The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY. DEC. 24, 1851.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 594, 24 December 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY. DEC. 24, 1851.

Be nisi ami lo.n not Lot all the emt-- thoti amib't at, be thy Country's, 'I li\ Goo's, and Iruth's.

The Six Colonies of J\'eiu Zealand. By William Fox. Foolscap Bvo. London, 1851. Published by Parker and Son, It was remarked by the Rev. Thomas Bundle, in his inteiesting Lectmes on the Aboiigines of New Zealand, lately delivered at the Auckland Mechanics' Institute, that "on referring to various publications on New Zealand, he was surprised to find how little real information they supply on the history of the Aborigines, and hoAV much they relate that would not beat investigation." The obseivation though prini.u !ly made with reference to accounts of the native population, is, to a considerable extent, tiue, also of most of the books which profess to nai rale the history and debenbe the condition of the settlers. Incompleteness of information on various points which a comprehensive woik on the colony should include, is a cbaracteustic of neaily the whole of iheni ; and to this must be added, in some instances, hasty generalizations from limited and superficial observation, and the influence of party or local prejudices and paitiahties. As regards the quantity of printed and spoken matter laid before the i">rilish people, the Southern Settlements have always had the lion's share. The NewZealand Company had a direct and large interest in making those Settlements piominent in the public view, and in presenting them in such an aspect as would make a favorable impression of their state and capabilities, not only positively—as they were alleged to be in themselves —but also comparatiTely —as they were alleged to be in relation to, or contrast w ith, the Northern Settlements. The Company, numbering as it did amongst its Directors and Shareholders several able and active membeis of the Imperial Legislature, and many mercantile men of extensive commercial connexions and well-trained business habits, residentin England, had opportunities of carrying out this object in Parliament, at the Colonial Office, in public meetings, and through the Press, of which, through a series of years, the fullest advantage has been taken, and taken—as we are prepaied to prove —in such a manner as to produce a very exaggerated idea of the Company's own lands' and schemes, which were pushed forwaid by every appliance of hardy assertion and ingenious puffing; and, moreover, to inflict grievous injustice on the Northern Settlements, which were systematically either wholly excluded from notice, or noticed in a tone of almost contemptuous depreciation. The South has had the further advantage of all the publicity which the Otago Association could give to its special field of colonization, and the still louder flourishes of drums and trumpets, ecclesiastical and lay, with which the Canterbury Association has heralded its colonizing scheme,—or (as, we appiehend, we might tiuly say) has bloivn its great bubble. The Northern Settlements have had little of these adventitious aids to progress. Mr. Hursthousf's meritorious book has probably done something foi New Plymouth, but the Auckland Settlement has had no stilts to elevate it. Whatever its position may be, (and before we conclude we shall adduce proofs that it occupies no mean one) has been attained unostentatiously, almost silently, and by the simple and unforced development of its inherent merits. In Broad-street buildings and Adelphi Terrace in London, ami in Hanover-street in Edinburgh, Wellington and Nelson, and Canterbury, and Otago have had their vigilant and energetic Committees, watchful to avail themselves of every opening for the promotion of their respective interests. But Auckland lias had nothing of the kind. It has had no Company, or Committee, or Agency at home. No Association of British commercial speculators, no organization of denominational colonists has been so connected with it, as to make the collection and promulgation of facts calculated to fixfavoiable attention upon it the special concern of any class, party, or Company. Inquiiers into the relative circumstances of the settlements in New Zealand have found abundant information (such as it was) respecting the Settlements in the South, but it was with difficulty they could obtain any respecting this. The author of the Band Book of Kew Zealand (we believe Mr. Earp) published in London in 1848, accounts for the scantiness of his description of the Auckland Settlement by stating that, although since its foundation it has been maintained as th« capital and seat of Government, "it is very difficult to obtain any full and authentic information about it.' "As to the Southern Settlements," he observes, " the details contained in the foregoing chapter are easily procured at New Zealand House, where maps, drawings, books, documents, and files of tne local newspapers and of the New Zealand Journal, are perfectly accessible to any one seeking information." This gentleman applied to the Colonial Office for information, and received two letters from Mr. Merivale expressing Lord Grey's willingness to meet his wishes, but referring him to the Librarian of the Office, who would give him full access to the files of Auckland newspapers." He availed himself of the permission, and here is the result in his own words.—"The only local newspapers, however, pioduced by the Libraiian of the Colonial Office, on applying accordingly on the 10th of August, consisted of a very imperfect rile of the New Zealander, between November IS4-5, and the Ist of January 1848, of which many numbers—in one place, for six consecutive weeks—were missing ; of two odd numbers of the Southern Cross, 26th February and 4th March, ISIS ; and one odd number of each of the Wellington newspapers, also of March, 1848." A later and very significant testimony to the same effect is borne in the Emigrant Manual, published dining the present year by Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, of Edinburgh, compiled, so far as we can judge with very commendable diligence and impartiality-.