CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE COURT OF DIRECTORS OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY AND MR. WAKEFIELD.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 365, 13 October 1849, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE COURT OF DIRECTORS OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY AND MR. WAKEFIELD.

Reigate, 29th January, 1849. DEAR Sir,— l requeit that you will be so good as to submit to the Dirrcton of the New Zealand Company the tender of my resignation of a seat in the Court. It is necessary for me briefly to itate my reason* for taking this step. They are thiee \u number, and they all arise out of my intention to publish a book, which is now in the press. In the first place, then, I believe that the publication of this book may have the eflvct of reviving, and perhaps of aggravating, i» Lord Grey'a mind certain FaeliKgS with which the more active of my colleagues tre well acquainted. In my own opinion, a new irritation of bis pastiom migh bo hurtfully visited on the Company in tome way or other, if I continued a Director after the book was published, I therefore enable the Couit to act according to their view of the interests of the Company in this respect. In the next place, I have been under the necessity of expressing in the paid book, the opinions i hat I have always entertained of the footing on which the colony and Company weie placed by the Company* arrangement with Lord Grey as Colonial Minister. These opinions are so well known to the more active of my colleagues that I need not state them here. As they widely differ from the opinions of the Court on that point, I feel that the publication of them by roe require that I should offer to retires from the Direction. Thii oftvr I conceive to be due to my colleaquei, who-e uniform kindness find consideration to me derniud my warmest acknowledgments. Lastly, it is one of my opinions abou^ the arrange ment with Lord Grey, that it places the Company on a footing of complete dependence on the Colonial Office, i entering u« in fa< t a subordinate branch of ihat department for the (I wish 1 could siy real) colonization of a part of New Z aland, If Urn v.ew of the lelations of the Company towards Mte Colonial Offi;e is correct, lh»-n the positions of a D. rector of the Company, and of the author of a bo -k lelttitijj in a great measuie to C'>e defects and vices of the Colonial Oilier as tin Go-*L-rnmeut of our colonial empire, are manifestly io conflicting as to make it incumbent ou the author to «ease being a director ; provide 1 alwsyi, however, his colleagues should have no reason for objecting to his resignation. With reference to this proviso, I wish to say further, for the information of those of the Directois who may not be aware of the fact, that the state of my health would long ago hare indued me to retiro from a post ilie dutiei of which I was unable to perfoim (except "by helping now and then, as far ns illness would per« out, to malce the nrrungement with Lord Grey work well for Colony and Compmy), if I could have taken that «tcp without threat risk of appearing fo desen my -r.olleagues and the proprietors after the condition of the Company had become exceedingly unrrospf-rous. I beg your pardon for employing another luud ia writing to you, and remain, 6 Dear Sir, Very faithfully and lincerely yours, (Signed) E. G. Wakefield. T. C. Harrington, Esq.

Ntw Zealand Home, Fcbruuiy 16, 1849. Sin,— ln reply t) your letter of the 29ih of last vnontb, the Directors of the New Zealand Company desire me to expresß their entire appreciation of the bonorable motives which have induced you to lender the resignation of you seat at their Board, and to inform you that they have determined, after much co» • Bidtr.»tion o( the reasons ass-gned by you, to accept itBut they have not arrived at that determination without the greatest reluctance. They feel lhat your retirement constitutes an important epoch in the affairs of the Compam ; and that, however nec^sary, it cannoT fail to be contemplated by the shareholders, as well as by themselves, with deep and sincere regret. It is impossible to forget that the formation of the Company, and through its mfans, the colonization of New Zealand were mrinly due to your individual exertions ; nor that, throughout all the difficulties with which the Company has struggled during nearly the entile period of its exigence, you have constantly, while your strength permitted, sustained the chief part in conducting its operations and maintaining its cause. For the take of thdt cause you have freely sacrificed time and health, and have borne with unflinching courage the mortification resulting from the comparative disappointment of long cherished hopes. It is therefore doubly painful to the Directors that they ehould be compelled to aiquiesce in a separation from you at a time whrn they trust tint a bettur prospect is opening for the Company and the Colony, it is true that, as you s»y, the state of your health has unfortunately disabled you, for many months past, from personal attendance at the Board ; yet they have with difficulty reconciled themselves to the idea that your name is to be removed from the Direction, and that they must give up all hopes of enjoying, at auy future time, the advanUge of your direct co jperation. Under the peculiar circumstances of the case, however, they feel that it is impossible to aioid concurring in the opinion which you ht.ve indicated, or believing that the public interests confided to their charge will be best consulted by their acceptance of your rcsigna* In conclusion, the Directors desire me to reciprocate, in the most cordial manner, the expreskions of personal regard which your letter contains, »nd to convey to you their sense of the loss which they suitarn, not only as a corporate body, but as individuals, by the discontinuance of their present oflioml reUtioos with you.

