Dunedin, Saturday, September 13th, 1851.

Otago Witness, Issue 17, 13 September 1851, Page 2

Dunedin, Saturday, September 13th, 1851.

' The proceedings of the Legislative Council of New Zealand have by this time drawn to a close, but without one wovd being said in that Council of the opinions of the 'Otago Settlors on the subject of the Provincial Councils Bill --although those opinions were called for by Sir George Grey, and promised ...by hi ni to be laid .bpfore it. 'lhe Provincial Councils Bill "rTavin^jOixis' passed into law without modification, "ail cl in' "a

shape more unsuiting it for Otago than ever, it is enough on this ground alone to petition and protest against its extension to our district. But there are matters .connected with its history betokening a bias on the part of Sir George Grey hitherto unknown to our community ; and, still more, the desire of a fraction of that community to take advantage of that bias, and as far as they can sell the rights and liberties of the public, in some cases for their own gain, and in others for their individual crotchets. The bias of Sir George Grey is for arbitrary government, as proved by the Ordinance referred to, which throws the revenue to the last shilling into his hands; also a jealous dislike to Class Settlements, as expressed by him and the Attorn ey-Generfii in the sittings of the Council, because of the emigration and other funds of these settlements being destined for their own uses, instead of passing into his exchequer to be dealt with as he pleases for all NewZealand, that is to say, the funds for land-sales in all New Zealand, having just been made nil by a law — the Land Claimants' Ordinance — that entitles purchasers to pay, not in cash, but in scrip, and which scrip represents sums of money that have been paid and long since expended in the older settlements, the effect of which will be, if allowed to operate in Canterbury or Otago, that not one sixpence in cash will be spent by intending emigrants in the purchase of lands in either of these places, while the market price of this scrip is lower than the upset price of such lauds j and thus the sums which under the present arrangements accrue to the funds for Civil, Religious, and Emigration uses will fail, and the lands of Otago and Canterbury will be depreciated in value and go to indemnify absentee and unfortunate purchasers in the rest of New Zealand ; whilst in these settlements emigration will be stopped until the whole of New Zealand has recovered from former misrule, and this scrip be absorbed and removed from the market by the choice of our best lands without contributing to our funds. We find no fault with this arrangement as regards the older settlements : it is the necessary result of bygone blunders. But it was just because of these blunders, and the effects of them that hang over Auckland and the Cook's Strait colonies, that the projectors of lhe Otago and Canterbury Settlements took special care that we should not be involved in them, and to have it secured by acts of agreement, which Lord Grey has at once admitted to be binding on the Imperial Government, but which Sir George Grey, assisted by an enemy in the midst of us, is now seeking to subvert. So far the bias of Sir George Grey is intelligible, and can be dealt with at home ; but by what means his abettors at Otago are to account to their fellow-colonists for such betrayal of their rights and properties must remain to be seen. The foregoing, however, is not the only object of the little faction. Its grotesque and varied crotchets have been pretty fully disclosed in our columns in the published correspondence of its leaders, and also in their secretly got up memorials, as given in Nos. 1 and 16 of our journal — greatly to their ' discomfort, because of their element being darkness. But it is a matter of notoriety that in speech and writing they appear to hold severally, and on some^ points collectively, that they .are the people, and the body of the colonists nothing, That^arbitrarygovernment is all we are fit for or ought to haye — that a colony can nev6r thrive without being•in* debt— that Otago should distinguish itself by applying for convict labour — that our Church is contemptible — that a class colony is a nuisance, and our people so mean as to allow their public meetings to be packed, and themselves bribed or intimidated, and, at the same time (lather inconsistently), so clannish as to refuse being packed by enemies of their principles. But we have said enough, to point out beyond our district their , general intelligence, their dimen'sionfe; and c 'ridicti'lb'us : as'su ; mptioTis:---" —

