NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, December 25, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 772, 25 December 1852, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, December 25, 1853.

The very able address of his Excellency to the Legislative Council, on opening the Session on Wednesday last, will be perused with considerable interest. In it, after referring to the Bills which from their urgency had rendered it necessary to summon the Council together at the close of the year, his Excellency takes occasion to explain the other measures relating to subjects of pressing importance which would be submitted to them. Besides the two -Ordinances of which notice had been given in the Gazette, these appear to be a Naturalization Ordinance and some amendments in the Bank Charters' Ordinance of last' Session. Due prominence is given in the address to the discoveries of Gold in the Province, and of Coal and Copper in the Nelson district, and in the able review which is taken of the present flourishing state of the Colony, his Excellency shews the progress that has been made in the issue of Crown Grants to the New Zealand Company's land purchasers, the rapidly increasing civilization of the Natives, the great extension of their cultivations and their daily improvement in habits of industry, and that under these favourable circumstances, at a time of peace } of general contentment and prosperity, the new, Institutions recently granted by Parliament to these Islands would be brought into operatipn. , From his Excellency's address we | learn that the Canterbury Association has finished its course, the usual course of such j companies, "that "it has faithfully copied .the faults and errors of its proiotype.the New Zealand Company, that after having got into debt as far as any one would trust it, it is hopelessly, insolvent and is very desirous of getting rid of its ' liabilities, together with a host of unredeemed pledges, if the' Canterbury settlers will relieve its managers of further responsibility — their liabilities amounting by their own confession to £12,215 with a-further sum due to the Local Government making the whole amount about £14,000. ' On Thursday his Excellency submitted to the Council a despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies enclosing the bill granting a new Constitution to New Zealand, and also a despatch on the subject of the New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Ordinance. This latter despatch appears to be somewhat confused and contradictory ; in effect it states that the ordinance has not been confirmed by the Queen, because some of its provisions are . repugnant to existing Acts of Parliament, but the Governor is directed to act upon it as far as he can, and to make the best settlement, he can of the land question.

I The despatch is dated the 2Tst July, on the '7th of August Sir John Pakingtpn would have received the petitions 'in favour of the Land Claimants Ordinance ! f6rwarded by the Midlothian, and signed by^upwards of fifteen hundred colonists which, with the proceedings recently taken by the absentees, shew a perfect unanimity of feeling in its favour. The despatch on the New Constitaition w» hope shortly to submit to our readers in extenso, in the meantime we have great pleasure in publishing the concluding paragraph, containing the following high but justly-merited compliment to ' Sir !George Grey from the Secretary of State, which is equally honourable to the framer of the bill and to him " on whose suggestions it is mainly based," and which scatters to the winds tne arrogant pretensions- so confidently put forth by Mr. Fox and his clique. " I have now, only to add that I have great pleasure in entrusting to yourself the conduct of this very important measure ; and, in the commission of these extensive powers to the colonists of New Zealand, her Majesty's Government have- had abundant opportunities of recognizing 1 , in- the correspondence "which has taken place on this subject between yourself and their predecessors, your strong attachment to liberal Institutions, and the able manner in which you and your Council have both prepared the way for their introduction, and urged upon the Imperial Government the necessity of speedily creating them, as soon as the temporary difficulties which induced you at first to advise their suspension had past away. They are, in fact, fully aware that the measure itself, now reduced into a law, owes its shape in a great degree to your valuable suggestions. They, therefore, do not doubt that your proceedings in order to carry it into execution will -prove 'satisfactory to the colonists, while . an additional reason for their placing this reliance on you is, the confidence with which you are personally regarded by numbers of her Majesty's subjects of the native race, who have been brought within these few years to participate in the blessings of religion and social culture. "Whatever natural anxiety may still attend the success of this experiment chiefly relates to the manner in which it may affect their feelings and their interests ; but her Majesty's Government have the strongest hope that your administration of it may not only prove acceptable to them, but that at no distant time they maybe found to avail -themselves largely of the Constitutional privileges thus thown open to those among them who have made progress in civilization in common with their fellow subjects of the British race."