I am instructed to expreison their behalf, their beit vrishet for your welfare and happpine*, and Remain, Sir, [^ Yonr most obedient servant, """ (Signe I) T. C. HarinOTON. E. G. Wakefield, E«»q.

From Mr. E. G. Warrficld to tub HoY, H. W. Pctrk. Reigate, 17th April, 1849. My Dear Henry Pdtrk, — Wishing to communicate with our friends in New Zealand, I cannot adopt a more suitable mode of addressing them than by writing to you, who were among the first to project the British coloniz >tion of the ialamls, and with whose emigration as a permanent colonist I had perhaps more concern than with that of any other of Hie many settlers whom I assisted in inducing to embrace a colonial career. Our long friendship, as it sparei me the necessity of npoligisin? for giving you some trouble, furnishes another motive for asking you to receive this !ettrr »a a rommuniration a<idivis«d to all our ftienda in the colony. If you can enable them to re«*d it without having it printed, well and good ; but if not, I beg of you to tend a copy of i', and of itt enclosures, to each of the newspapers at Wellington, whose editor! I thus further request to oblige me by printing it in their columns. The inclosed copy of a correspondence which I have recently held with the Court of Directors of the New Zenland Company, will show you that I am no longer a member ol that body ; it will also fully explain why I tendered my resignation as a Director, and why the offer was accepted. The acceptance of that offer wai a great relief to me for, if they really had wiihed to keep me amongst them, a dread of sremingto desert th«m whilst the Company is in a state of adversity (which alone of Jute years hai induced me to continue in the Dirftction ), would probably have held me until the end of (he chspterin that moil false and uncomfortable position. That position was for me falie and uncomfortable to the extent of being a painful thraldom. My •tate of health wax such as to prevent me from being even a member of the Managing Commi'tee of the Court, which pi incipally directs th* affairs of the Company. As the inclosed correspondence will show, I hare always and strongly objected to the arrangements with the Colonial Office, by which the Company and the colonization of New Zealand were pi iced on anew footing in May, 1847- Two years' experience of that arrangement h»ve verified my worst predictions with regard to its operation on the Company and Colony. I have perceived for some time that the New Zealand Company, ns resppcti the object* of it» inco-po'ation, was really defunct- In this opinion, as well ai in my view of the arrangement made in 1847, I have differed from nil my colleague! in the Direction. They were nali>fied with that arrangement, and areitill not greatly discontented with its effects; and the collective action of the Court represents their opinions. Thm by continuing a Director, I seemed to approve of what entirply dissaii fled me, and to take part in proceeding! which in my view of theßubject, were unreal, and likely to delude the Proprietors and the Colony. Yet I wai powerless ( from ill-hea'ith ) to attempt bringing about any change for the better. Dm ing the two years in question, I have been unable to attend the Court meetings except for two purposes ; — first, that of promoting the arrangements which the Company has made wi'h the Canterbury Association, in which I took a. lively interest because they held oat a hope of sotns good ro!oni7\Uon for New Zealand notwithstanding the state of the Colony an 1 Company; and «econdlT) thfit of emlcav wing to falsify my own predictions ns to t he efTVc ol the arrangement made in 1847, by he'ping to \ rescive the Company from a danger, 1 growing < ut of that arrangement, which threatened its life, and whol'y deprived its existence of vitality, during a large portion of the two years in question. In other respects, I hays been only a nominal Director since July, 18-JG, when severe illness compelled me to abstain for a long while from any kind of mental exeitioii You will see therefore how irksome must have b( en latterly my portion a? a Director: it resembled that of poor Charles Buller, during the time when lie wa< held responsible for proceeding! of the Colonial Office in which he had no ihare, and of which he cordially disappioved. I feel my retirement from the Com t as ii must pleasant liberation. It has set me free, amount other emancipation*, to wri'e this letter of expl na'ion and warning to the colon'uti of New Zealand. You may naturally ask ( for every New Zealand colonist has a ris;ht to question me on this subject ) why, when the Director! entered into the arrangement with the Colonial Office in May, 1847, 1 did not then re ire fr.irn the Court, and stale to the proprietors and coloni&ts my unfavourable opinion of the footing on which that arrangement placed the Company and Colony ? My reasons for not doing so were several. I was so very ill at the time a» to have doubts of the soundness of my of » judgment on any question. Differing from all my colleagues, whose regard for the Proprietors and Colonials was at least equal to mine, and iiho-e mpaeity for judging I might ( though I never wavered in differing from their opinion ) well deem superior to my own, I