NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, February 16, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 787, 16 February 1853, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, February 16, 1853.

By the Exchange information has been received of the arrival at Port Cooper of the Minerva, after a passage of 112 days. The mail for Wellington has been forwarded by the Exchange, and the Minerva herself is expected here very shortly as the greatest part of her cargo is consigned to Wellington merchants. Among the passengers in the Minerva is Mr. £. 6. Wakefield, who has at length realized his long cherished project, and arrived in New Zealand with the intention of becoming a colonist. Mr. Sewell is also a passenger, and has come, it is said, on business connected with the Canterbury Association. The English dates by this opportunity have to some extent been anticipated by the arrivals from Melbourne. In our present number will be found a copy of the report submitted by the Directors of the New Zealand Company to the shareholders at their last meeting in October* together with a letter from the Colonial Minister relating to the affairs of the Canterbury Association which, like the New Zealand Company, is also defunct, bequeathing its debts as a legacy to the Canterbury colonists. As the Canterbury Association has surrendered its charter 16 the Crown it becomes a question whether the whole scheme of offering for sale land «t a price so absurdly and ruinously high as £3 per acre is not practically abolished, and whether the uniform plan of disposing of Crown land at the upset price of "£l per acre which obtains^ in other parts of the colony under the administration of the Government will not be introduced in the Canterbury settlement

A report has -within the last few days been circulated that His Esoellency Sir George Grey would probably be shortly succeeded in the Government of this colony by a Sir Dominic Daly. It is hardly worth the trouble of contradicting this report since it is entirely without any foundation. It may be sufficient to observe, that from the high Appreciation which the present Ministry entertain of the

present Governor's valuable services, am the Colonial Minister lias acknowledge in his despatches in the fullest and hand somest manner, there can be no doubt tha Sir George Grey will continue in his presen office, and that under his able administration the complicated difficulties connected with the land question will be set at rest, and the various details of the Government under the New Constitution owe their- development to him on" whose valuable suggestions the scheme is mainly based. •

From the Lyttelton Times we learn the rumour of the discovery of Gold in the Canterbury settlement has proved to be merely a rumour. It appears from the Times of January 22, the report originated in the circumstance "that a dray with supplies for some weeks had started up the country, and this coupled with vague rumour:* induced a feeling that Gold had actually been' found by the party accompanying the dray." A meeting was held at Christchurch on the Ist to consider the subject, when it was resolved to offer a premium for the discovery of a Gold field available in the Canterbury settlement, and a Committee was appointed to carry out the objects of the meeting.

Programme of the performance of the Band of the 65th Kegt, at Thorndon Flat, on Friday Ihe 18th inst.: — , 1. Overture — De Marguerite d'Anjoa .... Meyerbeer 2. Selection — La Figlia d«l Reggimento ..Donizetti 3. The Scotch Medley Quadrilles Waddell 4. Caratina— La Mia Letizia— l Lombardi.Ferdt 5. Margaerite Vaue Brepsant I 6. Martha Galop Bilte 7. Jupiter Polka .* Koenig

Wi have received the following communication from Mr. Fitzgerald referring to a letter from Mr. £. G. Wakefield, published in the Spectator January 5. Mr. Fitzgerald assumes a great deal of indignation about the publication of Mr. Wakefield's letter, which he affects to consider " a gross breach of trust on the part of some one." Any person referring to the letter in question will see that Mr. Wakefield considers himself engaged in a controversy on a public question with Mr. Fitzgerald, and expressly requests the latter to print in the Lyttelton Tinas, which Mr.i Wakefield considers to be under Mr. Fitzger- * aid's management, his letter, with any comments he likes. And desiring at all events " that the - colonists should hear something on the other side after all they had heard from Mr. Fitzgerald" Mr. Wakefield, it seems, took such precautions as would ensure the publication of his letter. Any further information on the subject which Mr. Fitzgerald requires, we dare say Mr. E. G. Wakefield, who is now at Lyttelton, can readily give him, and furnish him, for the information of the electors at Lyttelton, with the letters of which he kept no copy, so that by their publication the correspondence may be complete. Mr. Fitzgerald's indignation, like .the bit of legerdemain to which Mr. Wakefield refers, is so transparent that, to use the words of the latter, " it might almost pass for a joke." To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Sir, — I am at a loss to know bow you coold have obtained a copy of part of a privnte-corres-poodence between myself and Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, printed in your journal of the sth inst., without having taken advantage of a gross breach of trust on the part of some one ; for I do not believe Mr. Wakefield would commit so discourteous an act as to publish a part of a private correspondence' without the whole, and without having obtained the leive of his correspondent oc so ungentlercanlike an act as to reply to the private letters of a friend through the medium of a public newspaper. My letters to Mr. Wakefield which you appear anxious to see, were written in the confidence of private friendship, and I kept no copy of them. It is sufficient for me to say, that they consisted of urgent remonstrances against the then policy of the Canterbury Association — that, I mean, of endeavouring to manage the local affairs of the colony from an office in London — of governing by instructions from the Adelphi — of neglecting to publish their accounts — of practically ignoring all responsibility to the colonist!. That policy it seemed to me to be the intention of the Canterbury Association, especially from} some clauses in the second Canterbury Act, to perpetuate ; and I thought it right to use whatever private influence I possessed by writing to my friends (and amongst others to Mr. Wakefield, who stood in the position of confidential adviser to the Managing Committee) to avert the ill-consequences which it was easy to see would result from such a policy. Whether I acted rightly iv §o doing, or whether Mr. Wakefield'* letter is a satisfactory reply to such a remonstrance, I leave the public to judge. 'Of course I did not publish Mr. Wakefield's letter, because it refers to private letters of my own which bad not been published, and without which it is quite unintelligible. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, J. £. Fitzgerald. I