NOTES AND QUERIES. By an Old Hand.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 829, 8 June 1855, Page 3

NOTES AND QUERIES. By an Old Hand.

To the Editor of the Southern Cross. The Provincial Council resolved upon demolishing the Superintendent's" scheme of policy," by the simple process of refusing to vote the wherewithal. Not that they objected to improvement, in itself; but thef felt it their duty to demolish improvement that the Superintendent was concerned in. . n \. i E very type has its antitype. The cathedral of Cashel was burned, in the reign of Henry VIII, by Gerald, Earl of Kildare. When reproached by the kmg,_he solemnly assured His Majesty th»t he would never have hurt a atone; of it, had he not supposed that the Archbishop teas inside.

Where it Governor Grey's City Council ? a question of greater moment than may be supposed. It hai been a caterpillar ; it is a chrysalis ; and may yet come forth a full-winged moth. The charter is not dead, but sleeps ; heaving uneasily in dream when an intrusive yoke-fellow— a pretender— a false Florimel.is laid along side of it. Even in slumber, it claims to be the real Simon Pure. And its claim is good. There it lies, for careless Provincial Legulators to break their shins against. Enactment* which clash with it, are not law : proclamations made m oblivion of its existence, may chance to be not worth the paper therare printed on. There is land, as testified by wax and parchment, held by the Mayor and Burgesses. T*maki is still a ward of the Auckland borough, and Tamakians have votes. The cost of licences, as within or without the borough, is still affected by the limits of the borough. At present, the Charter is obtrusive .- lumber, that must be removed, or turned to vie. But, if turned to use it may prove to be an engine of inconvenient Wength,— a formidable rival. For the Province is not incorporate. Grey's Municipal Council, bang a corporate body, may come to have more substantial power* than the Provincial Council itself.

A circular, dated May 25, is printed by command of Ais Excellency, who " conceives that it may be convcmcnx to members to be informed of the course which his Excellency*proposes to pursue on the opening of the Assembly." "The two first paragraphs have reference to the Southern Members in particular ; the third and last paragraph, to all. It was to hare been forwarded to the Southern ProTinces by theCornubia, but. by some mistake, was left behind. At the dai« of the Cornubia's daparture the Northern Members had not be«n made acquainted witk it. Why was this ? The cause can only be supposed } but the effect would have been indisputable,— namely, that the Southern Members (those at least of the "Constitutional Party") would have received their circulars, uaiccompanicd by inconvenient comment upon the co irse proposed by his Excellency. But the fact of its existence transpired,— was further promulgated in a local journal ; and on thb Ist of June, the circular -was received by the Northern members. Comment could be no longer hindered.

The whole of the despatch through which Responsible Government was conceded has at last been published ; a convenient portion only, until now, haung been permitted by his Excellancy to meet the vulgar eye. It would have been moved for by the House; and it vras as well to make a virtue of necessity. The document, considering from whence it came , is remarkable: couched in a vein of sarcasm, which was never before supposed to lie hidden in that Bceotian Co-lonial-Office. It ii possible that a mine of rich ore may ue there still, concealed or unexplored. The dry gravity of the politeness with which the CoUnial Minister skins his Excellency alive— Phcebus delibeiately divesting of Marsyas, is unsurpassable. The minister cannot understand (tha preliminary steps being so few and plain) why his Excellency supposes that legislative enaotment is neceisary to biing Responiible Government into operation. He deems it unnecessary to enter into the detail* of his Excellency's " narrative. He treats it aa he would have treated an Eastern tale : his Excellency might as well hare transmitted the s* ory of Sinbad the sailor. The minister is satisfied that his Excellency atted to the best ofhisjicdgment; leaving the amount of that judgment, like the peculiar duties of a cavaliere servente, to be supposed. But his Excellency's address, — the " Popular Policy " address, on opening the second session of the Assembly, is cut to pieces without ruth or mercy. It is characterized as being replete with " schemes " to which the Crown could not assent, as such assent would be invalid. The minister goes on to require the introduction of Responsible Government without delay, and to signify his intention of communicating Her Majesty's views on the various schemes of the address, not f his Excellency, but— to his Excellency's successor. It* is remarkable that the Assembly escapes reproof. Considering the assiduity with which untruthful statements had been circulated— as, for instance, that Mr. Mackay had been struck, and notwithstanding his own asaertion to the contrary — it is matter of real surprise that they should have been of none effect. But the earlier proceedings of the Assembly are scarcely touched upon : the ultimate result — namely, the reference of the question home, the return to the old Officials instead of submitting to a mixed ministry— instead of putting Responsible Government "partially in practice," it mentioned with approval. It will be remembered that this, for a period, was a moot point, even among the majority ; that the return to the old officials was supported at first by few,— a mere nucleus of members, which, like the snowball, gathered strength in rolling.

. An old cry is being »evived :—•• The Superintendent is pulling down our institutions, and overriding Acts of the Provincial Council." What institution*? or which Acts? Let one be named, if possible. The City Council was overthrown by the Provincial Council, which made a botch of its attempt to mend. Tht Superintendent merely shewed that the power of electing City Councillors had been cut away. •• But now," say the faultfinders, "ihe Harbour Committee is also declared illegal." Not by the Superintendent, though the fact is so. The Superintendent has merely refused to sanction the sale of certain endowments, because the titles are bad ; because if sold with bad titles, they would be lacrificed ; »nd because the sale would be contrary to certain Acts of Parliament. But the Harbour Committed, though an illegitimate bantling of the ProvinciaLCouncil, is still alive. Whether it be the duty of a Superintendent to carry out illegal Acis of the Provincial Council, is a grave and important question. An extreme ease, framed for the testing of the principle, might lead to startling conclusions. But the question has not yet been raised at all. The burden of his Excellency's disallowance of the Merchant Seamens' Act is laid 'upon the Provincial Government. Firstly, the Superintendent and the Provincial Law Officer pass the Act ; then, the same individuals, as Governor and acting Attorney- General, treat it as illegal, and, under paui of disallowance, re-

quire the Superintendent to pledge himself to a certain definite proceeding .it the next session of Council. His Honor, unable to perceive how the question of present legality can be affected by any futuie measures of his own, refuses to bind 1 linsclf by any specific engagements. Accordingly the Act is disallowed. Hutu hat if there should have been no need of disallowance ? what it the clase, supposed to be illegal, should have been legal since the Ist of May ?

