LATER FROM WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 879, 3 October 1868, Page 9

LATER FROM WELLINGTON.

[FROM. OUB OWN COKRESFONDJBNT.]

September 24th.

The No Confidence motion came to an untimely end on Friday. There was no intention that it should have closed, there being, I believe, some arrangement that Mr Hall was to speak and Mr Bell to follow. The House had cleared out con 7 siderably during Mr Gallagher's speech, but there were plenty on both sides to have continued it, if it had not been for one of those unaccountable mistakes which are sometimes made. How it happened I cannot tell. There is a story about some two of the members having disagreed, but I confess the whole to be a mystery, because there were leading men of both sides sitting in their places — Mr Fox and Mr Stafford were, it is true, out at the moment. After the question had been deliberately put twice, if not three times, and the voices given, no one of the Opposition called for a division. When Mr Fox and Mr Stafford and others came in, there was a good deal of recrimination. Mr Bell was very angry, and so were several others, but there was no gainsaying that it was a blunder ; the Government fairly had the whip hand and they kept it, Mr Stafford withdrawing all the- financial resolutions but the first, and agreeing to take the division on the technical question of agreeing to the Committee's report. The result you already know. The Government had a majority of seveu. The day after the division, the Government held a caucus, at which they announced some very unpleasant news. They had to tell the Country Party that having again maturely considered their financial position, they found themselves unable to provide the money for the compensation to be given to various Provinces by way of adjustment, which they had promised in a previous caucus. The terms of this adjustment had been matter of open lobby talk, and the Country Party had been much elated at the prospect. In proportion to their elation has 'been their depression, and your Mr Reid might

be seen walking about in a mood anything but amiable. If the Country Party really was what it loudly professes itself tobe — an independent party prepared to throw its weight into the scale of either party willing to assist it, a great defection from the Ministerial side would take place ; but it is and alwaya was a sham, a combination of Government supporters to entice over from the Opposition any who might be weak enough to think their professions sincere. As all the financial resolutions are withdrawn, Government were expected to embody the talked of adjustment in the new ones, to be introduced as soon as Mr M, ' Lean's alarm resolution is decided. What alteration in them may now be made is a matter of much speculation, as Government are considered bound to do something for the Country Party in some way or other.

The third great topic is M*Lean's " alarm resolution," which has been going on all the week. This is the more exciting because there will unquestionably be a very close run. At present there is a tie in the lists, which is thus made out. Govt. M'Lean Govfc. majority last debate ... 7 ... 0 Left Government and promised M'Lean : Atkinson, Brown, John Patteraon, Potts 4 ... 4 3 4 : Left Fox, and promised Govfc 1 ... 1 ! 4 3 i EL S. Harrison, -who did not vote, but now promises to vote for M'Lean 0 ... 1 4 4 There are 1 several who are " shaky, " and would vote with M'Lean if they were sure he would win. Mete Kingi, who promised to vote for M'Lean, was unexpectedly found to have gone on some business connected with the Front by i last Monday's six o'clock coach. When the debate will end, it is impossible to say, at the present rate of two speakers a 'night. It is supposed Ministers are t waiting M'Neill's arrival, or the result of the expected attack by MTJonnelL A good smart successful engagement, it is thought, would materially help the Government. I have beard it mentioned here that I have almost wholly ignored your members thiß session, and have not afforded your readers the full information respecting their doings which 1 have done hitherto. But I must state that Othello's occupation has almost wholly gone in this respect. Otago members have in several sessions been more or less a bore to the House, wrangling bitterly among themselves and taking ap the time of the House most unreasonably. But this session nothing can be more becoming than the conduct of the Otago members. Mr Vogel has spoken frequently, but looking to his position in the Opposition, certainly not so much as he might have done, and in almost every instance he has spoken well. Mr Reynolds has been comparatively mum ; he and Mr Haughton have almost monopolised the sparring, Mr Main is the pink of discreetness. With the exception of Mr Reid and Mr Cargili, your other members have not spoken more than is usual for average members to do. | Mr Reid, as one of the chief men of the apparently victimised Country Party, has ( been forced into speaking frequently ; j while Mr Cargili, as one of the Pokaikai j Commissioners, and ruling spirit in the House Committee, has had to speak more frequently than the regular debates would otherwise have called for.

Your readers, formerly of Melbourne, will regret to learn that Dr Evans died yesterday, aged 68. He was early distinguished by fluency of speech, and generally went by the name of " Orator George." He was the son of a Congregational Minister in the East of London (a political celebrity in the Tower Hamlets, with Tvhom I had once the pleasure of working), and Master of the Mill Hill Protestant Dissenters Grammar School. He xiscd to lecture and speak much on behalf of the New Zealand Company, when that body was organised, and came out in the Adelaide in 1840 with the first settler, as Chairman of the Settlers Com mittee, the governing body of the Common wealth, New Zealand not being then a British colony. His subsequent career is very well known.

