ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Wellington Independent, Volume VII, Issue 598, 5 July 1851, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Queen has boon pleased to re-ap. •point Sir Charles A. Filzßoy.Knt, to be •Captain-Gcnoral and Govornor-in-Chief vi and over the colony of New South Wales, Van Diem on's Land, Victoria nncl South Australia including the colony ■ot Western Australia. Sir W. T Dentson, Knt., has been re-appointed Lieu-tenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, and Sir HE. P. Young, Knt., to be Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia, while Charles Joseph La Trobe, Esq , has been raised to the office of Lieuten-ant-Grovernorof the colony of Victoria. rho Rev. John Angel James had published a paraphlot on the Papal ■eion, in which he recommends a "closer union of Protestants of all denominations "Sin f TOC « eS a Protesta » t niieeion to liome, for the conversion of Italy to the ■faith. Other publications on the same subject are constantly issuing from the Press. In one review alone wo find notices of forty pamphlets published in the space of a week. The Freeman states, that at the monthly meeting of the Roman Catholic University Committee, held on Wednesday, and presided over by the Lord Primate, no less than £1600 was handed into the treasurer. A new Roman Catholic bishopric was about to be formed in the south of Ireland. The three denominations of Protestant Dissenters—lndependents, Presbyterians, and Baptists—had, at an important meeting, passed resolutions denouncing the inroads of Popery. The bishoprio of Moray and Ross being vacant a severe contest between the

Puseyite and Low Church parties was expected in the election. According to the Falkirk Herald, Cardinal Wiseman is a descendant of a cheesemonger in Strathaven. Dr. Woolf, the celebratod traveller, was preaching to crowded congregations, in the C!uirche3 of Clasgow. A man was in gaol in Edinburgh on a charge of incest, on account of marrying his wife's sister. Working Classes.—Courses of lectures are being delivered in various parts of the metropolis, under the auspices of the Christian Instruction Society. The government have decided upon the repeal of tho Window-tax, yielding £1,800,000, and the substitution of a moderate House-tax, at a sacrifice to the revenue of about £1,200,000. Marriage with a deceased Wife's SisTiiit.—The Birmingham Journal says, that Mr. Sleigh, in little moro than five weok.s, has ascertained the present or recent existence of about four hundred cases of marriage with o deceased wifo's sister in aud about Birmingham. Tho register contains tho names of ministers, lawyers, magistrates, and members of almost every profession. The Montreal Courier adverts to a rumour that a scheme would bo submitted to Parliament for the confederation of all the British North American Colonies.

The Temperance Societies intended to get up in a body at the Great Exhibition, so as to have a hundred thousand in London at once—an opportunity for a demonstration meeting which they did not wish to throw away. Lord Grey is becoming unpopular at home, as well as in the colonies. The British Banner of the 22nd January says —"It is clear, beyond all doubt that Lord Grey is entirely unfit to manage tho Colonies." Converts to the Catholic Faith. —The English Catholic Directory, just published, contains a list of the names of twenty-five ministers of the Established Church, three American Episcopalian ministers, one Scotch Presbyterian minister, one Genevese Protestant minister, and one French Protestant minister, who joined the Church of Rome during the year 1850; also, two Lords, three countesses, one honorable two country gentlemen of wealth, two captains in the army, one Member of Parliament, and one Doctor of Laws. Total, 42. An alarming fire had broke out in the premises of Messrs. Bousfield & Sons, Hounsditch, East End, (London) by which the entire premises of one of the largest establishments in that quarter was destroyed. The loss is estimated at £30,000; but the whole was fortuantely ensured. A rising of the slaves of the Virginia States was expected, causing much apprehension for the tranquility of the southern states.

