OTAGO.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1738, 8 July 1862, Page 5

OTAGO.

(From the Otago ''Daily Times. 1 * The following statement shews the condition of Her Majesty's Gaol, Danedin, on Saturday last. Awaiting trial before Supreme Court. 6 males ; for trial before Magistrate, none ; \inder sentence to imprisonment without hard labor, 3 females ; under sentence to imprisonment with hard labor, 61 malet, 4 females ; debtors, 10 males ; lunatics, 7 males ; received during the past week, 17 males 1 female; discharged during the same period, 11 males t female ; in the gaol on Saturday night, 84 males, 7 females. Total number, 91.

The new Custom House is to be erected in the line of High-street, at the junction of the New Battray-street jetty. It will be a fine edifice, and entirely constructed of stone. There will be a portico in front, of the ionic order of architecture, •with two stone columns on either side. The building will have a height of 38 feet. The height of the rooms upon the ground floor will be 15ft. 6in. ; on the first floor, 14ft. There will be five rooms on the ground floor, besides a spacious hall 12ft. by 40ft., with what is denominated, s newel staircase. There will be one long public room, measuring 27ft. by 40ft., in which will be transacted the public business of the Customs department. The present building, now used for that purpose, will be abandoned by the Government. There will be two front rooma, 13ft. by 19ft., to be converted into gold-receiving offices. Thare will be two back, or rear, apartments, measuring 19ft. 6in. by 13ft.. which will probably be appropriated to the accommodation of the SubTreasurer. From the back area there will be steps constructed decending on the basement floor which will, in all likelihood, be used as bonded stores. The dimensions of the proposed portico will .- be 8 feet by 17 feet to be be approached by two steps, leading to an entrance door of red pine. The apartments on the upper floor will comprise five rooms, namely : ona long room 27ft. 6in. by 4 1 ft, which will be partitioned off into distinct offices for clerks, &c; two front rooms here, 13ft. 6iu. by 20ft, to be used as Collector's offices ; and 2 other rooms at the back of these, measuring 15ft. by 13ft. din., which are likely to be converted into SubTreasurer'a offices. There will be a paßaage of 4ft. 6in. intervening between theße rooms and those intended for the accomodation of the Collector. The dimensions of the passage will be 29ft. by 4ft. 6in. ; it will lead on to the staircase, and lobby, or hall, measuring 27ft. by 12ft. There will be a flat landing over the portico. 6ft. 6in. by 14ft The contractors for the erection of this public building are Robert Dalton George Rickards ; the ! architect is Mr. George Greenfield, of ManseBtreet; and the estimated cost of the work will be about £10,000. It is expected that the building will b© completed by the lit January next. I The gale which blew with greater or Jess severity from Saturday to Tuesday, made the interval a busy time to shipmasters and pilots at Port Chalmers. Notwithstanding the shelter of the Port, the wind has blown so furiously that several vessels have been driven on the shoals which formed the eastward boundary of the hurbour, and lie there with little hope of being got off for some time, while one vessel, the Fox, has got into a very critical position immediately above tee islands. The first vessel aground was the Darnel Watsou, but she was get off the bank at high water on Saturday night, and is now at anchor waiting a favourable change, when she proceeds, to Sydney, having on board a number of passengers for that port. On the same evening the Sea Breeze came down from town, and, under the influence of the strong wind, was driven upon the bank some distance below the position in which the Daniel Watson had lain. She unfortunately got on the ground at high

water, and as the tides have since been talcing off, while the gale lias not in ai:y degree abated, the efforts to warp ler into deep water have been unsuccessful, and sliemayhave to lie there for some time. On Sunday, the schooner Rebecca also got upon the bank, and though ! every assistance has has been given by pilots, j Captain Darby, acd others, she continues to bold. The position of the Fox is a more serious one. Dumur the day, the captain lifted anchor with the expectation of being able to move from his anchorage ground, which was immediately above the islands, and to go further up the channel, but that he found to be impossible. To prevent the vessel getting ashore, he dropped one of his anchors, but she dragged, and at length got upon the bank close to the island. As her position promised to become worse, Captain Thomson, harbour master, was communicated with in the evening, and he proceeded to her in the tug steamer Samson, but in consequeuce of the violence of the wind and the hold slje has pot of the ground, the Samson has not yet been able to remove her. It is suspected that the locks have in one or two places penetrated her sides, and as the wind is not abating, it is possible that she may sustain very serious damage, if she does not become a wreck. Another vessel agiouad above the islands is the Eucalyptus, and on Sundiy evening the baiwue, Omega also dragged ber anchors, and ultimately parted one of her chains, when she dragged on to the bank some distance down the bay, where she now lies, and is discharging' the remaiuder of her cargo into lighters. Several other vessels have dragged, but have kept clear of each other I and no damage has yet been done.