There is, however, a remarkable similarity between their mode of working and that of their assumed .patron. The first step of our colonists upon the retirement -of the New Zealand Company was a congregational meeting, (the sub. stance of the colony) to review their position, and they acted like men. They came to the unanimous conclusion that . the foundation had been soundly and successfully laid, and that nothing was to be feared as to ultimate progress, even in the event that further capital and emigration should cease ; not that they apprehended the latter, but that it was wise to take the worst possible view, and to act accordingly ; nor is their confidence of progress at all over sanguine, seeing that New Plymouth, with inferior advantages, with a population rather less than our own, and with little or no accession from home, is nevertheless going on cheerily, and exporting produce to Auckland, Wellington, and Sydney. The meeting at once set practically to work by charging itself with supplementing the Church and School expenses, by ordinary Collections, Seat-rents, and a Sustentation Fund, which was at once organised. Shortly afterwards we had a visit from Sir George Grey, when His Excellency was publicly addressed in the same tone of self-reliance, and a Municipal Charter asked for to " legislate and rule " within our own district ; and also after deducting from our local revenue its fair proportions to the civil list (£6OOO per annum) of the whole Province, that the residue should be at the disposal of our local authorities elected by the people, in order to be applied with, economy to local improvements. Now mark the result. The application was met with courtesy; but difficulties were raised, and a proposal made by His Excellenc) r that we should have precisely what was asked for, but in another shape, that of a Provincial Council. In fact it turned out that he had in print the very Bill now passed into law. lJe took pains to show how it might be simplified and made equally as inexpensive as a Municipality, and with this view called for the observations of the Otago Colonists, promising at the same time to get from his Legislative Council a separate enactment, in order to suit the measure to the small population and revenue of our district. Ihe observations were framed in the shape of resolutions unanimously adopted by the public- meeting of the 3d December; they were acknowledged by His Excellency, with a promise that he would lay them before the Legislative Council when met upon the Bill ; and he stated that he had sent a copy to Lord Grey, to be laid before Parliament when discussing the intended New Zealand Constitution. It does not, however, appear that they have been at all noticed in the Legislative Council, or that anything whatever has been said of the separate enactment for Otago ; and as for the copy to Lord Grey, we much fear it will turn out that a despatch condemnatory of Class Settlements, and tending to the overthrow of Otago, has gone from His Excellency, either with or even without the copy of the resolutions in question. And why do we say so ? We were slow to believe such things as alleged in the older settlements ; but we have the fact before us, that on having ob. tamed a body of gentlemen to form a Legislative Council in Auckland, on the assumption that the Civil List was limited to £0,000 per annum, and that they would have the remaining revenue to dispose of, it afterwards turned out that at that very time, and without a word to his Council, he had written home to get the Civil List raised from £6,000 to £10,000 per annum. It is not clear, therefore, that we have not just been subjected to the same kind of kingcraft — a species of morality by which things are done in an official capacity which the party would shrink from in private. But the kingcraft of King James and his predecessors has long since been banished from England, and cannot long be allowed to remain in England's colonies. But to return to the abettors of Sir George Grey arrdihis- ■present policy.

The- would-be destructives of our community, if they do not actually say one .thing whilst {hey are doing another, they are nevertheless all prone, like their patron, to work in the dark. We have, got hold of some curious petitions with assumed signatures, to say nothing of the last pretending to be that of the Magistrates and Landowners of our district, which will excite some merriment at home as well as in the colony. But we must conclude, and with this single observation. Is there a man of sense in the district, and uncumbered with the notion that parliamentary grants are to be continued for purposes which colonists ought to provide for themselves, and who can think for a moment that our village population and small revenue can be made to support the expenses of a Supreme Court, of an extravagant and unnecessary Police Force, of a salaried Resident Magistrate, — hitherto uncalled for, — of an Hospital Establishment and salaried Surgeon, of a LieutenantGovernor and Staff, &c, &c. ? And yet such are the things that the abettors of Sir George Grey are bent upon as the price of their support. "We would recommend them to add to our estimated revenue as much as Sir George will engage to extract from the home treasury on our behalf, and to draw lots for its division. It cannot supply them all, even if Sir George's draft should be honoured ; and better for the blanks that they should at once fall back upon their own industry, than to dream of sinecures at the expense of their neighbours. We believe that the Customs, Post Office, and Pilot departments being properly provided for (which they are not), and a contribution for a Supreme Court allocated, there would be a sufficient surplus in the hands of a Municipality elected by the people, for all other purposes of local rule and fox needful improvements.

