Save us from our Friends.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume V, Issue 212, 10 July 1849, Page 2

Save us from our Friends.

' Is the January number of Fraser*s Maga^\ zinc we have been considerably amused ' with the substance of an article headed •♦New Zealand, and its recent progress under Governor Grey." When the poet wrote of " the distance lending enchantment to the view," one feels a strong disposition to believe that this distant island and the imaginative reviewer must have been in his mind's eye. Had prosaic matter of fact mortals Eke ourselves seriouslj put in print here what this imaginative personage has done with all due gravity in " Fraser," we should have doubtless been complimented for so clever a travesty. But as we have no v/ish to reap another's laurels,- we shall leave crar readers to confer ,on this new Ossian the due reward for the songs pf hi 3 New Zealand Fingal — onlj regretting that stern reality will so far debar their appreciation of these' reputed idealities. •• The administration of Captain Grey," says the article in ques'ti6n, '* presents a series of brilliant military and civil achievements which it certainly never fell to the lot of a colonial officer to effect in so short , a time. He found armed and successful rebellion abroad ; he rapidly established » solid and lasting peace. He found the British Government regarded with distrust; j he has made it the object of well-rounded confidence and attachment. He found the finances in deplorable disorder, and the

revenue nearly annihilated ; he has intro duced a sound monetary system* and, by Sent of Si parties, to the generaUati.faction of the colony ; and by his wise> firm, and beneficent administration, has provided for the simultaneous progression of the two races in a career of prolonged F « Sote praises," says Bacon, "proceed merely of flattery, and if he be an ordinary flatterer,he will have certain common attributes which may serve every man, if he be a cunning flatterer, he will Mow the arch flatterer, which is a man's self, and wherein a man thinketh best of himself, therein the flatterer will uphold him the most ; but if he be an impudent flatterer, look wherein a man is conscious to himself that he is most defective, and is most out of countenance in himself, that will the flatterer entitle him to— perforce." Whether an ordinary, a cunning, or an impudent flatterer, or all three in one, we leave it with our readers to decide. The arrival of the, Mary Catherine, from Sydney, has pnt us in possession of New South Wales papers to 27th June. The Public Meeting held on Circular Wharf, (report of which will be found in another column), had caused considerable excitement, both in Sydney and throughout the colony generally. The convicts had been landed and engaged, but it will be sometime before the feelings thus roused can be allayed. Later news from the seat of war in India have been received in Sydney, from which we learn that a perfect victory has been gained over the Sikhs, and this time with very little loss on the part of the British. It appears Shere Singh resolved to march on Lahore, but was interrupted by the timely, advance of the army under General Whish, who kept him in check until February 21st», when the grand army under Lord Gough, who had followed their line of retreat, came up, and made an attack upon them at Guzerat, when the enemy was completely routed at all points, with the loss of 3000 men, 28 guns, and the whole of their camp and ammunition. The casualties on the side of the British did not exceed 250 killed and wounded. The only officers reported killed, are CaptAnderson, B.A., Capt. Lloyd. H.M. 14th Dragoons, Lieut. Day, B.A., and Lieut. Sprott, 2nd B. E. regt The. battle commended at half-past 3 on the morning of the 21st February, and lasted three hours. The mania for emigration to California seems to be still on the increase. Five vessels were loading for San Franciscoone of which, the schooner John and Charlotte, was taken up at £100 per month. for seven months. Numbers of squatters were subscribing £50 each to charter vessels on the same plan. Sheep were being sold at mere nominal prices, Is. each in some instances, and stations given up. There was, also,, every prospect of the steamer Juno, being laid on for passengers. A Company is about to be formed for importing and refining sugar, supported by several gentlemen of large means and capital. Mining operatious appear to be going on well — the Smelting Company having turned out a considerable quantity of fine copper ore for the Indian market. The experiment of rearing cotton at Dempsey's Island was likely to succeed— that at Bol« warra has turned out a failure. A new daily paper, under the title of the Sydney Morning Telegraph, and a weekly one, to be called the Australian Colonist, are announced to be started shortly. We observe several robberies mentioned as having, taken place recently in New South Wales* Among others, that of the Singleton mail by a party of bushrangers, who, however, were captured shortly afterwards by the Richmond police. The following oflicial papers among others of interest, have been laid before the Legislative CouncU.r^The Immigration Agent's report for >1848 — a return of parties holding squatting licenses — the report of the Law Commission and the statistical returns for 1848. ! Business is represented as being fathef dull, particularly with retailers — supplies of several articles of which the markets were run out had been received by recent arrivals ; soft goods, generally,' were still in demand however. The brig Maukin, arrived hence on the 21st ult., and the brigantine Frederick, was to sail for Auckland about 1st July, In these days, of reform and retrenchment, when the evils and abuses which have so long tramelled the machinery of the British constitution, are one by one giving way to the pruning hand of improvement, it was

