New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 5, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 453, 5 December 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, December 5, 1849.

The Principal Agent of the New " Zealand Company and Editor of the Independent (for these two incongruous occupations are commonly believed to be united in the same person) has lately been employing his spare half hours in attacking the officers of the Government. That the principal officer of a Company, which an authority of some weight with him — one that he delights to quote- whenever it serves his purpose — has assured the settlers is for all practical purpurposes of colonization really defunct, and which stands between them and all good, should find his office a sinecure and his time hang somewhat heavy on his hands, cannot surprise any one ; that he should waste his time, and employ the Journal under his control in circulating with all the bitterness of a renegade misrepresentations and unfounded insinuations against .those to whom he is politically opposed will excite as little surprise, since use doth breed a habit in him, and these attacks are merely iterations of his former misstatements, the same thing served up again with slight modifications, overloaded with a mass of verbiage, and interlarded with personalities suggested by the professional jealousy of his hanger-on, one whose toadyism (we thank thee, Jew, for teaching us that word) is to be rewarded, as is reported > with the reversion of his principal's office in the event of an unexpected vacancy, and who, after having raked up the private history of the late Principal Agent for the purpose of gratifying his malignity in his attacks against him, is thought by the present holder of the office not unworthy to be one of his successors. We shall not pretend to enter into a detailed examination of statements which,, continued through three successive numbers of the Independent, occupy some twelve columns of that journal, for, after all, what dothey amount to ? From the animus exhibited by the writer, it is clear that if he could have produced one weH supported- charge against those who are the objects ot his hostility, he would have done so; and having something tangible, something to work upon, he would have revelled in this unexpected piece of good fortune, and have expatiated on his theme with all the new-bora eloquence of a briefless barrister who at last obtains an opportunity of appearing in Court. It will not be difficult however by one or two examples to expose the fallacies with which his statements abound, and by one touch to cause this rope of sand to fall in pieces. In adverting to the roads formed by the Government which connect Wellington with the coast and have opened up the country districts iv the neighbourhood of the town, and been the means of increasing the amount of cultivation by the facilities of communication they afford, when Mr. Fox talks of a reckless expenditure, can he point to such jobbing, to any thing so reckless, so wasteful, as the attempts at roadmaking under the Company ? Who that remembers the Company's miscalled roads to Porirua and the Hutt would ever think of instituting any comparison between the roads made by the Government in those districts and the bridlepaths formed by tEe Company ? But in referring to the Company's expenditure we feel that something more than a mere passing allusion is required to show the way the money goes in that quarter, and we shall therefore reserve this topic to another opportunity. In discussing the appointment of Resident Magistrates Mr Fox recommends a system which he well knows could not be put in operation, and yet in effect admits the usefulness of the present system by suggesting, in thickly peopled native districts, the presence of a political agent who should keep the Government fully informed of passing events, only, having a special regard for the interests of his hanger on, he would have the political agents to be doctors ; but mindful of the old adage ne sutor ultra crepidam our readers will agree with us in thinking that doctors would be more usefully employed in following their own voca- [ tian, «xd ia not becoming politic*! .quvks.

But it is impossible to institute any comparison, as Mr. Fox attempts to do, between the mode of administering justice, which obtains in a country so thickly peopled and in so high a state of civilization as England and that which is necessary in New Zealand, where the native population forms so important an element. What provision for example could be made, except by the appointment of a Resident Magistrate, for dispensing justice to the thickly peopled native district of Otaki, and those in its neighbourhood? Would Mr Fox have the Magistrates of Wellington in rotation undertake weekly pilgrimages to Otaki to hold their Court, or does he desire that the natives, with their witnesses, &c, should travel to Wellington whenever they have occasion to appeal to the law for the settlement of their disputes, or, which .would be the too common alternative, that they should take the law into their own hands ? An example was recently afforded of the futility of his proposal, in the late absence from WaDganui of the Resident Magistrate, when for a time it remained without law, there not being two Justices of the Peace resident in the district. Besides, the Resident Magistrates in these districts discharge a most important duty in adjudicating in civil matters between the natives, and this it is probable they do more effectually and with greater satisfaction to the parties interested, by the more intimate acquaintance with local circumstances which they obtain by a residence on the spot. In continuing this system, then, Sir George Grey does not show his ignorance of the British constitution, as Mr. Fox would insinuate, but his judgment in modifying and adapting the law •to the peculiar circumstances of the country ; to have enforced any other system would in very many instances have been a practical denial of justice, and' would have had the effect of keeping J the natives in their barbarism, by alii wing them to take the law into their own hands instead of elevating them in the scale of civilization, by teaching them habits of obe- j dience to the law. Having rather exceeded the limits we proposed to ourselves at starting, on this part of the subject, we must reserve our remarks on the article which relates to the Colonial Surgeon and Hospital to our next number.