PORT NICHOLSON.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue II, 2 September 1843, Page 311

PORT NICHOLSON.

We have received, by the Vanguard, our file of New Zealand Gazettes to the 19th August; also a copy of the paper of the 26th, for which we are indebted to the kindness of the Wellington Postmaster, who forwarded this on finding that copies of the 23d and 26th had not been posted for us at the time the mail was made up. We hope that, in future, no occasion may be afforded for noticing similar acts of omission.

The Gazette of August 12 contains a very full report of the meeting held at the Exchange on the Thursday preceding, to receive the report of the Committee of Safety. The editor, in an article on the subject, makes the following ■remarks : —

" There was only one feeling amongst all who attended, and the resolutions were, passed unanimously. The tone of the speeches was firm, manly, and decided, and the spirit which animated the speakers developed itself in expressions not, loud_ but deep. We, were never present at any' public meeting where a more general impression appeared to prevail of the importance of the subject which had brought it together, or where a more determined and dignified remonstrance against arbitrary and unjust proceedings was made." . - The following is a condensed report of the proceedings : — PUBLIC MEETING. Mr. Fitzherbert having been elected to the chair, A. Hort, 6en., Esq., read the report of the committee, which contained the answer of his Excellency the Officer administering the Government to the memorial addressed to him by the inhabitants of Wellington, on the receipt of the intelligence of the Wairoo massacre. We give the concluding paragraph of this letter, as it is a tolerably plain index of the opinions of the present Government on that melancholy event, and shows hdw well the M'Donogh statement has produced its intended effect in that quarter : —

" For the expressions contained in the memorial, and for the offer to place at the disposal of Government their ' best means and energies to carry out any measures which may be deemed advisable on this trying occasion,' I have to return to the subscribers his Excellency's best acknowledgments ; and I am earnestly to recommend to them a continuance of that forbearance which has, up to the present moment, been attended with such beneficial results in their district, and a departure from which by a body of the settlers at Nelson has brought about the recent fatal occurrence." The report states that the committee, on reading this, held a meeting, at which the following resolution was unanimously passed : — " Resolved, that this meeting dissents from the opinion expressed by his Excellency administering the Government, in his communication addressed to the late mayor of Wellington, that the melancholy event at Wairoo was the act of the settlers at Nelson, as the evidence shows that it arose out of an attempt to execute a warrant issued by the Police Magistrate of that place." The report concludes thus : —

" In consequence of a proclamation which has appeared under the hand of the present Chief Police Magistrate, stigmatizing the musters of the volunteers as illegal assemblies ; and which, though subsequently retracted, may meet the eye of many who may not see the retraction, your committee feel bound in this most public manner to state that their proceedings have had the full concurrence of the late Police Magistrate, Mr. M'Donogh, until he was superseded by the arrival of Major Richmond, as well as of the late lamented and present mayor of Wellington, and of all the local magistrates who are not in the employ of Government, many of whom are members of the various corps, and have taken a most active port in the assemblies stigmatized as illegal."

Mr. Wade proposed the adoption of the report. As regarded the statements put forth by Mr. M'Donogh, though some persons might consider them as errors, he called them wilful misstatements ; and, as they were not contradicted (for he could not consider the retraction to Colonel Wakefield as a contradiction — it was no contradiction if not refuted in as public a manner as the false statements were put forth), he must still call them wilful misstatements, persevered in for a purpose. An attempt had been made to stigmatize the memories of our countrymen whose bones -were lying on the plains of Wairoo ; but it would be well if they who attempted to stigmatize their memories possessed the high moral worth, and integrity of principle of those who fell in an attempt to uphold the dignity of British law. It would be well if they possessed the character of those brave men; men as brave and intelligent as ever trod the shores of New Zealand. The Government had found fault with its officers, and an attempt had been made to gloss the affair over by calling it " a contest between armed settlers from Nelson and the natives." This had been followed by the Auckland press and a few of the paid officials of the Government in that place (Wellington). Those statements had gone to the world, but they would now be denied by the settler*: of that place and those of Nelson. This lamentable affair had had one good effect. The settlers had begun to be a little divided, but it had caused all classes' to join together and put their shoulders to the wheel, and had formed that bond of brotherly union and unanimity (with the exception of one or two Auckland officials) which would enable them to join heart and hand with their fellowcolonists of Nelson, in obtaining justice for the past and due protection for the future. Mr. K. Mathikson seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously.

