VAN DIEMEN'S LAND

Otago Witness, Issue 195, 14 July 1855, Page 4

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND

Advices from Hobart Town to the 28th May inform us that a succession of violent gales from the north-west had been experienced there, during which several ships were driven from the harbour, and two of them were entirely wrecked on the other side of the Derwcnt. Disasters of more or less importance, connected with the gales, had occurred throughout the island.

A large meeting of the Church of England clergy was held in Hobart Town on the 23rd May, and by adjournment on the 24th. The object was to deliberate upon the best method of creating a Sustentation Fund. A committee was formed to place the matter in a practical form.

Plobart Town papers to the 21st May report the arrival in that colony of a son of the Duke of Buccleugh, the Ron. Mr. Scott, and a son of the Right Plon. Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Flour £il per ton. Wheat 17s. per bushel. Oats nominal at Ss>. to Ss. Gd. Bran nominal. Potatoes have advanced to £23, and likely to run higher.

THE SECOND NEW ZEALAND SESSION. (Fiom the Australia?!, and Xew Zealand Gazette.)

Tlic difficulties which have occurred in the New Zealand Legislature have been solved by a new session of the same members, without dissolution of the Assembly. The Acting Governor has humbled himself befoie the Council, by begging of them to foi2;ot past occurrences, and try again ; a step, in our opinion, much more frank as a confession of his own enor in listening to e\il advisers, than states-man-like. The Assembly, apparently not a little ashamed of its intemperate bcaiing, hasaequie^cd, and is diligently at voile again. Though lias is plajlngat legislation, we are not son y to seethe course which has been pui&ued, especially as with one exception — the Iseio Zealand Spectator— the newspaper press throughout the colony is loud in execution of Mr. W.ikefield, fiom whose machinations all difficulty has arisen. Still, seeing this, we cannot but think that the Acting Governor has acted unwisely, in not resorting to a dissolution, as it is clearly improbable that Mr. Wakefield or his party would again have been returned to the Assembly. If he again suffer his judgment to be swayed bj this person, he will have only rendered confusion worse confounded, — but the humility which he has displayed before his parliament should render this impossible. Still, as we have said, all this is playing at legislation, instead of carrying out a great legislative experiment, as the constitution avowedly was. This is more the fnult of the home Government, in demising such a patchwork measure, than of the Acting Governor, who appears to be a truly excellent, though in matters of legislation a weakminded man. What would be baid of a scientific body who, after maturing a no\cl chemical experiment on a large scale, should entrust its execution to a person utterly ignorant of the first principles of chemistry, with assistants only versed in ancient alchemy ? , This is preoieely the condition of the New Zealand ! legislative experiment. It is idle to say that Sir George Grey was expected to carry it out. He knew better than to have anything to do with it, hampered as it was with impossibilities. But the Ministry had ample warning of Sir George Grey's return, so that it would have been easy to have despatched a successor who had, at least, tolerably correct ideas on the subject, which was not at all in Colonel Wynyard's line, except as far as his good intentions were concerned. An experiment of so delicate a nature should have been in the hands of a person competent to conduct it, as a first element of its success.

Of all persons in the world, purely military men are the most unfitted to administer a purely civil government, and especially one like that of New Zealand, the constitution of which reduces the power of the Governor absolutely to nothing, except as the representative of Her Majesty's prerogatives and dignity. The- same error has been committed in the appointment of Colonel Brown as the successor of Colonel Wynyard. Beyond that of administering for a short period the purely despotic government of a handful of people in St. Helena, he has had no colonial experience whatever ; his previous antecedents having consisted of a participation in the reversal of our Affghan disasters, in which he distinguished himself as a soldier. But these are not qualifications for the administration of responsible government ; on the contrary, they are qualifications for the administration of irresponsible government, as all recent colonial experience has proved. Military men, from their habits of discipline, and requirement of prompt obedience, are fixed in the principles of martinetism, demanding implicit obedience to their views ; and hence the Colonial office has always, when practicable, chosen them to carry out its views, which they invariably do with dogged obstinacy. The history of our colonies is, for the most part, a history of disputes between the people and their military governors. To delegate the work-

ing of a constitution like that of New Zealand to a purely military man, is, then, no less absurd" than suicidal, as either the constitution must give up its privileges, or the Governor must give up the acquired habits of a life — a thing impossible. The best proof of Colonel Brown's inadaptation to the governorship of New Zealand is his having accepted the office. He could not have known its nature, or he would have hesitated in accepting it, and would have preferred continuance in a fc "govemorship for which his previous life no doubt well fitted, him.

But, all circumstances considered, we are by no means, certain that a military appointment to New Zealand is without its specific object. If the colonists do not look about them, it is by no means improbable that they may suffer a considerable curtailment in their constitutional privileges. The liberty accorded to them is not so much in favour in high places as it was when conceded, and it is certain thus the Australian colonies will not get anything iike their amount of constitutionalism. In this case the constitutionalism of New Zealand will become a dangerous neighbour to the demi-constitutionalism of Australia. It behoves, then, the New Zealand legislature to combine unyielding firmness with great temperance of conduct. A few more scenes in, their legislature like those we have recently recorded will look very much like their incapacity for selfgovernment, and they must, in such case, not be surprised if the power which made their constitution should one day be induced to unmake it. They are not yet free, except as they render themselves so. Their acts are narrowly watched, and, to our knowledge, spies are not wanting amongst them. More things reach the Colonial office than are contained in the Governor's despatches. We may one day have more to say on this subject. But to return to the renascent legislature, which appears to be going on as well as it can with an Assembly which is really anxious to do something, and a Governor who will no doubt be careful how he again obstructs its deliberations. Both have had a lesson which seems to have done them good. We do not distinctly gather from the Australian papers, which have supplied the intelligence before the local papeis themselves, whether the government is conducted ministerially or not. It will be better if it be not conducted until such arrangements are made as will permit it to be conducted efficiently, and these arrangements can only emanate from the home Government ; so that in the second session of the legislature they will not be available. It is, however, clearly impossible that the former irresponsible executive officers of the Government can continue under the new system. The obstructive position of those gentlemen is no fault of theirs, for, though they have not been pre-eminent in point of capacity, their conduct has been carried on with respectability. The worst that their opponents in the House of representatives say of them is, that their financial accounts are incomprehensible ; this being a matter of course with people who certainly did not gain their appointments by any previous reputation for clerkship, whatever may have been the real giound of the appointments.

After all, then, self-government has retained its vitality in New Zealand, and with sufficient vigour to alarm the irresponsibility which had so unhappily been associated with it, not from intention on the p.irt of those who conferred self-government on the colony, nor from oversight, but from ignorance as to what might be its effect. The whole measure was termed an " experiment." Good. It has been so; and one of its first lcsults has been to teach parliament not to lea\o old leaven amongst new materials. The experiment certainly has cut two ways, and in its fiis.t failure we bee more cause to blame its framers than those in whose hands it temporarily failed.