WELLINGTON.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 436, 23 December 1868, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(from ottr own correspondent.) December, 18. The excitement which the rapid succession of sensation telegrams from Napier, and the constant receipt, by " special messenger " of alarming intelligence from Wanganui, kept us in for some weeks lately, has at length, I am glad to say, subsided. Flesh and blood could not stand a long continued state of tension such as we were kept in. Our minds must have given way, and so we now devoutly thank the miracle-mongers and " alarming intelligence" manufacturers to our local press for the respite.

There really lately has been nothing very extraordinary to relate, if, indeed, I except the remarkable supineness of the Defence Minister. But that, after all, we have got accustomed to.

I sent you a few days ago a telegram respecting the early dissolution of Parliament. The matter was one about which, on Saturday last, no secret was made. On Saturday evening it was mentioned openly in a billiard room in this city, as an event that, had been decided on, and would certainly be brought about without delay. The gentleman who, perhaps more plainly than anyone else stated this, is Mr C. E. Haughton, the Under Secretary for Defence, and lately the ministerial whipper-in. The Government again, in noticing the report, which was, of course, iu everybody's mouth, does not say it is untrue; but that if people have been mistaken, it serves them right for eaves-dropping. I don't see that such a term as this can be applied to a person who hears a remark made rather noisily (for it was immediately after the first militia parade, and several of the young officers were wetting their commissions,) to no one in particular in a public room well filled with people, all knowing one another. I think Vie fact is more likely to be that the " Acting Under Secretary " has unintentionally announced rather prematurely the intention of the Ministry. There is no doubt His Excellency the Governor does nothold exactly the same views as his advisers on one or two subjects, one of the most important of them being the question df applying to the Imperial Parliament for troops. On this matter the Governor does not believe in self-reliance. He does not seem to have faith in New Zealand militia or volunteers, and is -riot; -easy as tothe inten-

tions of the Maoris with regard even to Wellington. He has a firm belief in the advantage of being able to get behind 10,000 British troops. Indeed he is a direct reverse of Sir George Grey. Had our late Governor been, as Sir George Bowen was, in Wanganui at the time when an attack was expected, instead of coming back to Wellington -with all possible speed, he -would have gathered together the friendly Maoris and gone out and driven back the rebels.

H.M.'s s.s. Charybdis is again lying in our harbor. She made a trip up to Wanganui to be ready in case she was wantod, but the officers decided that everything was quiet there, and so they returned here to mount guard over the safety of the Governor. They had from all accounts a pleasant trip, visited Wanganui and the redoubt, and of course came back saying that as they had not seen any rebels, there must be none about. The news from Wanganui is nil; from Napier, ditto. Gradually the most frightful details in connexion with the Poverty Bay massacre are creeping out—of women violated, then tortured, then slain; of children cut up alive; of men put to death in fiendish ways. And yet what is being done to punish thesavages ? Absolutely nothing.