THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, May 3, 1845.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 165, 3 May 1845, Page 34

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, May 3, 1845.

Journals become more necessary as men become more equal and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty: they maintain civilization. DE ToCaUEYILLE. Of Democracy in America, vol. iv., p. 202.

These are grave times for New Zealand. If the shepherd were to discard the honest watch-dog and to rely on the jackal for advice about the lion's design on the flock, God help the poor sheep committed to his charge. And God help the settlers in New Zealand when their Governor resorts to the counsel of the Chief Protector in preference to that of all the rest of his officials and the sagest members of the community at large. He tells us in a late speech in Council, that when " all other counsellors fail him, he falls back with certain and sure confidence on the unerring wisdom of Mr. Protector Clarke, and that he had rather lose the five principal officers of his Government than this one individual." Where was this unerring wisdom when the destruction of the Bay of Islands was planned and executed ? Where was it when Heki's first aggression on the flag- staff was compounded by the surrender of ten muskets ? Where was it when Governor Fitzßoy, in writing to Sir George Gipps for troops, told him (as the Sydney papers report) that there was no immediate need of them, which caused Sir George to delay sending them for a month, in which interval Kororarika was sacked, destroyed, and its helpless inhabitants turned houseless on the world ?

Is it not manifest in all these cases that either Mr. Clarke himself was utterly ignorant of the real designs of the natives, or

that he wilfully kept the Governor ignoran of them? Deluded by false views of the subject into a belief that the only danger from the natives was in Cook's Straits ; that there, if anywhere, the volcano was ready to burst ; that the natives as a body were free from crime, and regarded the Local

Government with affection and respect; — deluded into this belief, what a sudden shock must the news of the destruction of Kororarika have been to the Governor ! We have this week received a file of Auckland papers, and from the proceedings in Council it is easy to see how much he is shaken ; shaken — not in his confidence in the Protector, for, like the foolish Greek in the shipwreck, he still hugs that anchor — but shaken altogether in himself. On the one hand labouring under false alarms of treasonable plots ; on the othei*, full of reliance on every body and every thing; looking here and there — doubting, asserting, retracting ; irritable, yet yielding to those he insults. The picture is altogether most melancholy to look on.

But then to think that we are dependent on the councils of this man. Heaven help the settlers we say once more.

However, we believe that Heaven will help us. The troops for which Captain Fitzßoy is reported to have told Sir George Gipps that there was no immediate need are fast arriving. A whole regiment is by this time at Auckland. A fresh detachment is at Wellington, headed, we hear, by a real soldier, not one of those butterfly officers who leave the fighting department to their minor chiefs while they fill a civil office and receive full pay, but a soldier fit for conduct and for action ; and another detachment may be looked for in Nelson every day.

Let Captain Fitzßoy take counsel now of the right sort of councillors ; let him discard the false prophets who cry peace, peace, when there is no peace, who are as powerful to aid us in our present difficulty as a reed to turn aside a hurricane ; let him rally the troops around him instead of peeping at the Post Office and listening to miserable tales about meal-tubs, rye-houses, and schooners brimful of gunpowder; let him buckle on his armour like a man, look the matter in the face as he ought to do, shut the doors of his puppet-show Councilroom, take to something real instead of playing at governing, and, as old Captain Inglis of the Belliceux. said when he could not decipher the signal, " up with the helm and gang into the middle o't," — and then there will be some chance of seeing this disgraceful affair brought to such a conclusion as may ensure future peace to the settlers and that respect for British authority in the eyes of the natives which our precious Protectors, their Native Exemption Ordinances, and Exeter Hall folly has for the present completely annihilated.

If variety be pleasing, as our copy-head used to declare, New Zealand must be a most blessed place to live in ; for the changes which are rung by our Government are as frequent as those of the moon, and we bfgin to suspect must have some physical connexion with them. What various methods have there not been resorted to in the disposal of waste lands — how many schemes for raising a revenue ! And yet, with all these varieties, no method has yet been discovered of maintaining us in possession of the land we have bought, or of retrieving the Treasury from the remarkable resemblance it bears to the heads of our legislators.

When Governor Fitzßoy first arrived among- us, he went out of his way to dilate upon the advantages of Free Trade to a colony like this, and led us to expect that we were early to rejoice in its privileges ; when lo ! to our infinite mortification, his first legislative measure was to inflict a heavy tariff upon us, imposing 5 per cent, on most goods and more than 5 on the remainder. Well, we paid and grumbled for some three or four months without redress, till, fortunately for us, John Heki grumbled and wouldn't pay, and the Governor (to use his own expression), not thinking it prudent to go to law with a township (which John was supposed to represent), knocked off the Customs at once, and gave us unlimited, absolute, unconditional, Bright-and-Cobden free trade. Such bonfires as there were ; there was not a long face in the colony except the Custom House officers', the searchers', and the tidewaiters'.