scarcely to be expected that those of the Colonial Oflice would be allowed to pass unscathed. Hitherto reformation in that branch of the legislature has frequently been attempted, and as frequently frustrated — either the men did not fit the occasion, or the occasion lacked the men. But, like all great questions when the true season for striking the blow, does arrive, the agent is seldom found wanting — the " hour and the man" in general go together. Without however, attaching any undue influence to this circumstance, or desiring to place Mr> Baillie in any other position than that which talents of no common order have assigned him, yet we do not think we err in looking.to him as the agent by which the corruptions and incongruities, of the whole system of colonial mismanagement in Downing-street, and misrule in the colonies will be ultimately swept away. As member for Invernesshire, which he has represented for the last nine years, his parliamentary career has been marked by greafconsistency]of character, and singular : activity, and earnestness of conduct. Possessing these rare qualities — as yet in the prime of life, and known and recognised as an unflinching advocate of civil and religious freedom, he has gained a standing in the House of Commons of no mean weight and influence* which at all times gives him the attention of that body when he rises to address them. We have laid before our reader s the opening of his crusade against colonial abuses, and shall not fail to record its further progress. Meantime, while we place. Mr. Baillie in his proper position, we must not withhold mentioning another name, to whom the Colonies at large are under considerable obligations for his well timed assistance— that of Mr* Edward Gibbon Wakefield, whose new work on "the Art of Colonisation" has recently made its timely appearance» As an old colonist, and one who has given much thought and study to the subject; of colonial administration, his views at this crisis, deserve no small degree of attention. That the plain truth plainly told, is the most powerful of , all weapons in a good cause, vre have ever found to be the case, and what Mr. Wakefield states of the evih of that system by which Colonial Governors are thrust upon the colonists without any regard to the qualifications of the one, or wants of the other, is butanotherconvincingproof of this. " The officen (sayg Mr. \Vakefield) are not a pe. culiar data, brought up to their peculiar business, | like members* of tha various professions and servants of the Bait India Company. Some of them | are picked up, one scarcely knows how ; for it is difficult to say by What means they get their appointments, unless it be that, having broken down in some regular profession, or having taken a dislike to it, tbey are in want of a provision and gain it in the colonies .by dint of importunity, Others, -and these are a very numerous class, owe their appointments to peers and members of parliament, who having poor relations to provide for, or electioneering engagements to pay off, oeldom think of the colonies but as Mr. O'Connell wrote about them in that letter which I have already noticed. The Treasury has a share of the patronage, the Admii ralty another, the Hone-GUards a third, and the Board of Ordnance comes in for pickings. How 1 would a Prussian burean have worked with scarcely I a voice in the selection of ita own instruments ? With the real disposers of colonial patronage, fitness is the lait consideration ; and, what is still worse, inasmuch as there is no publ.'c at home taking an interest in colonial affairs, colonial, patronago becomes the refugs for men, whose unntness for any office whatever forbids their employment by departments which public opinion controls as well as bus* tains. Those other departments make a convenience of the Colonial Office: the patronage of the colonies is the receptacle into which they cast their own importunate but very incompetent applicants for public employment. The great bulk, accordingly, of those whom we send out .to the coloniea to administer government, even those appointed to the highest offices, are signally unfit for the duties imposed on them. 00. this point it is needless to add a word to what has been said before."—- Pp. 238,239. Nor is the said picture of Colonial Office influence less true than humiliating, he goes on to say : " Next as to instructions. These are necessarily written, on account of the distance. What is the subject of them ? AH the public concerns of about forty distinct communities, scattered over the world, and comprising an endless diversity of lan* guagea, laws, religions, customs, wants, and economical circumstances, for writing statistically or theoretically, and but once, oa so vast and varied a theme,, the knowledge of the wisest of mankind would be insufficient ; a thousand, sages would be incapable of writing upon it continually in the form of useful practical directions. Who it is that writes. I need not repeat. And what is it that is written ? it is legislation and mandate. The commission of every governor nowadays enjoins him to rule according to the instructions which, he shall receive from Downing-street. In the bureaucratic colonies, instructions from. Downing-street have the force of Acts of Parliament : in the representative colonies, the governor, being himself a branch of the legislature, as well as the head of the executive, is bound to obey them implicitly. Instructions written in Downing-streat really constitute, therefore, the main instrument of government for our vast colonial empire. We have subjected a large portion of the world to none of the old forma of government, but to something which differs altogether from monarchy, aristocracy, democracy,' and every combina* tion of these three. Government by instructions . This institution is so little known exceps to colonists and colonizers, that a member of both classes may be excused for attempting to describe it«

