NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Times, Volume 3, Issue 148, 8 November 1845, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND.

(To the Editor of the Sydney Morning Chronicle.) Sir.—A short article ou t'te New Zealand Land Claims, which appeared in Saturday's Herald, concludes with this remark : '< la fact the question of Title is just where it was in 1841. ** It would be well for New Zealand, and its industrious settlers were this really the case—were the question of Title not a great deal more complicated aud difficult at the present moment than it then was ; and, if you will permit me, through the medium of your paper, to offer a few words on this subject, the disagreeable fact ean unfortunately be proved. In 1841 there was a fair prospect that the Commissioners woold, in a few years, terminate their labours ; and that, in the meantime, grants from the crown'would He continually issued, keeping pace with their reports and the survey of the country. But unforseen difficulties arose; difficulties which, in some instances, seemed, as the weary settlers themselves expressed it, to be manufactured on purpose j but which really were caused by want of system. The energies of the Commissioners were para, lysed by frequently proposed changes in the ordinance under which they acted, and other official delays sprang up from time to time, proving most cleaily that the system or plan upon which the investigation was to proceed hid not been so maturely considered and digested by the Local Government, before it allowed the enquiry to commence, as the importance of the interests involved demanded. At length, when Captain Uobson did introduce a measure calculated to rescue the claimants from their troubles, and to assure them at any rate against further losses from delay, by putting them in immediate possession of land, as if to make good the old adage—*' Quern Deus vult perdere prius dement at}" men were found foolish enough—--1 had almost said base enough—to oppose the

measure out of opposition to the mac • and, since reasons plenty can always be found by such men sufficiently plausible to influence the many, the generality of the settlers did what they were told to do, and evinced a most decided dislike to concentration, and the Bill was thrown out. It may not be unworthy of remark, that among the violent opponents of that Bill were some who, three years afterwards, were the first to avail thamselves of Captain Pitzroy's offer—a similar one; to a certain degree, but not nearly so advantageous to the claimants, as Captain Hobson's. la 8843, when nearly al] the Commissioner's Reports (save those of the New Zealand Com* pany's claims and the claims connected with them) were understood to have been handed in, still the period for the issue of grants, founded on those reports, seemed as far off as ever. No survey had been made; and, except in a few instances, the offer made by Government to bear a part of the expense of survey, the claimants employing licensed surveyors, had of necessity been rejeoted; for lime and court fees had produced a beggarly account of empty pockets among the poor land claimants.

At last came Captain Fitsroy, with all sorts of instructions public and private in his pocket—to remedy all the evils and put an end to all the confusion which had arisen, or might be supposed to have arisen, before his coming. His Exoellency cat the Gordiau knot, 'tis true, but alas, so clumsily that the debris, the shreds and patches of the knot are scattered about to be in the way of all future Governors to the end of lime. In the absence of a survey, he ordered grants to be issued thus;—A deed in due form gives to A B say, 800 acres of land, comprised in a certain claim for six thousand acres, "of which the boundaries are said to be as follows" (1 quote from the deed). Then follow some sesquepedalia verba tremendous native names, supposed to indicate places on the boundary lines of these 6000 acres ; but there is nothiug to indicate the particular spot where the 600 acres granted are to be taken. Yet this is all —so says Captain Fitzroy—that the claimant is ever to obtain. It is a grant, minus one of the most essential parls of a grant, viz., a description of the land granted. Thus will this gentleman entail upon Government the necessity for appoint* ing, some yeari hence, a new Commission to inquire into titles acquired or said to be acquired under a former one ; and thus are the title* to land in New Zealaud rendered more complicated, more utterly and irretrievably conned than they ever were, —and all this to enable his Excellency to go Siome and say, "I have settled the land clain.s. I remaiu, sir, yous, &c, Veritas. Sydney, October :3 ; 1845. P-S-—With regard to the New Zealand Company, the claims of that body have formed special cases, not reducible to the same rules whereby the generality of private claims could be adjudicated. The reservation alluded to in the Herald as having been made in a grant recently issued to the Company, v 1 2,, <* o f an y land to which any person may hereafter prove he had title before the New Zealand Company's purchase" is but of a piece with Capt. patent method of getting over difficulties.

It is known that many persons did fairly purchase from the aborigines long prior to the arrival of the Tory and Col. Wakefield, small tracts of land on both sides the Strait. The claims of these persons are not at all investigated. But His Excellency cannot wait; the pany's agent presses for a grant confirmatory of Mr. Spain's Report, and one is accordingly issued of about the same relative value as those got up for the unfortunates mentioned above. It is too late to do justice to the New Zealand laud claimants; but their case cannot be too long held up to public notice as a glaring instance of the consequences of folly and want of system, and blundering of a petty Government.

