New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRIAT GUARDIAN. Saturday, October 27, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 442, 27 October 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRIAT GUARDIAN. Saturday, October 27, 1849.

Thb sort of information furnished in the mother-country on colonial subjects though intended to be useful is not always very accurate. In the debate in the House of Commons on the vote for New Zealand, published in our last number, the Under Secretary for the Colonies is reported to have said he "did not know whether the Colonial Secretary had £600 or £800 a year, but it was one or the othei," and to have described the colonial brig as *' a steamer in which the Governor visited the different J ports in the colony." If such mistakes are made in high places, if official sources of information are not always to be depended upon, it will hardly be a matter of surprise to find other channels equally defective. In an article in the Times on New Zealand affairs, reprinted in our present number, the writer appears to have been greatly misled by the information which has been supplied to him, and to have committed several gross mistakes. In comparing the present condition of the New Zealand Company with its hopeless state four years ago, he sees in its renewed activity as contrasted with its former cessation from all colonising operations " Some sparkles of a better hope "Which elder days may happily bring forth." But Mr. E. G. Wafcefield, on this subject a competent authority, assures us these are but the last feeble efforts of expiring vitality, and that for all practical purposes the Company is virtually defunct. "We therefore very much question the prudence of the loan advanced by the Government, and still more the probability of its repayment ; there can be little doubt that if the same amount had been advanced to the colony instead of the Company, and had been judiciously expended in increasing the European population of this country by a well conducted emigration from the mother-country, its prosperity would have been greatly increased, and the loan would have speedily been repaid from the increasing sales of land made in the colony. We as strongly dissent from the notion that without the Company, the unassisted enterprise of individual adventurers would have failed to acquire a footing in these islands. This footing had been obtained, the first step had been taken, and it was mainly with a view to put a stop to the evils of irregular colonization that the British Government was established in these Islands. It is equally certain that the existence of the Company has acted for some years past as a drag on the prosperity of the Southern Province. Incapable of exertion itself it has prevented the Government from acting, and the settlers have suffered all the evils, the natural consequences of a divided house. In the remarks which follow on Sir George Grey's proposed constitution we need only refer, in passing, to the error of confounding the Provincial Council assembled at Wellington last year with the General Legislative Council of the whole colony ; ' the writer seems to have misapprehended his Excellency's intention with regard to Municipal Institutions; the Provincial Councils appear to have been designed by the Governor as a useful and more efficient substitute, and in the development of his plan, discharging all the functions of the former. We may add that the arrangement is more consonant to the wishes of the settlers, who from their experience of the previous corporation established in this settlement have no desire to see the experiment repeated. With the concluding observations of the writer we cordially agree : on this point there can be no difference of opinion ; and we rejoice to find that the labours of our "Missionary Bishop".are as highly valued in our Fatherland as they are justly appreciated in the scene of his labours.

Thk following paragraph is extracted from the New Zealand Journal, and is presented to our readers as a specimen of the sort of information supplied by that. Journal to intending emigrants. Some time ago we were informed through the same medium ■ of the horses shipped to India from Otago ; the following sketch by the same hand is probably intended as a pendant to the previous picture. The steamer from Adelaide will, no doubt, be' considered a very interesting experiment, when it sails, but not till then — "From Otago, we have been kindly favoured by Mr. Burnand with reports of the most cheering character. A large number of passengers and cattle had arrived from Sydney, the cattle were thriving beyond expectation ; — to use the expression of one writer, " they have thriven more within three months in the winter, than they would have done in England in six months of summer." This proves the soundness of the choice of Otago many years since by a number of Sydney, merchant! who have long had extensive cattle stations in (he vicinity ; and to them is owing the impression that is now prevalent in Australia i that Otago will become, not only the great cattle district of New Zealand, but of the Pacific generally. Under this impression extensive shipments are being made, followed by their owners and stockmen. One of the most interesting facts connected with the Australian impression relative to Otago, is contained in a recent letter from Adelaide, with which we have also been favoured by Mr. Burnand. A steamer has sailed from that port for Otago laden with passengers and cattle. This indeed is an experiment,- the distance being little less than 2000 miles, and we shall be anxious to hear of its result. Steam will, however make up in increased speed for the greater distance, and in ten or twelve days the stock will, with an ordinary voyage, be landed ; even this is a shorter period than that in which passages are generally made from Sydney in sailing vessels. If the experiment succeed, it will speedily be followed by the enterprise of the flock-owners along the whole coast of eastern and southern Australia."