might have mistrusted my own judgment though my health had been perfect. Neither, if I hud insisted on my own view, was I in a condition to give it prac ioal effect by co-operating with such Directors as might perhaps in that case have agreed with me, and with the. Proprietor! in the en eavour to get a different arrangement. I was crippled by illness : and although I have never doubted that a belter airungement for both Company and Colony, and ti far belter one for the Co ony, might have beon obtained if the Directors had stood firmly to the principles of the Company as these were laid down in Loi d Stanley '• time, I could not induce any body to agree with ms on this point. la fact, the Directori generally were tired out by the long itruggle with Downinjf-street when Lord Grey was our champion ; and when he chunged his views on attaining power, they were content to take whatever they could get rather than continue the struggle, as against him. Peace and quiet had with them become the one thing needful. 'Hits being their state of mind (and who can wonder at it ?), they naturally disregarded my objections to the arungement and my fcuggesiion that it would be beltei for uh to put an end to the Company then, when it stood high in public opinion, than 1o make it a party to a great delusion and see it slowly tx'inguuhed in disgrace. Thes° views they attributed to the irritability of bsd health and a too pugnacious disposition. So the fatal arrangement was made. Any public protest against it by me could hnvo done no good : it might only have hastened my own gloomy anticipations of the result. Instead therefore of retiring from tbe Direction, and making known my reasons for the step, I resolved not only to abstain from doing anything that could possibly interfere w.th a fair trial of the arrangement, but to atsist, if my health should permit, in giving it a fair trial : and to this resolution, I steadily adhered down to the 29th of January last, when my resignation wan tendered to the Court. Why I then proposed to retire ib fu ly shown by the correspondence. We now come to a new stage in the course of events. Though incapacitated by feeble health from doing more with the Company than, ai before observed,

help in toying the fonmlation of tbe Canterbury settlenaent, and averting an extreme -danger to which the Company was exposed by its dependence on the Colonial Office, I was nbla somehow or other to prepare a book for the press. This book is really a large pamphlet for New Zealand. Its publication necessit«ted my retirement from the Direction of the Company. It would not have been published if the prospects of the Colony had been good. In publishing it, I hare made public, in general terras, my own opinion of the arrangement fur Colony and Com" pany which was concluded between the Company and the Colonial Office in 1847. I have thus taken a position separated from the Company. It was not without careful deliberation that I resolved thus to express my opinions relating to the state of the Colony and Company. At the end of last year, the time bad come when nothing done by me could make roalteis worse. The Company was a mere name. Colonization was stopped, without a hope of revival except by means of important changes in the Government of the Colony and the treatment of its waste lands. An ample trial of the arrangement of 1847 had ended in the most complete failure. By appealing to the public on behaU of colonization in general and New Zealand in particular, I could hurt neither the Colony nor the Company, but might do some good to the Colony at least. So the book was published ; and here I am, free to address you without reserve about the state and prospects of the Colony. This freedom, however, does not at present extend to speaking out here in England. If I were now to make known the particulars of my opinion as to the it&te and prospects of the Company, a majority of the Proprietors might agree with me, and might choose to wind-up the affairs of the Company immediately. Their doing this, or an attempt by them to do it— nay, any mooting of Cha question' publicly — might at least have the effect of preventing the Directors from making another effort to resume colonization, and thereby save the Company from extinction next year, when the arrangemant with. Lord Grey will expire. I must do nothing to interfere with their endeavours for this purpose. Though I am intimately persuaded that the attempt will fail, like all those they have made under the present arrangement, I must do nothing that might have a tendency to promote its failure. It suffices for myielf that, by publishing the book, I have washed my hands of responsibility for the arrangement of 1847. The Proprietors are aware of my retirement from the Direction, know generally my opinion of the arrangement of 1847, and can judge for themselves. It would be unbecoming in me to meddle in any way between them and the Directors. This letter will be sent without the knowledge of any Proprietor. Indeed, on the subject of the state of the Company I have not communicated, and do not intend at present to communicate, with any Proprietor who is not a Director. Thus the contents of this letter will not be made public here for a twelvemonth, when a