MR. EDWAED GIBBON WAKEFIELD. [from the press, 21st june.] There are some men whose lives can never be written, and whose actions and character posterity will never rightly estimate. It will probably remain for ever a puzzle, how it happened that one who was so close a reasoner, so clear a thinker, and so happy a writer upon political and economical subjects, one who at the same time was ever labouring to carry into practical action the speculations of the study — how such a man should have lived and died comparatively unknown as a statesman of his age. Many of the qualities requisite for a practical statesman Mr. Wakefield possessed in a preeminent degree. He had an amazing fertility of design, an inexhaustable power of inventing expedients, and a most resolute tenacity in pursuing his ends. Though not much accustomed to speaking in public, his language was powerful and impressive ; though never fluent, he he was never tedious ; and when roused by passion he displayed latent powers which early cultivation and exercise might have raised to those of a commanding orator. Apart from those passages in his life which cast a veil over his subsequent career. Mr. Wakefield, while he possessed the singular faculty of facinating so many of those with whom he came in con tact, seemed to possess the apparently opposite oposite quality of filling others with a feeling of suspicion and mistrust which amounted to a dread. The result was that, during a great part of his life, he was working behind the scenes, and allowing others to reap the fruits of his labours. Whether this habit of concealment arose from a consciousness that his name was the signalwith so many for an irreconcilable dislike and suspicion, or whether it was the character of his mind to enjoy the consciousness of power without its display, we cannot say ; but it is probably the fact, that mdre matter has issued irom his brain, to which, when printed other names have been appended, than from that of any other man. To give anything like a connected story of his life is out of our power : the data are wanting to us. We can but toxich one or two of the most prominent features in his career. His first work was a small book called " A Letter from Sydney by Robert Gouger " so happily written that it was generally received as the hon&fide work of one who had been long resident in the country it professed to describe. In this publication Mr. VVakefleld first propounded those theories with which his name has ever since been connected. He was ths first writer who attracted public attention to the peculiar phases displayed by certain political problems under the conditions of society existing in new and half settled countries. He deduced and expounded the laws by which labour is related to land, as no writer had hithorto explained them ; and, following out his «onclusions, he proposed that the waste lands of Colonies, instead of being given away by free grants, should be disposed of in such a manner as to populate those lands themselves. In a work called " America and the Americans," and in the • Art of Colonization," the same theory is further propounded, and illustrated with, a wonderful profusion of fact and argument. But it >as not only in these his known works that his peculiar views were expounded ; in letters public and private, in pamphlets, in the daily press, and above all, in evidence before Parliamentary Committees, lie labored hardly and successfully to impress his doctrines on the public mind. Bat perhaps the great failure of Mr. Wakefield's life — for with such powers his life cannot be called other than a failure — arose from the fact that .he never had the opportunity — never was allowed — | to carry into operation his own views and his own schemes. It may fairly be said that nowhere, except in Canterbury has the Wakefield theory had anything like a fair chance. In South Australia no scheme could have withstood the folly of the first Governors. In Nelson, Wellington and New Plymouth, the difficulty of getting the land, and the hostility of the local Government, would have frustrated, the operation of any Bcheme whatever. In Canada to which he proposed to apply his high price syetem, in spite of the difficulties of half the lands having gone into the hands of private individuals and having been waste and uncultivated, the Government shrank from the experiment. In New South Walei and Victoria, the Government introduced the Wakefield idea of the high price, but failed to realise the co-relative idea, namely that the money received for the land should be expended in colonizing it. In Otago and Canterbury alone, too system was tried under favorable conditions, and was worked by men who were friendly to the experiment. In Canterbury alone was the system retained and allowed to realize its results. Mr. Wakefield's great practical work was the share he took in Lord Durham's mission to Canada. The Canadas at that time were in a very disturbed and revolutionary state, and the Earl of Durham was sent with a special commission to inquire into and report on their grievances. He was accompanied by Mr. Wakefield and by the late Mr. Charles Buller. The great change recommended in Earl Durham's report was the union of Upper and Lower Canada under one Governor and in one colony. So unpopular and so unexpected was this proposal that Lord Durham's secretaries were even accused of having taken advantage of his failing health to procure his signature to a report of the contents of which he was ignorant. Lord Durham's death prevented his reply to such a charge, hut Mr. Charles Buller gave it a triumphant refutation. There can be no doubt that Mr. Wakefield and Mr. BuJ ler were the main authors of that celebrated document, and that some of the recommendations it contained differed so far from Lord Durham's supposed opinions , as to sanction the idea that his lordship's view« had been greatly influenced by hia assistants in the embassy. The union of the Canadas and the introduction of responsible government into that colony must be regarded as a work in which Mr. Wakefield had a great share ; aud the experience of now a quarter of a century has fully established the soundness of his views. It is impossible to afford the same praise to his conduct uuder Lord Metcalf's government, Lord

