The Lyttelton Times

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 489, 11 July 1857, Page 5

The Lyttelton Times

Saturday, July 11. 'By the latest advices we understand that Mr. Sewell has arrived in England by the Royal Charter, on his mission to raise a loan of £500,000 on Imperial Guarantee. We are, however, in a position to state that even before his arrival the subject had been considered by the Home Government, and that success was hopeless. We subjoin an extract from the Colonial Secretary's letter to the Governor, of New Zealand on the subject with which we have baen favoured by private sources from England. " I desire to take the earliest opportunity to inform you that I have no expectation that Her Majesty's .Government will entertain and recommend to Parliament the proposal to guarantee a loan o! £500.000 to the Colonial Government. It was only under very special circumstances, as pointed ont in his despatches of the 4th July, 1,855, that my -predecessor, Lord John Russell, felt himself warranted in suggesting an arrangement for the settlement of the New Zealand Company's Debt, by means of a loan not exceeding1 £200.000, to be guaranteed by the Imperial Treasury on the conditions then specified. No grounds whatever have been stated which would justify an extension of the guarantee proposed by Lord John Russell to the further loans which the New Zealand Legislature desire to contract, and no arrangement based upon the guarantee for £500,000 thus proposed can therefore be carried into effect." The friends of New Zealand write (before Mr. Sewe.U's arrival), in great fear lest he should not have been furnished with powers to negotiate under the Imperial Guarantee the smaller loan of £200;O0Q to pay off the New Zealand Company's Debt ; under' which circumstances the arrangement with the Company would fall through too. This arrangement, it will be remembered, was sanctioned by the Home Government.On referring to the proceedings of the House of Representatives on the. subject, we are glad to find that, subsequent to the passing of the resolutions referring to the proposed I6an of £500,000, provision was made for the refusal of the Imperial Guarantee by the passing of the following resolution. That in the event of the financial scheme of the Government failing from inability to obtain the necessary loan of £500,000, the £200,000 offered by the home Government for liquidation of the New Zealand Company's Debt shall be raised on the terms propossd, and the mode of payment shall stand over as part of a general adjustment of the public burdens, it being an essential part of such adjustment that the Land Fund shall be exonerated from its special liability to the purchase of Native Lands, as well as from the^New Zealand Company's Debt; and that, in accordance with a former resolution of this House, the Province of Auckland shall be relieved retrospectively, as well as prospectively, from any contribution towards the liquidation of that debt, the purchabe money of Native Lands being provided for either by a scheme of consolidated burdens, or by a distinct appropriation of specific portions of such burdeps to the respective provinces, upon the principles affirmed in former resolutions of this House. As far then as the New Zealand Company's Debt is concerned, we have little fear, backed as Mr. Sewell will be in England by the assistance of the friends of New Zealand. But we look with some apprehension to the re-opening of the question of adjustment of burdens at the next session °f the General Assembly,( which will be occasioned by the failure of the proposed loan policy.