The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 514, 19 March 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1 !) , 1851.

He just and fe.ir not Let all the ends, thou aims't at, he thy Country's,, Thy God's, and 'lrutli's.

A Government Gazeete ay? "^published on Monday afternoon. Its most interesting feature is the Return respecting the effairs of the Ulster Colonial Bank of Issue for the ypar ending December 3 1st. 1800. We need not sura up its information here, as the entire is comprised in a small space, and will be found in another page. The usual Monthly Return of the Auckland Bank of L-sue is also published. Ihe total amount of Notes in ciiculation on the Bth of March was £ I,3oo:— the total amount of Coin held by the Office on that day, £526. Several notifications appear, some of which have already been a<lvert)sed in our columns. Tendeis are invited for Canvas, Duck, Serge, Dungaree, and other articles for the use of the Prisoners in the Auckland Gaol ; and for ( otton shirts, Calico Mieets Rugs, <Vc,, for the Colonial Hospital : — the former t < h <i received until noon on Monday the 24th insi ., and the latter until noon on :>aturday the 29th inst. A Meeting of Magistrates of the Auckland District is called for Tuesday the 25th instant, to take into consideration the necessity of fixing hours for the Slaughtering of Cattle, as biought under the notice of the Resident Magistrate by the Waidens of the Hundred The Annual Publicans 1 Licensing Meetings are to be held at Auckland, at Onehurga, and at Howick, on Tuesday the 15th of April. The Wardens of Onehunga give notice that the fiegulatiorjs for the Depasturing of Stock for iB6O continue in force, and that the Retui ns of Stock are to be made on or before the last day of this month. The Gazette finally contains a Return of the Piincipal Exports, the Produce and Manufacture of New Zealand, during the years 1848, 1849, 1850, As this has a documentary value, we transfer it also to our columns.

In the extracts given in the colonial papers received by the Manlrin, and in the few English journals which have reached us by her mail, there are items of home news which, while we are awaiting the arrival of our complete files, may be worth collecting and grouping together. We find notifications of several lecent public appointments. Dr. Townsend, who was not long since appointed Dean of Waterford, and is known as an earnest supporter of the National System of Education in Ireland, had been promoted to the vacant Bishopric of Meath Mr. Martin, of the Northern Circuit, had been appointed a Judge, in place of Baron Rolpe, appointed to the Vice-Chan-cellorship Geneial Sir John Grey was to be the new Commander-in -Chief of the Bombay Presidency. The Daily News sarcastically observes, " This is the second nomination of a Grey within the last fortnight. It is really wrong to the Elliots." The other nomination to which our contemporary alludes, is, we suppose, that of Mr C. S. Grey, one of Lord John Russell's Private Secetaries, who had been appointed to the place of Paymaster of Civil Sei vices in Ireland, lately held by Mr. Kennedy, now one of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests A gentleman of colour, and, according to the Globe, "of consideiable intelligence and highly polished manners,'' had been appointed to the office of British Consul at Liberia. Pie is said to be the fiist man of colour who has received a similar appointment from our Government. A feeling of dismay had been pioduced in the camp of the Protectionists by a speech of their great champion Lord Stanley at the Bury Agricultural Dinner on the 4th of Octoher, from which the free-trade journals infened that he was, like Sir Robert Peel, abandoning the cause of the farmers. But his Loidship repudiated the imputation in a letter to Mr. FutniiiucK Young, Chairman of the " National Association," in which he explained his meaning as being that the district around Bury possesses so many advantages as to be entirely an exceptional case so far as the -corn-laws are concerned, so that farming would prove remunerative there, notwithstanding the ruinous effects of free- trade measures on the agricultural interest generally.

