THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, August 29, 1851.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 435, 29 August 1851, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, August 29, 1851.

LUCEO NON TIRO. "Tl T have been extinguished, yet there rise A thousand beacons from the spaik I bore."

Wellington papers, to the 26th ult., have reached us. Their contents are not only interesting but instructive ; for, although it would appear that the promised constitution of the British Government is likely to be deferred for another session, still it seems equally certain that the "Bill of Pretence," styled the " Provincial Councils Bill," will prove but a mere temporary make shift, which needs but the firmness and unanimity of the colonists to render a dead letter. There will be found, in another portion of our this morning's issue, so much of a despatch from Lord Grey to Governor Grey as the latter thought fit to lay before tha Legislative Council. A careful perusal of this document, and a comparison of its tone with the prevailing strain of those which have- previously emanated from the Downing Street Fountain, will well repay the trouble. It deals, indeed, in the same general teWs of approval, yet not without certain qualifying points of dissent, which might very possibly come out in much stronger relief did the despatch appear in full, instead of being pruned down to a more convenient excerpt. But, even as it stands, it exhibits, we think, a very different temper in Earl Grey, whose recognition of

the privileges of Colonial Britons — partial as that recognition is — may be regarded as the happy foreshadowings of better measures to come. The despatch, it will be seen, bears date the 19th February, 1851, a period at which the Ministerial distress was verging towards a " Crisis," and when hopes were entertained of a coalition cabinet, to the exclusion from office of Earl Grey. It is not surprising, therefore, that, with men striving and struggling for place, the self-govern-ment of New Zealand should be of trifling importance. We can, consequently, almost pardon Earl Grey for the "probable" delay in introducing a bill " for determining the future Government of Now Zealand," since we'find that the Governor-in-Chief, in laying the extract from his Lordship's despatch on the Council table signified that his own draft of the Provincial ! Councils, which are to "be regarded as temporary and subordinate- institutions," ! was transmitted to the Secretary of State iin October. The date is important ; inasmuch as it was on the 18th of that month the Memorial of the inhabitants of Auckland to Parliament was published in this Journal; and because one of the most important features in that memorial — the establishment of two elective chambers, is — so says Sir George Grey in Council — to be one of the distinctive characteristics of the British Bill. Couple that statement with the marked dissent expressed by Earl Grey against the expediency "of establishing, in these smaller Provinces, Councils entirely nominated by the Crown" — bearing at the same time in mind the scoffs and jeers that have been so constantly launched at a handful of people for clamouring for their right 'to self-government. Contrast these jeers with the new light which seems to have flashed upon Earl Grey ; compare his Lordship's repudiation of his deputy's love of Nomineeism with his own ideas, thus tersely expressed : — " 1 think, on the contrary, that no new Provinces should bo constituted unless the representative element can be introduced into its Councils. But, even WITH A VERY SMALL POPULATION, this appears to me practicable." Let the Colonists of New Zealand ponder this sentence, and let them then determine whether the Memorial from Auckland has been wholly barrren of result? At all events, it is couched in language so very different from the usual echoes of Downing Street, that we are not without hope of speedy concession and redress. The Council was still in session, and various bills were being debated with as much sham empressement as if the Councillors were the *eal and honest representatives of the people they so flagrantly outrage and insult. The farce would be amusing were it not for the cost of the entertainment. The financial expose of his Excellency is one of those very pretty specimens of generalizing with which Sir George so adroitly contrives to gloss over details. We have neither time nor space to dissect his statements; — but one of them, in which Auckland is concerned, has just been so substantially, or rather so unsubstantially, contradicted, that we must be pardoned for citing it as an instance of the little value to be .attached to Sir George's declarations, and of the worse than worthless character of every public work upon which he has squandered the public funds. " The sum of nearly £3,000," said Sir George, "was set apart for constructing a public wharf at Auckland, which, when completed, would reclaim from the sea several acres of valuable land, which would be sold for a sum that would more than repay the cost of the wharf ; so that part of the expenditure might be regarded merely as an advance, leaving a considerable profit on the outlay." Before one pile of this wharf was driven, we took occasion to show that it was erroneous in conception and imperfect in its construction. We pointed to the spot where nature had done half the work to our hands, and where the remainder would be much less subject to the action of the sea. We demonstrated how ' Official and Commercial Bays might be united in one grand and perfect wharf, the solid and enduring esplanade of which might be readily converted to immediate commercial uses. But of what avail? The Queen Street abortion was persisted in ; and for the last eight or nine months a slight and boxed up platform has been pushed slowly towards the deep water* This thing, a burlesque upon every principle of engineering, and which afforded but a theme for the scoffs of the practical mechanic, has verified every objection we advanced against it, for, so incapable were its powers of resistance, that, before it had been carried one-third of its projected length, the entire centre of that erected, at a profligate cost, has been, on Wednesday night (boxing up ana all), reduced to a helpless and ruinous wreck ! Little did we dream, a short month since, when expressing our commendation of the substantial Subscription Pier, now erecting in Official Bay, that it would continue to be a perfect structure long after the Queen Street gimcrack would be in ruins : — little did we imagine that this, our "confident opinion, would be so speedily realized. But so it is ; and unfortunately, almost all our public works in New Zealand are- of the same inefficient but expensive character \

