The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVIII, Issue 1631, 13 October 1862, Page 3

The Daily Southern Cross.

LUCh.O SOS UKO 'If I \\a\e been extinguished, jot tlieie riio V thous.'.ml bo.iLons irom the spirk I boro "

AWXDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1862.

Pekhaps our readers will leflect upon the statements put foi th in the letter of "An Elector," in to-daj-'s paper. They are of interest to the inhabitants of Auckland, for they show who have been our tiue friends, and who have not. Tlie idea that Mr. Fox bought to injure Auckland, bj attaining to power on the shoulders of Auckland men is not a novclt) to us. We have stated it over and over again , but theie aie men in this community who pietend to lead their fellow-colonists in these matteis, who pcisi>,t in believing in the member foi Bangitikei, no matter how danspaient his political peifidy may be. The) aie leady, for their own selfish end-, and pcinoual ambition, to sauifico tin-, piovmce to any political chiiiUtau like Mr Fox, who will elevate them a little abo\e their natui.il lovel, and enable them to ean 3 out their schemes for pci sonal aggiandisement and the exercise of power. There is no Use in mincing matters . such were the causes which brought the Fox ministiy into power, and a communion of feeling and mteiest banded the leaders of that paity together to prevent the enactment of law ■> which would fiee the Piovmce of Wellington fiom a pa&toial oligaichy, and the Piovince of Auckland from .1 system of immigration which, in the cmnse of a few additional jeais, and by the unscrupulous use of pationage, would luv* 1 placed the.contiol of public affairs in the hands of one 01 two men, All this was done unde a pietence of political moiality and puiit) lntheito unhe.ud of among public men. Mi. Fox, if we accept his own statements as true, is one of the most consistent and honest of politicians. He never pretended to statesmanship that we aie aw aie of, but his declarations as to political consistency were pietence and nothing moie His object in attaining to powei seems to have been to continue the piesent unsatisfaetoiy of affairs in the country, with the \iew of letaining undistmbed possession of laige tiacts of waste lands in the Piovince of Wellington for himself and friend*, for cattle and sheep stations, without any fear of Euiopean capitalists coming in to disturb them by raising the prices , and the better to effect this he endeavouied to remove the seat of government to the Empire City. The scheme was adimiably concocted. The City of Wellington is unable to print the " notice papers," and long before the Assembly meets a punting commission is appointed to inquire into the cost of establishing a Government Piinting Office, with the view of removing that little difficulty which can at present only be met iv Auckland, say what Wellington and the Soutli may on the subject. The membeis of the commission, believing in the stability of the Ministiymadearidiculousieport, and therepoit of the special coimnittee of the House of Representative^ is more ridiculous still. The most charitable constmction to be pat upon the matter is that the gentlemen who bi ought up these reports knew nothing whatever of the subject on which they reported. However, they completed one link in the chain of ciicumstances, by means of which Mr. Fox and his friends sought to job the seat of government to Wellington. A contract was taken to do the government printing in Wellington, but although gazetted, the Wellington printer did j not, and what is moie, could not, do the woik ; and it had principally to be perfoi media Auckland, despite the Gazette notification. The next stop was to remove the records, and hold the .session in Wellington. This was done by the consent of the Auckland members, on whose votes Messis. Fox and Co, came into power. We all know that the ' White Swan ' was wrecked, and that the public records of New Zealand were wantonly de= stroyed by order of a member of Mr. Fox's ministry. With those documents went the printed copies of Acts and Returns done by order of the Government, for the use of the General Assembly, and of course they had to be replaced by the pi inter. What did Mr. Fox care 1 The larger the bill, the more Likely the House would be to assent to his proposition, which would create a little patronage, and make Wellington independent of Auckland. He likewise informed the public, through his own organ, the Wellington Independent, that the Daily Southern Cross was in error in stating that any paper of consequence was lost by the wreck of the ' White Swan,' although the return which he was foiced to make, proved that we were right and that he was wrong. Mr. Fox knew he was wrong, and so did his Auckland abettors ; but it was necessary to the success of his scheme to make the loss appear as trifling as possible. And now that the Assembly has come to a close, and that Messrs. Fox and Co. have been displaced, the Wellinr/ion Independent triumphs in the success of his scheme. That paper states :—: — " There can be no question now, that Auck-