Captain Rhodes proposed the second resolution, which he read to the meeting : — " That this meeting considers the accounts of

the late lamentable affair at Wairoo, published by the Auckland Government and its representatives, as incorrect and unjust. That it is not true that that affair was merely ' a contest between armed settlers from Nelson and a body of natives,' nor'that' both parties were in the wrong,' but that the evidence in the hands of the Government at the time those false accusations were published proves distinctly that it was an act of resistance to the Queen's authority, and a savage massacre of those who were lawfully and officially engaged in maintaining it ; and that thi3 meeting agrees with the inhabitants of Nelson in their expressions of disapprobation at all attempts to gloss over or palliate the savage enormity of the crime committed." He then said (in allusion to the meeting held in Nelson on the 26th of July) that he was sure that the meeting' would coincide with him in' going hand in hand with the settlers of Nelson in wringing justice from the Government on perpetrators of the horrible massacre. There was but one course for them to pursue, and that was to have meeting after meeting and petition after petition, till they had compelled the Government to do justice on the murderers. He was convinced that, if the matter was allowed to drop, the natives would commit excesses everywhere. Mr. Ross begged leave to second the resolution. The settlers here were placed in a very peculiar position. The Police Magistrate of Nelson carried with him a warrant to apprehend a man supposed to be guilty of felony. In company with others, he repaired to the spot, and there laid down his life in an attempt to enforce British law on British subjects. The Police Magistrate went to the fullest extent man could do ; and proved his loyalty and adherence even unto death. He was not there to advocate the cause of the Police Magistrate; he did not know whether he was justified or not'; but, as an officer of Government attempting to arrest a supposed offender, the settlers of Nelson were bound to assist. The Government had thrown overboard its officers. It had attempted to gloss over the affair, by terming it " a contest between armed settlers and natives," when it was an attempt on the part of its representative to enforce British law that had brought about this horrible affair. The opinion would go to the world, under the sanction of Government, that a body of armed men from Nelson proceeded to a native village, and that the natives (in that self-defence which every one had a right to exercise) resisted them, which was the cause of the bloodshed. How different was the affair. A Police Magistrate, accompanied by gentlemen of such talents as would never have entered into any wild scheme, were, in an attempt to arrest an offender of the laws, after the reading and explaining of a warrant, butchered by (he could scarcely find words to express himself) an infernal monster. On the arrival of the brig from Auckland, a proclamation is issued, styling the drilling of the militia, which was authorized by the previous Police Magistrate, unlawful and illegal ; and threatening to disperse any such assemblies with the 53 soldiers. Another proclamation, or whatever you might term it, stated his (Major Richmond's) willingness to put himself at our head, in case of any attack from the Maories. But, really, he (Mr. Ross) could not advise them what to do ; for in one place they were told such meetings were unlawful, and in another that he (Major Richmond) would put himself at their head. He (Mr. Ross) considered that, to have the Maories on one side and the soldiers on the other, dispersing such illegal assembly, would be rather too much for the settlers to bear. It was in the highest degree improper on the part of the Government thus to behave to its officers. If the Government could thus abandon to disgrace the memories of men who fell in an endeavour to support its representative, he was convinced the settlers of Nelson and Wellington would show to the world the true statement of the case, and rescue from unmerited obloquy the memory of our brave departed countrymen. He had great pleasure in seconding the resolution, which was carried unanimously.

Mr. Fox proposed the third resolution : — " That this meeting considers 53 soldiers a totally insufficient protection for the settlements in Cook's Straits, or even for Wellington alone, and regards the attempt to put down the volunteer force of this settlement as imprudent and uncalled for ; and that this meeting request the I Committee of Safety to take the opinion of the local magistrates upon the propriety of the volunteers continuing to meet and. drill as heretofore." Having read the resolution, Mr. Fox proceeded by observing that the mildness of the terms of a previous resolution had been adverted to. That, while he thought no language could be too strong to express what he- felt on the present occasion, the tone of these proceedings would be considered at home, and anything which could be construed as violent would do our cause an injury. W,hen the Government brig returned from Auckland with soldiers on board, he believed that every settler hailed her arrival with satisfaction; but when it turned out that these soldiers were intended not to support and assist the volunteers, but to enable the Police Magistrate to put them down and disperse them, he believed there were few who. did not doubt whether it would not* have been better that tht»y should have stayedaway. After adverting to the advantage of a protective force composed of the settlers themselves, and reaaing to the meeting extracts from the despatches of the Marquis of Norraanby, Lord John Russell, and Sir George Gipps, on the subject of establishing a militia, Mr. Fox continued — Now, was it not a shameful thing that, with such encouragement and sanction to the formation of a militia, or other protective force consisting of the settlers themselves, neither our Legislature nor any other branch of Government had taken a single step towards it ; and did it not justify us in calling upon the local magistrates.

