A SOUTHERN OPINION OF OUR NORTHERN SUPERINTENDENT.

New Zealander, Volume 11, Issue 960, 27 June 1855, Page 1 (Supplement)

A SOUTHERN OPINION OF OUR NORTHERN SUPERINTENDENT.

(From the "Wellington Spectator," May 22.) The Auckland papers received by the overland mail are full of local matters which appear to be very keenly discussed. The Provincial Council is sitting under the new Superintendent, Mr. Brown, and messages, legal opinions, discussions, disputes —and out of these an interminable correspondence, —absolutely fill to repletion the New Zealandcr and Southern Cross. They shoot up as thick and as suddenly as the thistles on the Pampas of South America. When in opposition Mr. Brown found his course very easy; it was only to find fault with everything and every body, and like his friends in the South to hint how much better managed affairs would be under his direction. Now that he suddenly finds himself" in this coveted position, the community over which ho presides do not appear to be better satisfied. "We should rather conclude from the evidence before us that they would almost prefer to return to the old state of things—that they would rather be—- " as they were." If he has not had time to lay down a line of Provincial policy, a system which is to be carried out during the term of his office, he and his legal adviser, a Mr. Singleton Roehfort, have at le'ist been very busy in trying to upset many matters that hud been previously considered as settled; and the two parties—the> Brownitcs and the Anti-Brownites —are fiercely at issue. A .City Council had been established by an Act of the Provincial Legislature, which Mr. Brown, under the advice of his law adviser, declares to be illegal, and tries to put down, but the. Council and its adherents seem in no humour to be put down. It seems to us that a City Council is somewhat dc trop, a superfluity that may bevery well dispensed with, for the Provincial Councils w.ere avowedly established, not to ape the House of Commons, but to lie municipalities with enlarged powers to provide efficiently for the management of purely local matters. Then the Superintendent and his man Friday boldlyplbnge into the Land question and try to rip it up from the beginning. The latter has had the temerity to state as " bis opinion"—that all purchasers of lands , under pre-emption land orders or otherwise, 'bona fide made by private individuals from the natives prior to the passing of the Constitution Act of 1802, are good and valid in law, and that all persons, whether Governors, Superintendents, Members of the General Assembly or of t/ie Provincial Councils, concerned in the disposing of these lands without the authority of the respective proprietors will be liable to actions at law. As the Supreme Court recognizes no title to land purchased from the natives except a Crown Grant,

Ave do not see hoV these soi-disant proprietors could maintain any action at law against the Govemor that is, against tile Crown—for theii' right to such purchases. It is evidently intended "-to~"ive the land shark interest a lift, hut does not seem likely to succeed. Then there is an article in the lust Southern Cross, headed in large characters "Locking up the Treasury Chest," in which the writer characterises a motion before the Council for voting the Supplies for three months only as tantamount to a vote of want of confidence in the Superintendent, who, in the opinion of the Cross, the Council " uses ungentcelly-" But it, seems odd after having been himself so hitter in his opposition to Government to hear Mr. Brown and his friends deplore the bitterness of party strife. If the opposition he meets with be as unfair as the Cross denounces it to be, and only " intended to embarrass the present Executive," still the Superintendent is only having meted back to him again from his own mea--Bft re. SO UTI I KEN EXTRACTS. [From the Wellington Spectator.) Land Sale.—"On Thursday last Mr. Smith resumed his series of Land Sales, and had a numerous attendance of bidders. The properly offered for sale consisted of "both Town and Country Land, and the prices realised, we understand, showed that both descriptions maintained ther former value. Some of the Country Land at Rangitiki sold at the rate of £1 an acre.—May It). The steamer Zingari arrived yesterday from Lyttelton. In Canterbury, the principle of "Ministerial Responsibility" whs undergoing a crucial experiment, and bids fair in that Province to become a caput mortuum. Mr. Hall is " Prime Minister" one week, and losing the " confidence of the House" makes way for Mr. Brittan, who in his turn makes way For Mr. Some-body-else ; the Superintendent, meanwhile, being "graciously pleased" to accept eachproferred resignation. .X correspondent of the " Lyttellon Times" thus remarks on the Ministerial crisis : " In my Opinion we have the wrong machinery altogether; or to apply the illustration something nautical ly, we are attempting to build an ocean steamer, when our work Would onlj employ a steam tug, and a very little one too. The office of Superintendent has been transformed into a petty kingship; our Provincbd Council into a legislative body, when, evidently, us functions were intended to be municipal only. We want every one of those ordinances repealed which make the Superintendent higher in authority Hum a Chaitihan of a Town Council at home, and tlven if our Provincial Council would set about making roads instead of laws, the reproach of flighty legislation would be removed from us." —May 2'J. Last Thursday being the anniversary of the Queen's Birthday was observed as a general holiday. The bank and public offices were closed : the 65th Regiment was paraded at'fe Aro, and &rei &feu-de'joie in honor of the occasion, The vessels hi harbour hoisted their flags, and the Louisa fired a salute.—May 26. LYTTELTON. [From the Canterbury Standard, May 10.] A meeting to promote subscriptions in aid of the "Patriotic Fund, was held at the Royal Hotel on Monday evening last. The meeting had" been called by his Honor the Superintendent, who presided on the occasion. The result of his Honor's appeal, and of the speeches of other gentlemen, was a subscription of £lB4 2s. in the room. In addition to this, £25 3s. •have been collected by Mr. Torlese, and £'27 by Mr. Hunter Brown. W»e have no doubt this sum will be considerably augmented. The Sea Snake arrived yesterday from Otago, having sailed thence on Tuesday. We (Wellington Spectator) have oidy received one Otago Witness, May 5, but this is not a matter of much consequence, as that journal seldom contains anything worth extracting. The Provincial Council was sitting, but had sunk into nuoh an utter state of insignificance as to be described .he editor of the Witness (he himself being one of «ts members and son-in-law of the Superintendent) as ollows : " That body has been dragging on a weary existence with an Executive consisting of one gentleman, who considers it hard to have to attend more than once a week, aud then must refer everything back to know what his Honor will say to it, and of another who has allowed himself to be made a cat's paw, and has thought it his duty to accept the office and retire to the country, we believe never again to attend the Council. The Executive has no party or supporter— it cvnsists »/" the one remaining Executive councillor — it is ■unique and ahne, anil totally insensible to " itant of confidence.*' The Coifticil'-s duties are confined to vetoing the nonsense sent down to it by the Provincial Solicitor, wh6 no doubt receives very lucid accounts of the debates through the fc»e Executive, The members generally do notjittend, and are sick and tired of the lus ness, most of them intending to retire after the dissolution. What an election of 19 members may do we cannot say, but at present the Council is in a very languid Slate, and but little apology is necessary for cutting its proceedings short." A slight earthquake had been felt at Otago on the 23rd nil., but it had not occasioned any injury.