" land's claim to the sitting of the Assembly " takiug there is one of sufferance and " not of right ; nor can there be any question " that Auckland is out of leading strings, and, " like all other provinces, is not absolutely de- " pendent on the presence of the Colonial Exe- " cutive for her peace and security, as lias " always been supposed." We would ask the Wellington scribe, who ever thought that the peace and security of Auckland was "absolutely dependent on the pre- " sence of the colonial executive 1" Auckland has no patent right, we at once confess, to remain the seat of government, but she has a moral right which it would be hard to gainsay. She has likewise a prescriptive right ; and slie is entitled to the distinction as being the fiist commercial city in the colony. But Mr. Fox induced some Auckland members to believe that he did not mean to take any part on the seat of government question, if brought forward in the General Assembly, and they were captivated by his peace professions. Theie was evidently an undei standing between Mr. Fox a?id the gentleman who made him Prime Minister — the Superintendent of Auckland — on this point, but the Wellington politician deceived his friend. He not only took part in the discussion, but he brought his official knowledge to bear to give weight to his condemnation of Auckland. And now the Wellington Independent, perhaps under Mr. Fox's own hand, declares that the sole object that Mr. Fox had in view in getting into office was to benefit Wellington at the expense of Auckland. We ran undei stand now why it was that Mr. Fox cut such a ridiculous figure in Coroniandel and elsewhere, in the province of Auckland ; and the wan^ of success which invariably attended his negotiations with the natives, may have been a clever piece of acting on hi& pait to letaid the development of Auckland, until he had completed Ids arrangements for transfening the sent of government to Wellington. Judging from the antecedents of the man, we have little hesitation in giving it as our opinion that Mr. Fox is quite capable of such a piece of political duplicity. We hope we have seen the last of him as a political leader in New Zealand, and those nd members who gave him their suppoit to injure their own province, will have to answer for it to their constituencies at the next election. We will close our remarks by another quotation from the Wellington Independent :—: — " Whenever the second step towards bringing " the seat of government permanently to Wel- " lington may be taken, of this there can be no " doubt thatthe first has just been accomplished; "and as leasonably might we expect a child to " walk who had never taken the first step, as "to expect Wellington to become the capital "without doing what has been done. For our " own pai t we are perfectly satisfied, and be"lieve that the change in the place of the " Assembly's meeting has taken place at the "pieci^e moment — its beiiur defened until "next session would probably have pioved " fatal to all our hopes Fatal to all our hopes, "because no ministry but a ministiy with a "Wellington pi emier, could have effected the " change. Had not Mr. Fox been pi emier, no " one supposes for a moment but the last As- " sembly would have been held in Auckland, " and the thanks of eveiy man in the province " would be due to Mr. Fox, if only for what he " has done for us in this respect." The Auckland constituencies should ask themselves who enabled Mr. Fox to do such gieat things for Wellington at the expense of this province. They will soon arrive at the truth. Some of the membeis acted fiom ignoiance, others by design , but in fntuie the pro\iucc should dispense with both classes of lcpresentatives. as being unwoithy of public confidence.

Nnw Zi aland Gazfitk — We have leceived a co|iy of the xVew Zealand Gazette published on the 10th instant. Auckland Savings Bank. — Theie will be a meeting of the tmstees of the .above bank, held this day at i o'clock, to receive the quaiteily accounts, and tians.ict other business. CoROMVNOFr — We undci stand that the holdeis of No 6 Reef Claim and No. 16 on Ring's Driving Creek (Ingh<i and Co ), ha\e arjieed to form themsehes into an absociation under the Joint Stock Companies Act, and have named the company "The Albion Gold Mining Compauy, Limited " Mr Beverulgc, solicitor, has been mstiucted to prepare the inemoianduai of association