Well, the good news begins to spread — reciprocity works like barm — exports are all alive — when lo and behold! our Governor walks one morning into the Council Room and tells his legislators to put on the Customs again. The bill is brought in ready engrossed, with the" Government seal attached, and free trade becomes more free than welcome.

But do not let us despair; though frise trade is gone, we dare say we shall ha> c something else by and by — bounties, pc > haps, by way of variety. In commenting in Council upon the subject, and alluding to the circumstances undor which he had given us freedom of trade, tl; c Governor hinted that the clamour of tie southern settlements had something to do with it. We do not recollect that particul* r clamour ourselves; but probably we did express some dissatisfaction with the 5 pt r cent, tariff, and we are very glad to he£r that it had some weight with his Excellencj'. But he goes on to say that he expected (and seems to think that he had a right to expect) some gratitude for it, and that we should have swelled our returns under the property rate so as to give him an abundat t revenue, instead of taking such a moderate estimate of our wealth as made his directc t taxation a failure.

Now as regards the abstract question c f Free Trade, and its particular application to this colony, we confess we are decidedly i m favour of it, and sorry to return to the Customs. But what we object to in our Governor is not that he taxes us in this o r that particular way, but that he taxes us unnecessarily and misapplies our mone y when he gets it. In the present sitting c f Council, we find him increasing the persons 1 salary of the Chief Protector a hundred a year, while he knows very well that the settlers who find this money consider botl i the original salary and the increase as so much paid to their injury, maintaining as : t does part of an establishment (costin r £1,600 a year altogether) which they regar 1 as one of the greatest curses of New Zea - land. Again, there is the Colonial Secretary's salary increased by £100, making it £630, on the plea that it was fixed at thata t amount in Downing Street, and cannot therefore be diminished by a Governor whi > has issued debentures contrary to instructions, is about to apply other debentures contrary to instructions, has abolished the estate of the Crown in the waste lands contrary to an act of Parliament, and never I pays the slightest regard to the authority c f Downing Street except when it suits his purpose to make it a stalking-horse to mount his measures on, as his own nominee in Council (Mr. Heale) tells him to his face.

We are afraid that Captain Fitzßoy wil 1 find us in the mttter of taxation like the soldier, who, beat him high, beat him low, there was no pleasing. It is not the manner in which this necessary evil is inflicted, nor would it be the amount if we could affori it and it were properly expended ; but it is because we do not choose to pay more than we can help towards the maintenance of a set of officials, one-third of whom are helpless, one-third useless, and the other third mischievous.

But we will tell Captain Fitzßoy how to make us liberal. Like Mr. O'Connell's friend who had tried to fatten his lean horse on everything except corn, Captain Fitzßoy has tried to please us by every means except the only means adapted to the end. Let him throw overboard the weak prejudices which have hitherto biassed him in favour of the natives, to the total neglect of his fellow-countrymen, whose welfare he was sent out to secure. Let him discard the miserable councillor who has hitherto guided him to the exclusion of all the mosts t competent persons in the colony, and whose counsel or want of counsel has resulted ii the sacking of Kororarika. Let him do equal justice between the races ; govern for the general good, and not to gratify morbid feelings and platform orators at Exeter Hall'; and we promise to support his Government, or any other on those principles, to tbje utmost that our impoverished purse will enable us. ,

Opening of a new Wesleyan Chapel on the Waimea Road. — On Sunday last a neat little Wesleyan Chapel on the Waimea Road was opened for divine service. Two sermons were preached on the occasion by the Rev. J. Aldred, the resident minister. The services were well attended j and the collections, which amounted to £4, were, all things considered, liberal. A Sunday school is to be established, and public service will be performed every Sunday afternoon.

We are happy to be able to state that tbe flour mill was got at work to-day, and promises to answer well. It will grind barley for a couple of days, and be ready for wheat by the middle of next week.

We are at present unable to give tbe debates in the Legislative Council from the 13th to the 29th of March, not having received perfect files of the Auckland papers. On the arrival of the next mail from Wellington we hope to receive the numbers at present wanting.

We have received Sydney papers to the Bth of April, but we are unable to notice their contents this week.