NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, May 22, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 710, 22 May 1852, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, May 22, 1852.

The recent petition of the settlers of Wellington and the neighbouring districts on the Land Claimants Ordinance and Pasturage Eegulations, which was so numerously signed in spite of all the opposition shewn by the Independent, sufficiently attes ts the fact that that journalj oumal has not the slightest pretensions to represent public opinion in this settlement; to suppose that it did .would be a mere fiction, nay, such a supposition would be a direct insult to the settlers generally, for they are fully sensible ofj and daily experience the vast amount of benefit which has accrued from the sound policy adopted by Sir George Grey in extricating the country from the apparently insuperable difficulties which he had to contend against on assuming the administration of the Government. It would, therefore, be indeed an insult to the settlers to suppose for a moment that they in any way countenanced, or approved of the vile abuse which the Independent has incessantly heaped upon his Excellency. It has boasted that, through Dr. Featherston's agency, it hadreached " the calumniating point," satisfied with having achieved this greatness that gentleman, has, we understand, vacated the editorial chair, and this announcement, ihelndependent states, " will be received by every true settler with feelings of regret." Are we for one moment to believe that those only are true settlers who regret that Dr. Featherston has at length exhausted his vocabulary of abusive epithets, and can no longer gratify his vindictive feelings towards Sir George by anonymously attacking his Excellency's character ? it should rather be a matter of congratulation that Dr. Featherston has been brought to a standstill through sheer inability to cany on his feeble opposition to the Local Government. TJnder the pretence of contending for Free Institutions, he has entailed a certain amount of evil on the community, by retarding rather than promoting the x>b - jects he professed to have in view, for it has been admitted on all sides, both here and elsewhere, that the tone adopted by the Independent, and the resolutions passed from time to time by the "persons styling themselves the Settlers' Association" have injured this settlement in the estimation of the New Zealand public, and have impressed those persons in England interested in the welfare of this Colony with the belief that the time had not arrived when the settlers might be intrusted with the powers and privileges of self-government. To contend that Dr. Featherston, in agitating for Free Institutions, has been actuated solely by a desire of working for the good of the Colony is absurd, for his whole aim has been to gratify a personal feeling by vainly attempting to embarrass Sir George Grey in his administration, and in this he has so utterly failed that he has been compelled to retire. His patriotism is of that stamp which Walpole has so truly described.— " A Patriot, Sir! why patriots spring up like mushrooms : I could raise fifty of them within four and twenty hours. I have raised many of them in one night. It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable or an insolent demand, and up starts a patriot. I have never been afraid of making patriots, but I disdain and despise all their efforts. All this" pretended virtue proceeds from personal malice and disappointed am-

bition." And so with Dr. Featherston ; disappointed in the expectation of obtaining a place, he starts v up a pa-; triot, raves about the iron despotism under which the settlers are- groaning, talks of rights withheld from them and their children, and yet it is notorious that " all this pretended virtue proceeds from personal malice and disappointed ambition." To contend that Dr. Featherston has in the slightest degree accelerated the introduction of a representative form of Government is as absurd as to suppose that the fly perched on the chariot wheel accelerates its rotation. He has neither influenced the authorities at home, who for aught we know may not be aware of his existence, nor induced the Governor-in-Chief to alter one iota from the opinions expressed by him in 1848 ; for in spite of all factious opposition he has pursued withoutdeviation the line of policy he had laid down. He partially annulled, for the bestjof reasons,the charter of 1846; he steadily declined to introduce until a fitting time a complete new form of Government ; his reasons were made public, andhe stated in Dec, 1848, that he had reported it as his opinion to her Majesty's Government that a complete system of Representative Government may with safety be introduced into the whole of New Zealand " at the date when the Act suspending the Constitution recently conferred on these Islands expires." That period is fast approaching, the time of probation has not in any way been shortened by Dr. Featherston or his party ; they have not won the battle, their imbecile efforts have only made them the laughing stocks of the community. The compact between Dr. Featherston and the Independent seems to have been dissolved in a kindred spirit. The Doctor is in such hot haste to "cut the connection," he stays not even to date his resignation ; the Proprietors of the Independent repay his gratuitous services with barren thanks, which cost them nothing and are worth the services they requite, and with their accustomed accuracy mis- j spell his name. And while they bid him ' a brief good bye— before even, (as it is ■ said) they receive his resignation — they begin to haggle with his successor who gives them plainly to understand that he, at least, means to be paid in some coin more current than their thanks, and would have them to know' he fully appreciates the maxim — point d? argent, point de suisse. _

The following is a summary of the contents of the last Government Gazette : — A proclamation revoking a former proclamation appointing a circuit Court of the Supreme Court at Otago. A notification by the Private Secretary that a Levee will be held by his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, at the Council Chamber, on Monday, the 24th instant, at one o'clock, p.m.. in honour of her Majesty's Birthday. The following gentlemen have been added to the commission of the Peace for the Southern District : — G. S. Cooper, and W. B. Rhodes, Esquires, of Wellington : G. Bowen, W. B. Bray, T. Cholmondeley, J. T. Cookson, E. B. Fitton, C. L. Rose, M. P. Stoddart, R. Westenra, and B. Woolcombe, Esquires, of Canterbury. G-. S. Cooper, Esquire, has been apppinted Inspector of Police at New Plymouth. The Gazette also contains the following notices : — of the appointment of eleven native chiefs as assessors at Taranaki under the Resident Magistrates' Ordinance, of a sitting of the Supreme Court for criminal business on Wednesday, 2nd June, of a Custom House sale of condemned goods on the 29th instant, of the Schedule of poundage rates at Wanganui, and of two light-houses — the Sturt lighthouse on Cape Willoughby, Kangaroo Island, and the Horsburgh lighthouse, at the eastern entrance of the Straits of Singapore. A quarterly return is also published of the number of patients (33) in the Wanganui Hospital. The return of Immigration and Emigration for the March quarter at^Taranaki shows an excess of immigration of 60 persons. Auctioneers' licenses have been granted to Messrs. W. Allen, K. Bethune, P. M. Hervey, R. Waitt, and J. Smith. Grants under purchases from the New Zealand Company have been executed to ninetypersons, and under purchases from the Crown to seven persons in the Nelson Settlement. The supplement to the Gazette contains notices of the claims of one hundred and two purchasers under the New Zealand Company, in this settlement which have been decided by the Commissioner. The following is the amount of notes of the Colonial Bank of Issue in circulation on the 1 st of May, being the close of the four preceding weeks : — £5 and upwards j£93o 0 0 Under £5 6526 0 0 7456 0 0

The Return- on Thursday brought the mail of the Staff from Lyttelton, the latter vessel having arrived there on- the 16th instant, after a passage of one hundred and thirtythree days. The Barbara Gordon has been taken off the berth, and the Persia, a large vessel laid on in her place, to sail for Wellington punctually on the 10th February: We understand that Dr. Evans, one of the early settlers, has returned in the Stag to New , Zealand.

The brig Exchange, from Hobart* Town bound to San Francisco, put in last night in so leaky a state that it was deemed advisable to run her ashore near Pipitea Point. •