colonial newspaper may bring them from New Zealand. Long before tast time, the attempt of the Directors to save the Company, by resuming coloniz tion on a sufficient icale, will have ended in failure or success. If in failure, my prediction thereof not becoming known here till after the failure, will be of no consequence; if in succesi, I shall only be laughed at as a false prophet, and shall join in the lauj»h with as much satisfaction as anybody. As soon as this letter shall be on its way, I shall show a copy to some of the Dire.ctois, but certainly to no oher Proprietor s<) long is tlure shall be a chance that the Direciors may prevint the dissolution of the Compa >y in May, 1850, by means of obtaining in the interval funds wherewith to pay off the Company's debt to the Government, and carry on operations with the Company's own funds. __ With the foregoing explanation about mjself, I dismiss personal considerations, lv the remaindc-r of this letter, my object will be to furnish the colonists with inlorma ion which they may find useful, to put them on th-ir guard against dangers they are not aware, and to offer them some words of council which I trust they will attnbu'e to no p«esumption on my part, but to the deep interest I take in their welfare, and to feelings of sympathy and attachment which I cannot help entertaining even towards those of them with whom I am not personally acquainted. The utter incapacity of the Company to serve as an instrument of the State in carrying on the colonization of New Zealand is a fact of which every colonist must now be persuaded, and which requires no comment from me, I 3u r some persons hure who admit the fact, indulge nevertheless a vague uojje th«t some change for the better may presently occur. I have not the least hopes of it. I urn persuaded that the arrangement of 1847, was made on the part of the Colonial Office with the delih'rate intention of putting an end to the Company in 1850. I think tint in the negotiations for thot anangement, the Directors though they gave up many points ag«inst their will, were in a great measure deluded and taken in. Sick as they were of the long previous struggle, they snatched blindly at the bope of being able to get on well if the Company were but at peace with the Colonial Office. But peace in this rase, was really the complete subjection of the Company to •• the Office." Ever) thing of importance was lef: to depend on the mere pleasure of Downingstreet. By an arrangement, the very basis of which is that the Company should depend for its continued existence ort advances of mooey from the Government, and should take no important step without the sanction of the Colouial Office, the independence of the Company was destroyed. When it lost independence the Company lost the public confidence. But except by means of enjoying the public confidence, its success as a colonizing body was impossible. It is a remarkable fact that the Company has never, from the hour of its birth to the present day, stood well with the public except when it wus at open war with the Colonial Office. By the arrangement of 1817, the Company w*s,so tightly muzz ed as to be thenceforth incapable, not merely of biting but even of barking. It took to praising the Colonial Office for a setOemeat of New Zealand affairs, which left every pub ie question of moment unseti cd, and to boasting of its own subjection to Dow mug-street, as being calculated to strengthen its hands by means of co-operating with the Government. The public listened, but was not convinced. To those who < arefully examined the arrangement of 1847, the seeds of the dissolution ol tile Company were plainly visible ; a notion got abroad that the Company was prepared for its own dissolution in 185 ), and had taken real care of nothing but its own pecuniary interests } and colonization was not resumed. With the exception of some little movement in the planting of Otafro, which lias been but a feeble conimuationof .n impulse which took place in Scotland before 1846, and of the formation ol the very important Canterbury Association, which was not the work of (he Company, nothin?. it may be said, has been done for the cjlonizationuf New Zealand dining the last two years. The dispatch of a ship every other month is next to nothing in itself, and is a businesi which ship owners and. broke -a would have performed in order to provide for the little emigration 'that would have gone on spontaneously if there had been no Company. AH that the Company has done is to get further iulo debt to the Government. 'Even the share-

