TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 76, 14 November 1846, Page 1

TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

[From tbe Wejlington Independant, Oct. 28. i Gentlemen. — It is stated, we know not on what authority, that your Principal , Agent will soon return to England. Some of the remarks which follow could not be made after he left. They are hastily put forth that they may be more deliberately answered. You will excuse the tone of remarks proceeding from "disappointed men," Your 20th Report exhibits you in an entirely new character, and evidently at your last gasp. You have successively cultivated the multitude, the Chuich of England, the Church of Scotland, and the Free Church, and with each you have failed. The last three you used simply to excite public interest, as showmen at a fair use the pictures of impossible giants to draw the money of the gaping crowd. As a last resource you appear to have adopted the views of the Aborigines Protection Society, and thrown yourselves upon that body for support. Let not the worthy and highly estimable members of that Society, be so deceived as to imagine that you sincerely j adopt their views. In your Report these views become the veriest cant that ever was canted. It was a noble enterprise you ventured upon. To annex to ,tbe British Empire islands equal in

area to G)eat Britain, and capable of supporting millions of Englishmen, to establish communities in which land, labour, and capital, should be found in the proportions best calculated to ensure success, to make provision for the maintenance and progressive improvement of the aboriginal population, to bring side by side civilization and savagely, to blend one of the most barbarous with one of the most civilized laces of the earth, and to combine all these objects in one great enterprise, was an undertaking in which even you might be proud to engage Pity it is that you gentlemen, whose personal characters had become the property of your countrymen, standards to what Englishmen might refer with satisfaction as examples of what Englishmen are, should, in our corporate capacity, have added another verification to the remarks of those writers, who amibute to corporate bodies utter insensibility to moral obligation. Yonaie anxious that Her Majesty's advisers should adopt a policy the very reverse of that which you have been foryeats urging upon them, I the reverse of that which yon know that Captain J Grey is instructed to carry out And why are you so anxious ? Is it because you think the settlers will be benefited by the policy you now for the ficst time suggest ? Not at all. You have not been anxious for the settlers. They have been your cards, your counters, your football, the mere materials of your game; or if with your new viens theuesports should profane, the hoop which you are dexterously endeavouring to pass over to the Government in your new amusement of La Grace. Your object has been and is (o make the Colony, the Settlers, and the Shareholders of the New Zealand Company, the stepping stones to gratify the ambition of one or more of your members, or of your confederates. And hence you fear that the appointment of Captain Grey to the Government of this Colony, had put an end to the contest. You were not in a condition to prolong the struggle. You had spent or wasted all the money placed at jour disposal ,by the shareholders and land purchasers. You had exhausted the crecjit of the Company. Your { introduction of the lottery in land, had deprived , the settlers of the benefits tin J anticipated from \ the Wakelield System of Colonization. You had j made bold statements in England, which were notsuppoited by private intelligence received fronj settlers. And jou had beeii for years de« I ceiving the British public, as you admit in your report, that you had been deceiving the settlers here. And all these exertions had failed, still you were not to !>e beaten as long as a chance , remained you would fight to the last You knew you had trusty weapons here. You did not attack Captain Grey openly, the factious nature of your opposition would have appeared too clearly. He was to be led into a war of extermination against the natives. You were to anticipate this in your Report, and get measures adopted which would throw insuperable difficulties in his way. Such a course, if successful, you loresaw must end in his resignation j for you knew that no man of his character would remain in his position, subject to the dictatorial interference of a body of men, for whom he can entertain but very slight respect. There seems one other reason for your urging Legislation before reports from Captain Grey could reach the Colonial Office, You have boasted of your superior infoi (nation — you have taunted the Colonial Office upon it. It is possible that, in the coiuse of your controversy with that office you have found yourselves at issue with it as to facts. Your Agents and yourselves have so managed to dispai age preceding Governors of NewZealand, that whatever confidence the Colonial Office might place in their statements, they could scarcely overcome your bold assertions to the contrary. It was not ao with Captain Grey. His character, his colonial experience, and his freedom from any bias in favor of the policy adopted by preceding Governors, ensured a perfect trust in the fidelity of his representations. And his statements you knew would materially vary from yours. It was therefore doubly important to procure his removal, or to disgust him by the end- \ less difficulties thrown in his way, and then to ' treat his Reports as those of a "disappointed j man,." Failing these plans, what else remained ] but jo dissolve the Company, and escape the exposure those Reports would" bring upon you. You know |how the press can be worked. A ' distance of 16,000 miles will not prevent a well 1 managed correspondence from influencing the ex- ' pression of a simulated public opinion, and while you would not yourselves venture to,impeach the < veracity of Captain Gre}, your instruments in the i colony w ere not so scrupulous. The newspaper of which you take thirty copies, ventured to suggest that Captain Grey would injure the settlers by mis-representing their case.

