WELLINGTON.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 632, 15 March 1870, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(pitoii ouk own coebespondent.) March 4. The latest tiling out is the prospectus <jf the New Zealand Government Life Assurance and Annuity Department! It is got up in very interior style -in every way. The printing "and paper are of the cheap and nasty, and certainly no credit to any printing office, while the wording of the prospectus is scarcely worthy of a scheme of which our Government is promoter. .Does anyone helieve, in the face of a scale of charges which are about the same as thosb put forward by' other insurance companies, that the sole motive of the Government is to foster careful provident habits among the people, or that profit has not any share in tiie inducement to carry out the scheme ; and, do you not think it would have been better not to preface the scale of charges with six or eight arguments showing that a government insurance should be cheaper than any others ? The only step achieved by the pamphlet is to show us clearly one or two features which should characterize the Government Insurance, and which are notably wanting. Ot course there is to be an Insurance Annuity Commissioner, at a salary of £BOO per annum, and, as far as I can see, the only satisfactory point in the whole affair is that, as there is to be another post created, with a big salary attached, the Hon W. Gisborne is to have it. A better man could not be found, or one more universally respected and admired. On dit that Mr W. Eitzherbert is about to visit England, in the hope of using what influence he may possess with the Home Gavernment, for the purpose of obtaining a colonial governorship. I don't believe it however. Hi 3 younger son is going to Cambridge, aud I believe that the father wishes to be in England during his son's sojourn there. The case of Walter Tricker—whom I have repeatedly mentioned as having been convicted of murder three or four years ago, and as being kept still in prison—is attracting attention again. A public meeting will he held next week to consider the case. Tricker was iound guilty on the evidence of a Maori who, it has been proved, perjured himself. Two commissions have been appointed to consider the case, and the last one most decidedly said that the alibi set up by Tricker at the trial was clearly established. The majority of people here believe the man to be innocent, aud yet, in the face of all the facts that have been brought to light since the trial, the ninn iu neither hanged nor set at liberty.

The criminal sittings of the Supreme Court were held here on Tuesday last. The calendar was remarkably light, aud all the cases were disposed of in the one day, none of them presenting any features of interest. Already we have one candidate openly in the field for election for Wellington, at the coming general elections, and he is, perhaps, as notorious a man (at all events in this Province aud in Canterbury) as could be found. Edward Jeimingham Wakefield, whose name should be a synonym for wealth, intellect, education, and political power, had he used and not abused the many advantages which Providence blessed him with, has announced his intention of coming forward as a candidate for Wellington If he can keep himself moderately respectable, so as not to be utterly a disgrace to the Province, he would be a useful mau in the Council or in the House. He has a decided ability for picking holes in other peoples' coats, and, however unpleasant people possessed of that talent always are, occasionlly they may be useful. It is necessary to discuss the faults of a policy sometimes, and for bringing them prominently before his hearers I think Mr E. J. Wakefield is unsurpassed by any other man in the Colony. It is required sometimes to destroy, aud for this work he is the man' whether fortunes, reputations, political schemes, or commercial speculations be the blocks in the way. Vessels to dishonor are sometimes useful.

The present arrangements for the distribution of the English mail are felt here to be eminently unsatisfactory. On the eighth day after its arrival at the Bluff we in Wellington received our English letters. business-like ammgements" of the Postmaster-General do not, I suppose, extend to tin's Province siuce he has transferer! his iuterests to Auckland. or we might expect to receive our letters from the Bluff in a time something less than what would, be required by most people to make a trip of three times the distance.

His Excellency the Governor, who has succeeded beyond his most sanguine expectation in making himself disliked in this Province, is gradually being properly appreciated in Auckland, his pet part of the Colony. The bad taste which led him a few evenings ago, at an after-dinner speech, to bepraiso Auckland and bespatter Wellington, must be in the grain, and must cause all, except the few toadies to be found everywhere, to love him less the more they see him. I am not much given to prophesying, but for once I will foretell a regular row at the next session of the Assembly over the conduct of our operations against the rebels, over the Defence Estimates, and, above all, over Mr Commissioner Branigan. This gentleman has had no idea of anything except having his own way. Expense

or economy are words of which, apparently, he does not know the mejaiing. It will certainly appear tfiat the defence expenditure is now, and has been for some months fearfully beyond our means, and far exceeding tlia sum voted; and at the same time we have nothing for it except an ill-fed, ill-clad force in a constant, state of motion and hunger, never seeing tho rebels and apparently never likely to do so. How long is this state of things to last ? A report has come down that Col." M'Donnell and Major Hay have left the service, but no reason is given. It has been known all along that the officers in our Colonial force much objected to serve under a civilian like Mr Branigan, who at most is only competent to take charge of a body of police. Men who have served in the Imperial army and in our own forces for years can ill brook having a civilian, and of all such a policeman, put over them. That feeling, however, could not be permitted to stand in the way of the appointment of a man who possessed undoubted talent and qualifications for command, but that is not the case with Mr Branigan. I can assure you I am speaking with a full know, ledge of the question when I say he has shown that he is not the man to have the control of our forces at a time when efficiency and economy are of vital importance.