PROTEST AGAINST THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY'S CLAIM. [From the "Wellington Independent," Jan. 10.]

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 606, 4 February 1852, Page 3

PROTEST AGAINST THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY'S CLAIM. [From the " Wellington Independent," Jan. 10.]

A Meeting of the Settlers Constitutional Association was held on Wednesday evening, the 7th inst., at Barrett's Hotel, to take into consideration the draft of a Petition to Parliament protesting against the New Zealand Company's debt being charged upon the revenue of the Colony, and to conbider what course should be adopted in reference to the act passed in the last session of Parliament entitled the New Zealand Settlements Bill. There was a very respectable attendance. Dr. Dorset took the chair, and, in the unavoidable absence of Dr. Featherston, called on C. Clifford Esq., to introduce to the meeting the subjects which had called them together. Mr. Clifford then rose and gave a brief but lucid recount of the recent proceedings in Parliament, having reference to New Zealand. He said that the Company and the Colonial Office, after boing long afc variance had become friends, and had conspired together to obtain out of the general revenue for this Colony payment for the Company's blundeis. A Bill accordingly, having this object in view, was introduced after tiro o'clock in the morning into the House of Commons by Mr. Hawes, but lie was happy to say that they, the Settlers had friends there, and in consequence of the opposition of Mr. Gladstone and other members, the ministers were obliged to expunge the objectionable clauses because they saw no hope of carrying an opposed bill through its various stages at that late period of the session, but not from any conviction on their part that the clauses were themselves inexpedient and unjust ; indeed there was much reason to fear, from what had fallen from their lips, that the Home Government would again attempt to carry a measure involving the &amc principle in the next session of Parliament. Under these circumstances it was thought advisable that the Settlers should immediately protest against any measure which might be introduced that would place the dobt of the Company on the general revenue of Colony; if the Company had sustained losses not from the acts of the Colonists, but from those of the Government at home, it was the Imperial Government and not the Colony that should grant them compensation. The settlers had had no hand in contracting the debt, and therefore could not be justly called on to liquidate it out of the general taxation of New Zealand : ami if this were true in reference to the Southern Province, it was even more clearly evident that Auckland and the Northern Province had no right to be called on to pay a debt which, if it was proved had been fairly caused by the colonising operations of the Company, had never been under the influence of such opeiations. It had not always been the case, but fortunately it was the case now that the whole of the Settlements, and all the Settlors in each, could unite in protesting against such a gross un justice being perpetatred as that of the Home Government taxing the Colony to pay the debts of a private corporation. It was thought advisable that Wellington, being the oldest Settlement, and being also the seat of the largest and most influential political a&ociation in the Colony, should be the first to move on this important subject, and that the petition they might agree in adopting would then in all likelihood become the petition of every Settler without any distinction of class or party in each of the other Settlements ! He thought the meeting should keep the question involved^ in the petitions distinct from the other questions having reference to the New Zealand Settlements Bill, as the one was of a general character while the other might have only a local bearing. It was not at present known what were the principles of that measure nor what interests it would be likely to affect, but it was generally supposed that it would upset all the recent regulations relative to Crown Grants and Scrip, Sheep runs &c. It was reported that Earl Grey was desirous of knowing the opinions of the Colonists on the bill, and that if they objected to it, it would not be put in operation. Whether this were true or not he could not undertake to say but it was necessary for the Settlers to be made acquainted with its provisions that they might know in what way they should act in the matter as the whole of the questions relative to New Zealand would be again brought before Parliament early in the ensuing session, and that if the ministers were not prepared to introduce Bills, the Duke of Newcastle had already a notice to that effect on the Books of the House. He thought that a committee appointed by that meeting to obtain signatures to the petition, and to communicate with the other Settlements on the subject, might also appoint a deputation to the Governor from their body to obtain information as to the bearings of the New Zealand Settlements Bill on the interests of the Colonists, for, as he had observed it was very necessary that the Settlers should as soon as possible be made acquainted with the nature of the bill in order that they might let the Parliament know their views on the subject which would best be done when their petition was presented to the House. After a few other observations Mr. Clifford read the following Petition. The humble petition of &c. Siiewetii, — That your petitioners have heard with alarm and indignation that, by a clause in a Bill introduced into your Honourable House, during the last Session of Parliament, under the sanction of her Majesty's Government, and styled the New Zealand Settlements Bill, it was provided that the capital of the New Zealand Company should be charged as a debt on the revenue of this colony. That your petitioners bog to express their unqualified satisfaction at the successful opposition which the above mentioned clause met with in your Honourable House, and their gratitude to those llouourable Membeis who conducted that opposition. That by expressions used by members of her Majesty's Government in the course of the debates upon the Bill, your petitioners are led to believe that the Government disappi oved of the omission of the clause, and that it was only omitted in consequence of the want of time required for pres&ing an opposed Bill. That under these circumstances your petitioners are seriously apprehensive leSfc a Bill embodying a similar provision be introduced into Parliament at a future time. That your petitioners therefore feel it incumbent on them to lay before your Honourable House the grounds on which they earnestly deprecate any such measure, and beseech your Honourable House not to entertain it. 1. The Capital of the New Zealand Company was invested in a mercantile enterprise ; if that enterprise had been in a mercantile point of view successful, the Company would have reaped the profits ; as it ha? proved unsucecsbful it ought to bear the los-. In so far as ihe Company was actuated by higher motives, which your Petitioners cordially a-lmit, they believe that the con-

