Page 1 Advertisements Column 6

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 353, 23 July 1863, Page 1

therefore give particulars of this formidable craft as, furnished us by a gentleman who saw her in the course of building, six weeks ago in Sydney, and obtained bn the spot the the fullest description of her intended character. ! The boat is 140 feet long, with twenty \ feet beam, and her hold; is six feet deep. ’ Her bottom is perfeetly flat, with a draught ' of water not exceeding thirty inches when loaded. She will be propelled by a'paddle , wheel at her stern* and her steersman, as r well as all persons on board, will be pro- ’ tected by a cupola roof. Of course the boat is built of iron plates, sufficiently strong to resist rifle balls, and rising above her deck ai*e two iron towers, piercefl for rifle shopting ; it isby these towers only that access to the ulterior of the vessel can be obtained. To guard ; against boarding, an apparatus is ' constructed by which a constant discharge of boiling water can be maintained, for a quarter-of-an-hpur together, r from her sides ; and she is, in addition, to be fitted with two Armstrong guns. r She is calculated to carry 200 persons under her decks. The cost of ; constructing this vessel Will be .£9,000, and > she is to steam eight knots an hour. The . builders, expected that'she would be ready, [ for sea by the end pf this month, and, in order to enable her to make the passage to New Zealand, she was to be fitted with a false keel, Tin’s boat, on arrival, will be able to carry ; troops into the heart of Waikalo, and, we must presume that the Governor, in sanctioning the expenditure of so ; large a sum of money as her consymction and fitting will cost, has resolved td |>ut an end to the foolery of Maori kingship, by striking at its root. The \Vaikato3 however, appear disposed to precipitate action, by. threatening the out-settlements of Auckland'; and it will therefore be an important object for General Cameron to assail the enemy in their rear by means of this gunboat in the Waikato river, —K elson Examiner, July 14. . DUKE OF NEWCASTJLES DESPTCH. We have uot space at present to give this document, nor sliall we enter at large into an examination of it. Tiie conclusion 1 of it is, as everyone had .anticipated a refusal to retreat from, or modify, the announced ,■determination of the British. Ministry, not ( to govern the colony of New Zealand without the participation of the colonists in the moral responsibility for native policy. At the same time the mother country is “ prepared to treat New Zealand.forthe present jwith mnclif- cousideration in theniutter of military protection.” The share of authojrity claimed for the Governor, who must Iw 'considered under this arrangement as the {lmperialagent and nothing more, may be 'gathered from the few last paragraphs' of [the despatch, particularly from the following words :—■ . * ! “ You would be bound to exercise the negative powers which you possess by preventing any step which invaded Imperial rights, or was at variance with the pledges of faith on which - her Majesty’s • Government acquired the sovereignty of New Zealand, or iii any other way marked by evident injustice towards her Majesty’s subjects of the native race. • “ You would he hound to judge for yourself as to the justice and propriety of employing, and the best inode of employing, her Majesty’s forces. In this matter you might fortify yourself by taking the opinions of your ministers, hut the responsibility would rest with yourself and the officer in command, ” The despatch is by no means discourteous to the colon}’ —it comes from a gentleman—yet a didactic, if not a sarcastic tone pervades it. Tliis may be nearly inevitable; where one : party in a discussion holds so high a rank as a Secretary of State for the Colonies, and occupies such vantage ground over the other as attends the mouth-piece of a very powerful nation addressing a mere germ of a state. It tends, however, in a healthy way to dispel seivile reverence for great position and vast power, to find the whole of a didactic despatch teeming with misstatements of facts. “ Behold by how little wisdom the world is governed !” or, rather, see on what meagre false information men, great as well as small, come to conclusions.' The Duke of Newcastle is a gentleman of sense, ability, and very good information as the world goes, and he uses some sound arguments, which have not been urged before in this matter. But the circumference of half the globe interposes a serious obstacle to the transmission of knowledge of facts, in spite of the best mail services and telegraphs of modern days. The Duke of Newcastle, moreove-, can quote authorities in the colony for the facts as he states them; he has, indeed, taken the view of one party in a divided community, and so far has failed in judgment; but we cannot well scold. Not to anticipate further the examination which the document demands, whether as a substantial fact, or as a contribution to political theory, we will oiilyjsay that, this ultimatum insists,on an arrangement which may, and probably will soon, appear practically impossible, and which if it should not be so proved, will owe its escape to the general rule, that theoretical faults do not always crop up in practice ; and to the particular fact, that the. natives seem bent on compelling a union of all parties, aud bringing about a unanimous policy, in spite of the causes and opportunities for deadlocks and difficulties which the constitutional maohii iry imposed upon us contains within itself.— Ibid, . ,