New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, September 13, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 638, 13 September 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, September 13, 1851.

must" 0 ] To the most careless observe j seem evident that New Zealand |

' that position among the British dependendencies which has been so often predicted by those, who from the first have closely watched the administration of its present Governor, and who with the eye of faith looked forward to the period when the colony would become one of the most valuable and useful possessions of the British Crown; —that it is gradually attaining to that proud position there can be but little doubt. It has just completed the circle of an epoch ; having incurred those dangers, and endured the struggles which do not usually fall to the lot of an infant colony, New Zealand is now emerging from its first stage, and is .about to commence a career which will lead to the realization of the fond predictions of its earnest supporters. In thus contemplating on the present I state and future prosperity of the colony, : we must not forget that a debt of gratitude is owing to him who, —placed at the head of the Local Government by a Minister having full reliance on his ability, discretion, and experience, at a time when its affairs were beset by difficulties sufficient to appal the stoutest heart, —has brought the country to what it is, causing it be, of all our southern possessions, the cynosure of attraction among those in England who pursue the science of colonization.

Plunged as New Zealand was in a sea of difficulties, Sir George Grey, like a fearless pilot seized with a firm grasp the helm, and with the keen glance of one nerved by experience; he at once knew that the responsibility which rested on him was of no ordinary kind, but that vigorous measures alone could extricate the country; and by adopting a bold line of policy he succeeded. By unremitting perseverance, and Herculean strength of mind, has the Augean stable been cleansed. Sir George Grey had no time to consider the wisdom of this or of that measure, but was compelled immediately to commence the task of quelling first, by force of arms, rebellion in the two extremities of the .Northern Island, gaining over to his side [native tribes who hitherto had held a neutral

position. No sooner were the wars over than he had to take measures for relieving the colonists, in a degree, of a debt entailed on them by the previous Government, he had to turn his attention to the raising with judicious care a revenue; to purify the vitiated state of the currency; to encourage the resumption of commercial and agricultural operations, to restore the confidence which the Local Government under his predecessor had utterly destroyed ; to take all necessary precautions for the security of life and property; to make arrangements for adjusting the complicated difficulties which had arisen in the North from the waving of the Queen’s right of pre-emption ; to reconcile conflicting interests ; to complete purchases of land for the New Zealand Company; to adjust the which had arisen between I the Company and its settlers, from the nonfulfilment of its contracts. We have said enough to shew the arduous nature of the work set before Sir George Grey, and we ■would ask our impartial readers whether it ■has not been nobly performed. We would

tsk whether, through his wise and energeic means, tranquillity has not been restored ? (Whether good feeling and harmony between the different classes of her Majesty’s subjects have not been revived ? Whether the natives, by Sir George Grey’s conciliatory policy, are not generally adopting the habits ■of civilized life ? Whether life and property are not at this present moment as se■cure as in any other part that can be named I of the British realm ? In considering these (“questions, which can only be answered in the affirmative, and the many others which must readily suggest themselves, we would ■ask the settlers —one and all—whether, as ■it has already been asked elsewhere, we are Snot in common justice bound fairly to re- | present the actions and policy, and to place ■a candid, if not a generous construction on Ithe motives and intentions of him who has extricated the colony from a mesh of most perplexing difficulties. The wisdom of the policy by which the difficulties have been

removed has been acknowledged in the British Parliament by men of all shades of politics; and the greater admiration has been expressed, because in England it is well known Sir George Grey has to meet with much obstruction from the factious opposition of selfish persons for whose good, in common with the rest of the settlers, he has been striving. He has succeeded, as has been said at home, “in spite of opposition, remonstrance, and war. He had many enemies more difficult than the natives to deal with, —jobbers, sentimentalists, and enthusiasts.” When we consider that New Zealand, through the giant grasp of a great mind, has become a fitting habitation for the swarms of strong-limbed Anglo-Saxons who are launching themselves from the shores of Great Britain to seek breathing-room in other lands, we must not withhold the censure due to those who, calling this the land of their adoption, are false in the extreme, and so many stumbling blocks to the advancement of the interests of the country. Prostituting that Palladium of liberty, the Press, to their base purposes, they circulate abroad the grossest untruths, asserting their own opinions to be those of the mass .of the settlers who in heart are actuated by higher principles of human action, and shrink from the arrogance of the traitors. All those who have a real interest and stake in the prosperity of the colony must, we imagine, view with feelings of extreme abhorrence the motives of those who, under transparent pretences, throw every obstacle in the way of its advancement, and publish to the world statements which, if relied upon, must lead persons, both near and at a distance, to imagine that New Zealand is still in a very unsettled state, that the settlers’ energies are oppressed by a despotic Government ; in fact, that both the country and settlers are in a wretched condition: fortunately the evil tendency of these statements is counteracted by truth, which does, and ever must prevail.

In the Independent of Wednesday last it is stated that “ a numerously attended and highly respectable public meeting was held last evening, at Barrett’s Hotel,” &c., &c., &c. We have been informed, on authority on which we can implicitly rely, that not more than twenty persons were present, and that so far from its having been a public meeting, it was merely a meeting of those few persons who, under the name of the Settler’s Constitutional Association, assume the right not only to act in the name of the settlers, but to attempt to dictate to them. We have also reason to believe that even these twenty dictators were not quite so unanimous as their veracious oigan asserts them to have been ; that objections were raised and protests entered against the assumption of such authoritative measures by so small a section of the community, but these were all phoo-phooed and put down by the great leaders of the meeting, who with equal justice assume that members of their own body are expected to pledge themselves to carry out through thick and thin all that is proposed to them,, however monstrous, ridiculous, or absurd. So much for their boasted liberty and independence cry, so much for their so-called public meetings, and so much for the truth of their own reports concerning them.

The Ball given on Thursday night at Government House by Sir George and Lady Grey was one of the most numerously attended and brilliant affairs of the kind which it has been our lot to witness in this colony. The guests began to arrive about half-past nine, and at ten o’clock Sir George and Lady Grey entered the suite of rooms appropriated for the evening’s entertainment, the band playing the National Anthem ; dancing immediately commenced, and was kept up almost ‘ sans intermission’ until five o’clock. The rooms were most brilliantly lighted and elegantly decorated with evergreens, flowers and military trophies ; the music was most admirably selected and performed by the excellent band of the 65th regt., and a spirit of perfect enjoyment appeared to pervade the whole scene. About two o’clock the guests sat down to supper, the tables for which were laid over the whole space of the principal verandah, which had been enclosed for the occasion, and the guest must have been fastidious indeed who, amid the profusion of delicacies of every variety and kind that were provided could not have found wherewith to satisfy the most recherche taste. Among the many gratifying

features of the occasion we may mention the very marked improvement in the appearance, behaviour, and demeanour of the natives who were present as guests, we especially noticed the venerable Epuni, Matene, Purutu and his son, ETako and Hemi, and we found it impossible to avoid drawing a comparison between these men, as we knew them a few short years ago, and as we saw them now, and we doubt not many present must have done so likewise. E Mari (E Tako’s wife) joined in several of the dances, and really went through the quadrilles in a manner perfectly creditable. This is the first instance we have witnessed of the native talent for dancing, but from this, and the interest evinced by those who did not feel sufficiently confident in their ability to join in the throng, we gathered sufficient to warrant us in predicting that at no distant day dancing will form v pne of their favorite amusements.