sciousness of having done a parent public good is its proper and suliicient regard. They cannot admit that the existence of such motives constitutes a claim of a pecuniary kind. If the principle which your petitioners arc now combating were adopted, the speculation engaged in by the Company would be placed in a Hiore favorable position than any Mercantile adventures have a right to claim. 2. Even if the Company was entitled to pecuniary compensation for its losses, yom Petitioners submit that such compensation is due, not from the people of this country, but from the Imperial Government. To whatever [ extent its reasonable expectations of Mercantile success were frustrated by circumstances of a peculiar and exceptional kind, the colonists at least are not responsible for those circumstances. On the contrary, the responsibility has been clearly and repeatedly admitted by Her Majesty's present Ministers To make the colonists pay for the loss caused (if it was caused) by the policy of a government, over v>hich they had neither control nor influence, is, your Petitioners submit, an injustice so obvious as to render argument on the subject superfluous. 3. Your Petitioners would submit further that as they are not called upon to pay the debts of the Company on the ground of implied responsibility for the circumstances which caused its losses, so they are not called upon to do so on the plea of those debts having been incurred for their benefit. It is true that in so far as the capital of the Company was expended on actual colonization, the inhabitants of the Company's settlements were benefitted by the expenditm-e. But this admission is a very different thing from an admission that they ought to reimburse the shareholders. There are innumerable Mercantile enterprises which, whether they succeed or fail, benefit the country in which they are carried on, but it is never contended that that country is therefore called upon to insure the undertakers against loss. But even if the people of New Zealand were so called upon in the present case, your Petitioners submit that a most searching inquiry ought to be first instituted as to the pre- [ cisc extent to which the alleged benefits have been conferred, an inquiry to which the colonists ought to be parties, by means of accredited representatives. A general assertion that the money in question has been spent for the benefit of the colony, is in your Petitioners opinion, a most insufficient ground for the establishment of a claim so extensive and so unprecedented. Finally, your Petitioners submit, that whatever may be the rights or claims of the New Zealand Company, the rights of the, people of New Zealand to dispose of the revenue of New Zealand is paramount and superior to them. If any debt be justly due from the colony to the Company, or to any other person or Corporation, the demand for payment should be made upon the Government and Legislature of the colony; and it will be dealt with, your Petitioners are thoroughly convinced, in a fair and equitable manner. But that the Impel ial Parliment should, without consulting the people of New Zealand, appropriate a very large proportion of the revenue of New Zealand to paying the debts of a private Company, appears to your Petitioners to be a proceeding diametrically opposed not only to the rudimental maxims of the British Constitution, but to the immutable principles of justicej ustice and right. For the above reasons your Petitioners humbly intrcat that your Hon. House will not entertain any measure by which it shall be proposed to charge the revenues of New Zealand with the money due by the New Zealand Company to its shareholders. And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. Mr. Clifford then proposed that the petition be adopted, whibh was seconded by Mi. Dorset and carried unanimously. It was then proposed by Mr. Alien, seconded by Captain Khodes, that copies of the petition be sent to the various settlements of New Zealand for their approval. Proposed by Mr. Lyon, and seconded by Mr. J. 11. Wallace, that the petition ro-, l< top ted be printed for the information of the public, and that a Committee be appointed to obtain signatures to it, and to communicate with the other settlements on the subject ; this Committee to be composed of the following gentlemen : — Mr. Blythe, Mr. J. Smith, Dr. Dorset, Mr. Allen, Dr. Featherston, Mr. Clifford, Captain Rhodes, Mr. Lyon, Mr. John M'Beth, Mr. Bragg, Mr. Brandon, Mr. Quinn, Mr. Fitzherbert, Mr. G. Waters, Mr, G. Crawford, Major Baker, Mr. D. Munn, Mr. C Brown, Mr. J. Johnston, Mr. G. Allen. Proposed by Mr. J. Smith, seconded by Mr. John M'Beth — That the Committee be instructed to obtain information as to the bearing of the New Zealand Settlements Bill on the interests of the colonists, to draw up resolutions on the same, and report to the Association at the earliest possible period." The whole of these resolutions were ' unanimously carried ; and the meeting seemed unanimous in the desire to avoid touching on subjects that might even in the remotest degree be considered of a party character, in order that all our. fellow-settlers without distinction might unite in i petitioning and protesting against the conspiracy of the Colonial Office and the New Zealand Coinpxny, to saddle the debts of a mercantile company on the revenue of the colony.