Metcalf was one of those great statesmen who have been raised from time to time in the school of India. Having risen to the highest ranks in the Indian Government, he was, on returning to England appointed to the governments successively of Jamaica and Canada. He succeeded to the latter government just at the moment when the ministerial system was on its trial, and he very soon quarrelled with his ministers on the matter of right of making certain appointments. The ministry comprised two men who are now themselves in the enjoyment of colonial govern • I ment: Mr. Hincks the late Governor of the windward Islands, and now we believe of British Guiana, and Sir Dominic Daly, the Governor of South Australia. There was at the same time a split in the ministry itself, which resulted in the resignation of the latter. We need pursue the history of theso times no further than to state that Mr Walcefield took the part of Sir Charles Metcalf against his ministers, and against, as was thought at the time, all the principles and opinions of which he had been the advocate and representative. The Governor-General carried is point so far aa to obtain a majority in the next. Assembly, after a struggle which convulsed the colony from- one end to the other. Mr. Wakefield returned to England in the midst of this turmoil, and it was thought that a pamphlet which he published immediately on his return, stating the Governor's case with singular skill and power, was the principal means of preventing Lord Metcalf's recall vrhich would otherwise have taken place. Taking the etory as told in Lord Metcalf 'a life, we can have no hesitation in condemning his conduct. His education in the Indian sytem of Government had obviously incapacitated even his great mind from grasping the position which a Governor ought to fill in a country administered on the English system. But no such excuse can be urged for Mr. Wakefield, whose vigorous support of the Governor against the Ministry is unaccountable and inconsistent ; and his own defence fails to produce a contrary impression. It ia certain that his Canadian career, whilst it enlarged the public opinion of his varied powers and great capacity, did not increase the small sphere within which he was regarded with confidence or admiration. Mr. Wakefleld's next step was to engage in the colonization of New Zealand ; and he was for some years the moving Bpirit in the New Zealand Company ; a body which exhibited during its career the most opposite qualitiespatriotism and courage and undaunted enterprise, together with duplicity; disregard of engagements, and reckless as to the interests of others.

