PORT NICHOLSON.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 39, 3 December 1842, Page 156

PORT NICHOLSON.

[ The want of roads appears to be severely felt at Wellington, and a correspondent of the Gazette makes the following suggestion. After stating that it would be fir« necessary to ascertain what is really wanted, and the probable expense, he says — " Let a proper memorial be sent home to the New Zealand Company. Set on foot a subscription to a paper, binding the parties each in a certain sum, which they may be willing to put their name to, to pay ultimately what the Company did not — probably as many names would be got to such a paper as voted for the mayor — this promissory note our worthy banker, with all his stinginess, would probably discount, which would enable the roads, at this the best season of the year, to be instantly set about." In the Gazette of November sth, there is a reply to an article which appeared in the Colonist, relative to the supposed dissolution of the New Zealand Company, which we extracted into our columns. "Yesterday's Colonist contains an article calculated to do much mischief, and there is no doubt that the wish is father to the thought. It would not be easy to suggest any thing more malicious in its purpose. We are happy in being able to state that the rumours of the Colonist, and upon which certain arguments are based, are lies, and more, that they must be deemed the product of a designing and cowardly pen, wickedly employed to destroy the peace and confidence of the Company's settlers. The twenty-fourth paragraph of the fifth report of the Company, states that 'in the course of last year Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Esq., Sir . George Sinclair, Bart., Russell Ellis, Esq., and William Taylor Copeland, Esq. and Alderman, M.P., have retired from the direction of your affairs. Their places have been respectively filled by the following gentlemen, Charles Buller, Esq., M.P., William King, Esq., Sir Ralph Howard, Bart., M.P., and Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Bart.' llt will appear by this extract that Mr. Wakefield n-etired months since, a fact well known in this colony, and the reason for which was that Mr. Wakefield would necessarily be absent for many months in Canada, where

he was up to the latest dates received, and where it was understood he would be detained until August. The Colonist states that dates to the 13th June announced that MrJSomcs had" ceased to be the Governor of the Company, while >__f have London papers o{" the 25th June, in whftH this gentleman is advertised as still Governor v^ the New Zealand Company. In conclusion, for the comfort of our fellow settlers, we beg to state that the Company have not been <dissolved, that they have no intention of dissolving,'and that they are animated by the strongest determination to persevere with spirit and activity in settling and advancing the welfare of their settlements in New Zealand." Some explanation is given, in the Gazette of the 9th, to the circumstances which led Mr. Wicksteed to refuse the use of the Company's boat at New Plymouth on a recent occasion,. Up to land the cargo of the Ocean. A letter to Mr. Wicksteed, signed by the principal inhabitants of Taranaki, says— " In acknowledging the urbanity and promptitude with which you have rendered the required assistance to all vessels in which we have been interested, we earnestly solicit that you will continue to discourage the illiberal and unbusinesslike practice of evading the carriage of the Postoffice Mail." Our contemporary of the same date has an article on the important subject of foreign whalers shipping their cargoes in English bottoms for the British market, which by the new tariff they are able to do. The following we extract from the Colonist. "It appears to be now tolerably certain that, thanks to the exertions of the Directors of the New Zealand Company, the proposed Loan Company is at length established, and that we may soon expect to see it in active operation in this place. Its assistance will be of the utmost service to the settlement ; and if its affairs are conducted with prudence and liberality, it will prove a very profitable investment to the shareholders."