holders, whose confidence in the Directors was unlimited in 1847, and who then joined with the Directors in glorifying the arrangement made with the Colonial Oflice, tre beginning to find out that their position as shareholders is getting worse every day ; I should not he surprised if, at their annual meeting next month, they were to express some wish that the Company's affain should be at once wound-up. I say this without knowing their vicwi, not having, I repeat, communicated with any of them on the subject j but I have heard that some of them are very much dusatis • fied ; and their interest is so plainly concerned in puttin? a stop to the increase of the Company's debt, whilst the hope of being able to pay off any part of the debt by meam of salei of land during the next year appear* to me to entirely delusivp, that I think it probable they may wish to p-event the Director! from jroing on from bad to worieas respects the Compnny's fundi. But at all event"!, I am convinced that the Company will not last over May, 1 850. The Directors may perhaps contemplate rubbing on somehow till then by means of some salei of land, and then getting a freih l«ase with perhaps some fresh advunces from. Government ; and it is ju3t possible, if Lord Grey should continue in office bo loner, that he may be disposed to preserve the Company for another year or two in order that its final dissolution may be less manifestly a consequence of his own arrangement in 1847. Indeed, the dissolution of the Company whilst Lord Grey is in office, is an eve it which he may be desirous to avert for the reasons which, as I firmly believe, would have induced him in 1847 to place the coloni■zw'ion of New Zealand on r sound footin? if the Company had then stood firm to the principles of which he and they were the strenuous advocates when he waft in opposition j for Lord firey professes , and I have no doubt believes, that he has carried out thoie principle! si Minister j so that the utter and proclaimed failure of the Company as a colonizing body would not be very agreeable to him even though it should be postponed to next year, when lapse of time and the gradual sinking of the Company will to a great extent have disconnected the failure fmni the promises o£ •uccest, and especially from Lord Grey's large individual pait in those promise* and in his denunciations of the proceedings of the Colonial Office uudcr Lord Stanley. But all this is mere speculation which I believe has no solid foundation. The event alone can determine whether my opinion is correct; but my full expectation is that certainly in May, 1850, and probably before, the Company will be as dead in form as it now is in fact. At the same time, I ara not without hopes, that whenever the Company shall be formally dissolved tho Canterbury Allocation tnny preserve a separate existence, and may acquire greater means of usefulness than it can posses! as an appendage to the New Zealand Company. With this new Association, the Colonial Office has never been at war : still legi has this Association over defeated the Colonial Office : it is not therefore hated by the Colonial Office as the old Company has been, ii, and ever must be. Neither has it ever been & close coadjutor with Lord Grey in proclaiming the principles which he has abandoned ; so that he maybe supposed to regard it without the feeling of bitter dislike which commonly actuates a renegade in his dealings with thoie from whom he ha» differed. The nnque»tionable public spirit and the public influence arising from character and station of the memberi of this Association, afford further ground for supposing that they may become an independent corporation when the New Zealand Company shall have expired. Their usefulness to New Zealnnd a* such, and the interest which every colonist has in promoting the success of their great experiment, a-e topics on which I n?ed not dwell. I will only express generally my own opinion, that if they should accomplish thsir objects, the example will produce a most happy revolution in the whole busineu of colonizing by England. The ruin and probable extinction of the New Zea. land Company is full of disappointment and regret for me, who have been so identified with that body as to be almoit incapable of distinguwhing 1 between i*s fate and my own. But the colonists are not in that predicament. lam satisfied that for their advantage the speedy extinction of the Company in form as well a* in fact is a most desirable event. At present, the Company itands between them and all Rood. It purportt and professes to colonize New Zealand, which it does not do. It parses as the representative and organ of the colonists at home, which it is not. It ii a party, passively and tacitly at least, to the official representation that the settlements of New Zealand are prosperous and contented, and that the colonization of the islandi is proceeding; satiifactoiily ; a representation which you all know to be not merely unfounded, but directly the reverse of true. Ai the supposed organ of the colonitts it stops their complamts of bad government nnd no co'onization from reaching the public and Parliament ; it ilieltcrs the Colonial Office from the attacks that ought to be made upon it for the fantastic tricks that it has played «incu 1846 with regard to constitutional government for tbe colonists, and for rendeiing the progress of colonization impossible by its continued mismanagement of the waste lands j it enables the Colonial Office to mill»ad public opinion here on the subject of the government and colonization of New Zealand, and to withhold from ttie coloniits those institutions of government and colonization which they might probably obtain if there were no Company. For if there wero no Company— if the present members of the Company whether in or out of the Direction were no longer held in subservience to Downing -street by pecuniary considerations— by the Company's debt