THE WELLINGTON INDEPENDENT

Wellington Independent, Volume I, Issue 11, 7 May 1845, Page 2

THE WELLINGTON INDEPENDENT

Wednesday, May 7, 1845.

The barque Caledonia, Captain Case, sails this day for London, with a full car %o, the produce of this part of New Zealand. We did hope, by this time, we should be able to report that the Government had been enabled to redeem the disgrace which its miserable policy had brought upon the British arms; but in this we are disappointed. The ship Slams Castle was to sail from Sydney for Auckland with troops on the 9th April, and our latest dates from Auckland are to the 12th, and from the Bay of Islands to the 17th April; time, consequently, had not clasped for the announcement of this additional force, and the proceedings the Local Government contemplated adopting, by the opportunity by which the intelligence in question has been received. But if diligence had been used to communicate with Wellington, we might now have been in possession of Auckland dates to the Ist May; and considering the circumstances of the colony, and the little likelihood of any direct opportunity of communicating with England being again afforded for some months, it might have been expected that efforts would have been made to take advantage of the opportunity, offorded by the departure of the Caledonia from this port direct for England; that is if we were ■warranted in anticipating the adoption of any reasonable proceeding on the part of the present Government, which of course ■we are not.

It is evident that Captain Fitzroy will have been fully provided with the necessary force to assert British power, by the Ist of May, but that he will assert it, experience forbids us to expect. One so lamentably erratic in his course cannot be calculated upon, excepting so for as the mischief of which he may yet be the author before he is removed by his Sovereign, There can be no doubt as to what the duty of the settlers to themselves and to their Sovereign ha« long been, and what it still is. It was their duty to compel Captain Fitzroy to resign the reigns of Government, and that duty is still upon them. We know not whether they could have occasioned his retirement by a legal enquiry into his mental state; but we have no doubt if the people had shown a firm front from end to end of these Islands, they could have made him resign in favour of the Commander of the Forces. nor do we think it is yet too late to make him adopt this course, if they will one and all pursue a dutiful and manful course. It is impossible to repose confidence in Capt. Fitzroy, and yet months, the most important probably in New Zealand history, must elapse before the Colonial Office instructions for his removal can arrive. No provision has been made for controlling a Governor in

Captain Fitzroy's unhappy state —still our sovereign never intended that we should be its victims. The state has not been contemplated, and therefore the remedy has not been provided; but does any body suppose the settlers could suffer or would be blamed for adopting the course the "Queen my Mistress" would forthwith pursue if she knew the evil befalling New Zealand in consequence of this unhappy man, this object of pity, having our destiny at his disposal ? We slate it is the duty of the settlers, if Captain Fitzroy will not resign, to remove him, by law, if we have Judges with the courage to perform the task, and if not by that process, by taking the responsibility upon themselves, of causing the Government to pass into the hands of one in a state of mind competent to contend with the difficulties with which New Zealand has been beset by this Exeter Hall madman. The course of procedure is simple, let the inhabitants of each settlement meet publicly, and declare their honest conviction, and it can alone be that Captain Fitzroy's state of mind is such, that if he continue to administer the Government of New Zealand, no security can exist for the life of a single white man, woman, or child, and that therefore they determine he must resign or be removed ; let this be done, and t the consequence will inevitably be that Captain Fitzroy resigns, or is removed forthwith, and we shall receive applause from our fellow countrymen at home for the straightforward and wise course we have pursued—and oui fellow colonists in all the other colonies will sympathise with us in the useful lesson we have taught the Colonial Office during the thraldom in which it has been held by the Missionary Societies and Exeter Hall. Captain Fitzroy must resign forthwith, or bj removed, if the colony of New Zealand is to be saved.