NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1854.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 941, 9 August 1854, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1854.

,Ij£looking over the. reports of the proceedings in the House of Representatives, in " tiKe/ Auckland papers the,, questions which 'appear-to have caused the greatest amount ojf' discussion in,>tjiat chamber are. those conriected wHK'the '; waste' lands. One of these,, the debate,, on-fMr. Wakeweld's'm'ptipn'for the apgomtfoeht of a" committee to enquire whether the Provirice of Auckland shojild.be relieved irom bearing any share of the New Zealand' Company's" debt, will be foun&in partin our ' present number and wilM>e' com-pleted-in our next- issue. The report of* the committee. apJDoi;nted ,pn 'Mr. Wake-, field's mqtipn affirmed the principle, as a matter of jjustice,' of' relieying Auckland, from the burden^ sp; t'h.at'the- gom'^ahy's debt will be. thrown-exclusively on the Southern ,As"a' matter between- the Province 1 of Auckland and-the Company we entirely agree iii that decision^' for whatever pleas may be. advanced by the Company as to the rest of . New Zealand, there is not the shadow of 'a^ pretext for saying it- has incurred, any expense in any w;ay to' 'promote ihe progress, or 'in-*, crease the 'population of that J ' Province,. But the ground on which this debt has been' imposed on the colony seems- to have been, lost sight of in the debate, or at

least it was not alluded to by the speakers, namely, that the payment of this debt was the condition or price exacted by the Government from the colony as a> sort, of equivalent 'foi* transferring the management of thje waste lands from the Imperial control to the hands of the settlers. The obligation of satisfying the. Company rested with the Home Government, and they hay.c.l taken this way of discharging ihe obligation. Viewed in this light the obligation to" satisfy the men "with small souls and insatiable pockets," as Mr. Wake field graphically describes the Pirectors" with" whose proceedings he. was once eg intimately connected, presses equally ,on all the Provinces. But passing over this point, what we should desire to see is d fair investigation into the debt itself, that it may be clearly known how much, if anything, is really due to theCom>p'any,ti6w much land—titter deducting the 'claims, by, compensation or ptherwise against it— can really.be^said to have been handed 'over by the Company to the (rbverrimenl. , Anct this we hope will ! be done by ther .committee in their report; ' Arid if the" colony "is ultimately" compelled .to pay any. portion of a debt which ought, in -justice, to be borne by- the Home Government, then the debt' ought *to be cuily apportioned among the different Provinces, so that each should pay its- proper proportion ; that justice should be meted out to each, ahdnot\as by the present arrangement, that those Provinces which now sell the greatest amount of land "should pay the largest share of the debt.

The Steamer Queen arrived yesterday from Sydney via Nelson. As she left on the 22nd, j shortly after the William Denny, she does not 'bring any, later European .news. The Queen was disappointedan procuring a supply of coal at rNelson, and was-oblig«d to put into Queen Charlotte's Sound to cut firewood for the use of the vessel, which has been the cause of the detention-she has experienced. , -

Pkogra'mme of performance by the Band of the 65th Kegt, at Thorndon, Saturday, the 12th inst. : — . I.' Overture — Norma .'. . , * .... Bellini 2. Selection — Daughter St. Mark.. ..^ <:Balfe 3. Agnes Sorel Quadrille; .....*,..#. ~. ... £c Due 4. Troop — 16th Lancers Jones 5. Gabrielle Waltz .........,.....*.. Straus* 6. Balmoral Polka ,«.».',.«..«.