—the writer says of Auckland, •' It is often observed that less can be discovered regarding it than about any other Settlement.'* This surely is not as it should be. We aie far from wishing that Auckland should be puffed into any undeserved impoitance by boasting or artifice ; but the fact is, the truth as to its capabilities has never been told in England ; the settlement itself has not had justice in this lespect, and intending emigrants have not had fair means of making their election as to the locality in which they might most beneficially settle. It is true that " good wine needs no bush," and the piogicss made by Auckland

notwithstanding these disadvantages is so far a verification of the adage ; but the parallelism is obviously defective in a case like this, where the traveller can have little previous know3edge of the enteitainment he is likely to receive, and where the active and not over-scru-pulous agents of other concerns assiduously point out their " bushes," extol their good cheer, and insinuate that those who tarry here may anticipate no better than " Lenten fare." We have been led into these general remarks, (the length of which may be justified by the importance of the subject), by the publication in London of the work the title of which we have placed at the head of this ai tide. That title promises that the whole of New Zealand shall be attended to. — for by the " six colonies" we suppose the writer means the six principal Settlements in the colony,viz., Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Otago, and Canterbury. We have not the took itself, but the Spectator of August 2nd gives a long review of it, with copious extracts amongst which are passages, evidently complete jin themselves, containing the writer's views of *the Auckland Settlement. Before quoting these views and investigating their accordance with truth, we may take leave however to say a word or two of Mr. Fox himself, as the value of fa woik professing to instruct " the ignorance of the many 15 as to facts, and moreover abounding in critical comments on the conduct of others, must in a consideiable degree depend on the qualifications and character of the Author. There can be no doubt that Mr. Fox had opportunities of making himself acquainted ■with New Zealand, having resided in it for about nine years, and during that period filled •offices which gave him facilities for the collection of information, especially as regards the South. He was known as the New Zealand Company's Agent at Nelson, and as the Piincipal Agent of the Company at Wellington after the death of Colonel Wakefield. He was also known as a political agitator, a chief orator of an Association in Wellington characterised mainly by its vehement and indiscriminate hostility to the Government ; and as, if not literally, yet virtually the editor of a newspaper which echoes the opinions of that Association, and is prominent in waging the party warfare by which it is attempted not merely to throw obloquy upon eveiy measure emanating from the Local Government, hut to hunt down the Governor-in-Chief individually, by incessantly repeated personal attacks. Setting aside politics, however, on which opinions must be allowed to differ, there are a few questions the answers to which might assist the English reader in forming an estimate of Mr. Fox's claims to be deemed a trust-worthy his■torian of the Colony. For instance, — Is this the gentleman who is publicly charged with having helped the Company whose Agent he was, to " dispose of the 400,000 acres of land" to which he referred in -a letter to the Times dated the 26th of July last, by no less flagrant an abuse of his office than granting an enormously undue amount of land compensation to his own particular friends, some of -whom are alleged to have been, if they are not still, connected with himself in stock-hold-ing or other business transactions? Has the fame of the u Duppa compensation job" ever travelled to England"? Is this the gentleman "who when he was leaving the Colony locked 'up and took away with him the Maps, Plans, and other documents relating to the Survey of ■the New Zealand Company's 'Lands, >thus greatly adding to the embarrassments with Which the Purchasers and 'the Government had to struggle in consequence of the complixated condition in which the Company's affairs ■were found on the surrender of its Charter, and bringing the settlement of the land-claims to a dead stand until new Surveys were made at the public expense ? Is it so that, for good and sufficient reasons, his employers at Broad Street Buildings gave him but a very cool reception on his return home, and that now, when he has ceased to eat their bread,and finds -that no more profit can be made of a connexion with them, he has become their adversary and sets himself to thwart their projects, as in the case of the "New Zealand Settlements Bill* against which he argued in the Times ? We could suggest other questions, but Mr. Fox should have satisfied the public on these matters at least, before he claimed their confidence in his integrity and impartiality as a describer of " The Six Colonies." Our immediate business, however, is -with Mr. Fox's account of Auckland. What will our local readers say to the following, which is given to the English people as the latest and most accurate portraiture of them and their settlement % "The town of Auckland is the largest and most compact in the colony. It has one or two very good streets, but the lower parts are as filthy as 'Deptford and Wapping, navy-building