THE NELSON EXAMINER Nelson,-September 16, 1843.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 80, 16 September 1843, Page 318

THE NELSON EXAMINER Nelson, -September 16, 1843.

Les journaux deviennent plus necessaires a mesure que les hommea «ont plus fegaux, ,et 1* individualisme plui & craindre. Cc serait diminuer leur importance que de croire qu' ih ne cervent qu* & garantir la liberty : ill auuntienneat la civiluation. „ . Dk TocaritTiti.l. ' - De la Democratic en Amerique, tome 4, p. 820. Journal* become more neceiiary qs men become more equal, and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only' to lecture liberty : they maintain civilization. , . D« ToctitncyiLLß. ■ Of Democracy in America, vol . 4, p« 202. In resuming the subject of our last week's leader, it would be an attempt at imposition, on our part now to state,' as a discovery, of our own, the cause of the distrust and anxiety which fill the minds of all classes in- this colony : it is well known to be the. notoriously disgraceful manner in which the government has been administered, commencing from the arrival of the first authorized representative of her British Majesty in these islands. One of the earliest acts of this 1 our first ruler was the notorious " Russell-Clendon job ;" and which, unhappily, afforded but too true a specimen of . his capacity to fill the responsible office to which he had been appointed, in accordance with that system which fills ' lucrative situations in the colonies — the " ministerial patronage preserves " — with sncMndividuals as are incompetent, through ignorance or incapacity, to hold office at home. The, peculiar policy which characterized this transaction has, unfortußntely, been consist gently kept m countenance, both by the late Governor abd his, temporary successor, by a serigi of subsequent blunders, extend-

ingj without exception,, ifirough every de-parjtrartp-^legisliafciv^,' ."aWmf|s|trative, and ;finaji£iak — until at^engih.uMer the super-, intendence of the latt&Xy our very existence as a community is threatened by the recent surrender of our privileges as British subjects to the tender mercies of a race of yet unreclaimed cannibals. Truly, then, it is not ; wonderful that men, filled with indignation and disgust at such conduct, should demand an alteration, in the rotten," bu¥ekh," cratieal system which admits of the possibility of the chief and uncontrolled power in a British possessidn~removed from^tji immediate surveillance of the Crown by the great distance and delay? in communication which exist between England and New Zealand — being vested in such an individual ; who — whether he be judged by the acts which originated with Tiimself, or by those to which, as the willing tool of others, ia« gave the sanction of his name — whether he be regarded as a half-witted and ignorant incapable, or as a credulous dupe, without the power of estimating men or things, has proved himself to be decidedly the most unfortu-, nately weak-mined person upon whonftsl^ ever cast, the mantle, of authority; whose greatest misfortune indeed was his inability to foresee the magnitude, of the errors \n3%* positive crimes) which would result from his folly and presumption in assuming such authority. But, as we are anxious that our arguments should not assume the shape of unfounded assertions, we at once proceedWo lay before our readers an abridged view' or the resgestce of Government, which we trust "will convince all who can and will see, that our statements are founded on and comftted fr.om/ac*s. , ; • . < 1* The majority of our fellow colonists are, we boliovc, already aware that New Zealand was proclaimed, by Governor Hobson, a dependency of the British Crown, on the 30th of January, 1840. It is not our intention at present to comment upon the irregular nature of' his proceedings in that transaction, beyond noticing the apparent contradiction of at one time issuing a proclamation which asserted the authority of Great Britain over these islands generally, without any limitation whatsoever, and subsequently assuming authority over the Northern Island, in virtue of a treaty of cession from }he natives at Waitangi, and over the Southern Island by right of discovery ! It is sufficient to state, with regard to this anomalous proceeding, that it was included by Lord Stanley, in one of his despatches, amongst " the irregularities which characterized the whole settlement of New Zealand." Now, what was the method adopted by Governor Hobson to realize his proclaimed professions of protection to her Majesty's subjects?' Why, amongst "his earliest despatches to the Home ' Government, we find the highly respectable inhabitants of the most flourishing settlement in the colony (indeed, the only one where any approach to systematic colonization had been attempted, and that, too,, without the cost of a sixpence, to the' British Government) charged with being " guilty of high treason *'/, because, forsooth, long prior to his arrival, and indeed before- they were aware, that any Governor for New Zealand was, or, would /be appointed, and in the consequent total absence of any regularlyconstituted authority, the majority of the well-disposed settlers, at Wellington had — what? — determined "to renounce their allegiance to ' England ? No— 4iad agreed to co-operate in restraining the evil-disposed until the arrival of some Crown-appointed authority ! This was the act held up as evidence of a rebellion, to crush which it was deemed necessary to send a detachment of soldiers, It muatliave been matter, of great, astonishment to Mr. Shortland (who was the ' Governor's representatijfe,' : .o'n the occasion) to find that, instead of " war to the,. knife*' (a -determination to jespj-t to wh'vih could alone have wan»nied;the applietiSonffi the epithetai'^d),. nothing but expression* of satisfeptym from the people of Wellington greeted his arrival. To quote

