The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3195, 12 October 1867, Page 3

The Daily Souther n Cross.

LUOEO, NON URO. If I hare b»»n exiinguUhtd, y»t their* ri«« A thouiand be»cona from th« ipurk I bore.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12.

The s.s. ' Airedale' arrived in the Manukau yesterday, bring lug later intelligence from the seat of Government. All the representatives of this province returned except Messrs. E. Graham, Hull, Kerr, and Clark. The Assembly was to be prorogued on the 10th to enable the Southern members to return by the ' Tararua.' The Auckland representatives left by the « Airedale 1 on the night of the 9th, the Government having detained the steamer several hours. The principal business of the last week of the session was to pass the Appropriation Bill. It went through its various stages in the Lower House on the 9th, and was sent up to the Legislative Council the same day. Here it encountered strong opposition, on an amendment moved by Mr. Mantell, which would have had the effect of defeating the financial policy of the Government. The amendment, however, was lost on a division by a majority of two, the votes being — for the amendment, four; against it, six. The Native Lands Act, and the Auckland and Drury Railway Act, passed through their various stages. A meeting of the Auckland members, convened by Mr. Thomas lVTacfarlane, was held on Tuesday, the Bth, with the view of hearing from the Superintendent an expression of opinion as to whether he was still able to carry on the affairs of the Provincial Government; and if he could not satisfy the members that he was in a position to do so, it was the general opinion that some steps ought to be taken before leaving" Wellington, for transferring the managemenb of the province to the General Government. Mr. Williamson declined to give a definite answer. He had responsible advisers, and until he had consulted then? he could not express any opinion. The Superintendent was then asked whether he would devote the £25,000 to be obtained from Otago for the completion of the railway; and on this subject, likewise, he declined to give any pledge.

» We deem it a public duty to direct attention to the system of terrorism -which is being adopted by the conductors of the Neio Zealand Herald. A notable example is furnished by the following extract, which appeared as the leading article of that newspaper yesterday :—: —

THE OPENING OP THE UPPEE THAMES. A rumour was very prevalent in town yesterday — in fact, some days ago — that the cause vrhich bai hitherto prevented the Upper Thames district from being opened by the natives to the diggers isto be found in the circumstance that certain parties are even now engaged in making private overtures to the native owners for the purchase of this land. It would be a princely fortune, no doubt, to any firm to possess and preserye from encroachment the freehold estate of such a district as lies between Kauwaeranga and the Aroha mountain, or even of a large portion of it; but th« Government we trust will Hever allow such a monopoly to be effected ; nor, indeed, if they did, do we believe that persons thus acquiring these lands, and snatching them from befoie the very eyes of the patiently waiting public, would be allowed to enjoy them . The respect which is shown to the rights of the aboriginal proprietors would not be continued, and deservedly bo, to th«ir successors. If this really be the case^we can now clearly understand why in certain quartfetji it has been sought to keep back a rush to the Thames. The larger the body of u>en who flock to the gold-field already opened, the more will the Maori owners of the ground yet unopened, see that is to their interest to deal with the Government, rather thau with private purchasers, and, in consequence, the larger will be the price which will be asked from the lait-r for them. It miy be possible that there is something more than common rumour in this report, and that the agents of certain land monopolists have teen busily employed for months past in counteracting, for Belßsh interests, the rights and expeotyi-

tions of the mining, and iudeed of the g enera i public. , , „ It rests, however, with the Government of the oouutiy, to checkmate any *>uoh jvoti »n on the part of private individual!. '1 he Native Lauds Aot erapowers the Governor to limit the operations of the Aot to such distriots at he tbinks fit, and ifi would be but a matter of pu folio justice that thia provision of the Act should be set in force to prevent the goldfield of the province, so long and so patiently waited for, from being snatched away from before the very eyes of the expectant miners. Even now, at the Thames, men who, however much they may have coveted the lands higher up the river, have with praiseworthy patience waited for the legal right to occupy them. We cannot believe that individuals are to be found in this community who would seek, by the aid of agents working amongst the natives, to overreach their fellow-citizens, and acquire a monopoly over that which should be left open when acquired from the native owners; to public enterprise. If it be so, however, we call upon the Government of the country to step in and prevent by legitimate means the consummation of so nefarious a transaction. We shall keep a strict watch over the conduct of suspected parties, and should it prove, which we hope it may not, that there is ground for these statements, we shall unhesitatingly expose all connected* with any such transaction, whether principals or abettors. Now, we maintain that the foregoing article is a disgrace to any newspaper; it is likewise an insult to any community which has not quite sunk under the sway of the directors of rowdy mobs. "We are ready to give reasonable latitude to newspaper criticism ; but this is going far beyond what is either legitimate or proper. "We never read anything so reprehensible in the columns of a colonial newspaper as the concluding remarks of the article quoted above, and we are at a loss to know the motive which led to their publication. If the conductors of the Neio Zealand Herald suppose they can intimidate capitalists, and so prevent them buying land from the natives, in order to bolster up a corrupt system of Government land-jobbing, they are entirely mistaken. Capital will be invested in the purchase of native land, and the rights of Europeans to the estates so acquired will be upheld, we doubt not, by the law, whatever may be said or written to the contrai*y. But apart from that, the article in question shows gross ignorance of the law ; and it bears on its face that it has been written without the slightest reference to facts. It is a pure piece of intimidation : a flourish of the literary bludgeon, after the style of John G-ordon Bennett, of the New TorJc Herald. Already, we know that this article has had ill effects. We know that gentlemen have been prevented by it from going to the Thames goldfield, who were prepared to invest in the Karaka claims, lest their visit to the district should be misconstrued, and themselves abused, through the Herald, as monopolists and enemies of progress. How many more may have been similarly deterred we know not. "We fearlessly deny the truth of the rumour noted above, and we challenge the conductors of the Neio Zealand Herald to name the firm they refer to, or the agent of the firm which they say has been tampering with the Upper Thames natives for months, thereby closing the district. If they make out their case, well and good ; but we say at once that we do not believe a word of their imputation.