not from within, e.g. from, or hostile to, any particular party, and all effectual security is lost for the public weal. The entire performance of his duty is the rule which must be rigorously enforced. In his public capacity he must have no interest apart from the fulfillment of his office.

The same law holds with regard to regulations issued by the superior powers to be enforced by the inferior. None ought to be allowed to exist which experience decides to be injurious to the community in their application, and none ought to be vexatiously enforced when unsuited to accomplish the legitimate end, the welfare of the people. Third, the same law demands promptitude both in the prevention of injury and in the advancement of good, and the rule applies equally to greater and to lesser arrangements in the social system. Nothing injures like delay. An imperfect rule applied is better than a good one suspended—"a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Delay ripens every evil, prevents every good from germinating. Much more works against the Governor who undertakes a Colony a year old in unsettlement, than him who sets heartily to work at first, and the chances are that he will abandon his task in despair; never having seen the people whom he was to have governed, compelled one by one to abandon the field of their enterprise.

We leave it to others to pursue these thoughts, and to our Legislators, Governors, and officials of every grade to apply them. We will, however, just present an illustration or two of this suprema lex, the salus populi, applied by various official personages here, and connected with certain so called, British Colony within the limits of the Southern Pacific Ocean. There is a Governor at a little distance from it, who passes laws not to protect and maintain properly, declared to be such by the Ministers of the Crown, but to deny and overthrow it.

There is local authority existing only in name, or else furnished with powers little more than to vex and annoy. There is a Colony without Colonists and without colonization, there being no property to colonize upon.

There are Magistrates and Officers whose rules of conduct are, frequently, not laws but fictions and dreams. There are peace officers and conservators of decorum, whose chief business is to act in defiance of the laws they are sworn to maintain and defend.

In the aforesaid Colony one may be kept in prison without any prospect of trial, since there is no court promised whose jurisdiction is competent to judge their actions. And in the mean time the unhappy inmates may suffer all the miseries of filth, want, and disease, without redress or pity. In that country the rain of heaven falls on them, but these poor wretches have been kept without water 24 or 36 hours, though confined in a small room 18 or 20 together.

There is a principal township where there is little better than a disorderly police, without a Magistrate, and without regular court without appropriate units, without assured Custom-house protection for its trade without any apparent concern on the part of the Government for the promotion of its commerce.

There are numerous Settlers who are every hour in danger of becoming more and more alienated from the Government, and over whom it will soon lose all power to exert a healthy control. Are not these very curious illustrations of the application of that suprema lex the salus populi?

Our Post-office department still, like almost every other thing connected with Government, cries loudly and imperatively for reform. The mail which came by the Victoria on Sunday was not delivered at Kororareka till Monday afternoon. The inconvenience was most seriously felt, as it was expected every hour that the William Stovell would sail for Sydney. Mr. M’Carthy, the Harbour Master, instead of bringing the mail on shore, either lost, or was ordered, we know not which, to convey it to Russell. This was justifiable only on the supposition that there were Government Dispatches in it, but in that case it was the bounded duty of the Postmaster there, to send it down early on Monday morning. We do not know where the fault lay, but wherever it lay it was highly reprehensible. Too much past correspondence between this colony and others yet remain, in obscure. It is a serious affair, and ought not to be touched, much less detained, by any person not sworn to take charge of it; Moreover, Kororareka is, for the present at least, the place of trade, and its interests in that point of view, beyond question demand the first consideration for if there be no trade, there can be no colony in New Zealand. We have recently seen a mail bag between this and Russell lie a whole day in an open boat on the Beach, without a protector. Who was responsible for its contents?

Mr. M’Carthy tells us that we have no business to complain of these things that they are done under superior orders. All this is nonsense. We, at last, would be guilty of gross injustice to the Public, if we would not speak of them besides, that we have the same interest in them that others have. In fine, we will not hold our tongues till remedies are applied. Now is the time or never to save the Colony from the ruin that it threatens. Glad shall we be to hail the dawn of good Government. We earnestly believe that His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor would further our views if he had the requisite apparatus to employ. Be that as it may, reformation must soon commence somewhere or we may all take our departure.