" Legislation and mandate must be founded on information of some kind. When these suit the character and wabts of a people, the largest por. tion of tho business of government consists in the gathering and sifting of information, tn Prussia, the work used to be done by a vast and welWordered official establishment : it is done in England, though in some measure by official means, still chiefly by petitions to Parliament, by debates in Parliament, and, above all, by the press, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, morning and evening, and estra-edi-tional: for the colonies, it purports to be done by the reports of governors. A governor's reports, and the instructions founded on information derived from them, form a correspondence legiolative and executive. In this potent interchange of letters, months elapse, in some cases twelve months, before an answer can come by return of the post. Without reverting to the character and position of the writers oti both sides, it is obvious that Government by in* structions must be a great make-believe of good government. Cases indeed happen, but every honest governor or intelligent colonist Would declare them to be extraordinary cases, in which something useful is done for a colony by means of instructions from Downing-street. Allowing for these rare exceptions, Colonial*office instructions are either mischievous or inoperative. When founded on a wrong or imperfect view of things in the colony, as must be the case nine times out of ten, they are 1 mischievous if executed. If mischievous in cha* racter, but not executed by a governor of sense and courage, they are still mischievous in effect, by , worrying the governor, irritating the colonists, and exposing the supreme authority to little less odium than it inclirs when mischievous instructions are 1 executed by a dull or timid governor. The pro. portion of inoperative instructions is immense. They are inoperative from having been outran by time and events, or from some other inapplicability to things real in the colony. Why then write at all, except in the few cases where there is clear a necessity for writing, and good assurance that the trouble will not be lost ? Because, in fact, the trouble is not lost as respects the writers. Real government of the colonies from London is Impossible, but an appearance of governing must be kept up for the sake of the importance and dignity of the office. The new bead of the office (and the head of the office is always more or lesa new) likes to sign well-written despatches which may figure in a blue-book ; and the writer of them takes a pleasure in giving this satisfaction to his chief. Both classes like tha semblance of governing. The writing, therefore, of inoperative despatches is not la» hour lost ; but it is mischievous nevertheless. I | have seen the House of Assembly in Canada inca* pable of restraining their mirth, whilst the Speaker i was gravely reading instructions to the Governor which his Excellency bad been desired to comma* nicate to them : they laughed at the ludicrous in. applicability to Canada of the views expounded in these despatches, as the dockyard people at Kingston, on Ontario, laughed at the .arrival from England of a consignment of water-casks for the use of ships floating on the fresh-water lake. Considering that these despatches were written in the name of the imperial sovereign, this disrespectful treatment of them waa sarely very mischievous." — Pp. 240* 243. All this- is very miserable. It Would be' so were ' the instructions' to emanate on every occasion from the hand of her Majesty's Secretary of State ; for though he is usually an able man, it is impos* Bible in the nature of things that his opinions can be either clear or settled upon the many and varied subjects Connected with the administration of England's colonial empire. ' But they do not, in point of fact, emanate from the chief-secretary. ♦ The office' is divided into departments, over each of which a clerk presides ; and this clerk is to the cluster of settlements of which he haß charge a complete autocrat. Poor Charles Buller's admirable picture of Mr. Mother-country ia no caricature. The only point in which he is mistaken is in speaking of the abstraction as if it were a unit. There are half-a-dozen Messrs. Mother-country in the Colonial Office at this moment, of whom one, per. haps the the ablest of them all, makes no scruple of saying in society that he ' governs' seventeen colonies. i Neither is Mr. Wakefield unacquainted with the miserable expedients which in the name of Government, have been perpetrated iri New Zealand. But on that point we do not enter at present, we only wish to congratulate our fellow-colonists on the happy change come over the aspect of affairs at home, and to impart to them some of that hope which we confess we have ourselves imbibed when we see snch men as Mr. Baillie aftd Mr. Wakefield and their colleagues, lending their energies and influence to forward that cause, which to us is of such paramount importance.