NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 18, 4 October 1845, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND.

[From the Atlas, May 10.] There seems at last to be some prospect of an accomodation between the colonial office and the New Zealand Company ; for Lord Stanley has recalled Captain Fitzroy, and the Company has proposed terms to his lordship for the settlement of their land claims. Captain Fitzroy had altogether deprived himself of public confidence, both in the colony and at home ; and, that more perhaps by his manner and personal bearing than by his measures. His recall was, therefore indispensable. Many of the attacks made upon his policy were obviously unjust ; but where defensible ,in itself, it (seemed to proceed from whim, caprice, and contentiousness of spirit rather than from sound principles or enlarged or' comprehensive views of his, duty. So that while the injustice done him was occasionally repulsed in this journal, its readers will recollect more than one admission of the necessity of withdrawing him.The withdrawal of Captain Fitzroy from the government of New Zealand, as above recommended, does not, in our opinion, satisfy the conditions on which the fiiture prosperity of the colony can be assured. The modification of the company's direction, and the recall of Colonel Wakefield, its principal agent, are also indispensable. The former is necessary, because in the directions, as atpresent constituted there is a spirit of intolerance and of intrigue which is quite incompatible with the proper conduct of public business, and which has broken out into violence and abuse against the wiser, more moderate, and more trustworthy portion of the direction, and against Lord Stanley, on the prospect of an accomodation, in which either party must give way a little. There can be no use in concealing names, and therefore we may mention Mr. Gibbon W^akefield as the director, whose retirement seems to us necessary. Mr. Wakefield as a gentleman of very great ability, and in the art of colonization has not only made a really grand discovery, but has also systemisedit. Owing, however, to impetuosity of temperament, to intolerance of the slightest difference of opinion, to an ever active system of public vituperation, in which he indulges, and to a restless spirit of intrigue, Mr. Wakefield's great intellectual powers are dangerous to any public company ; and so long as he remains in the New Zealand Company, it cannot we are persuaded, prosper. This we say from no ill-will to Mr. Wakefield, in whose principles of colonization we entirely concur, but from a sincere desire to see a colony that owes its foundation to him succeed. Colouel Wakefield's recall from the principal agency of the Company in New Zealand is also desirable on many grounds. Without' his recall, any accommodation would, in the colony, have an appearance of a^triumph to the Company, and thereby rouse native hostility to such a pitch as might defeat the objects of accommodation. For if the company's settlers have lost all confidence in Captain Fitzroy, the natives regard Colonel Wakefield with the reverse of friendly feeling. Whether rightly or wrongly, it is superfluous to our present purpose to decide, but certain it is, the natives ars penetrated with the belief that Colonel Wakefield, in his early land trafficking with them, very grossly deceived them. His disputes with the missionaries have too, made him the representative of a system, which there is no hope of inducing so powerful and influential a body to support And there is every reason to believe that the inaccuracy of many of his representations to his employers have at times needlessly embittered discussions on points in-ifiemselves difficult and delicate. Captain Fitzroy recalled, the Directors of the New Zealand Company modified, and Colonel Wakefield withdrawn, the obstacles to obstruct an accommodation, ought indeed to be few.