apropos to agriculture, — the Bankers 7 Circular had estimated that the total produce of sound wheat in Great Brit lin in the year 1 850 would prove fully five millions of quaiters less than in the abundant yeais 1819, and 1844. In compliance with an a plication from Lord Lytteiton, the Society for Piomoting Chnstian Knowledge, at tin ir meeting v] October, granted £1000 in aid of the endowment of the Bishopric at Canteibary m New Zealand. They also granted £3000 to be placed at the disposal of the Bishop of Toronto, towards the endowment of a Co'lege in connection with the Church in his diocese. The leception of > pplications for space at the Grand Industrial Exhibition closed on the 31st of October, and the publication of the List wrs looked for with avidity It; public being eager to know what was to be expected at the Show. But, as the T tes says, " wnen all the woild is invited to pioduce what it pleases, it is everybody's fault if every body is not quite satisfied. Every body is to do what he caii, and, should the result in any lespect f< 11 short of expectation,the only inference will be that time h, s not yet produced that which we desne, 'and that our imagination is running in advance of our age." It appeared that up to the 1 7th of October, (a fortnight before the closing of the List), there had been applications fioin four-hundred and fifteen intending exhibitors from the City of London alone, w ho required for the display of their various products an average of about one hundted squaie feet for e<ich exhibitor. Preparations of Ai kinds for the great congress of nations wrs going forward with increased earnestness as the time approached. The building, or as the Metiopolitan journalists call it, ' The Crystal Palace," was progressing amidst the admiration of wondering multitudes, Aearly one thousand men and several steam engines were daily employed upon it. Various schemes for the hospitable reception of foreigneis were under consideration. Amongst them we notice a proposition taken up by the Evangelical Alliance, which held its Annual Conference at Liveipool in October. It was resolved that the Conference of 1851 should be held in London during the time of the Exhibition ; that means should be adopted to maintain intercourse with Christian visitors for the purpose of giving and receiving information respecting the state and prospects of religion thiough the world; and that some of the chief public Halls should be taken for the three months that the Exhibition is expected to last, and preaching in various languages be established in them. Much indignation was expressed at the leniency with which a merciful Coroner's Jury in Jersey glossed over the culpability of the captain of the Snpob steamer, the wreck of which was noticed in a former number of the New Zea/ander ; — a leniency contiasting strongly with the fidelity of the Scottish Jury in the similar but less aggravated case of the Orion. The Watchman observes, "We have heard much and read much respecting the defective state of criminal law in the Channel Islands ; but in this instance justice has been cheated of her due solely by the misconduct of those on whom devolved the administration of its pieliminaiy stages." We learn from a later account, however, that the Government had interfered in the matter, and that orders had been sent from the Home Office to Sir Thoaus Le Breton, the Procureur-General at Jersey, directing that the Master and Mate should be brought to tnal with all the oespatch consistent with the forms of Jersey jurisprudence. The growth of Cotton in India continued to engage attention, and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce had resolved to send out a special commissioner to India to advance the object. Mr. Alfxander Mackay (author of a popular work on the United States, called " The Western World") was likely to be chosen for this important service. The Glasgow Daily Mail notices an ex'raordinary rise in the price of Tobacco, which, though gradually proceeding since 1846, has of late been extremely rapid. First quality, which in the spring of IS4B was sold fieely at s^d. to s|d. per lb., was selling in October last at Is. 2d., and even at Is 6d., being equal to a rise of 300 per cent. Our contemporary suggests that the cultivation of the. plant for sale (which is prohibited by law in England and Ireland) might be profitably pursued m the West India Islands, Australia, and other British Colonies. Amongst the interesting efforts of benevolence directed towards the benefit of the poorer classes, we observe the institution of Penny Savings Banks, where those small sums which are so commonly spent in indulgences that are unnecessary or worse, may be stored with safety and a little profit. At Whitechapel (London), where the experiment was first tried, there were in about eight months 49,516 deposits, made by 7,853 persons, whose penny savings within that time amounted to £2,0 1 7, being an average of somewhat under tenpence for each, — a sum so easily expended by a workman for beer or tobacco. The Athencevm well asks, " Who shall estimate the virtues to which this habit of self-denial may give rise V