♦ The Government Brig arrived on the 22nd "inst., having made a very favourable passage from Auckland, which she left on the 16th inst.; she came North about, and was becalmed two clays' off the Bay of Islands. The Auckland news chiefly refers to the gold discoveries^ at Coromahdel Harbour, the latest accounts of which' we 1 have extracted" from the New Zealander.

The following is a summary of last Tuesday's Government Gazette : — a proclamation by his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief establishing the new Postal Kegulations ; a proclamation of a Land sale of 33 Town lots at Nelson, and a Suburban section at Moutere, on the 24 th January next ; notices for tenders for the usual annual Contracts ; a return of the cases disposed of at the Resident Magistrate's Court for the quarter ending 30th September, and a com-, parative statement of the Revenue and Expenditure of the different Settlements in the Southern Province, for the quarter ending 80th June in the year 1851 and 1852.

We understand the following promotions and appointments have been made in the Ordnance Department in this Colony. William Plummer, Esq., to be Deputy .Ordnance Storekeeper and Barrack-Master at Auckland, and J. 0. Hamley, Esq., to be Deputy Ordnance Storekeeper and Barrack-Master at Wellington.

The following are extracts from letters received by the True Briton from a person gwning considerable property in New Zealand. The second extract refers to a Company recently set on foot for establishing Local Steam Communication between the different settlements in New Zealand, with every prospect of its being brought into immediate operation: — " quite agrees in the vievr you take on the subject of the land question, even as a large shareholder in the New Zealand Company, and thinks the meddling of Parliament last session with that question a great misfortune and complete derangement of the plans adopted by the Governflr-for. th.e_settleraent of it. His opinions are sufficiently recorded at a meeting of proprietors reported in the Daily News of 27th June last, which was brought about by a letter addressed to the Colonial Secretary from Messrs, Fox &'Tyder, andpublished in the New Zealand Journal on the 10th of that month, wherein thes& gentlemen prayed " the New Zealand Company's Land Claims Settlement Ordinance" might not be approved by her Majesty, as injurious to the interests of the colony. / " On the day previous to the last debate in the House of Lords (28th June) Mr. Burnand waited upon Sir J.Pakington at the request of ameetingof landed proprietors with the view of shewing the" consequences attendant upon such -rejection of a" measure that had nearly completed the happiness of the settlement,- and closed", withinafew. cases the discordant and conflicting claims that could , in no other way be settled-. Mr. Merivale attended for the Secretary of State and admitted fully everything that was urgedy and requested, as not a minute was to be. lost, that they should he committed to paper, and. they were read in the debate and referred to by Lord r Dysart, to which the Government would not depart even at the tisk of throwing the Constitutional Bill out. He', was led to understand that Sir George Grey's measure would not be .interfered with, notwithstanding Mr. Fox & Co.'s" endeavour to thwart the Governor's scheme, which' would excessively annoy him and it is to be hoped it , will. ' M,r» Fox has disappeared suddenly to .New York", •" ,

- "These 'matters are now committed to the settlers' own hapds, and if the Government were to pay the deht of the Company it would be bui an act of jostice. S'jch, it is to be feared, will never be' the case 5' it is therefore bo'tterto deal -with an inulerahle nuisance and forget it for ever. The settlers are out of very bad bands, and have to be thankful ' for the change, which nothing but political antagonism has brought about." Extract from letter by the same vessel ; — . " I am in hopes to succeed in raising capital sufficient shortly to send oat at 'east two steamers to work the coasts of New Zealand, while the ocean steamers will do the long work. You will, by tbe papers, see the efforts making, hnd several thousand shares have been subscribed for within ten days. We shall have to wait the grant of a Charter to restrain the liability which a local Ordinance cannot; restrain in this country, and as tbe Queen is absent for six weeks we cannot get oa further."