AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 906, 31 December 1870, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

from gbevilm: AND 00.'8 telegbam company (beuteb's agents.) December 19. The Osaka Troupe of Japanese, which arrived by the City of Melbourne, will make their first appearance on Thursday night. A deputation of the Roman Catholics of Auckland waited on Bishop Croke to present him with an address of welcome. The Native chiefs who went to the Maori King in reference to the recent murder have returned, bringing the information that the King refuses to deliver up the murderers. It is also reported that the King and his prime minister, Manuwhiri, declare that they recognize no confiscation boundary and that their line is at Maungatawbiri. It is said that Rewi does not approve of the murder and has gone to Wanganui. A friendly Maori going to Hauturu was told not to return. The Hauhaus hint that any Europeans found on Pirongia, the scene of the late murder, will be shot, A German woman named Emma Ampan, aged 38, dropped dead at the North Shore, of aneurism of the heart. December 20. In the Provincial Council to-day, the Steam Postal Committee brought up their report with regard to Fiji. They are unanimously in favor of a subsidy being granted for a monthly steam service to Fiji. The report was ordered to lie on the table, and the final report upon the Local Steam Service will be brought up to-morrow. Mr A. Buckland's wool sale to-day was fully attended by local dealers and merchants. Prices ruled lower than those obtained a fortnight since. Wool, in grease, brought from 4| Ito 6Jd; washed, 7d to 10J. Several large parcels were withdrawn. His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh and his Excellency the Governor and party returned from the East Coast districts at noon to-day, in the p.s. Luna. The reception of H.Ii.H. was everywhere most enthusiastic, there being no fewer than 200 Europeans and 600 Natives present at the landing at Tauranga. December. 21. The half-yearly meeting of the New Zealand Insurance Company was held to-day at the Company's office, Shorthand street. A dividend of 10 per cent, was declared. A still, capable of holding forty gallons, has been seized by the police, in the Waikato. The owners escaped. December 22. In the Provincial Council, Mr Murray's motion for the abolition of Provincial Institutions was lost by 2Q to 14. A select committee of the Council has recommended a monthly steam service to Fiji, at a subsidy of ,£IOO per month for 12 months. Latest news from the Waikato states that Manuwhiri was the only speaker oa the King's side when the interview took place with the friendly chiefs, who went up on behalf of the Government to ascertain the intentions of the King natives with respect to the murder of Todd, Manuwhiri, when asked why they committed the murder, said that it was not a murder, as the party was surveying land, which land did not belong to the Government but to the King, whose boundary was at Maungatawhin. No satisfaction could be obtained, so the friendlies had to return. It is not known what steps the Government mean to take in reference to his murder. The murderer of Mr Todd is known by the name of Te Whitiora —was a prisoner on board the hulk in Auckland, where he was a prisoner called Wiremu {{omete. He has only changed his name since last month. J3y a friendly Maori from Taranaki, we learn that the fcjgaticaaniaopqto are greatly incensed at their relative the halfcast Nopera being shot, and threaten to obtain satisfaction by fighting if they pannot have it by peaceable means.

