The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 330, 2 December 1864, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1864.

SPECTEMUR AGENDO. " Give crery man thino car, hut few thy voice: Take cnch man's conpnre, but roporve thy jutlgmont. This abovo all,—To thino ownself ho true; And it must follow, lis the night tho day, Thou canst not then bo fulso to any man."

The Wold Ministry is virtually on its last logs. The adjournment of the House until Saturday took place yesterday afternoon, to allow the Southern members the opportunity of concoct ing a new policy for Air. Weld. His opening speech on tho resolutions which were to form the keystone of his policy, lias plainly shown that lie is not able to cope with the difficulties of the situation. It is one thing to say, let the troops go —let the mother country be absolved from all further cost of the war. It is another thing to say. if this be agreed upon, where the men and the money are to come from to enable the Colony to bear the burden which even now is felt as onerous by the mother country itself. Mr. Weld came up from the South pledged, before he knew what was really before him. to a certain line of action, and he now finds that there is a vast difference between theory and practice. He finds himself unequal to the task which he has proposed, and this is painfully apparent, was indeed clearly felt by the party he represents on the occasion of opening the debate, on Wednesday last, on the question of divided responsibility and the withdrawal of the troops. He offered no practical solution to the ditlieulty, he offered no constructive plan to supersede the tangible, practical system under which the suppression of nil existing, and. we fear, spreading rebellion has been, if not successfully extinguished. at any rate in a great measure repressed. His party felt this. There was no disguising tlie weakness of their position.

M Vacilis(U*>consn.s Avirni Scd rcvocarc grnrius, Mintrasquc •■vadercnil nuras, liic labor, hoc opus est.'

"Wlint if tlie Imperial Government slioulil take the colony at its word and withdraw (lie troops. How could Ihe colony meet, the enormous expenditure which such a course would entail upon it. "What- if we placed ourselves in the position of taking upon us the suppression of this rebellion, and having entered upon the taskfound ourselves unable to earn- it out. Truly, as Mr. Weld himself admitted, this was a great responsibility. And yet lie pledged himself to take this course. He saw no other way, and he emphatically declared that upon his being enabled to follow this course —the recommendation of the withdrawal of (lie troopsandtheuncontrollcd management of the solution of the present Native difficulty—he, with his colleagues would, as a Ministry, stand or fall. We have 110 doubt that Mr. Weld is sincere. Wo do not believe that the sweets of oilicc would induce him for one moment to prolong their retention by the sacrifice of his principles, of the pledges he has voluntarily given, It is for the purpose of furnishing the Ministry with a new policy that his supporters, the Southern members, meet this morning. Our own Auckland members arc jealously excluded, of course from this conclave— but how can Mr. Weld, pledged as he is to the policy which lie lias already laid down, ignore his word, his principles, and his political faith at the bidding of his supporters. Will lie sacrifice the hard won reputation of his political career at the bidding of expediency? If we have formed a just estimate of the man, we must assuredly say that we believe he will not; neither we believe, would his colleague, Major !vichanlson, who has equally pledged himself to stand or fall by the passing of the resolution of Wednesday.

There is but one remedy for tlie dilemma in which the colon}' is placed. We have, and we require the presence of 10,000 troops to suppress the rebellion. For this the Imperial Government requires us to pay for the first year some £'100,000. In lieu of doing this the "Weld Ministry proposes we should raise a colonial army of our own. We could not keep tiro regiments of colonial troops for less than the sum we are required to pay for ten regiments of the line. Even if we had the money, the bargain would be a disastrous one for the colony, but we have it not. "We can neither afford to pay for the Imperial troops, nor can we nfl'ord to supersede them with colonial ones ; neither can we remain, as colonists, with our necks bared for the blow of the Maori tomahawk. We have but one course before us. To the mother country must we resign all claims, which we supposed we possessed, to responsibility in Native affairs. We must say to the Imperial Government "With you must rest the burden of the war—with you the sole determination of its course."