to the Government, and by the impossibility of maintaining even a show of corporate existence without further advances from the Treasury — those of them who once fought thft battles of New Zealand in Parliament, would again be active as the friend* of syatematic colonization including responsible government for the Colony. One cannot imagine that if the Company had bean dissolved when it was enslaved by the arrangement of 1847, its members who are public men would have failed to get a better constitution for the Colony than, that of which every body has disapproved ; and at all events the continuance until now of a perfect despotism in New Zeal md would have been impossible, if the coadjutors of Lord Grey and Mr. Hawes during the long struggle with the Colonial Office under Lord Stanley, had not been got into a position in which they have necessarily mcrificed public consideration? and the Colony to what they deemed the advantage of the Company as a body of shareholder*. In my opinion, therefore, tha sooner the Company comes to an end the better for lbs colony. When there shall ba no great sham of *n o.ganised b>dy representing in this country thf interests of New Zealand, the interests of New Zealand will be cared for by public men who man sympathise with that colony in particular, andby others belonging to the clam of colonial reformers. So long as the Company shall last, nobody else, I fear, will be induced to t/ke up i» Parliament the grievances of the colony, or to make ,»ny other effort for bestowing oil the colonist;) those f cc institutions which are indispensable to d'elr prosperity arid comfort. Do not, however, suppose ma to mean that the !üb< jctw of colonization and colonial government obtain

less attention in this country npw than they did tliree or four years ago. The very reverse of this is the fact. Although the advocates of systematic colonization who used to be the sdvocates of these principles in connection with New Zealand hiive been silenced hy a clever manauvre of the Colonial Office, new advocate! of those pi inciples have appeared: the almost uoiTersal disorganization of our colonial empire under Lord Grey's rule, compel* attention to these subjects ; and I have no doubt that they will be more discussed in Parliament during the present session than in any by« gone year. Let not the settlers in New Zea'and be tliscournged bv the debate of last night in the House of Commons Most of the colonial reformers in Parliament deprecated Mr. Scott's motion, and rejoice in its failure. If he had obtained his committee, all (olonial questions would have been shelved for the session, as those relating to Ceylon and Guiana have been, by being referred to a committee up stairs. The division on Mr. Scott's motion proves nothing as to the state of opinion on these Subjects. Attend rather to the apeeches of Mr. Gladstone and Sir William Molesworth. Many questions relating to the colonies will be brought separately before Parliament during the laext two months. By this means, the subject of coonizatiou and colonial government will be discussed over and over again* lam persuaded myself, that one effect of these discussions must be to get public opinion into such a state as to render great reforms inevitable, perhaps during the year 1850. Everybody predicts (and what everybody Fays is generally true) that Lord Grey must soon cease to be Colonial Minister. The existence of the whole ministry is most precarious, and nobody would be surprised if we had a Stanley government within a month, If that or any other government proved capable or accomplishing large reforms, more especially in Ireland and the colonie*, it mii/ii', last for years ; but if not, one session of what is called fair trial would tee the end of it. If a Stanley Ministry can list, no much the better ; if not, its failure will do what perhaps nothing else can do, viz., break up the Protectionist party : and then will come a new party made up from nil the others, and represented by a ministry composed of the most capable men that all parties can furnish. Such a ministry may per. haps be in existence, at all events it will be fait approaching:, before I cm know that you have received this leiter. The meeting of Parliament next year will, I belieYCi be a better time than we have ever known for agitating colonizing questions with effec>. ]( my riew on this point ii correct, it behoves the colonist! to Jose no time in takiner the care of their own welfare into their own hands. They know what they want. They want local lelf government ana* extensive colonization. If New Zealand had a constitution similar to our old colonies in New England, and if itt fertile wastes were laid open for settlement Instead of being closed against it, the emigration from this country, both of people and capital, would exceed what the most sanguine of us ten years ago anticipated as being possible by this time. Instead of one ship in two months to all New Zealand, two or three ships in a month would proceed to each settlement in the case supposed. Every colonist, therefore, has a personal interest in procuring good lawi of colonization and government for New Zealand. This is the objects ths means conistof importunity by the colonists in praying to