to take into consideration the propriety of our. volunteer forces recommencing, their military exercises, not from some indefinite future period, but from the present day? Mr. Alderman Lyon proposed the fourth resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Alderman Waitt, and carried unanimously : — " That this meeting expresses its surprise and regret at the haste evinced by the Police Magistrate, Major Richmond, in the attempt to put down the volunteer force, and at the arbitrary manner in which he proceeded to do so without consulting the local magistrates who had authorized its formation, or even intimating to them his arrival in the settlement; overstepping thereby the limits which both the law and magisterial courtesy prescribe to the exercise of his official authority." Mr. Alderman Wallace proposed the fifth resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Machattie, and read to the meeting : — " That this meeting regards the issuing of a proclamation, signed by the Chief Police Magistrate, designating as 'illegal assemblies' those musters for drill of the volunteer force which had the sanction of. the late Police Magistrate, the late and present Mayor of Wellington, and all the local magistrates not in the pay of Government, as a gross insult to the inhabitants of this settlement,; and that the apology offered by a public officer enjoying a public salary, that the false allegation was made ' inadvertently/ is as insulting as the charge itself."

Mr. John Roots then addressed the meet* ing. After censuring the parties from whom the several proclamations had emanated, the resolution was put and carried unanimously. A. Hort, sen., Esq., in a short speech, in which he alluded to the fact of the colony possessing, in a remarkable degree, the germb of future prosperity, though afflicted at the present time, proposed the sixth resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Luolam, and carried unanimously :—: — " That the refusal of the late Police Magistrate to allow depositions to the local magistrates who applied for the same, at the request of the corporation, was unjustifiable, and that this meeting beg to express its thanks to the authorities of Nelson for the copies of depositions taken by them, and forwarded to the mayor of Wellington for public use."

John Smith, Esq., of the Union Bank, proposed the seventh resolution, which was seconded by W. Vavasour, Esq., and carried unanimously : — " That this meeting frankly but firmly declares it as its opinion, that the system hitherto pursued of delaying to settle the Land Claims of the settlements in Cook's Straits — not an acre of which lias yet been adjudicated upon — has been the primary cause of the recent lamentable events, and at this moment is ruining most valuable colonists, and that it is not enough to be told after four years' delay, that the very simple question of value of 150,000 acres of land, and how much has been paid for it, could not have been ascertained after going over the ground in a few hours. And this meeting believes that it was the paramount duty of the Governor to have seen that it was settled, even should it have required his personal presence; and is well convinced that it will be so considered in other lands, as it is here, to be a denial of justice." Major Baker, in proposing the eighth resolution, alluded to the fact of Cook's Straits being left in such a, defenceless condition, and stated that, with the superior force of the natives, 500 soldiers at the least ought to be placed in this district.

" That this meeting is of opinion that a wise and judicious policy, and, in the end, an economical one, would have suggested a force of at least 500 men, which would have enabled the Local Government both to protect and to open by their means a rood through the interior of the country, the utility and importance of which' cannot be disputed." Major Hornbrook seconded the resolution,, which was carried unanimously. Mr. Revans proposed the ninth resolution : " That the thanks of this meeting be tendered to the gentlemen composing the Committee of Public Safety, for the manner in which they have exercised their office, and that they be requested to continue the same, watching with especial jealousy all attempts made by the Pplice Magistrate and the other Government functionaries to encroach upon the legitimate powers of the local magistracy." He could not but regret that, on all occasions when they had met together, the colonists had invariably been obliged to use the language of complaint at the conduct of Government. In reference to the proclamation issued by Mr. Shortland, he would only say that he never thought any Governor could be so thoughtless, simple, or devoid of sense. It would, in all likelihood, require all the disposable force of Government to do away, with the evils arising from it. Mr. Alderman Wai-it seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. - Baron- Yon Alzdobf proposed the tenth resolution :rr . " That a copy, of the foregoing resolutions be forwarded to bis Excellency the Officer administering the Government, to be by him transmitted to her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, and that copies be also sent to, the sheriff of .Nelson, and! the.chairnajm of the benches' of jnogW trates at Warigatiui and. New Plymouth, and to. Auckland and Bay of Islands." Seconded by Drvfrt'ATfrßßSTOtf, and carried unanimously. L " ! ' : ,\ Thanks were then vb ( ted to the chairman, axfd the meeting separated. " Since the foregoing article- was in typp, We have received through the Post-office another batch of newspapers, among which wera the Nqd Zealand. Gazettes of the 23d and' 26th of August, The supposed neglect of posting these at Wellington in due time for the mail is th«rt* fore without foundation. The kindness of the Wellington Pottmaiter, however, is not thejkw esteemed. '"'■-, r . .. .!-,;''..'•