We shall not enter upon the history of this company. The curious may find it written in the books of the chronicles of the corporation ; in other words, in the voluminous reports which during 6even or eight years issued annually from the directors. The war between the Company and the Government is a matter of history, and we believe that in that long and angry correspondence, almost the whole of the letters bearing the signature of the Governor or Deputy-Gover-nor of the Company were the work of Mr. Wakefield'a pen. But no amount of ability could save the Company from ruin ; and in despair at the failure of all their schemes they determined to appeal to Parliament for vengeance on tha Government to whose opposition they attributed their downfall. A Select Committee of the House of Commons was moved for and obtained, and it became of importance to lay before the Committee all the documents which would explain their case. The directors resolved to print the whole case, and those of our readers who are familiar with New Zealand literature, remember a certain fat volume entitled " additional papers " appended to the annual report. Mr. Wakefield undertook the task of preparing, arranging, and correcting these papers, and passing them through the press ; and the volume remains as a monument of the enormous amount of work of which his powerful mind was capable. The whole volume was commenced and published in a very few days; but Mr. Wakefield had overtaxed his powers, and before the Committee met he was smitten with apoplexy. Absolute rest, silence, and abstinence, for nearly two years, enabled him gradually to enter again upon tha work of his life. The parliamentary arrangements with the New Zealand Company, which were the resultof the Committee, were made during his seclusion from the world. He always disapproved of them ; but they were mainly the work of his intimate friend and colleague, Charles Buller, and were quite as favorable as the company could expect or indeed deserved. Mr. Wakefield's introduction to Mr. Godley was the first event which succeeded his partial restoration to health. And by the time the scheme of tho Canterbury Settlement was ripe for execution, ho was able to afford the aid of his sagacious counsels and vast experience. In 1849 he susta jied a severe loss in the death of Mr. Charles Buller, who had not long before attained to a seat in the Government. In 1 850 the ' Art of Colonization ' appeared, in which his peculiar doctrines are fully explained and developed. In the spring of the same year he gave his active co-operation to the formation of the Colonial Reform Society, a confederation of member* of Parliament of every shade of political opinion, whose object was to destroy the despotism of governors and the oligarchies of officials which were spreading dissaf • lection throughout the colonial empire. Such a league was too formidable to be resisted, and the result was the passing of" the new constitutions for the Australian Colonies in the spring of that year. The New Zealand Constitution was delayed two years longer, and Mr. Wakefield's last work in England was the part he took, in concert with Mr. Fox and some other colonists who were in England at the time, in urging upon tho Government the passing of that measure. In 1853, Mr. Wakefield arrived in New Zealand, to spend the remainder of his days amidst the settlements his genius had mainly contributed to form. Ho resided at Wellington, and was returned as a member for the Hutt, in the House of Representatives, in 1854. We cannot now write the history of the session ; one remark is sufficient, namely, that the scenes of Canada, under Lord Metcalf, were repeated in New Zealand under Colonel Wynyard. A second time in his life he threw the weight of his genius on the side opposite to that which he had previously advocated.^ It was solely owing to his cpunsels that the establishment of the responsible government was delayed for another year. But there was not in this case any pamphlet to paint in a favorable light the conspicuous incompetence of the Governor, and Colonel Wyuyard, less fortunate than Lord Motcalf, was superseded in the Government. But there was one other feature in the session of 1854 which ought to be mentioned, because it has exercised a wide influence on the fortunes of New Zealand. On the passing of the act for settling the management of the waste lands, Mr. Waktfield brough tforward the scheme which was called the " working settlers clauses," and which form the basis of the land regulations at present in force at Auckland. This is not tho occasion on which to argue the wisdom of that proposal, but it is impossible to pass over the fact that they are a direct denial of the Wakefield theory. It is a remarkable fact, which no biographer can fail to notice, that the last act of Mr. Wakefield's life was, to overthrow the whole system which he had been laboring for thirty years to establish. Having advocated in theory the necessity of selling land at a price sufficient to realise certain objects ; having argued the necessity of keeping the laboring classes Vrom the possession of land, until they had realized sufficient capital to employ it beneficially ; when called on to make a practical scheme for the disposal of waste lands in New Zealand, he proposed to give it away in small allotments to the laboring classes. Shortly after returning from the stormy session of 1854, Mr. Wakefield experienced a recurrence of his former illness, and was compelled once more to retire into active life. He lived for seven years in entire seclusion, and died without suffering tvt the age of sixty-six.

It is not unlikely that Mr. Waken" eld may have left behind him. much interesting matter which may some day see the light. His correspondence was very large, aud he was accustomed to retain copies of all his letters of any importance. Considering the persons with whom he was in communication, and the suhjectsof bis correspondence, we should imagine that his private letters would form a volume of great interest, for ho was a most admirable letter writer. Bui his great forte was his power of conversation. In that he was indeed without a rival ; not that he possessed the ordinary power of a talker. His qualities were neither convivial nor social. It waa in the private interview, sealed by his own fire, with his magnificent bloodhounds at his feet, when he had a point to carry, or a cause to serve, that his singular powers of fascination had full play. Few men could resist his influence except those, and they were not a few, who resolutely refused to submit to a•' seance." Those who remember the cottage at Reigate where statesmen used to come for counsel, and ministers have sought advice, can never forget Ac rare enjoyment of an evening spent in the company of this most remarkable man. Nor can they cease to mourn over that sad eccentricity in his moral sense, which seemed to hang like a heavy chain around the neck of his genius, and which alone prevented his rising to the highest positions open in a free country to those who combine the speculations of a theoretical politician with the sagacity of a practical i statesman.