from Mr. Shorthand's despatch on the occasion:—" I was on' by' Dr. Evans, Mr. Chaffers, ' and Mr. Tod, who informed me that the settlers were highly delighted at my arrival. They assured me that they had been greatly misrepresented, and stated that the council had been formed to keep the peace,' and for mutual protection, until the arrival of yout Excellency or any persons appointed by you ;" and further on he states ffiaV" the proclamation was responded to by three hearty cheers and hy a royal salute I from the Europeans." This despatch was by a loyal address to Gbvetnor 1 Hobson from the persons whom he had f)^o termed traitors, assuring him of their determination to afford him their most cordial support, and declaring their attachment to the British Crown, &c. : and this was tseirJ reply to his expressed opinion, founded (liken too many which succeeded it) upon hearsay alone, and without his ever . having put himself in direct communication with the parties whom he so .hastily prejudgedfmdj of whom, in a subsequent despatch, Ms] better information obliged aim to speak in khe fpllowing terms : — " Those persons wjio have -settled at Port Nicholson, under tSeJ auspices of the Company, are, from their]

jankj numbers, and wealth, by far the most important in the colony."

We next come to the celebrated display of his talents as a financier,, as shown in the " Russell-Clendon job." , What his real inducements were for agreeing to pay to

Mr. Clendon the enormous sum of £15,000 for 220 acres of land, a great part of which consisted of barren rock, we do not pretend to know; but this, at least, we do know, that all his arguments in favour of th^lUd purchase failed to convince either Sir Georg^ Gipps or Lord Stanley; the former of whom, whilst his control over Captain Hobson's acts continued, refused in any way to sanction the proceeding; .arid the latter thus announces (a second time) his disapproval of the final arrangement, viz., to give Mr. Clendon £2,500 and 10,000 acres elsewhere for the 220 or possibly 300 acres of land at Russell : — " I am of opinion that tne\information which you furnish on the subnet] is not sufficient to remove the prima factld impression that, in. this transaction, you have exceeded the proper limits of the authority vested in you. > I see no sufficient proof that land adequate to the purposes might not have been obtained at that part of the Bay of Islands where the settlement is already established, nor that it might not have been obtained of Mr. Clendon himself, without entering upon so unnecessarily a large transaction on the part of Government :" and a little further on in the same despatch Lord Stanley says :— " Had this transaction been of a recent date, and had it been possible to communicate the decision of her Majesty's Government within ' a limited time, I should, even in the. present state of the case, have directed the disallowance of the agreements.'! Without wishing to tire the patience of our readers by dwelling longer upon this transaction, of^H^ monstrosity of which they must have been long since fully aware, we would just ask upon what data did Governor Hobson assume that Mr. Clenddn's claim of ownership, and consequent power of disposing of the land (for which he had originally paid only £150), was "indisputable?" We would next advert to the permission given by the Governor to his subordinates to select allotments of land on the site of the future town of Auckland (upon which they were to erect houses), previous to the general sale of town allotments, and which it was implied they were to pay for at the average rate of those sold by auction, a long credit for such payment being also given. It is unnecessary now to state the great superiority, both as to locality and size, of the allotments thus selected : this has been .very cleverly pointed out in Mr. .Sinclair's letter to Lord Stanley, and also by tiie Land Emigration Commissioners. When the latter brought the transaction under Lord Stanley's notice, bis lordship appeared to doubt the possibility of a governor being guilcy of so gross a breach of duty ; for we find the matter thus alluded to in his despatch of the 24th September, 1841 :— " I feel convinced that it will be in your power to disprove the representations, which have been communicated to the. commissioners on this subject r but, in the highly improbable contingency of such, grants of town lands haying been made according to the terms described in the memorial, it will be necessary tbat the persons in whose -favour such