It has been frequently, and just now again, suggested to us, that the evils which Kororareka suffers arise from the hostility of Captain Hobson to it. This has always seemed so incredible a thing, that we have stedfastly avoided mentioning it till now. To be hostile to Kororareka is to be hostile to a large portion of the trade of New Zealand. Governor without a trading community to govern—it is impossible that these things can originate in that quarter. But we earnestly hope Captain Hobson will make a public investigation into these matters. One thing is certain—appearances tend to confirm the impression. Combine the following evidences—Kororareka is left to the government of an idle and class police—its Custom-house business—the small portion of it which is permitted to be done here is compelled to be left to a subordinate. It has no resident Magistrate, and it is given us to understand that if a quorum will not sit here on Court days, as individuals are sometimes detained from 24 or 36 hours after arrival. The threat is continually suspended over its head that its land titles shall not be allowed. What is the natural inference from these premises? We respectfully intreat His Excellency to exert himself for the protection of our interests in such a manner as shall for ever silence the reproach.

Whoever may be indifferent to these, just complaints and appeals—the British Government will not. That Government will not countenance no contempt of lands, no official petulance, no capricious harshness, no neglect of trading interests. Our case will very soon be a matter of Ministerial or Parliamentary scrutiny. To that judgment we appeal, if our prior appeal to our Local Government be fruitless.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette.

Knowing that you are always ready to give publicity to wrongs, with a view to their being remedied, —I beg leave to make a few remarks. 1st., Will the Bakers be allowed to impose, and how long, upon the public, by charging more than 100 per cent, on the price of flour? The poor should answer this question, perhaps,—or would a Company remedy this crying evil? Is it true that the loaves are generally short of their professed weight? Is it not true that the proceedings of Government have caused a complete stagnation in every branch of business unconnected with Bakers and Publicans?

Is it true that 14 persons charged with different offences, are kept in close confinement in a room measuring 8 feet by 10, whilst awaiting their trials (which may come on nobody knows when) without being allowed either air or exercise?

Is it true that only one blanket is allowed to two of those unfortunates, whilst attempting to rest themselves on the log floor of their dungeon? Can these things be legal?

Is it true that until two females, (supposed to be known to certain officers in high places) were associated with the former inhabitants of the dark hole, no rations beyond bread and water were allowed?

Is it true that now a modicum of meat is allowed, no means are allowed to cook it? As to vegetables the idea is quite preposterous!

Can His Excellency the Governor be aware of the difficulty in procuring payment of small accounts due to individuals working for, or supplying the Government with goods?

The last question is suggested by an individual who has had to pay £3 for boat hire to Russell Town to endeavour to obtain payment of a sum less than £20. Will the inhabitants who have by their own zealous industry, unaided by Government, made New Zealand what it is, look quietly and callously on, when the queries are daily crying for an answer?

Querist.

Lord John Russell’s Speech concluded from our last.

Not in either of these ways, nor by any modification of these ways (all of which had taken place in the formation of the Colonies which had hitherto proceeded from the mother country), was it that this Colony was proposed to be. But it was proposed to form a company, which company were not themselves to be armed with the authority of the state, nor were they themselves to emigrate and found a colony by negotiating with the inhabitants and making purchases of the land; but it was to be a company having nominated a very great capital in shares, but which capital was not to be wholly paid up. Upon the credit of this supposed capital the land of New Zealand was to be sold by the company to other parties—the company guaranteeing the final purchase of the land from the Natives, and thus large profits were to be acquired by the shareholder. There were many persons connected with that company for whom he had great respect, and who, perhaps, had the best intentions for wishing to found such a colony. But he would call upon the House to consider what a precedent the government would have established, if in the first instance they had sanctioned such a plan; or what a precedent the House of Commons would have established if they had agreed to the Bill that was submitted.