NEW ZEALAND. House of Commons.—March 18th.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 13, 30 August 1845, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND. House of Commons. —March 18th.

Mr. Masterman presented a petition fron the City of London, placing ior the adoption o such measuies as would secure for the colonist! of New Zealand good and eifirieat government and for the New Zealand Company a good title to their lands. Mr. G. W. Hope then rose, pursuant to notice, to move for papers relative to New Zealand, with a view to the defence of Loid Stanley from the charge of having given instructions to Captain Fitzroy on the eve of his depaiture to assume the government of that colony, in direct variance with the agreement between the Colonial Office and the N. Z. Company. The hon. gentleman entered into a lengthy defence of the noble lord drawn almost entirely from official documents and correspondence, tending to establish the lact that his loidslup had not committed any deception whatever, though some portion of the coioespondeuce might have been misundeistood or misconstrued. Mr. C. Ijuller enLred into a history of the transactions between the N. Z. Company and the Colonial Ollioe, with a view to make the House if possible, without leading the correspondence, uudei stand the precise nature of the complaint which the Company prefei red against Lord Stanley. Under any circumstances the insti actions of ihe noble lord were so vague and ambiguous, tuat the Company to this hour had never been able to obtain the execution of the agreement, or to obtain possession ol the land to which they were entitled. The Company had laboured under a deception, and that deception sprang from Ho fault of their own. They had every reason to suppose that the agreement would be earned out in one spirit, wheteas it was earned out m a spirit wholly the reverse of what they expected. They remained in this stale of deception for a period of nine months, and all because Lord Stanley had nut, according to the oidmary course of business transactions, madetheCompany aware of the second series ot instructions given to Captain FiUioy. Tho hon. member concluded by moving as an amendment, for the production of all the conespondence between Lord Stanley and the N. Z. Company. Mr. G. W. Hope, said the difficulties in Lord Stanleys way, dn&ing out of the claims of the S .iative.j, had been entirely overlooked by the hon . member, ami )et it wa«. entirely owing to tho=e : claim* tiidt the title of the Compauy had not been completed. Mr. Sm el said that Lord Stanley's conduction of the agreement, (addressed to Captain FiUru),} v\as marked confidential, and this word was aftet wards carefully erased. He wished to know why such a woid should have been written on a public document, forming an agreement between two parties ? Why wa.« one of those parties, the New Zealand Compain, kept in i<>--iiojaiiceof instructions given b) the other parts, Lord Stanle), to Capt. Fitzroy, who was acting foi botti I The> might quote the words of omof the New Zealand Chiefs, who said to one ol tne settlers, " Speak \our words as you mean but do not speak one thing, and mean another," words whicii he (Mr. bluel) said, should be wntten in letters of gold in the Colonial Office The SoLiciroß-Gt-NERAL relerred to various portions, of the correspondence, in order to piove that theie had been no breach of faith whatever on the part of Loid Stanley. After some observations from Mr. Hutt, Captain Itous contended that every step taken with regard to New Zealand was opposed to equity as regarded the natives. Lord Ingestre said the whole affair originated in a misundeistanding, which however, was a fatal one to the Company. Mr. Aglionby profes&ed his inability to undei stand the explanation of Mr. Hope. Sir it. Peel said the impies>sion left upon bis mind bv the discussion was, that his noble friend (Loid Stanley) had neither deceived the N. Z. Company intentionally or otherwise. That the House shared in tuat impression he inferred fiom the lew hon. raembeis on the opposition benches, wtio remained to listen to the debate, three uut of four were members of the N Z. Company, it should not be forgotten that Lord Stanley was placed m a peculiar position, as the natural protecloi of the lights oi the natives, winch it became his duty to guard against infringement ; and the House would also beai m mind that after the Company was petfectly aware of all that had taken place, they addresbed a letter (o his noble fiiend, in which they stated that they placed the whole affair under consicleiation in his hands with the most perfect reliance ; and jet they now say that his bieach of faith was so great that it was impossible to hold communication with him. After some observations from Mr. Mangles, Capt. Rice Ti evor. Mr C. Buller, Mr M. Milues, and Sir U. Peel, the motion was agreed to. j