The Chaplain of the present House of Correction has announced the startling fact, that more then sixty per cent, of the degraded persons committed co Preston goal were, at one time or other, Sunday scholars. The estimated expense of the police for the city of London during the next year is £40,329. Lord Beaumont, has, at his sole expense, built a school at Carl ton, in Yorkshire, to contain 120 children, where that number are taught history, cyphering, writing, and geography, for one penny per week, including books and stationery. Ho also has another school for 60 infants, the whole expense of both are defrayed by his Lordship. These schools are open to children of all denominations, who are at full liberty to attend their own places of worship and schools on Sunday. By far the greatest number of scholars are protestants, who attend the church school on Sunday, and in which Lady Beaumont takes a lively interest. The principal Insurance Companies of the metropolis have come to the conclusion thai the Crystal Palace is a very combustible edifice, upon the insurance of which a high premium must bo paid. They refuse to insure at a lower rate than 21 per cont. for nine months, with a premium at the rate of £2,000 per annum for the building ; and with proportionate rates on the enormous amount of valuable property collected within it. The Great Exhibition of 1851, it is thought, will prove a profitable concern for the companies. Franco alone wishes to insure £800,000 worth of goods for the occasion. A miser named Shclford, who lived by contributions from his neighbours, lately died in Kentish Town, and left behind him a fortune of £15,000. The room he occupied had not been cleaned for twenty years. A petition has been presented to the American Congress by Mr. Wise, a professor of terostatics, asking pecuniary aid to the extent of 10,000 dols., to try experiments in atrial travelling. He proposes to construct a balloon capable of raising twenty tons, and raise it over the capital, above gun shot, and discbarge imitative missiles, to show its capacity in the destruction of an enemy's fleet or army. The petition was referred to the Naval Conimitteo. Tho line of tolegraph between Brussels

and Osteiul was put into operation on the Ist February, and was found to work perfectly. In the course of tlie month an uninterrupted line of telegraphic commuuication between Trieste and Ostend will be secured, working in connection with those of Prussia, Austria, Saxony, and Bavaria. Lord Brougham was suffering from illness, and had in consequence been obliged to vacate the chair at a large meeting of the Law Amendment Society, of which ho was chairman, before the business of the meeting terminated. Important measure for Scotland. —Wβ learn, from a source on which we can rely, that it is intended, soon after the meeting of parliament, to introduce an Incumbered Estate Act for Scotland. Some of the most valuable and extensive estates in Scotland have been so encumbered for generations as to prove a source of inexpressible embarrassment both to Landlords and Tenants. 15,052 Acts of Parliament have, during the last 50 years, been passed by the j British Legislature. I The most violent agitation is rousing Ireland against tho Ministerial Bill upon ecclesiastical titles. The earliest outward demonstration beyond the voice of the press was at the Rotunda, Dublin, on Thursday last, and it was remarkable for the presence of the Earl of Miitoun and Henry Grattan, M. P., to join their Catholic brethren in a strong remonstrance against a wrong offered to all Irishmen. The venerable Catholic Achbishop had circulated a letter to his clergy asking the prayers of their flocks against" a persecution under the pretence of resisting a papal aggression;" and it was stated by Archdeacon Hamilton that the Archbishop of Dublin (he would persist in calling him by that title in spite of the bill,) had also called on the priests of his diocese to denounce from their altars the Ministerial measure. A conference of the whole hierarchy is to be held on the subject. The Commission for the examination of the Dublin University includes no Catholic name, to the great disgust of the organs of that side. Awful Instance of Intellectual Darkness in the Nineteenth Century.—We are informed, on credible authority, that there is a parish not a hundred miles from Penzance which does not contain a single subscriber to a newspaper ! Will no one take pity- on this benighted spot?— Cornish Gazette. Riddle for Englishmen.—Scene, A Draper's Shop.—Old Woman (looking at a piece of cloth) to the shopman—Aw oo? Shopman—Oo i, aw 00. Woman— Aw ac oo ? Shopman—Oo, i, aw ac 00. Explanation.— Purchaser — All wool ? Shopman—Oh yes, all wool. Purchaser —All one (kind of) wool? Shopman— Oh yes, all one wool.— Scottish Press.

(From the Australian, and New Zealand Gazette, January \\.) A despatch has recently reached home from Sir George Grey, enclosing another from the inhabitants of Wellington to Earl Grey, on the subject of the large but unbeneficial nature of the colonial expenditure. Lieutenant-Governor Eyre thought this, which was signed by the principal inhabitants, of too much importance to go to the colonial-office, without his own explanation accompanying it, in which he attempts to prove that the' colonial money is prudently expended. The despatches in question are too long for our columns ; but we must not omit noticing the documents, as such notice may do good in the coming session of Parliament. From the Lieutenant-Governor's return of the " Revenue and Expenditure of Wellington, for the year ending the 31st of December 1848," we learn that the total ordinary revenue was £15,687, or £2 10s. per head, reckoning the then population at 6,000. The expenditure for the same period was £42,573, or up-| wards of seven 'pounds sterling per head for men, tuomen, and children ! The same rate of expenditure in the Islands of Great Britain, would amount to nearly two hundred viillions per annum ! or an amount equal to ono-fourth of the national debt yearly. The return will be found at page 36 of some recent parliamentary papers, and purports to be a return for Wellington only, containing, however, remittances and disbursements to the other settlements, somewhat in the proportion of Falstaff's halfpennyworth of bread to an intolerable quantity of sack—viz., disbursements on account of Nelson, £31 ; Otago, £138; Wanganui, £436; and Akaroa, £23. Some remittances to Nelson and Akaroa aro set down at £2,372. These disbursements for all the inferior settlements thus amount to £3,052, which is £674 less for the whole of them than for one alone in the official account, viz., £3,726 for police to govern a settlement which contained about 6,000 people. The cost of the judicial establishments was £2,371; Crown prosecutions, £35----passage of two convicts lo Van Diemen's' Land, £40; so that the whole expenditure for crime was £6,172, or upwards of a pound a head for the population. On turning to the records of crime for this expensive year 1848, we find it to be as follows :—Convicted of offences against

