HOW LONG ?

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 835, 29 June 1855, Page 3

HOW LONG ?

To iho E lltor of ths Southern Crots. Sir, — Whatever amount of dUorder and confusion there may be existing in our political affairs, to excite the risible faculties of some, and to giatify the wanton animosity ot others, it will also be admitted by the disinrerested (much more by those who feel it) that our present political condition is any thing but enviable, if v.e aie to form out estimate by what we see and hear. It is beyond dispute that every mome .t 01 the age m which \Ve live is pregnant with the fate of huminity, but we would almost be inclined to think, considering the Lomlicting cucumsTanees with which we are entangled, that, to us, a., respects our policlical piosperity, thi-- ag' J :s on:, of no oidinaiy ch.uacter. but lather of peculiar signi'icp.nee. It is but natural to conceive, that the minds of tin-, community are intensely occupied with apprehensions of an alarming nature, when we perceive tne balance of justice swaj\d to and fro with the utmost uncertainty, and the question is created (although the ans. w or i-> obvious) who is thj chiet Executive Officer oi'thi-; Pro\ ince,*and by whom are we go\erned? His ilono- the Supjrinteadont, who has been placed in authority by the suffrages of the whole Frounce, or a town suiveyoT, when the institution that pi iced him in that capacity is " null and void r" Bat, sir, it needs but little study to trace the origin of such a state of thing* > ought else save thai which borders on the thiCNhuld of anarchy could be expected, since that dangerous axiom (which ha*> been so recently published to the woild, and imposed upon the mind of this people) has l>< coi: e extant, thu " a strictly 'egal government is the gieatcst bore in creation " It i ot no importance tr. >ts, v ho ih.it defn -rt town surreym i->, or upon what '•lause of the (5iU Uy-laws he assumed the authority of destroying thst winch, as a leg il authority he could not ropau', lor a> such neither he nor his comemptikla Byliws are recognised, but it i» of importance that such effusions of malicious intoxication should be countenanced and encour igi>d by the "moral and religious journal." 1 rom such we might consistently expect better things. By such an act, a recitation of the old proverb is provocked, m behalf of the poor defu-ict, 4l how har.l he dies." But I will relram from enlarging upon this phenomena, behe\ing thit the acts and the odioum contracted thereby will accompany tha actors. How long such a state of matter^ will e.vist shall shortly be realized. There is ample reason to respond to the petition of the worthy Voyageur " from s'lth a state ot things may we«peeilily be delivered." It \vere almost worthy the pains of a London Pu to poartray. in all it- respective bearings, the consumate futility of such a transaction, either with respect to causes or effects, worthy indeed >f our hon. member of the (all but) sewrd up Provincial Council, and a completely defunct Town Council. Yours, &c. PICIYtTXE. June 26, 1855.

To the Fd tir of the Southern Cros*. p IR) — Obsening that your pious contemporary the "New-Zealand r," "with a spirit of charily worthy of nsupeirinc Chilian of the reformed school, never omits an opportunity of publ.&hing "opinions ot the I'icss," prov.ckd the saiJ opinions are sufficiently IHlso, and i isploy the requisite amount of abuse of the Superintendent, I vfiuuio to fuiwaid to you the othei Sid* ot fho pict'Mc, as i* appeals in the Melbourne " AiguV \ of the -*th in«Unt, by which you will poccne that " the i 'Times' of the Australian 'Colonies through its ovn Conespondc-nt," takes rather a different view of the present Supeiintcndent to that taken by the proprietors, of the " New-Zcalandor," and their employee, "Yoyagrur" ot the " Sulney Morning Ueiald." I enclose a few extracts from the communication I have leferrod to in the " Aigus." " When the present Supeiintendent was elected, he found himself called upon to biing into operation a set of new regulation*, with regaid to the tale of the Crown and waste lands of the proiince, expressly devised for the purpose ot inducing a large stream oi immigration fiotn the neighbouring colonies. Those regulations (once withdiawn in the Pi ovine ial Council by their framer,-lt-s.t they might embairass the coming Buporintendent, and aftei wards re-introduced in spite of that declaration) recehed the assent of her Majesty's representative only a day or two before the election of Mr. Brown to the Super intendency. Mr. Brown was at once called upon to open the waste lands, in accordan'-e with the new state of things. It will scaicely he b> lie\td that not the slightest prousion had been made to effect this. The land was terra incognita, as far as the Survey Office was concerned; and not a farthing was at the disposal of either the Superintendent or the Waste Land Board to repair the omission. Immigrants from Melbourne and Sydney came flocking o\ er pretty numerously to realise golden dreams of settling at once upon good land, at almost nothing per acre, and were, naturally enough, indignant at finding A\ their fair hopes melt into thin air : no land was there for them. The more money they spent in the search, the worse for 'them, but the better for the colony, which, of course, got their money, and, in many instances, their labour, — m the cases of men too poor easily to extricate themselves from the trap into which they had fallen. The Superintendent was urged by his trionds of the Pro\incial Council to chive *right through the act. pitch overboaid all its restrictions, and to tlnow open the land anyhow,— in fact, illegally. This the Superintendent declined to do, having a foolish regaid to honesty, and not considering that matters would be mended by giving to strangers titles to land which would not b« worth a brass iarthing if overhauled by a lawyer. " Wei!, the commissioners got to work, and by giving a very liberal reading to the regulations, they ha\e succeeded m throwing a few patches of land into the mai'crt, the quantity and quality of which are utterly insigniatant. Step by &tep they have brought to light the ut er absurdity and impracticability of these regulations, which are now shown to be so hopelessly incomprehensible and unworkable as to defeat the ingenuity of defence. " It is really sickening to find how much the progress of this fine colony has been retaidcd by the abuse r.f those constitutional power? so gon»rously confernd upon it by the mother country ; ai d, perhaps on the principle "of giving rope enough, kc. New Zealand has just received the boon ot responsible government. A

]„.i,i' ,1 of '.lie<ks uti.,'so ( (/win I Wvnyard announcing tt l > s i u.t %..ib ij 'u.sn. 1 . i ill' •* (j.j\einmpnt li.izette " The oxu.ieta \uve pietty w oil sele^ud, b't left the iniprcssion thdt moie remained b°hind whii'h might he very amusing to the public, but not quite so agreeable to the gallant Colonel. Yv^hat a thing it is to be a pet. There ha* e you, b ; g fellows of Sydney, Melbourne, Van Diemen'a L'ind, South Australia, &c", been writing and j talking, aud hectoiing a little for the same privilege for the douce knows how long, and you haven't got it yet The model colony writes over a simple request for the same article, and by return of post out it comes, with a sort of reproach to the gentleman who forwarded the note for bothering the Home Government about such « foolish tiitte." Of the defunct City Council the Correspondent has evidently a just appreciation. lie writes :—: — " A total absence of drainage renders it rather an offensive little place in summer, from the variety of disagreeable smells that offend the olfactory nerves ; and in winter from running streams, lakes, and sloughs of slimiest mud, which render high boots a necessary of life to the unhappy pedestrian through the city. An atte.uj t wa- nvx'e by the defuict City Co mcil to construct a ra tin sjwer, but, after rmuring it about sixty yardß, it was found that a wrong level had been tnken, and that, in order to make it available, the whole city must be either raised bix feet, or a pumping engine constructed to raise the water to carry it to the sewer. Neither of these remedies coming w'ithin the engineering skill of our Auckland Telfords, the late City Council have covered the big tubes with a layer of «anh, to conceal from the gaze of impertinent curiosity such a monument of their incapacity." Yours, &c. Q.