NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, October 13, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 751, 13 October 1852, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, October 13, 1852.

By the Eclairs mail brought on from Taranaki by the Matilda, we have received Auckland papers to the 17th ult, including some of a previous date to those which recently came to hand by the Overland Mail. The gold fever seems to be operating at Auckland, much in the same way as in this Province ; numbers going for a season to try their fortune at the diggings, " with an avowed' intention of returning " as the New Zealander informs, us. The course to be pursued by those -who remain in the Colony, and are in any way connected with its commerce either directly or indirectly, appears to us to be to encourage in every possible way the extension of cultivation among the natives : if their labour is only turned to gpQd account the best re-

suits must follow, and so far from the material prosperity of the colony suffering any check in consequence of the general excitementabout gold, it may receive a much greater developement through the natives, and an export trade of considerable importance may spring up with the neighbouring Colonies. In this respect New Zealand possesses a great advantage over other Australian colonies, and while the influx of immigrants promises to be so great in Australia in search of gold, the wheat, potatoes, and sawn timber of New Zealand must always findj a ready market, and the present remunerative prices be sustained. The Colony is now placed in a position to derive the full benefit of those wise measures which have been pursued by Sir G. Grey with reference to the natives. The country has been completely tranquillized, year by year the natives have been advanced in civilization, and in their knowledge of European arts, and now the opportunity occurs at once of turning their knowledge to account, and of shewing in the most incontestable manner how much has been quietly but effectually done by the Government in their improvement. But for them, in the excitement and general scramble for gold, not only would any attempt to export produce be out of the question, but a serious difficulty would exist in obtaining supplies for our own consumption ; and where the market is limited the supply would be uncertain and the fluctuations in price excessive. Of this we have had some experience within the last twelve months in the article of flour, and we fear that in the ensuing twelve months, if we had exclusively to depend for our supplies on the crops of the settlers, the fluctuations in the price of flour would be still greater than we have already known them to be.

By the Kawai we have received Otago papers to the 25th ult., but they are filled with accounts of squabbles of which Mr. Cutten, the ostensible editor of the Wit?iess, is the hero, and which appear to have been occasioned by the personalities for which Captain Cargill's paper is so notorious. Of any local information which would afford those who feel an interest in that settlement any idea of its progress or prospects they are utterly void, but whole columns are devoted to Mr. Cutten and his police reports. The impression conveyed by the Otago Witness of the community in which it is published would be very unplqasant if the slightest reliance were to be placed in its representations, or if any one should make so great a mistake as to suppose it to be the organ of public opinion in that community ; we find continually the same tedious iteration of the sayings and doings of the little clique into whose hands the Witness has fallen, the same dull and pointless attacks of their opponents, particularly if they happen to be Government officers, — as if any one, not a member of the family compact, cared two straws about Captain Cargill and his clique, or their personal predilections and antipathies.

By the intermediate papers from Auckland by the Matilda we find the news of the arrival of the Cliusan was received there on the 20th of August. We have borrowed from the Southern Cross a report of the debate on the third reading in the House of Lords of the Christchurch Bishopric Bill, and from the New Zealander a letter by Mr. E. G. Wakefield to the London Spectator on the Australian gold discoveries and their effect on established colonial interests.