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Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 20, 7 September 1848, Page 2

We have received a few late papers from Nelson, by a chance mail, earlier papers of the series being still and long since due. This irregularity, of continual recurrence, may be taken as an example of one standing cause of complaint; that Auckland has never yet been suffered to enjoy the advantages which her central position affords her. This site was chosen for a capital, not so much for the sake of the Waitemata, as of the Manukau harbour, upon which, beyoud a doubt, the trade and prosperity of this settlement must ultimately depend. Bringing itnearest to Sydney, (Hokianga and Kaipara may be passed over as comparatively Uoiiaportant), being the only harbour which connects the Bay of Islands and its dependencies—so far at least as quick transmission of intelligence is concerned —with the southern settlements, its advantages have still been overlooked, or, as some do not scruple to say, wilfully smothered up. We do not hesitate 'to say, that by the expenditure of a trifling sum, in simply buoying off the tails of the shoah, it might be converted into a port of general resort, binding together, as much as they can be bound, all our straggling and illdistributed settlements, instead of being what it now is, a mere place of call for a few coasting schooneis. It is lamentable, with the waste of public money upon trifles, that is going on, as if in mockery, before our eyes, to see the greater interests of the colony so little attended to. Even the maintenance of a pilot might be dispensed with, if the simple suggestion that has been made were acted upon. It is the proper and central station, as the Commander of the Driver long ago tried to impress upon Governor Grey, for the government steamer. But, where the interests ef the northern settlements are concerned, he might as well have preached to the winds. To return to the, maimed intelligence that has been received fitom .the south. We are sorry to perceive that the old bitterness of feeling towards ourselves, if the southern journals may be trusted as true organs of the opinions they profess to repiesent, has no whit abated in the sister settlements. Time after time has the olive branch been thrown out here, never seemingly to be accepted. What can be the cause of jealousy? What do they | ask for more than they have? Auckland is no longer sole capital j for there are two capitals : to talk of changing the capital now is an absurdity. With £26,250 expended on Wellington alone, in one year, out of the Parliamentary grant, they cannot cry out upon partiality towards the north; res ipsa per se vocifetatur ad contrariam. What good, moreover, can come of th? northern and southern provinces still persisting in hurling the obnoxious epithet, " land sharks," at each others heads. The" original blame of that—there is nothing like an honest confession—appears to rest with ourselves, crying out so loudly, though not so unreasonably, against a landsharking company, and its wholesale cheating of the natives. But it does not shew much brilliancy of imagination, on the other side, to answer us uith a common tu quoqtie—to letort with the same accusation, instead of inventing a new one for themselves. Even in Thersite.ni warfare.—rbca valde defleiida—we seem to have the best of them. Their policy reminds us of that practised by the Tories many jears ago, w hen the Radicals, as a discriminating mark of their calling, took to wearing white hats. The government men immediately mounted the same, foiling their opponents, by destroy ing all distinction , and so by retorting a worn out charge upon us, they probably wish to establish some confusion in the application of it—to cast the common slur o\er the whole cokmj . so that at home it might not be clearly uueived wheie tic accusation ought mote rs) ciially to ict. V, o van foresee, that it will be still thrown bu-kuaids and forwaids until bath ;ue v.eaiy o( it and abandon it by mutual consent. Let iu ! c the tirst to give it up : a- we stn.ck the tust blow in thnt matter, it is | u.ih l.u' |'l.n that they should be suffered to =!uke 11..' List. I -\., v.v surmised, they are becoming very im- ■ p.i l ..1 . bout their constitution. It is a wain- ; in:; t'i In, Excellency inner to give any one a goo t i! i ratter again, lest he be leproached v. th '. in after lime , for one same song is I, r: i '-.ti-ujlly sung in the south—reiiuudi _,.!• '. M PauvV-Byßcideuieer'sStiLiui,"

or Madame Pasta's " Che Faro," which they respectively sung all over England for many years, without tiring themselves, or even perhaps their audiences —how it has been recorded that" there never was a body of settlers to whom the power of local government could be more wisely nndjudieiouslg entrusted than the inhabitants of the < 'ook's Straits' settlements." So fond have they become of the passage, that we have seen it quoted twice in one leading article. " How long the Governor," says the Independent, (Aug. 2,) " will carry with him our votes and influence is a problem. It depends in a great measure on hisspeedy satisfaction of our claims to representathe institutions. Fifteen months ago, he stated to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that we were fully ripe for these institutions. Why are they delayed? Have the southern settlements become less fit to govern themselves since May, .1847 ? Our present respectable, and satisfactory position, and our increasing prosperity, will-give the indignant negative to that cpiery. Then, why we ask again, are our recognised rights withheld V What can make them so eager for the rejected of Auckland, and of New South Wales, it is hard to say. The scheme is but an abortion at the best; and the eagerness to realize it finds a close parallel in the Irish taste for what is called in that country, " Staggering Bob." Nelson, which from the general tone of its society, and the real advance which it hasfoiced for itself, in spite of obstacles, deserves to be a favourite settlement, complains of neglect. The remonstrances of its settlers are temperate, but the slight is evidently deeply felt. We copy the following from an Examiner. "By the Wellington Governiient Gazette of the sth instant, we learn that ""the ordinary revenue for that settlement for the quarter ending the 30th of June last, amounted to £4,745 3s. Bd. The expenditure ou roads for the same period was no less than £6,258 7s. 4d., in addition to £420 expended on government house. Another table in the same Gazette informs us, that the whole expenditure in the settlement on public works during\he'two quarters of the present year, had been_ £,11,557 12s. 2d., and for the corresponding!., term, of last year, £14,734 os. 4d., making a total of £14,890 14s. 7d. To meet this expenditure, £26,250 had been drawn from the Parliamentary grant. What will the people of Nelson think of this for even handed justice 1 Compare it with a paltry £6OO, the portion allotted to us!" A census was" about to be taken at Nelson, upon which, some very sensible remarks are contained in a letter from Mi. Stafford. Among others, we observe the following, with which all must agree. "It has been more than once made a matter of surprise, that no authorized return of the land in cultivation, or quantity of stock in the settlement of Auckland, ha\e yet been made known ; nothing beyond the amount of population and shipping returns, having ever yet-been published in the Government Gazettes. The results contained in a statistical paper of the semi-inquisitorial character of the present census, should in justice be declared in all, if in any of the settlements." It is said that the surveying steamer Acheron, is to be placed at the disposal of the Company.