the Imperial Parliament for what thpy want. Knowing, as well as any one can, the state and prospects of opinion here on the subjects in question, I say to the colonists —Petition, Petition, Petition. Mr. Fox, in his excellent letter to the " Nelson Examine!," gives the same advice. I cannot mention bis nance without expressing my admiration of him. In this country, where the value of official distinction in a colony cannot be fully understood, there are but few who would appreciate his public spirit in resigning the important office, which he accepted under a free constitution, because lie could not bear to hold it under a miserable colonial despotism. But there is a class here— that of the beit informed and more earnest colonial reformer;-— who honour him as he deserves. He is, indeed, (it to be a leader of the colonists of New Zealand. If he is still amongst you, the wisest and most effective step you could take for obtaining those things which arc indispensable to your prosperity, is to induce him to come home, loaded with your petitions, to act for a time here as your Representative in setting forth your grievances and claiming suitable redress. But if neither lie nor any other fitting representative of the colony can be induced to undertake the voyage and the task, then send your petition! without delay. The business of gathering them from every settlement and transmitting them home should be undertaken by some committee, or small number of colonists permanently organised for the purpose of doing that, which, if it is treated as everybody's business, will certainly be nobody's. The state of my health prevents me from courting trouble ; but if surh a committee as I have suggested 6hou'd be organized, and should be at a loss for tome one here to take charge of the proposed pc« titions, I will gladly receive them, and can promise that they shall be placed in the hands of public men disposed and able to bring the prayer of them before Parliament. I should very much prefer, however"! •eeing Mr. Fox as the organ of bis fellow-coloni«U and tbe bearer of their petitions. By persuading him to undertake this office, though it must needs cost you some money, I am sure that you would save money, time, trouble, and sicknesi of the heart from hope deferred. He, or any other colonist, coming home as your delegate, might rely on my zealous cooperation in his exertions. You will have read with interest the report of the debate in the House of Commons on Convict Emigration to South Africa. In order to prevent the exten. sion to New Zealand of the new plan of the Colonial Office for "dispersing" Btitish convicts over such colonies as do not earnestly piolest against the infliction I (»ee the speeches of Sir George Grey and Lord John Russell on Mr. Adderley's> motion), some Proprietors of the New Zealand Company have requested the Directon to convene a public meeting uf the Company which will be held on the 27th instant. I am afraid that the Directors as a body ditapprove of this meeting being held As no account ot its proceedings cnn reach you by 'he •• Cornwall," and as 1 have some feat that the meeting may end in nothing in consequence of the dread of giving offence lo the Colon'al Office which now acuates the Directors in their collective capacity, I strongly recommend the colonists to lose no time in rending hr me petitions, such an Sir George Grey and Lord John Russell have declared to be the. means by which other colonies will escape the "disgrace and affliction" to which South Africa has been subjected. I have no doubt that it is the present intention of the j Colonial Office to mak«? New Zealand a convict colony. If the Company, notwithstanding the Directors' pre. sent awe of Dowuing-street, should agitate as of old' to preserve the colony from this new official infliction, tbe purpoie of the Colonial Office will probably be abandoned ; but I expect nothing of the sort from the Company ; nothing more, 1 think will came of the meeting of Proprietors on the 27th than a petition to Parliament not followed up by the Direitors; and I therefore s-ay to tho colonis « in this cass, as with resj ect to the questions of columza'ion and responsible government—Agitate for yourselves J There are several other topic* on which I should

like to dwell, because they are of importance to the colony ; but they are uot of mch urgent importance at those which I hare noticed ; and this letter ii already too long, I therefore reserve them for notice on another occa ion. Indeed, it i* my purpose, if illneis should not prevent me, to wri'e something to New Zealand by erery ship. One of the functions of the New Zealand Company of olii I can perform individually ; that of supplying the colonists wiih information from home which it greatly concerns them to receive; and this I purpose doing in a buiiness-like way, thst ii — fully and with regularity. Yon may therefore expect to hear from me again by the next ship. The subject on which I shall probably write most at length by that opportunity, it the operation of the Company's arrangement with Lord Grey In 1847 on the colony after the expiration of the three years for which that arrangement was made. I remain, Erer youri most truly, E. 6. WaKEJNBLD. The Hon. Henry Petre.