PORT NICHOLSON.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue I, 30 April 1842, Page 31

PORT NICHOLSON.

We hare received papers from Port Nisholson of the 2d of this month, and also of the 20th, but no intermediate ones.

In that of v the latest date there is much subject for remark. There is, in the first place, the report of the committee appointed by the inhabitants of Wellington to examine the ordinances passed by the Legislative Council. Our readers will most likely be anxious to be informed of the opinion of the neighbouring settlement on this subject, and we therefore subjoin the report. - We presume, that Wellington has been more fortunate .than Nelson, Tor, though the committee make no mention of the Conveyancing and Registration Ordinances, yet their silence leads us to suppose that they have seen them, which we have not. These two ordinances have been, by some mistake, omitted in the packet sent to Mr. Thompson. The committee express their surprise that no ordinances have passed regulating the laws of bankruptcy and insolvency.

" This committee, after a careful perusal of the several ordinances passed by the Legislative Council of New Zealand in the past session, consider that they are, with certain exceptions, well adapted to the wants of this colony.

" That, with regard to the Municipal Corporation Ordinance, this committee were unanimous in recommending its adoption.

" That, with reference to the Harbour Regulation and Raupo House Ordinances, this committee are of opinion that the power vested in the Governor by these ordinances should form, in incorporated towns, part of the powers given to corporate bodies.

" That, with regard to the Supreme Court Bill and the County Court Bill, this committee would suggest that it might be advantageous to give to the judge of the county court a jurisdiction over all civil cases where the matter in dispute is not more than £500, all cases between £20 and £50 being decided by five assessors, and all cases above £50 being tried by a jury, and that any issues of law and any points of law which may arise upon the trial of such cases should he reserved, and tried at Wellington before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. "That, with regard to the Licensing ' Bill, this committee would suggest that, for the purpose of public convenience and also to discourage the sale of contraband spirits, in the event of an application for license in a new settlement or thinly populated district, it should be discretionary with the magistrates to grant a license requiring from the applicant the payment of such a sum, not being less than £10, as in their opinion may be expedient, having regard to the circumstances of the settlement or district.

" That, with regard to the Jury Bill, this committee would suggest that, in the present circumstances of this settlement, it is inexpedient to confine the right to sit on juries to freeholders, since by such restriction the performance of that duty would be burdensome' to the class selected, and many persons of intelligence and respectability would be thereby deprived of what they might regard as a privilege.

" That, with regard to the Police Magistrates' Summary Jurisdiction and Cattle Trespass Ordinances, this committee deem 'the powers thereby vested 'in the police magistrate as far . too great for the safety and liberty of the subject, particularly under the present circumstances of this colony, where temptations to abuse such powers may frequently present themselves.

" It is impossible for this committee to form an opinion upon the Lands Claim Ordinance, as a copy of that ordinance has not been laid before the committee.

" And this committee are surprised that the Legislative Council should have closed this session without passing any ordinances regulating ,the laws, of bankruptcy and insolvencylaws so essential to the welfare of a mercantile community." f The first session of the County Court'for the Southern District of New Ulster was opened on the 19th, by his Honour, Edmund Storr Halswell, Esq., the- Judge. Everything appears to have proceeded with becoming dignity, " decently and in order." The following gentlemen were $worn in as Justices of the Peace — George White, of Petoni, William Mem Smith, Henry -St. Hill, William Swainson," William Guyton, George Hunter, of Wellington, and John Nixon, of Wanganui, Esqrs. ; and the oaths of office taken by Richard Davies Hanson, Esq., crown prosecutor, and John Fitzgerald, Esq., coroner for the district. The charge of the Judge appears, to have given general satisfaction. The trial of • Richard Lockwood, accused of passing fictitious cheques, was put off till the next session, being un> prepared for his defence, and a material witness being absent. This is the person' I who twice escaped from the Port Nicholson gaol. Osborne, who had been before the magistrates on suspicion of being concerned in the murder of Archibald Milne, who was