Saturday, September 26th. The news from the Front arrived last night. Unfortunately there was no success. McDonnell and a small force of Europeans and Natives had proceeded to attack Tito Kowaru in his redoubt, but found it empty, and alLfJoutposts but one had been withdrawn. The debate on Mr M 'Lean's motion, therefore, had nothing more to gain in that direction, and was brought to a conclusion. Daring Mr Fox's speech the following letter was read from Dr Featherston. It. will repay -attentive perusal. ■Wellington, 25th September, 1868. My Dear Fox— l am afraid that I shall not;

be able to coins down to the ffonse, but I wish that you should state to it what I should tell it myself, were I well enough to be in my place. I look on the present crisis as a very serious one, and all the more serious because we cannot see to what end the policy of the Government is leading us. The chief features of the Constitution Act are being obliterated, while no information is vouchsafed as to what is to be substituted in their place. The country is asked to give up a great part of the Constitution bestowed upon it by the Imperial Parliament, with the general assent of the colony -at the time, and to trust to the wisdom of the four or five gentlemen who oc cupy the Government benches, to provide them with something better. Bnt what this "something better" is to be, they do not tell the country. All they tell it is of a negative character. It ia not to be any* thing like Provincialism, and it is not to be that county system which was tentatively introduced atWestland last year, and already requires to be remodelled in all its principal features. Wfiat is it to be? Surely the country will insist on knowing, before it abolishes a machinery of government which has worked at least as well as any that is likely to take its place. But a question of far more serious import' ance than constitutional change, grave aa the latter is, demands the attention of the colony. It is fast being hurried into a war which bids fair to assume proportions more ■ formidable than any which has preceded it. The hostilities on the East Coast might, I am confident, have been avoided by the commonest prudence. The Government has deliberately "thrown the torch into the fern" by acts so rash and illconsidered as to admit of no excuse and no palliation. There was no sort of necessity for inflicting the horrors of war on that part of the country, by an attempt to recapture the prisoners. If the state of the East Coasts was such as to make their presence dangerous, they were certain to be much more dangerous when exasperated by futile attempts to recapture or destroy them, than they would have been if suffered to escape into their fastnesses, wiser and sadder men by their past experience. And now that the Government has drivea them to dejperation, has shed their blood and allowed them to taste ours, it abandons the exposed population of the district and removes the small defence force which might serve as a nucleus of protection for the colonists. This last crowning act of folly at once proclaims our weakness to all the disaffected Natives in the island, and invites aggression on that part of it which is denuded of protection.

And when I recollect that this state of things has been brought about, I might say deliberately, on the East Coast, at the very moment when our utmost energies were r. quired to quell disturbances on the West Coast, originating in a different sorb of mismanagement, for which the Government is equally responsible ; I cannot help looking forward with the gloomiest presentiments to the probable fate of the Northern island, if the Government of the Colony be left in the hands in which, it is. And here T. have mo hesitation in saying that, had the assistance of the friendly tribes on the West ; Coast been sought and obtained immediately I after the murder of CabUl and others, the chances are that there would have been no occasion for commencing the present; campaign, which, carried on as it must necessarily be with untrained and undisciplined forces, will inevitably involve the colony in frightful disasters ; but unfortan&tely there is not a man in the Ministry who either understands Native affairs or enjoys the confidence of, or possesses the slightest influence with, any of the tribes in this island. I would, above all things, ask the Middle Island members to consider their position. Though, their constituencies may escape the personal hardships, disaster, and ruin in which the Northern Island muat be involved by war, they will not escape the financial burdens of war, nor the general depression which must affect every part of the colony. With the Middle Island it rests to cast the weight into. the scale which shall determine the lot of the Northern ; but decide which way it may, it cannot but share, and that in no small degree, in the good or evil consequences of the decision. If the Middle Island supports the native policy of the Government let it not think to escape the certain refaults which that policy will bring in its train. — Believe me, &c, I. E. Feathkrston. The division already sent you by telegraph would, in both instances, have been a tie had it not been for Mr H. S. Harrison going away, probably imagining the question settled ; at least it is only charitable to suppose so. The Maori, Patterson, had been spirited away so i cleverly that it took an hour and a half to find him. The rumours are, that the Ministry will resign, but at present they are nothing but rumours. The Government gained a majority of one, and may j consider that sufficient. Several members are going North and South to-day ; and by first opportunities, Judge Ward goes south, to succeed Judge Chapman ; and IMr Dick, after button-holeing almost every member in favour of the Dunedin Waterworks Bill, returns also. When he came up he found it No. 3 on the order paper ; it is now No. 25, with no prospect of an early settlement.

The shipment of bronze coinage just received at Sydney from England, weighed about twenty.six and a quarter tons.