COLONIAL & ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume I, Issue 34, 9 December 1843, Page 3

COLONIAL & ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

(Fiom the Wellington Spectator, Oct. 18, 13<!3.) Dr. Evaxs moved the 4th resolution, and said that he regretted the smallness of the attendance of the working classes, and he regretted this because they were, on every ground, deeply interested in the object of the meeting. A majority of the sufferers at Wairau belonged to them, and they were the first to be injured by any interruption of agricultural labours. But he attributed their absence to an insufficient notice of the meeting and the inconvenient day and houif which, had been selected for it. He felt great satisfaction at finding that the resolution placed in his hands was not confined to the inhabitants of Wellington or the neighbouring settlements, but extended to all parts of the island. He was glad of this opportunity of disabusing the public here of the impression that the people in Auckland coincided with the Local Government in their feelings of hatred and malice towards this settlement. He had no where heard the important questions arising out of the Massacre of Wairau argued in a more calm and enlightened spirit, than among some of the private citizens of Auckland. They differed from us in somo fundamental principles, relating to the disposal of waste lands and the mode of acquiring territory from the natives by the Crown, and on other matters ; but, ou this subject, they took enlarged views, and freely confessed that they saw nothing but the question of "whether the Queen's Government was to be established in these islands, de facto, and dejuri, or not." Dr. Evans then went into a lengthened defence of the legality of the proceedings of those who accompanied the Police Magistrate to Wairau, to assist him in the execution of the Queen's warrant, and commented with severity upon the attempts made by the Local Government to condemn, without any inquiry, their own servants ; but he trusted that the new Governor would be found free from prejudices, and that he would not permit his mind to be poisoned by the influence of the functionaries at Auckland, who had neither the justice nor the magnanimity of a Government. They were actuated by one feeling,' which was the principle of their administration — that of damaging a rival speculation in land ; and, beyond this, their notions of Government and legislation could not carry them. Dr. Evans then adverted to the crooked policy they had adopted upon the native question, and he denounced in vehement language the disloyal and traitorous conduct of any man, whether Acting' Governor, Judge. Attorney - General, or under

whatever name he might hold the Queen s commission and eat the people's bread, who should, after so many solemn acts of the Crown and legislature affirming it, and so many thousands of her Majesty's subjects venturing their lives and fortunes upon the assurance ■of it, dare to insinuate a doubt whether the Quoon's authority extended over { every native inhabitant of these islands. It was notorious that leading officers of the Government were amongst the most deadly enemies of the prerogative, under the pretence of philanthropy ; but it was consistent with their own views as land speculators, and 'that was sufficient for them. The speaker then entered, at considerable length, into the general question and reforred particularly to tha affair at Tauranga, where, after an enormous expence had been incurred in taking down the military to punish the natives for an atrocious crime, the arms cf the executive had baen paralized, and the troops withdrawn, amidst the ridicule and contempt of the natives, because Mr. Attorney-General at the eleventh hour, had conceived some doubts as to whether this particular tribo were subjects of the Queen's Government. After insisting at some length upon the dangerous consequence of admitting such doctrines, especially under present circumstances, the speaker concluded by an earnest appeal to the public not to confound in one general condemnation all the aborigines. The crime they deplored was the act of two individual chieftains, celebrated for their ferocity, and a small body of their retainers. There was no proof of a confederacy for such purposes. The memory of those estimable men who perished at VVairua must be vindicated, the majesty of the law must be asserted, and he 'had no doubt that, if the sword of justice fall only upon those who should be proved to have perpetrated the crime, they would find the vast majority of the natives ready to submit, and to become as peaceable and industrious as we had ever contemplated in our most sanguine moments.