The colony has not the means itself to carry out the work. It would have done so, we believe, if the policy of 18G3 had been carried out, but it was burked by the interference, of the Governor, backed out as he was by the imperative instructions of Mr. Cardwell, instructions which we believe would never have been received but for the studied misrepresentations which influenced that statesman's opinions. When we call upon the Colony to return to the Imperial Government the divided respensi-

Mlity which las keen forced upon it, we advocate nothing difrnietricaDy opposed to the feelings of New Zealand statesmen. The Colony was always unwilling to accept responsibility in Native affairs, believing that, tho reservations made bj r the Imperial Government might at any time render that responsibility a mere sham. This was clear!}' the opinion of the House of Representatives in the session of IS(>2, held nt "Wellington, when, in answer to (lie offer of responsibility in Native affairs made by the Dulce of Newcastle, they passed the following resolutions :—

Rosolvod, That in the opinion ot this House, 1h» relations between his Excellency the Governor : 111 his responsible advisers should rest upon the following basis :— That Ministers should, m conformity with the Royal instiuctions, ndviso tho Governor in >"a'ive affairs (as well as in colonial affairs) whenever his Excellency desires to obtain such advice, and slo'iW also tender atlviCo on all occasions of importance when they deem it their duty in the interests of tho colony to do so.

On'motion cf (bo lion. Mr. Domett, Resolved, That Ministers should, nt his Excellency's request, undertake (he administration of Native affairs, reserving to his Excellency tho decision in all matters of Native policy. On motion of the hon. Mr. Domett, Resolved, That, us the decision in all matters of Native policy is with his Excellency, the advice of Ministers shall not be held to bind tho colony to any liability, past or future, ill connection with Native affairs, beyond the amount authorised, or to be authorised, by tho House of Representatives.

The Duke of Newcastle's despatch of Eebniaiy, 1803, forcing on the colony the acceptance of i'/nasi responsibility was an answer to these resolutions. Underpressure of this despatch, and believing the Imperial Government to be sincere in its offer, the colony accepted it. Having entered on its new obligations, New Zealand gave its best men, and taxed itself to the extent of its resources, to enable it to carry out. the task before it — that of rcsponsibilily in Native affairs. r lhe House laid down clear and .succinct instructions for the guidance of the Ministry, and but for the vexatious delays caused by the interference of the Imperial Lieutenant during the last six months the neck of the rebellion would have been broken. The colony has essayed to perform the task it undertook—success was before it—but in the moment of victory and fruit ion the Imperial hand was outstretched to hinder the work six months of delay, yet six months of weakening expenditure, have placed her in a position in which she is unable to recommence the work, and the hand that arrested her in her successful course must now itself carry out that work. It is equally foolish for us to talk of paving for Imperial troops, or for the still costlier bauble of a colonial army. The colony is unable financially to bear the burden. The tangible result of Mr. "Weld's resolution will Ih'. we believe, the demand by the. jHithUe Js/antf itself for separation.

\W would caution our fellow-citizens against commit ling themselves to any rash steps lor the purpose of obtaining justice to this Province. For all practical purposes there is time enough within the present month, if necessary, to hold meetings for the expression of public opinion. AW would rather advise them to watch patiently the events of the next few days. "We have no fear that, there is any imminent likelihood of the removal of the Executive from the spot where the exigencies of the Colony most demand its presence, still less do we dread the passing of Mr. "Weld's resolutions respecting the removal of the troops. As we said ill the concluding sentence, if our leading article of yesterday, in reference to the determination of Southern men to sacrifice the interests of this Province —"There is a power —that of "circumstances — beyond their control which '• hedges ns round, and which will most assuredly " upset their machinations."

"Wi; find there is no real objection to the plan we advocated the other day of following the practice adopted in the large mercantile ports of the mother country of concentrating particular branches of commerce as much as possible in a distinct portion of the port. Certain docks are set apart almost exclusive!}' lor the accommodation of particular trades. Thus in one will be found vessels engaged in the coasting trade, in another, those engaged in the Australian, while the East India and China, the American and the are each provided for in distinct docks. This is manifestly a great advantage in very many ways, and we need cuter into no argument to prove that it is so. But this system of subdivision and centralisation, and lixity of locality, if we may so speak, is carried still further in the best regulated docks, for there we find that, steamers constantly engaged in certain trades have the. same berth reserved for them, so that immediately upon entering the port they can at once commence discharging at their accustomed berth, unless that berth may happen to be occupied by another vessel belonging to the same owners, 'ibis system iiiul regularity tends vastly to economise and make the most of the dock accommodation provided, and importers and shippers invariably know almost the exact spot where these vessels can be found. "While the facilities for discharging and loading arc greatly increased by this system, provision is made by the safe custody of all goods sent down to be shipped. A simple enclosure, locked at night provides for this. And thus goods may be sent down in perfect safety in readiness to lie shippi d the moment the vessel is ready to receive them. Time with ships is essentially money. '1 lie wages of the oflicers and crew must of necessity be paid while vessel is wailing in our port for a berth, and the length of the voyage considerably lengthened, and the profits of it considerably decreased, despatch is the very soul of commerce, and that.most especially where steamers are engaged in it. IS'ow the detention oi vessels in this purl is constantly and very truthfully complained of. In ports where ordinary facilities are provided, ships would be unloaded und have an outward cargo on board before one arriving inwards here can obtain a berth. It should be ill the power of the largest vessels frequenting this port to discharge their inward cargo within a week of tlieir arrival. Much larger ships are frequently' in the homo ports discharged in from two to three days, and those ports who have given the greatest facilities of this kind are precisely those which have shot, far ahead of the old established ports who are gifted with tinquality of procrastination and heedlessness which so distinguishes ourselves in many of our public works.