towns.' Very little except shopkepping was going on at Auckland when I was there. The amount of cultivation was very small, and consisted almost entirely of a few jitlds of grass, within four or five miles of the Uwn, where newly imported stack were Kept alive till the butcher was ready to wait upon them jor the benefit of the troops and townsmen. In short, the was a mere section of the town of Sydney •nsplanted to the shores of New Zealand, filled with tradesmen who are reaping a rich harvest from the expenditure of a regiment -of soldieis, a Parliamentaiy grant, missionary funds, and native trade. As an instance of colonization, it was altogether rotten, delusibe, and Algerine. The population had no root in the soil ; as was proved by some hundreds of them packing up their wooden houses and rushing away to California, as soon as the news of that land of gold arrived. In Cook's Straits not half-a-dozen persons weie moved by that bait. If the Government expenditure had ceased, and the troops been removed' at that time, I believe Auckland would have melted away like a dream. The expenditure of British money by the Government has been enormous in this part of the colony, and easily accounts for so large a town having so suddenly sprung up. The troops stationed there have not expended much, if anything, less than £100,000 a year. Two sets of very costly barracks have been erected, with a lofty stone wall round each, which, cannot have cost less than about £100,000 more The Pensioners' houses at least £30,000 ; their pensions about a year ; besides a variety of contingent expenses. From the Parliamentary grant, from £10,000 to £20,000 a year expended on roads and otherwise. The revenue of the Northern Province about £25,000 a year. The outlay of the three missions, winch, I was told on undoubted authority, amounted to the same sum. Two men of war (not always, but frequently) in harbuur for long periods. In short, in addition to the local revenue, not less than certainly £'200,000 a year of British money has, on an average, been expended annually for the last four or five years; and one or two lump sums, amounting to not less than £150,000 (">) *' Neailif the whole population of Auckland has been imported jrom Sydney and Van Diemeu's Land. With the exception of the Pensioners, I believe only one, or at most two regular emigiant ships— that is vessels •arrying bodies of men of the labouring class — evpr proceeded from this country to th.it settlement. The returns of crime, compared with those of tlie Southern settlements, exhibit fenf id traces oj the origin of Us popnlution, and display tun great importance of colonizing on a regular syste.n, which may insure a pure origin for a colony. In the year ending December 1847, theie

were no fewer than 1083 criuiuml cases disposed of by the Resident Magistrate at Auckland, of which there were 994 in winch Europeans only were concerned; 837 convictions, and .j29 for dtunkenness; that is to sa\, one in six of the population was convicted of some crime or other, one in eight of drunkenness. At Welliugfon, the propoition was one in 40; at Nelson, one in 79." It would be not only unnecessary but almost ludicrous to set ourselves to ihe task of exposing the tissue of misrepresentations of which this passage is chiefly made up, if we were addressing ourselves only to readers personally acquainted with the facts. But as we hope that our remarks will be read by some at a distance, who may be in danger of reposing more or less confidence in the assertions which Mr. Fox has so dogmatically and circumstantially made, we think it expedient to follow him thiough the principal of his allegations, with a view of demonstrating their hollow and misleading character. But before we enter into paiticulars, let us introduce one or two general statements on the capabilities and resources of Auckland, coming from authorities which it will be admitted are entitled to at least as much consideration as Mr. William Fgx, especially when it is remembered that their authors had the knowledge deiived from experience on which to rest their conclusions, and were not like him mere passing visiters. Such of our readers as may be already acquainted with these statements will excuse our le-producing them here for the consideration of those to whom they may be more new. The late Governor Hobson, writing in March 1812 to the Secretary of State, thus vindicates the choice of Auckland as the seat of Government :—: — " I trust from the documents now in your lordship's possession, showing the site of Auckland to be on the shores of a harbour safe, commodious, and easy of access, and within five miles of Manakau, certainly the be-'t harbour on the whole of the western coast of New Zealand ; within fifteen miles of the Kaipara into which four considerable navigable rivers discharge themselves ; at no great distance from Waikato which waters the fertile and extensive plains of the Waipa on the western side of the island, and the Thames and Piako, which waters the feitile valley of the Thames on the East, having too in its immediate neighbourhood some hundreds of thousands of acres of level, open, and fertile land ; possessing abundant means of water-communication, and being in the centre of the bulk of the native population — now British subjects, rapidly acquiring European habits, and acquiring a taste for our manufactiues ; — Your loidship will be satisfied that this neighbourhood has been well chosen for the site of the seat of Government of New Zealand ; and that it comprises advantages for a large and prosperous agricultural settlement not elsewhere to be found in this colony. 