Bewi and tribe have left Te Kuiti 8 being determined not to be mixed up iq Waikato quarrels. Very latest from Waikato states that the King says that if the Government want the murderers let them send Bran* nigan and his soldiers to take them. December 27. The " Messiah" was performed by the Auckland Choral Society; His Uoyal Highness leading the violinists. [PEOat OTTB OWN COBBESPONDF.NT.] 26th J>c, 1870. Our holiday makers have got a very unfavorable day for pleasure-seeking, The Lord Ashley has, however, taken a large number to the Kawau. The Oddfellows and Foresters were to have gone by the steamer Royal Alfred to the neighborhood of the Ijake, off the North Shore, but I believe they have deferred the trip until another day. Probably no Christmas has, for more than twenty years past, found so many of our settlers, in all their various callings, iu dull and des* ponding circumstances as the present one, but spite of bad times it is gratifying to find that people will enjoy themselves. During the late session of the Supreme Court a case occurred in which the jury were locked up all night, and afterwards discharged without delivering a verdict, the prisoner being afterwards tried and found guilty by another jury. It is sup-» posed that one obstinate juryman had decided on an acquittal, and thus nearly occasioned a failure of justice. Our jury system is a mystery. I have heard of men who had resided in this city several years, engaged in business, and in every respect eligible, who never were summoned on a jury ; and on the other hand have known men of less education by far, and presumably less intelligent, who have been several times on. the jury during a similar period. It seems strange that the most eligible should escape, when all ought to have to take their turn. A la-t borer, or a mechanic, or artizan, depending on his daily labor, feels the jury duty to be a heavy tax, especially when it comes too often. Now that some allowance is made to jurymen, the call will not be quite so obnoxious. Our new Provincial Executive and their supporters made a determined effort to rush the Appropriation Bill through last week, but did not succeed, as it was feared by some of the me.mbers that, if secure of the cash, all the other business would be shelved. Consequently on the 23rd inst. a Bill was introduced and passed to legalise the expenditure of .£IO,OOO, as an instalment, and the Council adjourned until* the 10th January. Parties are so nearly balanced that one or two votes may be considered as a sort of floating balance. The division which ousted the former executive was a chance one, and four members were absent whose votes would in all probability have been, with the Government. The present executive has the support and sympathy of both our morning journals, but it by no means follows that it has the confidence of the country.in fact the probability would be the opposite; for the very fact that our morning journals are agreed on any* thing might be assumed to be <prir#a faciei evidence that the public opinion would be contrary to them, As you have now telegraphic comniuni* cation with Tauranga, news from that quarter will be stale; but the latest rumours we have had are as unsatisfactory as can well be imagined. The few who really believe in the " peace-at-any-price " doctrine will have to com another excuse for its failure ; for it cannot be otherwise than failure. Since the murder of MfTodd, the General Government Agent here (Dr Pollen), has been up the Wai-. kato, and it is understood has communicated with Potatau 11., and has received the most satisfactory answer that could, be anticipated, viz., a distinct refusal to, surrender the murderers. An evasive reply might have been anticipated, but I suppose the most obstinate philo-maori would not expect a surrender; if any one verdant enough to entertain such an idea really exists, he ought to be preserved ia a glass case, as a curiosity, It is now stated in the papers that the Maoris admit " that the killing was done as a challenge"; and as the Government have not accepted it as such, they will probably ere long try further hostile action, If murders near the frontier line are committed with impunity, the frontier line will cease to be habitable, and will

have to be abandoned. Burdened as the colony is with taxation, our Government may well dread a resumption of hostilities ; but the contest will come; and when it does, it would be well for the .colony if all the philo-maoris, all the peace-at-any-price men, all the commissioners and other agents of the Native office, and all the Execu'-iva of the Colony, were together forced into the front rank, where their bodies might screen those of better men. Let us have no more halfmeasures, one set of men pressing us into a struggle, and another ready to cry "hold your hand" if ever we appear likely to get the upper hand. Half-mea-sures and divided counsels have burdened us with an intolerable load of debt, and with an armed force which dare not face the enemy. We have officialism enough for a community a hundred times more numerous than we are; but we cannot protect either the lives or property of those who hold land under grant from the Queen in different districts. We neither protect them nor allow them to protect themselves; we charge them with the maintenance of an armed force, and in some districts " tell the settlers that they shall not resort to the stockade for protection," that place being reserved for the security of our armed force! Vide Opotiki, « In some countries, the fact that a public .officer, acting in a judicial capacity, had been publicly charged with seeking benefit from one of the litigants in his court, would be deemed a disqualification ; but it appears that in New Zealand a judicial officer can do the like with impunity, and even be considered eligible for further appointments. With such a state of ;affairs, is it surprising that we are misgoverned in all ways. Can a system be good under which an official, whose con duct has been subject of opea comment, and on whose impartiality none can rely, is sent to " fresh fields aud pastures new," with all the honors and dignities that should only be borne by men personally worthy of*them ? No word of the writs' for the general election vet.

The Auckland Evening News, 27th Dec, says:—lt was currently reported in town this morning that the natives in the Waikato were up in arms, and that a telegram to that effect had been received in town yesterday. How the report originated we have not been able to trace, but, so far as we can at present learn, th.ere is no truth in it. Still, the general belief is, that things there are in anything but a satisfactory state.