New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 31, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 669, 31 December 1851, Page 3

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 31, 1851.

The arrival of the Henry has at length put us in possession of the news by the Cornwall's mail. From the latest New Zealand Journals received by this opportunity we have extracted an Abstract of the New Zealand Settlements Act, with the debates in both Houses of Parliament which it occasioned, and a Report of the last- meeting of the shareholders of the New Zealand Company, all of which will be perused with some interest in the colony. The Abstract conveys fuller information than had been previously received as to the provisions of the Act of Parliament. The Abstract of the Canterbury Settlements Act will be published in our next number. The New Zealand Journal in referring to Mr. Chapman’s appointment of Colonial Secretary in Van Diemen’s Land indulges in an extravagant strain of adulation which can hardly fail to prove offensive to that gentleman ; the Australian Gazette, on the other hand, in speaking of the change seems to regard it as a very equivocal piece of promotion, and advises him to decline accepting *t. It is very unusual,” says this Journal, ‘to send for a Judge from one colony to become the Colonial Secretary of another. e trust Mr. Chapman will refuse this appointment, There is no reason, even pe-

cuniary, why he should accept it: and we could wish,to see him in a more independent berth than that ofthe tool of Sir W. Denison.” No doubt Mr. Chapman will exercise his discretion in the course he intends to pursue ; without offering an opinion on this subject we may yet observe that it seems to be an unusual, we may add an unprecedented step to remove a judge from the Bench for the purpose of putting him in some other situation, and appears to be equivalent to depriving him of his profession, as we suppose it would be still more difficult to re-ascend the Bench after having once quitted it than originally to attain this learned elevation. Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras Hoc opus, hie labor est. The New Zealand Journal also contains two long notices with copious extracts of a pamphlet, published by Mr. Fox, entitled " The Six Colonies of New Zealand.” To judge by these extracts the pamphlet seems a meie rechauffe of the misrepresentations and false statements put forth by Mr. Fox for party purposes in the Independent, when acting as the Editor of that paper. Even his absurd exaggerations and inventions about his trip in the Government Brig are reproduced with additional embellishments, but though he appears not yet to have digested what he calls “ the salt hog and salt horse,” he is very careful to avoid making any reference to the LieutenantGovernor’s turkies, which he felt no scruple in feasting on while he took good care to spare his own. We observe also that he assumes the designation of Honorary Agent for the Colonists of Wellington, on what grounds we are perfectly at a loss to conceive, since he represents no one but the persons calling themselves a Constitutional Association at Wellington.