NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, July 24, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 728, 24 July 1852, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, July 24, 1853.

No very keen observation is required to detect the -numerous •inconsistencies in which some men have involved themselves in seeking an unenviable notoriety by clamorously demanding for the colonies Self Government; inconsistencies, indeed, so gross, and of such a nature as to expose those who commit them to deserved contempt. A wise caution is contained in the simple old saying — litera scripta manet — and yet how few regard this prudential maxim ;— some people seem to take a reckless kind of pleasure in enunciating j principles, the soundness of which may perhaps be acknowledged, and yet are frequently found actisg in direct opposition to them. Thus it is with Mr. Gcdley and the class of men he may be said to represent in New Zealand. It is difficult to define the precise meaning of * Self Government,' since the sense so varies according to the views and aims of those that make use of it, that a variety of forms of Government may be said to be contained under the term. The definition given by Mr. Godley cs applied to the relative position of the Colonies with the Parent State is broad and admits of no misapprehension; — with him Self Government amounts to a separation from the Mother country, with a mere nominal exception. In his opinion the colonists should have the power to do everything " without check, control, or intervention of any kind !" Now here is an opinion publicly recorded by Mr. Godley — but has he acted up to this .opinion ? , If we may judge from his public conduct, we may without contradiction assert that his endeavours have been rather to check and control the powers of the colonists, at least a large section of them. He would have us believe, that he does not consider political j emancipation complete unless the colonists have the full control of their fiscal and territorial affairs, without intervention of any kind, and yet what reliance can be placed on his sincerity when we find him uniting with others against this political emancipation, when we find him soliciting the introduction of that very intervention which he has declared ought not to exist, that check and control which ought to be abolished. Did he hope to obtain political liberty for us, when together with the other directors of the New Zealand Company he succeeded in getting for that body an assignment of so large a portion of these islands ? was it to this end he used his best endeavours to gloss over the mis-

deeds of- a Company bankrupt " in the pursuit of gain under the guise of philanthropy and patriotism "? was it to secure to us the management of our territorial affairs that he sought the intervention of Parliament to enable him to farm, for a period of ten years, a tract of country to the extent of 2,500,000 acres, and again to apply to Parliament for power to enlarge the extent of this immense tract? And here we may remark that at the very time Mr. Godley's party in England were asking Parliament for this power, he in the colony denied Sir George Grey's assertion that such a request was being made, and accompanied the denial with a violent attack on his Excellency's official • character in his speech at a public meeting at Lyttelton. Mr. Godley tells the settlers that they should have the sole control of the waste ]ahds. that they should have the absolute administration of the land fund; that there should be no civil list ; that they should have, without any intervention, the entire management of the revenues ; tha* the salaries paid to public servants should be given on their sanction only. But is Mr. Godley in a position to give advice on these points ? We think not. The land contained in the Canterbury block—which for aught we know may at any day be considerably extended— is secured for a period of ten years by Act of Parliament to a body of private individuals, and out of the funds arising from the sales or leases of such lands, Mr. Godley is paid his annual salary, the amount of which is not fixetkby the Legislature, is not sanctioned by the settlers, but is fixed and sanctioned by his friends in England : should therefore the operations of the Association be carried on for the full period provided for by the Act, Mr. Godley would continue to draw a liberal income from the land fund without the sanction of the local Legislature; and, relying on that intervention he affects so much to dislike, would be perfectly regardless, on this point, of the opinion of the settlers. Mr. Godley seems imbuecl with the very spirit of a Zoilus ; he must needs carp at every public measure adopted by Sir George Grey, who, according to him, is constantly committing either some act of tyranny, some breach of the laws, or some gross inconsistency : on each of these three counts does Mr." Godley find his Excellency guilty for issuing Crown Grants in opposition to an Act of Parliament. That these Grants are strictly valid, we have already most completely and unanswerably shewn, but it seems strange that Mr. Godley should attach so much importance to an Act of Parliament, when lie has been, and we believe is still, acting in a way directly opposed to the provisions of the Act 13 and 14 Vie. c. 'JO. From what we can gather on the subject, we are led to believe that the licenses issued by him for pasturage purposes are just so much waste paper, that they give to the holders of them not the slightest valid right to occupy the runs for which they were issued. That part of the above mentioned Act wHich bears on the subject is very explicit : it says — " That all land for the time being remaining unsold shall be open, under license, for pasturage purposes at the rate of twenty per annum for every hundred acres." This is not in any way repealed by the subsequent Act 14 and 15 Vie. c. 84 « to alter and amend an Act empowering the Canterbury Association to dispose of certain lands in New-Zealand";" in fact, if it were possible, it goes rather to strengthen the law on squatting rights — for by the ninth clause giving power to grant timber licenses, express reference is therein made to the passage already quoted .—". — " and the money arising from the granting of such licenses (for timber) shall be applied by the said Association in the same manner as the 4 money arising from licenses for 'pasturage granted under the powers of the said recited Act"™., 13 and 14 Vie. c. 70. Now we believe that there is not a single squatting lease in force at Canterbury that has been issued in the terms of the Act. We admit that the terms prescribed by law are excessively harsh, still in departing from the law, there is no guarantee against any unfairness on Mr. Godley's part in the distribution of land for pasturage ppurr r poses. Indeed, we have already heard serious complaints on this subject, and it is one that ought not to be lightly passed over, since this partial distribution of his

