The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1865.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 434, 4 April 1865, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1865.

tSVECTEMUB AGENDO. " GAt-o every man thine oar, but few thy volco: Ta'ko each man's conmiro, but reserve thy j j-JgDioiU. This abovo all, —To thino ownsolf bo true; And it must follow, as tho night the day, Thou catiet not thou bo falso to any mat.

The state of the province, at the present moment is one which culls for extraordinary aetion on the purl of tho Provincial Goverr;ment and the Provincial Council. "Whatever differences may have existed between the two, tho position oi affairs now calls for a union of action in such an emergency as tho

present. The General Government of the colony, which by its own. profligacy and imbecility, has reduced itself to a state of insolvency, has repudiated its engagements, and has thus placed this province in a false position. The Assembly provided for a certain amount of immigration and set!lenient m the conquered territories, and for a certain expenditure on public work in those districts. On the faith of this provision of the Assembly commissions Were issued to certain parties at the ( ape of Good Hope and in Britain to send out a certain number of immigrants to this province. A portion of these have already arrived and many more are even now already on their way here. The following were the terms offered them by 'the New Zealand Government an contained in the instructions of the hon. Reader "Wood to Archibald Clark, Esq. :—

In reply to inquiries made on this subject (wh:it •will nn emigrant do -when lie pets on his land \) you will be good enough to state that there will be no lack of employment, as public works on a con?idc'n;blt; sciilo, ro:;d-:jia)cing especially, will be Undertaken by the Government in ilistri. to where settlers are located, aid until v-'irr: -"? nrniliMr in Hie nrdhmrii vow-so of country UiJ-'.i'.rial on-iipntions, the ni,-jihi.i lahor of tht -<':-\tnrt<s Kill be ih.jAoijiil on surh >r,„-k.s. In fact the Government will render every assistance in their power to secure the success of the emigrant. The same conditions were lielcl out to the settlers at the Cape to desert that colony AVc have seen how the 'Welti miinVtry have deceived these people. But it is not tmiy the immigrants who will sutler but the whole Province. The blow is net struck at them, but sit Auckland. It is hoped by throwing some four or live thousand persons destitute upon the Province to bring about the same state of poverty and distress here that has beggared Canterbury, Southland, and Duiiedin. In this the ministry will, wc believe, fail miserably. The back of Auckland isnot so easilytobe broken. It is nevertheless the duty of the Provincial Government to devise means for tiding over the crisis which such a state of things is likely to bring about, and if the long-needed public works for which we Iravc the funds in hand were at once etmimenced, the winter would pass over without much cause for uneasiness. But there is another question which now forces itself upon the attention of the Superintendent. Ts he any longer .justified in attempting to carry ont llie settlement scheme as arranged between himself and the General Government? The latter on its part has broken its share of the contract, and his Honor is, we think, not only justified, in throwing up his hlmi'u of it also, but is bound in duty to do so. AVe were ever of an opinion that he had acted precipifatively in entering into such an agreement with, such men. We cautioned him at the time that it was like playing with luen who were known to use loaded dice and marked cards. The present act of the Ministry has fully justified the h,arsh terms we then applied to them. They have acted meanly and dishonorably throughout. They have thwarted, not encouraged the working of the scheme. Tn'o better lands near town, Tuakati, Patumahoe, and other blocks are. withheld, because it is said that Mi\ JPenton. the Judge of the [Native Land Court for awarding compensation, cannot give his sanction to the confiscation of these blocks. Mr. Fcnton is by instinct a Maori himself. A man who has lived amongst the savages for years would, we should think, hardly be the right man to judge between Maori and European in cases of this kind. One might almost as well call upon a Maori to judge as to the extent of the criminality of the several tribes and hapus. For all these reasons we think the Superintendent needed to have exercised the greatest caution in entering into any arrangement with the present Ministry—but now that the Ministry have repudiated their share of duty with regard to the immigrants, the Superintendent will be guilty of a gross blunder if he docs not clear himself from their meshes by a bold stroke. The fact, however, still remains that some thousands of persons, for the most part penniless, will, before the winter has fairly set in, have been landed at Auckland. They clearly will not be allowed to starve —but we must remember that the care of them on their arrival devolves entirely on the General Government. Tor instance, when the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. Fox, was negotiating with the Superintendent to obtain immigrants from the Cape, he thus distinctly acknowledged the responsibility of the General Government with respect to these immigrants in the following letter to the Superintendent, Mr. Graham :—" The " General Government will be responsible " for the cost of introducing these immi- " grants and all expenses contingent thereto. " the whole matter being in fact an operation " of the General Government." The _ General Government, with these obligations upon them, have now notified to his Honor the Superintendent, that after the 30th of this month they will discontinue the supply of rations issued to the Government immigrants. They have also given a month's dismissal, as we said yesterday, to all those employed in surveying blocks and roads in the Waikato and other districts, and have notified to those holding contracts that after I

tho present contracts are completed there will be no more requirement for their services, as there will be no more works carried on. This, wo suppeso, is the way in /which they read the inducement held, forth at homo to immigrants in the words of their predecessors —words by which they and the colony are as justly bound as though repeated only yesterday —"There will be no lack of " employment, as public works on a eon- " siderable scale, &c, &c." Truly bar, the New Zealand Ministry 'punk to the very abyss of degradation when it is unable to carry cut ine engagements of the colony made to only some COOO persons at the most! "But if the Government of tho Colony is insolvent —that of the Province of Auckland is not so. "Want of money is the only decent excuse that can b'e urged for such a discreditable line of action as the former is now using with respect to these immigrants and the Waikato. The Superintendent has now clearly before him a right to throw up his present arrangement with the Government and if the excuse of want cf money be the true one, let the Superintendent and Council come forward and help the General, Government in their distress, Let the latter hand over so much r>f Ihb confiscated land in the "Waikato as may bo considered necessary for colonisation and equivalent to the task of settling it, and with the full controul of these lands, hand over also to the Provincial Government; the charge and care of tluso immigrants. It will be for the Province to consider whether it rhall undertake this responsibility. If they do so, and their oiler is refused, we shall at least have the satisfaction of proving that it is not want of money, but malicious design to injure Auckland, which has prompted this present action of the Ministry. We have heard the question asked by scores ■yesterday, what is Auckland to do Under such pressure ? Shall she submit or rebel ? There is but one course before her, and that is to submit to the dictation of the General Government.whatever that maybe. The time has not yei arrived when Auckland's rights must be so insisted on. "We must remember that our appeal is now before the Crown for relief from the hated and injurious alliance with the South. We must wait the decision of the Imperial Government. Even then we must exhaust rvevy legitimate means to obtain separation from the youth, before engaging in any course which however successful we know it must be, can onlv rightly be undertaifen when all else shall have failed.