{To the Editor of the Sydney Morning Chronicle.) Sir.—-In my last letter to you 1 spoke of the ruin which has been entailed on the land claimants in New Zealand in a body, by the proceedings of the local Government, and the utter and hopeless confusion in whioh the question is involved. I must devote this letter to making one great excep. lion to that general assertion. From the entire class of land claimants I should have excepted one set of people in that unhappy country, whose position as claimants stands out in strong contrast with that of the bard working settler. 1 mean those land claimants who are also (or were very recently), missionaries attached to the Church of England Missionary Society. The very considerable estates whioh these individuals bave acquired, have been all deemed so moderate, considering the purposes for whioh they were destined, the value given for them, and the circumstances under which they were purchased, that nearly all the claims have been allowed to the lull extent j and these particularly ignorant gun-

smiths, carpenters, gardeners, and eoachmakers, are now the richest and largest landed proprietors in the Colony. The object which these samiclerical individuals had in view in making these purchases, is stated to have been the- securing a small independent provision for their very name. roas families (and truly they have carried cut this admirable principle to the utmost) their progeny is generally pretty numerous j but each family must increase materially before the present estates .p? hea * d aa be considered a small inheritance. fhe great value gj the natives for the laud,—another poin h stress is lair? —can be thus rend- nteTTigibie'English--Ihe purchases were made with articles from tho mission store, arriving direct fiom England, and. costing wholesale English prices; the actual co»t» therefore, to the trading gentleman who got permission to use some of these articles, was insignificant. A novel msthod was therefore hit upon, for increasing the apparent value of the consideration. The Sydney prices for similar articles o£ barter were taken instead of the London prices, and those again were multiplied by 3—a process! which soon made the sum look quite imposing. Another exceedingly disinterested light in which! this proceeding of the missionaries is plaoed, is? ihe peculiar circumstances under which the Janet was acquired j which are generally represented aa having been those of absolute necessity ; when a refusal to purchase a certain rich tract would have brought about a oollsiou between two hostile tubes—a collision which in all probability would have ended like the fable of the two pugnacious Irish cats, in their eating each other up ! But what is principally complained of in all this system, is the extent to which the interests of. religion and civilization have suffered with tha natives thereby. Sent to the country to perform A peculiar and saored duty, and that afom>—enjoined? to spare no exertions to win the confidence and affections of the inhabitants, and to earn theic respect and esteem as the means of inducing theni to follow their precepts, these persons who professed themselves self denying messengers of God to a people living in ,<larkßess, become traders and batterers, placing themselves on a footing and iri competition with the commonest down coast trader. Amongst their first actions, after having completed comfortable residences and surrounded themselves with luxuries, were their negocia'tions for land for themselves. The New Zealander is not easily long imposed! upon. *or a time, the proceedings of such of these men as were so neglectful of the interests intrusted to them might escape observation : but in a few years comparisons began to be drawn between the precepts and practice of these mis-, sionanes; and, when he saw the rapacity with what a Ukr Un T ° f tbJS W ° rU "■"•o*at/d, and *t ™h .? i CSe Soldisa ™ Apostles were in to to film ,e . e °r to get secured Eh fc i k paßSage in the New Testament, which had been g,v e n him by one of those veryP miss.onaries, and remarked-- Where your treaJ sure is there w.ll your heart be also. You told 1 * Up t < rea , B . nre f°* myself in heaven; but it here as # " g (CUSt ° m) ta l 0 B6Care ° Qe

But whatever opinion the natives or the white* Sn C r am 0a the Bub J eot of these 'arge acqniM ss? Pr ° Pe xl y hy the ear, y Chur <* of England Missionaries m New Zealand, the individuals, themselves are secure in their possessions- and they arc, the only land claimants who are not nearly, if not main ITt* '' Vt* ?■*' P r obMj t with them is the S! " Pol f u Ffflthe, ™o">> never having been hi ants n'n ,e th oUbt^ ad 2> er P lexi *y «" the other claimants on the subject of their titles (from the fact perhaps 0 « their having-aome or otheTof them 1* been adnmted behind the scenes), they have always continued their operations and improvements without fear or hesitation ; and are now in a situation to make a good profit of their produce near the spot of War> Dy BUppljing tlleir £ att , e £ m pS Bent a S ainst tl, eir friends the iviaones.

But enough of these gentlemen for the present.' My object in addressing these letters to you, Mr* Editor, is to bring forward a number of circumstances wb.cb-althougu at first sight .hey may have hale apparent connection with the present siate of New Zealand, and have reference to things which are* to a certain extent, gone by and passed a way-will, nevertheless, be found to have ooutnbuted each its mite towards the present desperate state of that country. In going over various passages of the history of New Zealand, 1 have often been struck by the very curious manner in which events, apparently without the most remote connection, are found to bear upon each other. This may be said of the history of all countries; it is no new observations but New Zealand affords another very strong illustration of the old one. The facts s 0 brought together may not be unworthy of consideration, and may, at any rate, serve as waruing.beaoons to save other vessels from the shoals on which this fine vessel was wrecked; for after all, however desirous we may be of expressing our iudignationt at mismanagement, hypociisy, or imbecility, and our regret at the mischiefs they produce, we must remember with Erasmus— *• Super vacaneum est ob ta discruaan qua non revocari, sed tamen posterioribus curis sarciri possunt. Hue ignitur incumbe potius quam ut pmteritorium inani deploratione futuri quoque temporis jacturamfacias." I remain, sir, yours <&c., Sydney, October 16, 1845, V £ R s™.