! favours can only benefit a few whose influence Mr. Godley may have reason to fear, and who may thus be induced to be silent respecting the misappropriation of the trust /unds by the Association, the proper expenditure of which would benefit the land purchasers generally. The steady determination shewn by the Land Purchasers under the New Zealand Company to submit to no compromise, and to be satisfied of nothing short of " their bond " should prove both an example and an encouragement to those who have been injured by the Association. Neither length of time nor the disorganization of the Company caused the Nelson settlers to desist in their demands ; their situation with regard to the " Nelson Trust Funds " was very analogous^ to that in which the Canterbury settlers are now placed. All the promises made by the Association with regard to religion and education — the attractive features in the scheme — were looked upon' with suspicion in the colony by men who had already suffered injustice at the hands of a colonizing company. The Nelson Examiner in remarking on the little faitE to be placed in such promises shewed^ in language which might very appropriately be used by an independent Canterbury paper, the manner in which the Company set to work to attract purchasers. "The New Zealand Company planned the bait of a college to catch the imaginations of men of- education, who looked upon such an institution as the certain means of advancing Nelson at an early stage to the foremost rank of colonial society, and steam communication to allure the merchant and man of enterprise. For these purposes the Company became the trustees of nearly £19,000, which, by its own admission, has every farthing been expended 5 and now nine years have elapsed, and we are just where we were at first, for neither principal nor interest of the money can be got at." And so it is at Canterbury, a very large amount of money has been given in trust to the Associaton to be appropriated to religious and educational purposes : the money has not been expended for the purposes intended,. but \&i been misappropriated. Seeing how the New Zealand Company's "bait" took, the Association tried the same plan on a larger scale, and the " cast " has not been unsuccessful. Colleges, churclfes, schools, — a bishop even — all were promised. Canterbury, according to the " touters " at horned, was to be a highly religious settlement. Lord Lyttelton said that " the religious element was far above all others. the distinguishing feature." Canterbury, it was said, " would take the foremost rank in Colonial society," — and the other settlements were spoken of disparagingly by the Association in order to further their own pet scheme. How far these anticipations would have been realized if all the pledges of the Association had all been fulfilled, we cannot pretend to say, but the Canterbury settlers, who have parted with their money and are left 1 without colleges, schools, churches and Bishop, must feel that these magnificent promises have proved " airy nothings," that these bright 'hopes, like the "baseless fabric of a vision," are " melted into air," And like an' unsubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. N

On Wednesday last the first public sale of land in this Settlement by the Government took place at the Treasury. The land offered for sale 'comprised one hundred and twenty feet, that part on Lambton Quay recently reclaimed from the sea, being one hundred feet in depth, -with a water frontage and a frontage to Lambton Quay ; it was put up at the upset price of six pounds a foot, and we understand three hundred pounds worth, or nearly half the quantity for sale -was disposed of. An excellent Lithograph plan executed by Dr. Ealph, shewing the contemplated improvements of Lambton Quay and the area of land to be reclaimed from the sea, has been recently published by Government. A description of these improvements was published in the Spectator of March 31st.

By a private letter from Wanganui we learn that information had been received there of the arrival at Auckland of the Cresswell, with the news of the change of Ministry, which had reached this port by the Will o' the Wisp from Van.Diemen's Land.

Death by Drowning. — An inquest was Tield yesterday at the Aurora Tavern before Dr. Fitzgerald, Coroner, on the body of George Falconer, mate of the schooner Wellington. From the evidence it appeared that.the deceased on the previous' night 'had attempted to swim on shore from his vessel, and on reaching the new embankment had got stuck in the

mud from which lie had been unable to extricate himself. The body" was found by Messrs. Hewett,and Herbert in the morning with the hands and feet stuck in the mud. A verdict was returned of Found Drowned.

On Thursday evening Dr. Ralph delivered his third lecture on Chemistry at the Wellington Athenaeum, at which, owing to the improved state of th« weather, there was a very large attendance of meinhers. The Doctor commenced with some experiments shewing the brilliant effects of combustion in oxygen gas, and explained the changes produced by burning phosphorus^and carbon respectively in that element, the former producing phosphoric, and the latter carbonic acid. The lecturer also shewed the ordinary mode of obtaining carbonic acid gas by decomposing chalk (carbonate of lime) with sulphuric acid, and explained the effects of the gas in extinguishing flame, he also proved its weight by pouring it into a vessel at the bottom of which a lamp was placed, and which was immediately extinguished. After some experiments with nitrogen the Doctor proceeded to shew the lightness of hydrogen by filling soap bubbles with that gas which rapidly rose- to the ceiling, unless suspended intheir course by the application of a candle, when they burst with a flash of light but with little noise. In the concluding experiment the bubbles were filled with a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, which when set on fire exploded with a sharp report, and. a similar result on a larger scale was produced after the lecture by substituting a small bladder for the soap bubbles, which on bursting was scattered into fragments. The lecture lasted about an hour and a half, and appeared to give very general satisfaction. We understand that Dr. Ralph will continue the same subject on Thursday next.