New zealand Gazette AND WELLINGTON SPECTATOR.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume IV, Issue 313, 6 January 1844, Page 2

New zealand Gazette AND WELLINGTON SPECTATOR.

Saturday, January 6, 1843. In another part of our paper the proceedings of the Public Meeting held on Thursday last will be found. Many gentlemen may complain of their speeches not being reported. We should like to have published the views of each gentleman who addressed the Meeting, but our reporter was not sufficiently familiar with the task to note down with sufficient rapidity the statements of the several speakers ; further, he was much incommoded from the want of a suitable place, and by the noise which prevailed throughout the day. However, the public will be enablsd to gather from our brief outline of the proceedings, the objects intended to be accomplished by the opposing parties. The minority sought to abide by the instructions they had received from the public ; while the majority sought, in the opinion of the minority, to disregard those instructions. The minority, in consequence, retired, and the majority adopted then the course which they should have acteil upon at first. They proposed to submit the difference of opinion to the public. This they were entitled to do, but, under the circumstances, they were not entitled to do so in|the name of the Committee, inasmuch as by the course they had pursued they had compelled the minority to retire. After a protracted discussion, the public set aside the amendment, and supported the course pursued by the majority. They have therefore sanctioned Committees acting ?£« they may see fit, and utterly without regard' to the instructions they may have received. The public perchance may some day have to repent of having now given so much power ; and they have paid but a poor compliment to those who were throughout determined to pursue the proper course. Mr. Wade endeavoured to make the matter agiecable to all by carrying a resolution which led to the dissolution of the Committee. This is a middle course of which we do not approve. The majority were right or wrong ; and if right ought to have been retained. If wrong, it might have become a question whether they should be dismissed. Bat the propriety or the impropriety of their act was disregarded by the meeting.

Throughout it appeared impossible to make lhe meeting confine their attention to the real point at issue. Those who spoke in favour of the amendment, wished it to be understood that they avoided going into the merits of the memorial .; that the real subject under consideration was whether that which was submitted as the report of the Committee, was or was not entitled to be considered such a document. Those who spoke in favor of the report, took care steadily to avoid meeting that question, and did their best to cause attention to be devoted to the merits of the memorial \ and in this course they were quite as successful in misleading the gentry as the working class.

We still maintain that the right course would have been to have refused to receive the report, as the report of the Committee. And as the Committee was present, there would have been no difficulty in re-organizing the meeting, and proceeding to business. It was intimated that the minority were prepared to agree to this arrangement.

However the meeting has determined otherwise, and we hope the course adopted will not be attended with mischief. Though we suggest that if the Auckland officials have succeeded in poisoning Captain Fitzroy's mind it may be, unless care be taken to show that though we may differ among ourselves, we are by no means therefore to be supposed a disunited community.