INQUEST ON THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY. [From the London "Spectator."

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 493, 4 January 1851, Page 3

INQUEST ON THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY. [From the London "Spectator."

This once important corporation expired last week in profound obscurity. The announcement of its death was needed to remind one of its existence. The manifesting immediate [cause of dissolution was poverty arising from disgrace. The chartered function of llic Company was to colonize New .Zealand ; but this duty it could only perform when it possessed the public confidence ; and all confidence was withchuwn from it some time ago. During the last four years it has only spent borrowed money on " establishments" at home and abroad, and issued, boastlul " reports" of doings that were not done and promises that were never realized. In the four years it has undergone four stages of decay — suspicion, distrust, dislike, and oblivion. The end was exhaustion of character and cf the means of subsislence. But we must search deeper in order to account for the total loss of Bo much reputation and power. For let us remember, that this Company saved New Zealaud to the Biitish empiie, kid the foundations of a gieat Anglo«Sa\on state, nnd obtained much public favour by the $>piiit which enabled it to resist, throughout its work the settle hostility^ the Colonial Offue. Poor, old, bioktnJotvn Shciidan rolling tipsy ni the gutter, compaicd with Slierid'in the wit, orator, and statesman in his prime, is a fair illustration of the late and earty stage? of this Company's career. Wherefore, then, the melancholy fall? The foundeis of New Zealand colonization began their task in 1837. Nearly their whole cou.se down to 1816 consisted of a struggle wiih the colonial Office under successive Ministers. On the whole their efforts wcie successful not, indeed, unattended by defeats and disasters, (for the Olßca had then far more po\vcr than ow) but still accomplihhing the main object, and wi hn the collateral effect of so exposing the nature of Co'onialoffice rule at the Antipodes, as to provide for the ter minsatioi), now not distant, of that baneful authority m the Southern liemispheie. In this long conflict, the Cmi.. pany allied itsi'lf by turns with the two parties in Brit* ish politics; and it was thus helped by Whig or Tory as either happened to be in opposition. But whoever was its clumpion for the time— whether Lord Eliot (now St. German's) or Lord Howick (now Grey), with their Committees of Parliament t>m?«s the Officeopen war with Colonial Downing Street was a condition of the Company's good fame and efficiency. Whenever it consentedjto a hollow truce with Mr. Mothercoiintry, it lost credit and vigour: hand-tied and tongue-tied by some "agreement with Downing Street," H suffered in silence and bore all the bltitne oi failure: only when cveiy thing was known by means of its pub lie complaints did the Company enjoy the sympathy of public opinion. At last, in 1817, the spirit of ihe first. Directors having departed, and the whole management fallen into new and fteble h'nds, the Company soltl itself and the Colony to Downing Street for a little piesent money and a great sham of giving effect to Us own an, l Lord Grey's policy for New Zealand. lii" ttsinuch as under. < (us pretended reconstruction all the old gnevanres of Colony and Company have icm.iined in full force, it was bimply impossible that either should piospct ; and now, the l<.st shilling of the borrowed money being spent--husl>-tnoney wasted by blind accomplices of Downing Street, it may be piopeily termed — ihe miseiable Company is foima'ly extinguished in slmme, as ll by itb own hands. It was a suicide no doubt, but neither recent or wilful. The Company died last week of having heedlessly taking in 1317 ths 6lo\v poison which was tuen presented to it by the cunning Office a d iis own foolish Directors. Neither Has Lnd Grey guilty of wilful murder. Treachery does not belong to his character ; and there is every reason to believe that he wished and expected the deadly potion to operate as an elixir vitse. On the same principle of infinite allowance for his blindness in matters which affect Ins selMove, we should doubt that he perceives the ineffable meanness of Mr. Hawes and the Directors in now casting upon their friend Mr. Buller the blame of this great failure, by attributing to him the authorship of the arrangements of 1817. On this point it may be well to remark, that Mr. Buller had then ceased to bs a Diiector of the Company, and that at the close of that year he wrote as follows .ibout his own position in the Colonial Office — " Anything as you say was better than a sinecure, with a pretence of work in which I had no share." The veritable uudisguiscd Mr. Mothercountry of poor Charles Buller rejoices (in the Times) at the extinction of the Company. " Amen" will be said by all who care about colonization In general or New Zealand in particular. Notsvithstdiidhig ihe lecent unreality of the Company, it was a scieen and a sort of whipping-boy for the Office. Downing street was able to cas>t upon Broad Street Buildings (us in the limes of Wednesday last) the blame of all evil in the colony. Henceforth, when things go wrong, the public will know whose fault it is A gres.it sham being out of the way, the truth will be at least moie difficu't to conceal. Responsibility and power will be in the same hands. The Company meiely encumbered the earth: let us now see what Lord Gcey himself, with a cleat field to work in, will be able to do as a coloniser. By none more than by this journal would his success be hailed with satisfaction.