The scraps of Irish intelligence which we find scattered through the papers before us, partake of that strangely mingled character which

seems all but immutably stamped upon the history of li eland. In a late issue we noticed the continued flow of emigration, which was not merely draining the country of its population numerically, but al-o depriving it of many of its most industrious and frugal labouiersand small farmers, — men who, by the industry and good conduct which would rendei them especially valuable there, had saved a sufficient sum to enable them to seek on distant shores some brighter lot than they expected to leahze in their native land. They cannot be binned for endeavouring to better their condition, but the loss of such men to a country circumstanced like Ireland is great indeed. It is to be hoped, however, that agricultural employment will receive a salutary and permanent impulse from the new disposal and arrangement of landed property which is rapidly taking place under the Encumbered Estates Act. The former proprietors are poorer only in name, and have the satisfaction of being released from embarrassments which previously hung as a dead weight on their energies. Some of them aie, vuth piaisewoithy promptitude, as it were beginning life afresh. Thus we aie told that Mr. Hyacinth DArcy, hte of Clif<ien Castle, whose extensive estates uere sold under the Aci, is now bonouiably exerling himself as an Inspector of Chuich Mission Schools at a salary of £100 per year. The new owners of land will probably set themselves with alacrity to those improvements which then* " encumbered" predecessors found it impossible to attempt ; and the success which may be anticipated for them, and the benefit which their outlay and enterpiise cannot fail to co lfer on the peasantty around them, will, we have little doubt, at no distant day bear giatifying ar.d conclusive testimony fo the wisdom with which the important measure wrs framed, and the ju-igment with which it is administered. But agitation still, as ever, casts a gloomy shade on the country. The Tenant Right movement, though founded in the main on just principles, is, like many other things in Ii eland, carried to an exireme, and its leaders are advancing claims which are so subversive of fair Landlord Rujhis that they cannot be conceded, and may only by their extravagance prevent, or at least postpone, the alterations in the relations of Landloid and Tenant uhich would be leally equitable and desirable. As usual, however, politico-re lgious agitation is the most engrossing and exciting, — the Queen's Colleges, supported by the Government and one section of the people, and denounced by the Roman Catholic Synod of Thurles and another section, being the grand field of contention at piesent. It will be remembered that the denunciation by the was carried by the most narrow majority, thirteen of the Bishops having voted against the condemnatoiy decree, which was adopted by only fourteen voices, and that Archbishop Dl.la.ny had proceeded to Rome to lay before the Pope a petuion from the Minority, praying that he would withhold his confirmation from it. The reply was looked for with intense anxiety ; but accoiding to one account it was already ascertained that the decision of His Holiness was with the Majority, — that is, acjainst the Government Colleges. Many of the Roman Catholic laity were, notwithstanding, declaring their adherence to the Government plan. This was especially the case at Cork, where the number of Roman. Catholic Students matriculated at the Queen's College in October last showed a considerable increase as compared with the corresponding month of the preceding year, and where a Protest against the decision of the ;^ynod was in course of signature, and had already received the names of many influential Roman Catholic laymen. Meanwhile the effort to establish an exclusively Romaniit University was vigorously carried forward, and Agents were about to be despatched to Continental Europe and to the United States of America to collect contubutions in its aid. The Act of Last Session for the Extension of the Franchise was coming into operation, and in the few instances in which the results had been ascertained there had been a large augmentation of the constituencies. Thus in the County Antrim, there would be about 10,000 Registered Electors under the new Law, instead of 2,599, the number at the last General Election ; in the County Cork, 20,000 instead of 4,474 ; in Limerick, 11,000 instead of 1,673, and so in other places. It was estimated that the aggregate constituency of Ireland would number about two hundred and twenty thousand. For some time we had looked in vain for further information respecting the valuable application of Irish peat or " bog stuff," of which such encouraging accounts were given in the House of Commons last year; we now learn with pleasuie that the experiments have been going on, and with most gratifying success. An article from the Times on this I subject, which will be found in another column, will be read with interest and gratification by every well-wisher to Ireland. We notice as additional tokens of progress that the Midland Great Western Railway Company had ordered their chief engineer to lay down the electric telegraph wires from Dublin to Gal way, to anticipate the Government in the laying down of the intended telegraph across the Channel, thereby con-

necting London with Galway, in expectation of Galway becoming a packet station ; and that the Town Council of Dublin had adopted large and efficient measures to establish Baths and Washhouses for the workmen of the City. The Government had given the Council permission to borrow £13,000 for this purpose.