THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, July 6, 1844.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 122, 6 July 1844, Page 10

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, July 6, 1844.

Journal* become more necessary v men become more •qual, and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serrt only to MCura liberty ; they maintain civilization. Dl TOCftCKVILLI. Of Democracy in America, toI . 4, p. 90S.

The readers of the Examiner are informed that, with a view to its general improvement, and particularly to a more connected and uniform treatment of editorial subjects than has prevailed for the last twelvemonth, the conduct of the paper has this week been intrusted to other hands. To this announcement the new Editor has little to add, except that he will endeavour honestly to discharge his duty and render the paper, as far as possible, what it was mainly intended to be — a guardian of the public interests and an intelligent expositor of the public wants. To satisfy all parties he is well aware is impracticable ; but if a conscientious determination to pursue the right and oppose the wrong, in discussing the various questions of the time, can secure the confidence of the settlement, to that extent he hopes to obtain it. Government shall receive from him no factious opposition, neither will he countenance factious opposition from others. At the same time, no regard for persons, or servile respect for constituted authorities, shall ever restrain him from freely criticizing the proceedings of the governing body, and demanding from it the faithful performance of its appropriate duties. Such survellance on the part of the press of the colony over the conduct of the Government is here eminently requisite, deprived as the colonists are^pf all but the shadow of representative control. In like manner, the New Zealand Company, itself in certain important respects a governing as well as governed body, will occasionally require to be stimulated into fresher ideas of responsibility and awakened to more energetic and disinterested action. As with all men, and especially all bodies of men combined together for the accomplishment of public objects, so with the New Zealand Company, selfish and mercenary motives will now and then display themselves to the prejudice of what is primary and patriotic. It is for the public and the press to detect such symptoms of deflection from the course of duty, and to apply the proper correctives. With reference, therefore, to both the Local Government and the New Zealand Company, it will be our province to render them strictly amenable to the people of whose interests they have undertaken the charge ; not, however, forgetting that a like responsibility attaches to ourselves, and no doubt will be exacted by those for whom we profess to act.

From Auckland the intelligence reaches down to the Ist June — a week later than by the Sisters. The papers are full of the debates in Council on Dr. Martin's motion for reducing the colonial expenditure to £20,000, and the appropriation of the revenue as subsequently voted. We have extracted from the Southern Cross the whole of the proceedings on the doctor's proposal (which is all that we are able to find room for this week), and can now do little more than request the reader's attentive perusal of them. It will be seen that a very vigorous effort has been made on the part of the nonofScial members of the Council to obtain a diminution of expenditure, bearing some proportion to the ability of those who are to defray it— -but to no purpose. His Excellency of course succeeded in carrying his original estimate of £36,000; so that, for another long year, the settlers are doomed not only to repeat — if they can — the excessive though indirect contributions of former yean, but in all probability to submit to direct imposts of a more odious kind, to the extent of not less than £4,000 *i £5, 000 more, even supposing that his Excellency's anticipation of assistance from the Home Gptapunent be fully realized. *We are free to a&mt file difficulties of the Governor'!

financial position, and especially those which arise out. of the number" and isolation of the settlements the government of which has to be provided for — a circumstance which must i be considered in instituting any comparisons between this and other colonies in respect of the cost of government; still, in the name of the harassed tax-payers of New Zealand, we must protest against the abstraction from their pockets of a single additional shilling, so long as one useless officer is retained or Government devotes itself, at our expense, to the eleemosynary protection of the really self-protected, tax-exempted aborigines of the north, and, though urged to it by every consideration of manliness and justice, delays to extend to the legitimate objects of its care, its own natural-born British subjects, that degree of security and protection which has always been understood to precede the right or liability to taxation, and which can alone distinguish it from " Turkish force and Latin fraud." We shall return to this subject; but, in the meantime, we cannot refrain from expressing our approbation of the gallant endeavours of the economists of the Council to reduce the burdens of the public to something like a reasonable amount. Instead of " gazing at difficulties," as the Governor strangely remarked, they have in this instance manfully grappled with them, in spite of opposing inclination and invidious appearances. We do not coincide with them on all points of their financial policy, but we hail the stand of the non-official members on this occasion as a proof that a packed Legislative Council may yet retain some germs of independence and character, and proximate, though at a respectful distance, to the great " bulwark of British liberty — popular reDresentation."

A report reaches us from Wellington that the Land Tax has been withdrawn. If true, and additional taxes are to be imposed, we shall regret the circumstance, as we should as soon see a land tax as any other. It would have one good effect probably, for in common decency the Government must secure possession to the owner before they tax him.

