ENGLISH NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 87, 4 September 1852, Page 5

ENGLISH NEWS.

By the arrival of the screw steam ship Chusan at Sydney intelligence has been received from England to the 16th May. The commencement of steam communication between England and the Australasian Colonies is an event which we have been long looking for, and which will cause the arrival of the Chusan to be hailed with great joy. This vessel is the first of the line of steamers which the Peninsula and Oriental Company have contracted to run between Singapore and Sydney every two months. She will remain in Sydney till the Company has completed its arrangements to commence the regulav conveyance of the mails, which will probably be in September. The Australian Boyal Mail Steam Company's ship " Australian" is advertised to sail from Plymouth on the 3rd of June. The Derby Government was still in power. The Ministry have fought three pitched battles in the House of Commons, since the meeting after the Easter holidays, in two of which they were victorious, and in one they sustained a defeat. Their first trial of strength was on the Militia question, when they carried the second reading by a majority of 150. The second conflict was on a motion of Mr. Locke King's, to bring in a bill to reduce the county franchise 10 £10, the same as in boroughs, which the Ministry opposed successfully by a majority of 53. The success of the present Ministry, however, is not attributed to any superiority of tactics on their part, nor to any degree of popularity that they enjoy; but rather to a want of unanimity in the Opposition, which is divided into several parties. Lord John Russell voted against the second reading of the Derby Militia Bill, (which is not essentially different from his own), and has shown a little-minded-ness and pettishness of late, which have tended greatly to lessen him in public estimation. . The defeat sustained by the Ministry was on their bringing in a Bill to assign the four seats in Parliament to new constituencies, which had become vacant by the di&francbisement of Sudbury and St. Albans; the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposing- to give two to the West Riding of Yorkshire, and two to the Southern division of the county of Lancashire. The motion was avowedly to snatch four votes from the towns and free trade, and add them to the country party and Protection. The House was alive to the trick, and check-mated Mr. Disraeli, by 234 votes against 148, leaving the Ministry in a minority of 86. The Budget was looked for with much anxiety ; mauy were anxious to see how a man of literature, of wit and genius, possessing high ability, a vivid imagination, and great eloquence, would grapple with the dry details of finance. On the 30th of April the Chancellor of the Exchequer gratified the public with a lucid and clear statement of the "Ways and Means, and wound up his speech of two hours, by declaring that he did not intend to repeal ally of the old taxes, or put on any new ones, but to leave things as they were. Sir John Pakirigton introduced on the 3rd May a bill to grant a Representative Constitution to New Zealand. The main features of the plan are these :— 1. That New Zealand shall be considered as one colony. 2. That it shall be divided into six provinces, each province to be governed by a Superintendent, appointed by the Governor-in-Ohief, with a salary of £500 a year. 3. Each Superintendent to have a Legislative Council of not fewer than nine members, to be entirely elective, 5. The franchise of the electors (natives not to be excluded) to be as follows, viz.: a freehold worth £50, or a house in a town worth £10 a year, and if in the country £o a year. 5. The duration of the Provincial Councils to be limited to four years, and of the central

Legislative to five years ; the question, whether the members should be paid, to be left to the Central Legislature. 6. The Central Legislature to consist of the Governor-in-Chief and two Chambers. 7. The Lower Chamber to be elective; the franchise for the constituency to be the same as for the Provincial Councils; the number of members to be not less than twenty-five, or more than forty. 8. The Upper Chamber to be appointed by the Crown; the number of members to be not less than ten, or more than fifteen. 9. the Civil list to be £ 12,000 a year The Bill was well received, and would doubtless pass and receive the Royal assent. The Central Legislature is to haA'e the management of the waste lands, and of the revenue derived therefrom, which, in the opinion of the Times, reflects great credit on the Colonial Secretary ; but the Times thinks that it would have been as well that the reasons which induced Sir John to banish the Nominee Element from the Provincial Councils, should have extended likewise to the Central Legislature.