The Piovincinl Law Officer is rising in the opinion of the malcontents. For a while, with graceful, gentle wit, they dubbed him " Singular Crotchlord." At present, he is " the lynx-eyed lawyer, " There is no denying the fact : he «* a lawyer ; and could scarcely "wifeih to be thought purblind. The compliment is the nioie delicate for being veiled. For a while, his opinions were derided by those who were accustomed to Mr. Swainson, and to the slovenly old routine : they are now examined with increasing interest. Their soundness can only be tested by time ; but at least they show a care and a research which are unusual in New Zealand. lie may be likened to the ugly duckling of Hans Andersen's tale, mocked at by the lest of the brood, because tbey could not discover that it was an incipient swan.

The Caar has passed away : whether through fair means or through foul, teraains in doubt. An evil incident to semi-barbarism : if " Crownor's Quest Law did but extend to Muscovy, a post mortem and a verdict would allay the curiosity of two hemispheres. June 4, 1855.

To the Editor of the Southern Crosi. Sir, — In in the supplement to the ' Now-Zealander ' of Saturday last, appeared two documents 60 entirely different in their opinions that it has fairly puzzled me, and I have no doubt many others, which we ought to receive as authoritative. The one bears the signature of 11 Vospicus," the other "G. Grey." No doubt the name Vospicus is much more euphonious than the common one of Grey, and would fairly justify our being puzzled. I will put the two document! in juxta positioin before you, beseeching you to solve the difficulty for my own and the public's benefit : —

VOBPICTJS. " However much Mr. Superintendent Brown's legal Tempori ccclens may delight m seeing his elaborate opinions printed at the public expense, and however gratifying it may be to Mr. Erown to get opinions in the guise of law, adapted to carry out his premeditated plans iv opposition to law and older, he should lemember the day of leckoning must come; and his lawyer should not forget that when an Act has passed the Provincial Council to the sanctioning of the same by the Governor, it has all the force an Act of Parliament would have at home, and binds every subject in the Province, and cannot be alisicd, amended, dispensed -\\ith, suspended, or repealed, but in the same iorms and by the same authority ; for it is a maxim in law • that it requires the same strength to dissolve as to create an obligation, — nor can the king by proclamation, or otherwise, dispense with or suspend their operation.' "

G. Grey. " You appear in that address to have especially called the attention of the Assembly to t*he expediency of legislation on a subject.upon which by the Constitution they could not legislate at all. I reier to the proposal for rendering the Legislative Council elective. It is also extremely doubtful whether the proposed measure for authorising the Superintendent to dissolve Provincial Coumcils, a function reserved by Sec. 13 of the Constitution Act to the Govermor, is within the power of the General Assembly. So too the constituting Auckland a separate GoTernment under a Lieutenant Governor, and with exclusive powers of legislation, if I rightly understand what is meant by the proposal, i« also a mensv.rj which it would be beyond the power of that body to carry into execution. You appear also to propose the foundation of a new federal Convention (apart fioin the General Assembly) which would be an innovation irreconcileable with the existing fundamental law. "I do not now enter on the quostion of the expediency of these several schemes but I Am anxious to call your attention to the inconvenience of inviting the Legislature to originate mea^ui es to which the Crown, could not assent, as s,uch absent would bennahd." I am, &c. J. M. June 4, 1555.

To the Editor oj the Southern Cross. Sir,— l find in your paper of the 29th, a letter signed " Waiuku," cort'ecting some mis-statements made in the • New Zealander' in a letter headed " The Honest Government," which almost obviates the necessity of my making any further remarks. I -will merely obbervc upon two points overlooked by the writer of " Waiuku." The first is the follow ing statement of the writer in the * New Zoalander' :— " I said that the Awaroa contained the great obstructions to the traffic, and should be cleared — would have been cleared, it Colonel Wynywd had remained in office a little longer. If Mr. Oldfield, or the -writer of the letter failed to hear that Colonel Wynyard made strenuous efforts to obtain native labour for the purpose, in the preceding year, I can onlj say that eveiy missionary and every inflaentidl man in Wnikato knows the fact." I can only remark, that it must be a matter of deep regret to the inhabitants of this pioiince that the highest personage in it, the Officer administering the I Government of New Zealand, had so littlo influence I -with the natives of Waikato, that ho could not procure ! labor even to clear the Awaroa, and that assisted too by eveiy missionary and every influential man in Waikato. I At the same time it must be gratifying to men in an humble sphere, like myself, that we live among so noble and generous-hearted a race as the natives of Waikato, who have refused to work for the Governor of the Colony, and for every misaionaiy and influential man in Waikato ; and yet kindly give their labor in any quantity to the poor settlers of Waikato, who are so much less able to pay them for their goodness. The other point to which I would allude, is the admission that he was partly -wrong about the teams. Upon this I would merely remark, that it would have been more manly had he admitted that his statement was completely unfounded. I am, &c, | S. A. Or-ariELr. 31st May, 1 555.