I Yout report is dated 29th May, and the first 3 direct assertion made against Captain Grey by i the newspaper of which you take thirty copies, 9 was made on the 30th of that month. 3 Your Principal Agent had recommended that I the intruding natives in the Hntt should be dri1 yen out. On the exhibition ofa superior force s they retired. Captain Grey was urged to follow them into the bush. Disappointing your anti- ■ cipations, he declined to do so. In his absence, i your Principal Agent's influence was used to urge i the attack upon them, at a time when the season - was unfavourable, the disposition of the natives 3 on the coast not ascertained, and the fidelity of i ( native allies doubtful. Your newspaper accused \ Captain Grey of vacillation in not directing an ■ immediate attack, and gave as the crowning > reason that Rauparaha himself recommended it. f You have heard of the capture of Rauparaha. He was then «i professed friend. Had the attack j been made, mischief would have ensued, and t your predictions would have been partially ful- ? , filled. During the interval, two settlers were t I murdered, leaving relatives unprotected The ,! responsibility for those murders the paper, of , j which you take thirty copies, tried to fix on Cap- . ,tain Grey, The settlers were astonished at the , j impudence of the attempt. They did not know , the reason of it. You are interested in this, and ( as the circumstances shew the correctness and . value of your information, we must request your attention to them. , In the New Zealand Journal, a paper which you recollect warmly advocated your cause, on the 23rd May, 1840, was printed your Principal , Agent's third despatch to the New Zealand Company; it was taken from the columns of the Cg'lonial Gazette, another newspaper in your service, and from the Colonial Gazette these words are also quoted : — Save in the omission of one sentence of a personal nature, it (the Despatch) is printed without abridgment, or the suppression ofa single word, a strong proof of the *openness and fairness with which the operations of the Company are conducted. J In the Despatch so printed, which contains his .Journal under date 24th October, 1839, your | Principal Agent gives an account of his purchase of land from Rauparaha. His account of proceedings, under date November lSt'i, of that year is as follows :— j Monday, 18th November.— Atlength a light southerly wind enabled us to leave Kapiti, and running * along the coast to the northward, we passed successively Waimea, (which is the next district to Waikanae, the stream at which place is nearly dried up ; its main branch having diverted itself into the Waikauae River, which, however, scarcely admits a boat at high water); Otaki, and Manewatu, both rivers also incapable of access to any craft." Mr. Edward Jerningham Wakefield in hjs work entitled "Adventure in New Zealand," which is a libel on yoursettlers, gives the following account of the proceedings of that day :— On the morning of the 18th November, as we lay nearly becalmed off the sandy beach between Waikanae and CKaki, Rauparaha came on board on his way from the latter place to Kapiti, He seemed ill at ease, though we greeted him kindly, notwithstanding our aversion for his character. He asked for some grog, and then took an early opportunity of stating, in the most barefaced way, that he should sell some land to the vessel from Port Jackson*, as he wanted more guns, and had only sold us Taitapa and Rangi-toto-rthat is Blind Bay and D'Urville's Island. Colonel Wakefield reproached him instantly, and in the strongest terms, with his falsehood and duplicity, making Brooks the interpreter repeat to him several times that he had behaved as a liar and a slave, instead ofa great chief. Rauparaha maintained, however, an impertubable silence, giving no answer to this severe attack, or to the reproaches which all the cabin party addressed to him. He demanded and drank another glass of grog, and then got into his canoe, which pulled for Kapiti. We were of course much hurt by this rapid repudiation of his bargain, and though we depended upon the perfect justness and openness of the agreement which we had made with him before so many witnesses, and in such explicit terms for our justification before the world, we foresaw some obstacles 1 already arrayed aganst the peactful settlement of th» Straits, during the life of this deceitful old savage. It seemed natural to suppose, however, that whether obliged to govern and protect ourselves, or acknowledged and fostered as we hoped by the British Government, we should always possess a force able to protect the plantations against any of his evil designs, and to maintain the execution of any just bargain, whether or not he should be inclined to abide by it at a future period. I You had the information contained in the above extract and and suppressed it. You were persuading hundreds of your countrymen to leave England for New Zealand. You painted the advantages in glowing colours. Your veracity was unimpeachable. You were believed. But while you held out the benefits, you were bound to

state t.m risk*. You did nut Male to tbobe who with then- w ives and little onus >«u uiviictl lo emigiate, iliai within a few miles ot the clue town in tour Fust and Piineipal Seltleme.it, and claiming land u hieh } on were about lo distribute, lived a powei f»l savage against whom it was anticipated your settleis would Have to light. You knew this and suppressed it ; or you did not know it, and your Agent-is here, and before he leaves the colony will doubtless explain how he omitted lo inform you. Yon will as-ree with us, thattheie was need to try and fix upon Captain: Grey if it could be done, the blame of the murder of our unfortunate lellow Colonials. You Avi ll also agree with us that Hie Colonial Oflice, may leasonably doubt, the superior accuracy ot your iufprinaiion, or ybur, honesty iii^ imparting it. We have ( other observations*^), .make which we must defiT. We cannot/how ever, close this' portion of , our remarks without assuring jou that (Japtain Grey is the best Governor this colony eyer had. Yon may relieve yourselves ot *uixiety about your setileis while he remains with us. The intelligence, which next to the certainty of the New Zealand Company's dissolution, we should mostdesiie to reeive, would be that of Capiaiu. Greys' permanent appointment as our Governor. We esteem this next in importance to the dissolution of the Company, because as long as the Company exists, there will be no peace m New Zealand.