I Death of hie ili.v. Joslph John Fheeman. — It | is with feelings of dppp concern, and no ordinary regref, (says a contempoiary,) that we have to announce the decease of the Rev. Joseph John Freeman, the Home Secietary to tlie London Blissionary Society, at the Baths of Hombuio-, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health. He returned from South Africa, after accomplishing, with so much prudence and consummate ability, his impoitant mission, apparently in excellent health, having been preaeived amid the various peisl^ of the sea and of the desert; and, since his return, J>o has been spending- himself, and, alas ! is spent, in the cause which l.iy so near his hrart, — the cause of Missions, of Chri&tian civilization, of humanity and justice, in thit vast wilderness whero a i'ew spots had bppn made 'to blossom as the i-osp, and in that noble island of the African seas, which had been the sphere of his own early missionary labours. Though he seemed, so short a time ago, in the full vigour of his powers, he left England in a state of exhaustion which occasioned much uneasiness to his friends, although they can scarcely havp been piepared for this sad lesult." His esteemed colleague in the Secietariat of the Filissionary Society had received from him a letter, written at hia dictation by Miss Freeman, but subscubcd in his own hand, in which it was stated that he had been suffering under an attack of rheumatic fever, from which, however, the crisis being passed, he hoped soon to recover and return. Alas ! the next communication brought f!ie sad tidings of his death, which occurred on the very day the former letter was despatched. The decease of Mr. Fieeman will be deeply felt by the London Missionaiy Society in all its departments and relations. Hia varied knowledge and expeiienco, his Libits of business, his prudence in council, and his ami.ible manners, concurred with his clisinteiestedness and fcailess integrity, to render him pie-ennnently fitted for hia important post ; and no one, wo believe, ever more *> fully or dpseivedly enjoyed the confidence of the directoib and of the missionaries. Such a loss cannot soon be lepaired. 'I he death of Joseph John Freeman will be mourned in distant regions too, by men and women of vaiiOus tribes and languages, and his namo will long be 1 omembered with ufK-ctionate veneiation among the champions of South Africa. It is no shoi t or inglonous course that he seems fo us prematuiely to have finished : he had " finished the woi k wh.ch was given him to do ;" and, while wo sympathise with his mourning widow and surviving daughters, wo congratulate them upon the moie than ordinary joy and consolation which mingle with their loss and ours. — Watchman. The monument which has been prected at Leswait to commemorate the mpmoiy of the deceased Sir Andrew Agnew is now nearly completed. It is a column, nearly GO feet iti height, and being- placed in one of the highest spots of the paribh of lvswalt, is conspicuous from n gieat distancn. It is unileistood that the present , y ir Andiew Agnew is about to enclose and plant the ground round the monument,