The Victoria has brought us no news of any importance. At Wellington things were much in statu quo. Our contemporary of the Gazette still pursues the Company in the King Cambyses vein ; with what justice we can at present hardly form an opinion. But, whoever may be at fault — . and certainly it is not the Company alone — it is evident that the existing state of that settlement is much to be deplored, and demanding of immediate remedy from some quarter or another.

The Deborah had arrived from Otago, bringing back several of the gentlemen who accompanied Mr. Tuckett from Nelson. Most of them came on here by the Govern* ment brig. They speak enthusiastically of the whole east coast, as being much lets hilly than the country in this neighbourhood, and containing very extensive pasture districts. From all accounts, we should say that Mr. Tuckett has made a very judicious selection. The harbour is magnificent, though with rather a narrow entrance. The site fixed upon for the town is rather restricted in available space, but still sufficiently capacious. The country land will be taken in a continuous line south of the town. The greater part of it, we understand, will be very valuable, though in some parts requiring considerable drainage. We rather apprehend there will be found a deficiency of timber throughout it, by far the greater part being open grass land. No purchase of the district had been effected, though on one occasion the chiefs had assembled with a view to negotiation. The cause of this appears to be the continuance of the misunderstanding between Mr. Tuckett and Mr. Symonds, the gentleman who accompanied him to arrange the purchase on behalf of Government. Mr. Daniel Wakefield's presence and mediation would seem to have only " worse embroiled the fray." In consequence Colonel Wakefield and Mr. Spain have determided to proceed there forthwith and endeavour to arrange matters ; after which they may be expected to pay Nelson a visit, with a view, inter alia, to settle the Land Claims for this neighbourhood.

It appears we may shortly expect the arrival of a second German expedition in this settlement. By the last accounts from England, negotiations were on foot for the purchase of fifty allotments from the Company by Messrs. Chapaurouge and Co., of Hamburg, the originators of the former German emigration to this place. A letter signed "P. A. D. C." (we presume a member of that house) appears in the New Zealand Journal of the 20th of January, wherein the writer observes—" I am happy

to inform you that I partially succeeded with a high-spirited nobleman to have my contract system, submitted to you in July, admitted for the emigration of agricultural labourers. In the early part of next spring some 140 people will leave for New Zealand, under the superintendence of three inspectors, who will settle upon several allotments bought for that purpose, under the engagement to employ these labourers at current colonial wages, and to give them land, for which the labourers will have to pay £3 per acre, and the cost of their passage, within a given time."

We understand the expense of the Fort, which had been in part included in the statement submitted to Government of the New Zealand Company's expenditure on public works in this settlement up to September last, has been allowed by the Governor, though his Excellency at the same time intimates that he- does not approve of the erection. We are not acquainted with the grounds of his disapproval ; but if his Excellency supposes there was no sufficient cause for the apprehensions under which the works were commenced, and afterwards on a fresh alarm resumed and completed, we think he must be misinformed. From the information conveyed to the magistrates at the time, it would have been the height of temerity to have neglected such a means of public security (indeed people could not otherwise have been quieted) ; and from what has since transpired through the natives resident in the Gulf, at Motuaka and elsewhere, no reasonable doubt can be entertained (if native accounts are to be at all relied on) that an attack was intended to.be made on the settlement, and that our preparations against such an attempt alone prevented its being put into execution. To be prepared for war is to maintain peace : suoh is the good old English maxim ; and to its adoption in this instance we firmly believe the settlement has to attribute its safety and preservation.

We are glad to see there is every probability of the Panama Canal project being carried out at an early period. The New Zealand Journal of the 20th January has an article on the subject, from which it appears that the house of Salomon and Co., of Panama, who are the principal parties in the company which has been formed to effect the undertaking, have received a grant of land for the purpose, on the route from Panama to Chagres, from the Government of New Grenada, and that surveys of the line have been made by them, which are now being verified by the French Government. By the survey of M. Morel, the engineer of the new company, the summit elevation of the proposed route will be no more than 36 feet, by one line, and 33 by the other, instead of about 700, as it has hitherto been reckoned, above the level of the Pacific. The total distance from sea to sea is about fifty miles ; but the length of the actual canal communication will not exceed twenty-five miles, in consequence of the navigability of the rivers at the termini. The Journal, adopting the mileage expenditure on the Caledonian Canal, the most expensive work of the kind yet known (viz., £16,800), calculates the total expense of construction, including the widening and dragging of the rivers and the necessary buildings and other works along the line, at £695,000 ; the annual expenses at £47.000 ; and the yearly profit to be divided at £152,930. Coal mines have been discovered at thirty or forty miles from Panama ; a circumstance, one would suppose, of some importance in connexion with the proposed canal, and upon which the' French engineer sent to verify M. Morel's survey will likewise report.