On Sunday last a scandalous impropriety and breach of the Sabbath was committed by one of the butchers of this town, who, whilst other people were flocking in to attend Church., was seen along with his men salhing from the town, whip in hand, and by and bye returning again with a number of cattle, and driving them to the shambles. This was one rude offence, but a worse followed in the evening, when the firing of guns announced that this man had so little regard for the law of God, or for common decency, as, instead of waiting for the dawning of a lawful day, had commenced the work of slaughter oh the Sabbath : five shots, we are told, were fired before the animal fell. We are glad to see that the Kirk Session have resolved to do their duty by laying a Memorial on the snbject before the Bench of Magistrates, a copy whereof follows : — Unto the Honourable Her Majesty's Justices of the Pea.cc For the District of Otago j The Memorial of the Minister, Elders, and Deacons, of the First Church of Otago, SHEWETH : That your Memorialists have all their lives heen accustomed to regard with the most sacred feelings of veneration the sanctity of the Sabbath — feelings that are participated in, as must be obvious to every one, by the great body of the inhabitants of Dunedin j That these feelings were subjected to outrage on Sabbath last the 7th instant by the gross scandal of bullocks being driven through the streets, during the hours of divine service, to to the slaughter-house in the centre of the town, and afterwards in the stillness of the Sabbath evening by the disgusting spectacle of the slaughtering of a bullock in the most public part of the town, with the firing of guns, and a crowd of people collected together by so shocking and unusual an exhibition; That your Memorialists pray that your Honours would be pleased to interpose your authority, in whatever way you may seem fit, and put " a stop to a practice so unbecoming in itself, so shocking to the Christian feelings of the inhabitants of Dunedin, and so subversive of the authority and obligation of the Christian Sabbath. [Since the above Memorial was in type we -have received the following

Notice, which, we hope, will have the effect of preventing a recurrence of the outrage upon public decency complained of.] NOTICE. -• - I Whereas on Sunday last, the 7th instant, a furious Bullock was driven through the town of Dunedin, arid there slaughtered by discharging fire-arms, to. the great disturbance of the quiet solemnity which should exist on the Sabbath day, and whereby the lives of Her Majesty's liege subjects were endangered. — This is to give Notice, that any person offending in the above manner after this warning will, without fail, be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the Law. A. Chetham Strode, Resident Magistrate. Resident Magistrate's Court, ) Dunedin, 11th Sept. 1851. j We are happy to observe that the establishment of a Bank on the Scotch System is about to be realised ; a meeting of the applicants for shares being advertised to take place to-day at 3 o'clock. "We have much pleasure in alluding to this object, as it affords a proof that even in the midst of political discussions our colonists are sufficiently " canny " not to forget their individual and social interests. As this Bank -will possess all the advantages of a Savings' Bank, it is highly desirable that our small farmers, industrious mechanics and labourers, should make an effort to set it on foot. There are few of these classes but who could without inconvenience to themselves hold 5 or 10 shares, which would require only an outlay for the first year of £6 ss. or £12 10s., and would give them a position in the colony of considerable importance to their class, and would prevent the withdrawing of large sums from the colony in the shape of dividends to non-resident shareholders, which sums in the event of the industrial classes taking up the shares would be spent in the Colony to their own advantage, and would give the best answer to the assertion that the Otago Settlement is a failure, as shewing that they at feast "have hot suffered by Emigrating." ""V" """