Wanganui Chronicle. and TURAKINA Z RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. SATURDAY, 17th APRIL, 1869.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1015, 17 April 1869, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. and TURAKINA Z RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. SATURDAY, 17th APRIL, 1869.

The Assembly now stands prorogued to the Ist of June. Ministerial utterances seem to indicate that this date will be adhered to, but circumstances change cases, and the meeting ol the Assembly will probably be influenced by the course of events.

A remarkable change has come over our provincialists regarding the Manawatu since that very dear bargain was supposed to be concluded and was not. Three years ago this famous block of land was described as sure to be a mine of wealth to the province and the abode of peace and plenty to a numerous band of settlers. The whole region was bathed in floods of sunshine (properly we should call it moonshine) and the Manawatu was aland “in which it seemed always afternoon.” Whether any part of of the price was invested in pastoral poetry we do not know, but the songs ceased as soon as money became scarce, and now we rarely hear a word of the subject. Much cry and little wool —no wool, in fact —not a stray clipping —hitherto epitomises the strange eventful history. Unfortunately the province of Wellington has suffered from the pastoral and poetic views of its agents, and up to this time a deed of purchase, which we were taught to believe was both a rich and rare achievement, is not worth the paper it was written upon. The twentylive thousand pounds of purchase money has swelled to thirty five thousand pounds, with the prospect of a further indefinite increase, and not a solitary penny to show for this unconscionable outlay. The last we have heard of the matter is that a proposed Land Court (the third of a series, if we mistake not) lias been postponed due die for fear of its giving rise to a native disturbance, which certainly might or might not be one of the results of attempting to decide between the rival claimants. Of this, however,there does not seem to be much danger. Neither the next Court nor its successor is at all likely to settle this pretty quarrel. And it appears to us that there is as much fear of complication with the natives, and even more of doubt and difficulty, in postponing than in holding such a court. The natives are naturally aggrieved at the delay, more especially as there is a considerable sum due to them (something like £4OOO, we believe) as arrears of rent from the squatters, payment of which, to some extent, depends upon the settlement of the ownership, but which, failing settlement, bebecome more and more doubtful of collection. Movement or no movement is about equally beset with peril.

Those who take an interest in the march of great events cannot help watching anxiously the vai - ious movements in connection with the proposed disestablishment of the Church of Eugland in Ireland. Abstractly every lover of justice and fair-play is agreed as to the propriety of Mr Gladstone’s policy; but the mode of carrying it to fruition leads to the most conflicting divergencies. Tliere is really no argument for the Irish Church which will stand a moment’s serious consideration. It is out of place alike in time and place. To say that it occupies the same position as the Church in England is simply to insult our common sense. The Church in England grew gradually and naturally out of the necessities of the times, like all the other parts of the British Constitution. It seems to us to be the natural expression of the English mind, and it fit 3 the nature of Englishmen on their native soil. It is vain for them to try it elsewhere. Their attempts, for example, at parishes and some of the other adjuncts of an establishment in this colony are nonsense. People simply

piugh at the idea. Above all, the English Church was and is unsuited to Ireland. The very fact of its being English unfitted it for being Irish. The transplantation of the English Church to Ireland, among a population of a different character and a different history, was much the same thing as to try and acclimatize a polar bear in New Zealand. The English had a coat that exactly suited their own backs, because it had been made for them ; they tried to force one like it on the shoulders of other people, for whom it was not made, and whom, therefore, it could not possibly suit ; and, worst of all, they insisted that the unfortunate people should pay for this misfit, whether they wore it or not. What could be expected of such an attempt save bitter disappointment '! But the evil has been done, and cannot be undone without loss and damage. The wrong step must be retraced—cannot be retraced too soon—but it is both painful and difficult to do so, and we venture to think that there will be strange changes in British political parties before it will be fully and finally accomplished.