person, 5 ; of offences against property, 3; of miscellaneous offences, none ; total 8 (page 193)-. All the others were mere magistrates' cases, and were summarily disposed of; so that we find eight convictions costing £6000, or £750 each to a colony, the total ordinary rovenuo of which is only £15,000 a year, the Governors thereof deeming it requisite to spend £42,000. We know of only one parallel to this, and that is contained in an old song laudatory of the advantage of enlisting for a soldier. " A soldier's the life on't—say what ye may. For he spends half-a-croton out of sixpence a dny." A letter from Mr. Justice Chapman places this enormous judicial and police expenditure in a worse light still. For the first time Mr. Chapman has drawn up a correct statistical account of the whole of the convictions for the last five years, viz. from 1843 to the end of 1848. The total number of convictions for these five years was 59, classified as follows : — Convict Emigrants from New South Wales, Hobart Town, and Parkhurst, Tried 31, convicted 20. Soldiers. —Tried 25, convicted 18. Sailors and Unknown. —Tried 14, convicted 9. Natives. —Tried 4, convicted 2. Original Settlers.- Fried 18, convicted 10. This shows how little the permanent inhabitants of the colony, whether native or European, furnish cases of criminal prosecution. Ten convicted only in five years, and 7 out of tho 10 were convicted in one year, viz., 1844, the period of great distress in the Colony. In 1847 and 1848, not an original settler was tried; and in the same period only one native, and he was acquitted. But what a disproportion of crime to the cost of detection and punishment. Upwards of £6,000 a year for a settlement in which there is no crime but what is imported from the convict colonies, or from home prisons ; or committed by the troops and seamen of the mother country. This is monstrous, and we trust our Parliamentary readers will not lose sight of it in the forthcoming session. Mr. Chapman's letter will be found at page 40 , of the Parliaraeirfary Papers now' under discussion. ■

But we will go a little farther into this " Return." Under the head of "Debentures " will be found the following, which comprises all under the head, and therefore forms a complete item : Debentures (cancelled £13 10 0 25 per cent, in cash on old debentures 433 is o Interest on nbove, paid under special authority 827 9 10 Imerest 309 1 3 Tetal £1,083 10 x Our readers will bear in mind, that we do not profess to understand this, other than in a commou-sense view ; the political view is, we confess, past our comprehension. First, there is the halfpennyworth of sack again, £13 actually cancelled. Next, 25 per cent, cash on old debentures, means, we suppose, that 25 per cent, of these has been cancelled too; this would leave £ 1,300 of " old debentures " to be cancelled when the remaining 75 per cent, is paid. Well, the interest paid " on above," and that " under special authority," amounts to £327, or twenty-five per cent, of interest again!— a very good bargain for "special authority," or those whom it favours. But this is not all, there is another inte rest item of £309, for what purpose is not stated; but as it is under the head " Debentures," it must be for these also. We have heard a good deal of these New Zealand debentures, and the lucky hands into which they eventually fell. When the expenditure of a colony outruns its revenue, this is the way in which John Bull's money goes. He' scarcely needs inquire who are the recipients ? In this return of the expenditure of of £42,000 in one year, there in not one shilling spent in education, though the audit of the accounts costs £400 ; not one penny goes in religious purposes, though the printing, consequent on spending the above sum, costs nearly £500. The amount for ferries is £7 ! that for the expenditure at Government House is £1,355 ! ! The words drain or sewer are not so much as mentioned; but the Sheriff is down for £567, bejng £71 each for taking care of the .'lfht convicts of whom we have just spokefSw The colonists, moreover, complain, and justly, that Governor Grey's despatches on the subject of the constitution, which i he had recommended Earl Grey to introduce into the Colony, were not laid before the Legislative Council till the last day of the session, June 28th, though sent by Governor Grey to Lieutenant-Gover-nor Eyre for that purpose. The Lieu-tenant-Governor thus excuses himself: " I at once laid them before the Execu-tive-Council for their advice as to publishing them. My Council (what a phrase!) were unanimously of opinion that I ought not to make them public, Before the close of the session, however. —in fact, on the very last day of it inquiries were made by one of the members of the Council (which Council—my Council or the Legislative Council ?), which materially altered ray position, and created a necessity which I considered justified me in exercising the discretionary power vested in me, and laying before I the Legislature the two despatches in

