The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1853. His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief arrived yesterday at St. John's College.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 733, 23 April 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1853. His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief arrived yesterday at St. John's College.

Be just and fear not: let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy Country s, Thy God's, and Truth's.

Mr, William Brown's newspaper of yesterday contains a very long and laboured article partly in support of his pretensions, but still more in opposition—we will not say to Colonel Wynyard merely~but in opposition of a very insulting character, to that great body of the community by whom the Requisition to the late Lieut.-Governor has been signed. The- article is deemed by many to bear internal evidence of an alien source, from which, if not the actual composition, yet a great partof the material was supplied ; but whoever may have been literally the writer, it appears under Mr Brown's sanction, .and at his expense, and must be regarded as being, in every practical point of view, his manifesto. The first impression made by a perusal of the article must be that its concocters were angry men, striving, but striving in vain, to conceal their deep chagrin and mortification. This is not surprising. Men who think their game almost secure, not unnaturally feel vexation when they find that, by an unexpected move, their success is rendered all but impossible. Such is precisely the present position of Mr. Brown and his friends, and all the complacency with which they may wish to view the effusion of their conjoint wits in the editorial department of yesterday's Cross must be woefully clouded by the array of names appended to the Requisition to Colonel Wynyard, nearly filling the preceding page of the paper,—names quite sufficient to " flutter" their"Volscians"long before a single enrolled pensioner's signature occurs in the list,—even if the pensioners were as unworthy of respect in the case as the article aims at representing them. More as to the pensioner electors again, however. Let us first glance at one or two other points, which wc can do in perfect good humour, for the converse of the reason just assigned for the Cross's ill-temper. We are on the winning side, —that is,|the escape of the Province from the calamity of having Mr. Brown for its Superintendent is far beyond reasonable doubt, and that , as our readers know, is the object to which our special efforts have been directed Colonel Wynyard's military position is adduced as a reason why he should not be elected, and i! is represented that his election would be contrary to the intention of the Constitutional Act, with much more of the same Kind. ISoyt, we believe very many who support the Colonel would unhesitatingly prefer a civilian, if they could find one possessing the same combination of qualifications, and equally certain of excluding Mr. Brown from an office for which they consider him so signally unfit. But the Requisitionists find (so they state in terms) "a combination of qualifications in Colonel Wynyard such as are not to be found in any other person," and therefore they prefer him. As to the spirit of the Constitution Act, that spirit very plainly is—to give the people the privilege of self-government, an important part of which is the right to choose whomsoever they please as their Superintendent. If their deliberate choice rests upon a Military Officer, (who, however, has been longer a resident in the colony, and is possessed of more property in its soil, than numbers who are technically settlers), would it not be a palpable infringement of those rights which the Act was designed to confer, if they were compelled to turn from him whom they deem the best man for the occasion, to some one whom they would regard as, at most, only second best ? And as to the doubts attempted to be cast on the legality of his holding the office, it would be easy to show their fallacy, were there not an abundantly sufficient answer in the obvious consideration that Colonel Wynyard is quite as likely to understand the law on this military subject as the Southern Cross or any of its Counsellors- The fact of his having accepted the invitation, after full deliberation upon it in all its bearings, is ample evidence that he knows there is no legal impediment in the way. Mr. Brown, —that is, his Southern Cross, — taunts Colonel Wynyard with having "eagerly coveted" the office, and by implication or direct assertion charges him with exercising all the influence he could derive from his military command, as well as from other sources, to secure his return. It is difficult to deal with these imputations (which run all through the article) without employing language which we would willingly avoid The fact that Colonel Wynyard not only did not come forward as a volunteer (like Mr. Brown) to seek the Superintendency, but that he repeatedly declined it even within the last fortnight, and that it was only by a very strong and long-continued pressure, enforced finally by the streuglh of a Bequisition with upwards of five hundred signatures, that he was induced to consent. This fact is so well known, and so capable of being proved at. any moment by the correspondence which look place on the subject, that if the writer or writers in the Southern Cr. ss were ignorant of it, they had much less information than many others, or than they profess to have on far more apocryphal points. If they knew-and will they venture to assert that they did not?—-if they knew anything of the perseverance and effort which were required to overcome the Colonel's reluctance to be brought forward, and yet with such knowledge have endeavoured to disseminate the impression that yesterday's Cross is calculated to convey,— then comment on their conduct is wholly needless.

A word or two now about the Pensioners, -' < the poor pensioners" us our sympathising and icnder-hearled contemporary calls them. The appeal may safely be made to themselves. T/iev know that the Commander of the Forces has not power, even if he wished, to coerce them into voting for him r-and they know whether or not any undue influence, or any influence at all proceeding from him, has been exercised to induce them to sign the Requisition. They need not be told that the Colonel has very rarely interposed in their affairs, and that when he has done so it has not been to over-ride or oppress them, but rather to support or extend their privileges. Their past experience of Lieutenant-Colonel Wynyard will, we apprehend, lead to a precisely opposite result from that which the Cross labours after, -namely to convince them that their interests will be especially safe in his hands, -if indeed they were likely to stand In need of any such support from the Superintendent. We tell Mr. Crown, and his prompters and scribes in the Southern Cross, that the Pensioners have as legitimate a right to exercise their own judgment in choosing between the candidates 'as any other electors in the community; and that if Colonel Wynyard be the man of their choice, as he is the chosen candidate of so many in all classes of the community, they will vole for bite freely, independently, and heartily, without being cajoled or terrified by all that Mr. Brown can say, write, or do. There is another class (if it may be so called) amongst the Requisitionists, which excites the peculiar ire of our contemporary. We mean the elected Members of the late Provincial Council, who have repudiated Mr. Brown's arrogant pretensions, and placed themselves amongst the leaders of the movement in support of Colonel Wynyard. Poor Cross, how it whines and wrings its hands over the loss of those gentlemen ! " The Requisitionists," pathetically complains our contemporary, arc "backed by some of the lately Chosen Representatives of the People, who a few brief months since, on the hustings, pledged their faith not only to preserve the Colonial liberties, but to use every practicable means to remedy existing abuses, and to establish a better order of things." Just so: thev did pledge themselves to do all this;—it appeaas they are mindful of the pledge and resolved honourably to redeem it;—and therefore, they will not accept Mr. Brown us Superintendent of the Province. But our limits warn us to conclude, although the theme is very suggestive of further matter for comment. One word, however, as to the Southern Cross's rhapsody about the "sacrifice" made of Mr. Barlley. Mr.Bartley's real friends did not "sacrifice" him : their invitation to him was in good faith, founded on a high estimation of his merits, and on a hope that he would be returned without opposition : even after they were aware that he had made an arrangement with Mr. Brown which precluded both from personally soliciting votes, and therefore —as must be obvious to all acquainted with the circumstances and relations of the two candidates—threw Mr. Bartley's cause into a position of great comparative disadvantage, they did not desert him, and not an individual amongst his Requisitionists has transferred Ims name to the now Requisition. If there be any sacrifice of Mr. Barlley it is by a different class of "friends" who care not what unpleasantness they may bring him into if they can only secure their—perhaps not. openly avowed, but still not well concealed—object of gratify/ng or serving Mr. Brown.