VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. [From the Maitland Mercury.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 760, 13 November 1852, Page 3

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. [From the Maitland Mercury.]

We have Van Diemen's Land papers to the

25th September. Great excitement was stated to have been occasioned by the conduct of Governor Sir William Denison. The Legislative Council had passed by a majority of 16 to 4, an address to the Queen, praying her to revoke the order in Council making Van Dferaen's^Land a place to which convicts might be transported. The address was unusually brief for Van Diemen's Land, and containing no statements affecting any person, resting the prayer on the facts that transportation to other colonies had been stopped, at their request, and that the colonists of Van Diemen's Land had for years been praying for its discontinuance. As is usual, the Council sent the address to the Governor to be forwarded by him to the Secretary of State, in the following words :—: — " To 'his Excellency Sir William Thomas Deni* i son, Knight, Lieutenant Governor of Van ' Diemen's Land and its Dependencies. May it please your Excellency, We, her Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the members of the Legislative Council of Van Diemen's Land in Council assembled, beg respectfully to request that your Excellency will be pleased to transmit to her Majesty, through the principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, the accompanying address to her Majesty, which passed this Council on the 14th instant, and of which the following is a dopy : — " The Governor returned the following written reply to the deputation who presented the address to him : — Government House, Hobart Town, 21st September, 1852. Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the Legislative Council. The address which you have now entrusted to my care I shall forward to the Secretary of State, to be laid before her Majesty the Queen. Most heartily should I rejoice were the state of the colony such as to justify me in supporting the prayer of this address ; but after very careful consideration of the question in all its bearing** I deem'it to be a duty I owe, not only to the Cottofeil, but te the colony, to state my firm conviction that the course which the address prays her Majesty to adopt .would, under existing, circumstances, be fraught with ruin to a lage portion of the present owners and occupiers of property — and whilst proving most injurious to those engaged in industrial pursuits, would eventually be found in no respect to have effected that amelioration of the moral condition of the people, which I believe it to be the mutual desire of myself and the Council steadily to promote. W. Denison. This reply excited great indignation, the more especially as the Council had simply asked him to transmit the address to the Queen, and not to recommend its prayer. But the subsequent conduct of the Governor, or his alleged conduct, roused public indignation to a high pitch. When the address was before the Council, the Colonial Secretary had moved a technical amendment, which was rejected, and then, as he could not consistently with his avowed opinions directly oppose the prayer of the address, he retired from the Council. Two official members — Dr. Turnbull, the chairman of the Land Board, and the Solicitor General, voted for the address. There remained only one official, the Attorney General, who with three nominees voted against it, forming the minority of four. It was openly stated that the Governor, displeased with the conduct of Dr. Turnbull, had | taken the very unusual and dictatorial step of making him accept twelve months' leave of absence, and had further written to England recommending Dr. Turnbull'B dismissal. The Colonial Secretary and Solicitor General were said to be so disgusted with this proceeding, and at the implied censure on their own conduct, that they had resigned. The matter was likely to come before the Legislative Council, Captain Fenton having given notice of motion for an address to the Queen praying her to recall Sir William Denison.