Memorial from Auckland for Sir George’s recall has met with the same contemptuous reception from the noble Secretary for the Colonies which a similar document, emanating from “ certain persons calling themselves a Constitutional Association” in Wellington received from the same quarter. The answer to the Auckland Memorialists will be found in our present number.