grants may have been made, should be distinctly apprized that her Majesty's Government cannot recognize the validity of their titles." But his lordship was -mistaken when he supposed that Governor Hobson could disprove these " representations ;" the " highly improbable contingency " was an undeniable fact ; and so far was the Governor from .attempting to disprove it, that he only endeavoured to cast an odium upon Mr* Sinclair, not by proving that his information was false, but by insinuating that it was procured in an underhand manner ! But, notwithstanding the floundering attempts of the Governor to prove that it was a perfectly fair negotiation (although one of these subordinates, Mr. ShorthnuL had already. sold the allotment selected by^ him for treble the sum at which it had been originally valued, without ever having resided upon it, and before he had even been called upon to pay for it), Lord Stanley i was ndt to be blinded; and, in a particu-"* larly short and decisive despatch of the 28th of January 1842, he confirms the censure conveyed in his former despatch, and agim intimates that " their titles would not beN, recognized."

L We shall next notice the petition from [Wellington, praying for his recall. Amongst the charges of misgovernment contained in it we find one which again called forth a reproof from the Colonial Secretary, viz^/ of crimping labourers from Wellingtpnk ' to assist in the adornment of the Govern- i ment domain at Auckland. Tenable to deny the fact, the Governor tried to destroy any weight the petition might have had, by attributing its origin to the jealousy engendered by his selecting Auckland as the seat of government in preference to Wellington ; and in this, through the timely aid afforded him by the Auckland people, he partly succeeded. But the Auckland people themselves discovered their mistake at last, and , found that, in their attempt to run down the Wellington boat, there was imminent danger of swamping their own ; and then came ftheir petition, breathing the same prayer foe his recall ! — thereby proving that.it was not a petty jealousy as to the situation of the seat of government, but a firm conviction, on the part of all the European settlers, of his utter incapacity to govern them. That, they had abundant reason for such conviction will be seen when we more particularly allude to his manner of appropriating the revenue and emigration fund of the colony.

t The following important intelligence respecting the intended policy of the Colonial Office towards this settlement was brought out by the Mary. As we cannot vouch fox\ its authenticity, we give it merely as rumour although we have the strongest reasons for believing that it will be confirmed on the arrival of the Ursula's mail : — f\ " 1. The title question is to be settled by the Government, and the Commissioner of Claims withdrawn. , " 2. The revenue of 6ur settlements is to expended in each respectively where it is raised. " 3. A separate Administration under a Lieu-tenant-Governor and Chief Justice for Cook's Straits. <" 4. The Company to sell land at Auckland and its neighbourhood ; or, in other words, to be the colonizing instrument of the Government." In addition to the above, it is stated that I many people of capital axe preparing to Slßme to this -settlement ; amongst others, the second son of Earl Fortescue, with a party of friends, may be shortly expected.% Since the above was in type, we have been further informed that Lord Stanley does not acknowledge the native title in this island. , ■ *\