By' the Fantbme, vte have our usual budget of Sydney and other Australasian papers,

which, unless on the one auriferous subject, are more than commonly uninteresting. In the matter of English intelligence they are behind that which we had previously derived from California; and except one lengthened article from the " Times/ relative to the removal of the troops from the \ Colonies, we perceive nothing that may not readily give place to matter of more local and immediate moment. It is quite clear, from the tone and temper of the " Times," cheered on, and encouraged as the Thunderer is by the smaller fry of the Press, that no effort will be spared, — coute gui coute — to leave every Colony to shift for itself. — The skeleton Staff" of New South Wales has been proclaimed — and the protection of the British * people against the exactions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is declared to be a much*more momentous matter to the nation than the protection of her oppressed colonists against any outbreak of the Maories. The" military Estimates have, it is true, passed through the House for this season ; but unless the colonists can demonstrate a just claim to military protection for a few years longer, they may rest assured that the day of march is not far distant. Gold, it is positively affirmed, has been discovered not only in the Pyrenees of Victoria, but on the Mag Staff Hill of Melbourne. Of its existence in Van Diemen's Land we have as yet no tangible assurance. At Ophir, — at the Turon — and in many other localities of New South Wales, it con-, tinues to be as prolific in discovery as it is prolix in narrative. Captain Erskine, of the Havannah, has been to the diggings, and takes home with him a " nuggett" of about £300 value.

! In pursuance of a Public Advertisement to that effect, an adjourned Meeting, to consider the Rules, Regulations, and future government of the Auckland Projected Land Association, took place last evening in the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute. Dr. Bennett in the Chair. The aim of this Association is the establishment of one of those Benefit Societies ' of so much practical utility in Great Britain and elsewhere. By a moderate weekly subscription of 25., and by a further entrance fee o_f 25., it is designed to organize a Society by means of which the industrious operative may be enabled to acquire land, and so 1 become a substantial and, in all probability, j a thriving occupant in our striving commu- ; nity. This is the main object of the Asso- | ciation, and, we imagine, there are few but will be ready to admit that it is a most commendable one. We merely notice this Meeting at present to show that we are fully alive to the benefits of which it may be productive. To enter into any detail, at the late hour at which we write, would be totally impracticable, as the Meeting was one quite as much of consultation as of decision. Ultimately, seven-and-thirty subscribers gave in 1 their j adhesion to its rules — fifty being the number prescribed for commencing business. .

A Schooner Stolen. — Information was laid on Wednesday morning, before the Kesident Magistrate, by Mr. J. Waite, that about 7 o'clock the previous evening, his new schooner, the ' Good Intent/ was stolen from her moorings in harbour. She was seen and recognized on Wednesday morning, near Bangitoto j and Mr. Waite had himself seen a small vessel, which he believed to be the ' Good Intent,' beating about some distance below Brown's Island. Mr. Beckham, with every p^Snptitude, issued orders for a party of the police to accompany Mr. Waite in a whale boat, fully manned j and immediate chase was given by her and three cutters. Application has also been made to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor to direct the aid of the men-of-war now in harbour, and every exertion is being made for the recovery of the stolen schooner, and to bring the offending parties (should the surmise of her having been stolen prove correct) to justice.