It. is high time for us to look a little beforehand, and devise and carry out, plans at the commencement of our career as a port, which can be expanded as the necessities of the case demand, always keeping one point in view, viz.. lo have our accommodation quite equal to, if not greater than our necessities; and to give every possible facility of space and mechanical appliance and system we are able. The few remarks we made the other day respecting the modicum of wharf extension now being provided in Custom House-street, have met with the approval of practical men. Indeed this could not be otherwise. The want of accommodation is too patent to admit of a doubt ns to the insutlicicney of the present extension to supply the great want it is supposed to meet. Put that we may the better put this point in a clear and strong light, we have made a fewenquiries and calculations respecting the timber and lumber trade of the port, for the accommodation of which the works in Custom J lousestrcet are designed. We find in tiie present, month, np to Saturday last, the PHt.h, our shipping reports inform us that 110 vessels, equal to — 11 -i per annum, or very nearly (j per dny, have entered the harbour with timber and firewood on board. j.)uring those nineteen days SSI,'XIO feet of sawn timber, 3(5,000 feet of junk,

anfl 3000 feet of licruse blocks ]mve"been imported coastwise. This malcej a total 0f890,000 feet, or equal to 17,097,000 feet per annum. Jn addition, we imported 420,000 shingles, equal to 18,008,000 yearly : 2430 posts and rails. 43,000 palings, fIO.OOO laths, the latter two being at the rate of ],!)78,000 per annum. The firewood brought in the same time, and discharged on the wharf and Custom-house-street, was 1782 tons, or 34.233 tons yearly. Of bricks we have 0000. and 7!)0 bushels of lime. If eneh vessel paid on an average 355. as harbour fees, these would amount to some £1580 per annum. The sum paid lor wharfage fees charged on each cwt. load of produce removed, we calculate would be between one and two thousand pounds a j'ear. mailing a total of receipts to the harbour from this trade of something like £3000 pel' annum Having thus shown the amount of imports as affects this particular trade, and knowing the sixteen allotments of the new wharf cannot possibly properly accommodate anything but a very small particle of it. we press very strongly on the attention of the authorities, the great advisability of nt once extending their work the whole length of Custom House-street, and if possible of also extending it some twenty feet further seaward, so as to leave what is of the utmost importance a vers' wide street. To add to the force of our arguments for extended facilities for commerce, we will show in a few words what a veiy excellent investment will be the money spent for that purpose. We believe we are not far wrong in stating that the improvement now being made by Mr. Cadman, will cost about £'3500. Now the sixteen allot - incuts let at £'<!0 per annum each, would bring in an income of .C!HSO a year, which is equal to 28 percent on the outlay.

Reckoning 15 per cent, as interest for money and wear and tear, there would be 13 per cent, to pay off the capital, which would thus be done in less than three years, and there would then remain, after the capital expended was paid, a clear annual income io the Province or to the port of nearly £'10(10 a year, and t lie trade of the port will also be veiy greatly facilitated.

These figures show in a strong light the utter folly of our timid and procrastinating system. We are crippling the trade and commerce of the port, we arc therefore decreasing labour, decreasing the trade of the shops and stores, and throwing away—or rather refusing to pick upgold that almost forces itsell'into our hands. If the whole of Custom-Mouse-street were set apart for the timber trade, and n wharf run its entire length, with two or three jetties running saj- 101) feet each into the bay-, we have no hesitation in declaring without fear of contradiction that the allotments provided would be quickly taken, and that a clear income of some £31)00 a year might he gained for the use of the port after repayment of every penny expended in carrying out the real improvement.

We urgently require the formation of a thoroughly practical 11 arbour Board composed of men whose interests are intimately connected with the commerce of the port, and who are able and willing to devise and carry out in a broad business like way every necessary improvement, and provide every needful accommodation for ships and vessels visiting our noble harbour.