1 ' It was in strict accordance with this conclusion of Governor Hobson, and with the proveable facts of the case that the combination of advantages possessed by this locality were thus stated in an address presented to Governor Grey, by the inhabitants of Auckland and its vicinity on the occasion of the Seventh Anniversary of the Colony :—: — " Itß splendid find aacessible harbour ; the safety of its extended coast- line; the immense extent of level and cultivable land around, and in its neighbourhood ; the many navigable uvers in its vicinity, rendenng easily available further immense and still unexplored tracts of country ; the variety and singular richness of its mines , the facility of working and shipping their products ; and though last, by no means least m importance, the value of nn immense and intelligent Native population; rapidly becoming civilized, industrious cultivators of the soil, large producers of exportable articles, and excellent customers for our manufactured goods." That these were not visionary anticipations admits of evidence part of which we shall, by and by, adduce. Meanwhile we take leave to repeat a few sentences from the recent Despatch with which Sir George Grey accompanied the Auckland Municipal Charter. His Excellency thus states the existing facts as -to the lands included within the boundaries of the Borough.:— | "6. Thus defined, the Borough of Auckland comprises within its limits two large harbours, one on either side, and one of which (Auckland) is of a most superior de&cnption ; a river, (the Tamaki) navigable for small craft, which nearly intersects the Borough ; a water frontage (not including the Tamaki with its numerous creeks) of not less than forty mfies, having shelter and anchorage for shipping throughout the greater part of its extent ; and an area of about 58,000 acres, the whole of which, with the exception of about 2000 acres, is available for cultivation, and is generally of very superior quality. "7. Of the land thu9 comprised within the limits of the Borough, about 40,000 acres are already the property of private individuals, held under grant fiom the Crown, and of this quantity of land about 7,500 acres are in a state of cultivation, well fenced, and for the most part heavily stocked with cattle." Against all this, and much more to the same effect that might be cited — we have Mr. Wai. Fox's sweeping declaration that "as an instance of colonization, the settlement is altogether rotten, delusive and Algerine." This is such a " nice derangement of epitaphs," as Mrs. Malaprop has it, that it would be a pity not to make some use of it. We deny that the characteristics apply at all to Auckland, but — lest such a pretty combinations of terms should be lost — we shall tell Mr. Fox of a case in which they are applicable. We can tell him of a Company whose colonization scheme had the following, amongst other, and analogous features : — They sold in London, and received payment there, for tracts of land which at the time were not their property, — to which indeed they had no more legal claim than they had to allotments in the moon ; they sent out their uufoitunate "settlers" before it was or could be known whether they would be permitted to settle at all, or where they could find any footing whatever ; those settlers, when they complained that they were ruined by the non-fulfilment of the Company's contracts, could obtain from their " deluders" no practical redress —no compensation for the money which they had paid years before; — and again, though this Company had engaged tofind work at all times for the labouring emigrants whom they sent out, its Agents afterwards unblushingly t( endeavoured to evade" the engagement, and the unfortunate dupes, when they protested against the cruel treatment they had received, weie only met with mockery and insult. How say you Mr. Fox, was not this something like" rotten, delusive, and Algerine" colonization * Yet, good Sir, this was colonization by the New Zealand Company, of which you were lately Principal Agent. This was the colonization, the cost of which it is now sought to saddle as a debt, not only upon its own immediate field, but upon New Ulster also. And to crown the whole, no small portion of the Company's debt was inclined in the payment of salaries, of which your own is said to have been the largest ; and the Company whose Agent you were but the other day is now striving to wring from us,

whom you taunt in such opprobrious language, monies, hundreds and thousands of which have gone into youroivu immaculate purse. But we mean to come to closer quaiters with Mr. Fox's ssserlions respecting Auckland. We shall adduce facts and figures relating to the agticulture, the commerce, and the moial and social condition of the Auckland Settlement which will, we trnst,enable every reader to judge for himself what credit those assertions are entitled to j and if in pursuing the subject we should nnd it necessary to make some comparisons not veiy favourable to the South — as will most probably be the case — we beg to assure our Southern friends that we shall do so not from choice but because their once popular, though now lightly esteemed, champion has shut us up to the necessity.

Fjre. — About ten o'clock yesterday morning, it was noticed that a house in Chancery-street belonging to Mr. John Ryan was on fire. Mr. Medhurst and Mr Mount, -who were in the adjoining yard, gave the alarm, and the roof was immediately stripped of the shingles, and a sufficient supply of water being at hand, the lire was speedily extinguished. It had broken out (from what cause is not known) on the wall-plate of a room used as a store for maize, a great quantity of which was heaped up in it at the time. Part of the wall-plate, together with some of the weather-boards and shingles were burned. We have had many warnings of the danger of a conflagration in this town. Are our authorities waiting until some of the horrois of San Francisco fires are realized here before they take any precautionary measures ? The responsibility, we need not say, now rests with the Coiporation.