found murdered on the Petoni Road, was ,. acquitted on a charge of stealing a coat and table-cover, the property of the deceased man. " . On the evening of the 19th the magistrates of the district and the gentlemen of the bar gave a dinner at the Southern Cross Hotel to his Honour. : We find also in this paper copies of two ' letters, which we .subjoin, of which the Editor says — * " The following correspondence is not of a recent date, for Captain Daniell was in no hurry to publish it. He gave the Government ample time to make the amende due to him, which, up ' to the present time, they have had the bad taste to withhold. " [Private.] " Wellington, Sept. 28, 1842. " Sir — I am directed by his Excellency the Governor to inform you that it has been stated to his Excellency, by various gentlemen, that you were -unaware of your being in the commission of thetpeace when youjtook so active a part at a public meeting in May last, whereat the conduct of the Governor and the Government were so severely animadverted on. •• " His Excellency, whilst he admits the perfect right of every man in the community to hold and to express his opinions of the public acts of the Governor, denies the propriety of ' any individual who holds office making a public - declaration of his principles when they happens to be opposed to that Government of which he himself forms a member. " If Captain Daniell really was unaware of his being a magistrate at the time above alluded to^and feels disposed to resume his office, tßie" 1 Governor will have much pleasure in replacing him on the commission of the peace. " I, have the honour to be, sir, " Your most' obedient servant, " Edward Shojbtland, Private Sec. - " Captain Daniell, &c.

" Wellington, Oct. 6, 1842.

" Sir — In reply to your communication of the . 28th ultimo, I beg to state that his Excellency was correctly informed as to my being unaware of my appointment to the commission' of the peace, at the period of the public meeting al-' hided to. With reference to the second part of your letter, I must declare my dissent from the , doctrine there laid down by his Excellency, that any gentleman in the commission of the peace is incapacitated from making a public declaration of his principles when they happen to be opposed to the Government. At the same time, I must protest against the injustice done me in the erasure of my name from the list of magistrates, after an appointment to that position, which was unsolicited. lam therefore confident his Excellency will deem it but justice to reinstate me in that position. " I have the honour to be, sir, " Your very obedient servant, "E. Danirll."

What can be said of so strange a communication as that of Mr. Shortland ? It was about a matter of the greatest- public importance, "and it is marked private. It begins by addressing Captain Daniell in the second person and concludes by doing so in the third. It asserts a principle the most absurd — the most dangerous. Who would be a justice of the peace on such terms 1 We are only surprised that such a letter has not produced the resignation of every justice of the peace in New Zealand.

A letter from Mr. John Nixon (we presume" of Wanganui) speaks very strongly of the difficulties to be overcome by tillers of the soil in that district. It appears from his account that the natives in that neighbourhood are unusually mischievous and averse to the white men cultivating to any extent, if not opposed tfl their settling there at' all.

French Beggars — The beggars by profession begin, as soon as you are in sight, with a monotonous drawl of set words, all pronounced on one key, and precisely the same to every passer by. Perhaps it is well for their own interest that they generally ask you to give for the merit of the gift, or the prayers they promise to breathe for you, for certainly there in nothing in themselves to prompt it. How different have I often thought it was from the genuine eloquence of Irish beggary, which makes the heart ache so bitterly that it would almost be a relief to give one's last sixpence ! The begging in France is simply asking for money, while the beggar often looks as comfortable and well fed as yourself. It is true they ask only for one' sous; but in the valley of Campan, when you have given them that, they make no scruple to ask you for another. Nor is this only on the public roads. There is scarcely any place «o retired but you hear the pattering 'of little bare feet behind yob, then loud breathing which diffuses around you the perfume of garlic ; and, as 1 soon as you look around, the demand is made and persisted in for a length of time proportioned to the ability of the supplicant to keep pace with you. .No man can learn what he has not preparation for learning, however near to his eyes is the object. A chemist may tell bis most precious secrets to a carpenter, and he shall be never the wiser; the I secrets he would not utter to a chemist for ah estate. God screens us evermore from premature ideas. .Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things, that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened ; then we behold them, and the time when we saw them not ia like a dream-