question—a course which I am ] mpi , v find lias met with your Excellency's,, proral." What a miserable apoloo?! Surely the Lieutenunt-Governor was n . i afraid of his own nominees. * Wo will conclude our present notice of those by an analytical examination of tl estimate of the probable expenditure r the Government of New Minister for o years 1849-50. Another month or tw* will put us m*posaossion[of what the renl expenditure hus been. ttl The general heads are as follows • Wellington, £13,809; Nelson, £o Otago, 1,203 (?); Wanganui, 328 ; AkV roa, £341; Legislative Council, £450* General charges, £2,638. Total, £2] 700' Let us examine a few of the details' The Lieut.-Governor's establishment is set clown for £1,080, the first item thereof being his salary of £800, and the second forage for his stable £ 109, from which it might be inferred, that it takes eight horses to make one Governor. This ' wretched pay for a man in Lieut.-Gover! nor Eyre's station, nor can he keep un the proper dignity of that station for any. thing like the amount he receives. Had Governor Grey lopped off, instead of add* ing to, tho number of officials, aud put something more to the Lieutenant-Go-vernor's salary, no one would grumble at it, for much as all colonists find fault with, their rulers, every one likes to see them well paid, and Lieut.-Governor Eyre's remuneration is inadequate to his high office. The amount has no doubt beea fixed at home by way of economy, but as there is no economy in the government of New Zealand, wo confess that \ VO should be glad to see Mr. Eyre get at least his fair share of the money expended. We have often remarked upon the miserable pay of the subordinate officials of Colonial governments, who, as they associate with the better paid of their class must be put to singular shifts to maintain a decent appearance. Colonial experience shows that they are often driven to a worse resort. In thp Wellington Government, we find that the "confidential clerk" in the private Secretary's only has £125 per annum—a sum scarcely equivalent to the wages of a decent joun neyman mechanic at home, and not half what a journeyman carpenter can earn in the Colonies. We would not keep secrets for any such rate of remuneration why it is only £16 a year more than is set down for his Excellency's horses ? Tho Colonial Secretary's department is set down at £819, and the Colonial Treasurer's at £565.

Next comes the Auditor-General's Department, which costs £444, with the Colonial Treasurer's, making exactly £1000, for disbursing £15,000; that sum being the estimate of the Wellington revenue for the year. This is, in our opinion, waste ; and when we add to it the Customs and Harbour Department for collecting the revenue, viz, £2,000. — in all £3,000. —being 20 per cent, on the estimated revenue, we cannot but think, that retrenchment might take place here. The Survey Department is set down at £400. This is cheeseparing with a vengeance, where it ought not to have taken place, since the Surveyor is also, as an Irishman would say, the constructor of the roads and bridges -which are not made ! The Public Work's Department stands next to the Surveyor's, and amounts to the sum of £82 ! ! Yes, £82 for public works in a Colony, with the estimated revenue in the whole of £21,704. And what does the reader think is the public work which is to bo executed for £82 ? a " Government Gardener ;" though how he can be made for the money is a puzzle, but so it stands in the estimate. We trust the government gardener is not to be turned over to the Sheriff for execution ; we have seen that in 1848, the Sheriff charged £71. per head for taking care of convicts; the extrft £11, looks dangerously suspicious for the government gardener. We have not space to go into all tho details, suffice it to say, that the expenditure is considerably economized in amount, as compared with the 1848 roturn, with which we commenced our notice. We will, however, count tho number of officials deemed necessary for the Southern Province of New Zealand; these amount to no less than 82, with 44 inspectors, sergeants, and policemen; or 126 persons to divide amongst them a revenue which can only spare £82, for public works, alias a government gardener ; no other mention of the subject being made throughout. Our readers may judge whether the colonists who pay the £21,704, all but £2,704, expected from a Parliamentary Grant in Aid of Revenue, have a right to complain that they get no beneficial return for their system of taxation.