NEW ZEALAND. (From the Spectator, January 13.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 835, 29 June 1855, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND. ( From the Spectator, January 13 .)

A letter, from which art extract follows, written by a: gerttleTflan at Wellington, contains a nibre intelligent view of the late Government fiasco at Auckland that any other account we have seen — . # " . " There is no doubt that the crisis is owing mainly to Fitzgerald and Co.'s error, in accepting office before Swainson and Co. had been finally and unmtstakeably got rid of. It was a fatal err 1 * of judgment, the consequences of which we here all foresaw the moment it was announced. When the resolution affirming responsible government was carried by the overwhelming majority of 29 to 1, Fitzgerald and Co. could have made what terms they liked with Wynyard; and there is no doubt that had they firmly insisted on the vacation of office -by Swainson 'and Co , Wynyard must and would have yielded. He had no one to support him except those three, of whom Swainson is the only one of the least ability, and he of little ; and there is no -doubt whatever that if firmness had been exercised he would have given way. Fitzgerald's course then would have been, to pass a tempoTary estimate and waste lands bill, and adjourn for six months. During that period he could have formed a Ministry and settled a policy, after conference with the best men all over the colony, which owing to circumstances the Genelal Assembly does not contain ; and thus reinforced, he might have established such a firm government as would not have been shaken for years. Instead of this, he accepts office on the undignified and unsatisfactory footing referred to ; takes only one week — and that at Auckland, and without consulting any one but his two colleagues — to inaugurate a policy, and goes down to the House with a pile of bills which it would take three months to pass. Discussion on them, and general reflection, coupled with Wakefield's wrath and Auckland local politics, generate an opposition ; so that, when the crisis occurs, instead of a minority of 1, there is a minority of 8 to support Wynyard, and inspire Swainson and Co. with a courage which at first was quite knocked out of them. " Wakefield's game is the result of intense disappointment at both himself and son being left out of Fitzgerald's ministerial arrangements. The fact is, he has ever since the hout of his arrival in New Zealand acted so unscrupulous a part that nobody will truit him in political matters ; and he was no doubt necessarily left out. But his anger was excessive ; and he has since been straining every nerve to upset Fitzgerald's Ministry, and to form himself a party ; which he has no* chance of doing except amongst the Auckland people, whom he is ready to buy at any price — seat of government, Company's debt, and whatever eLe they may demand. Wynyard, who is a Colonel of a marching regiment, seems to have been mesmerised by him, and to have placed himself enthely at his disposal; Wakefield having, I hear, made it an express condition that he should consult no one but him. " I sincerely hope that a new Governor fit for the office is already on the way out. You know what sort of Governors officers of marching regiments make — redolent of drum-head courtsmartial and billiard-rooms, and utterly ignorant of every political principle. What could be hoped from leaving the ticklish duty of inaugurating self-government in such a colony as this to a man of that class, surrounded by the debris of the old regime, and having all his sympathies with them ? Surely Grey will not ebe permitted to escape from all this. The responsibility is solely his. It was his business to have called the General Assembly together as early as possible after the arrival of the Constitution Act in the colony: his reason for not dping so is now apparent in the labours of the finance Committee, to say nothing of numerous other old sores which he would have had to - settle. In short, he bolted, as truly as ever uncertificated bankrupt from his creditors. • " When this point of reiponsible government is finally settled, I expect we shall have a contest among ourselves, and perhaps a prolonged one, on the question of Centralization versus Provincialism. My own conviction is, that we .need a very slight fedeial bond ; and that the •extreme localization of our legislative and administrative powers will insure the most rapid process for the colony. But whatever be decided, the limits of the central government, whether wide or narrow, ought to be defined "