The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 607, 7 February 1852, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just and fear nut : Let all the ends thou aims't at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, FEB. 7, 1852.

We copied in our last number a brief article from the Wellington Spectator, mentioning, as " a report," that the Gover-nor-in-Chief had received, with the New Zealand Settlements Act, a despatch from the Secretary of the Colonies " relating to the future disposal of land in New Zealand ;" stating at the same time our anticipation that, when additional light was afforded, it would be found that arrangements deemed settled here were unsettled by the paramount authority of the Home Government. We are to-day in a position to place our readers in possession of information which fully bears out that anticipation, a New Munster Government Gazette of the 13th of January having come into our hands, containing Lord Grey's Despatch, and a notification from the Governor consequent upon it, both of which will be found appended to this Article. It appears that the Imperial and the Colonidl legislation respecting the affairs of the New Zealand Company clash ; and of course the latter must give way. Accordingly His Excellency announces that all proceedings under the New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Ordinance — that par excellence great measure of the late Session of our Legislative Council — will for the present be stopped ; and that the recently issued Regulations with respect to Depasturing and Timber Licenses, and the occupation of the Waste Lands of the Crown, must (so far as New Munster is concerned) share the same fate, being superseded by a recurrence to those issued by the Company on the Ist of August, 1849. Here i§ym jntanglemenjb. pu,t_o£wlucli.it-is difficult to conjecture how the way of escape will be found, particularly as regards the claims which have already been "settled" under the Ordinance. We have as yet only the Gazette notifications before us ; and we shall look with much interest for the opinions which will be formed of this new and unlooked for labyrinth, by the Company's Land Claimants, whose sufferings and disappointments seemed destined to nave no end. The latter part of the despatch has more direct importance for the general body of colonists. Lord Grey, it will be seen, stoutly maintains the propriety, justice, and expediency of charging the enormous sum claimed by the Company on the General Revenue as well as on the Land Fund of the Colony. Assuming that his Lordship really believes in his own reasonings, there is in this single fact sufficient ovidence of his unfitness to be entrusted with the control of affairs about which his knowledge is so defective or distorted. At all events, it is abundantly obvious that his arguments, such as they are, apply exclusively to the Settlements in which the Company's operations were conducted. Even Lord Grey cannot venture to assert that the North has in any degree participated in the " advantages" which he is bold enough to affirm that the Company has "conferred on the Settlers." The Gazette contains also the " Settlements Act" in eoßtenso. We can state in a few words so much of its provisions as have any general interest. The preamble declares that, certain Terms of Purchase and Pasturage of Land in |the Settlements of Wellin^on, New Plymouth, Nelson, and Otago had been issued by the New Zealand Company before the day (the 4th of July, 1850) on which the. Company surrendered their Charters, and zuere in force as contracts on that day, and that it is expedient to amend and alter the provisions in those Terms. Then follow twelve enacting clauses, of which, however, eight (from the 2nd to the 9th inclusive) apply entirely to the Nelson Trust Fund. Of the remainingthree, one (the first in the Act,) empowers Her Majesty to make terms and regulations for the sale or other disposal of the Crown Lands within the said Settlements, provided that the price at which the said lands are now authorized to be sold shall not be altered thereby, and the disposal of j the Monies which may be derived from such sale or disposal, and for " the closing j and determination of the affairs of the | said Settlements." This last named power, Lord Grey emphatically instructs the Governor is to be " exercised only with the full concurrence of the Settlers." Then, (passing over the clauses which relate to Nelson alone) we find in the 10th Section a provision that in all cases falling within Section 51 of the Act 9 and 10 Viet., Grants of the Crown are to be of like force as Conveyances by the Company would have been, had the Company continued in the full exercise of their functions The 11th Section saves " the rights" of the New Zealand Company in respect of the £268,000 15s. and Interest, which by the Act of the Tenth and Eleventh of Victoria

are charged upon the proceeds of the land sales in New Zealand The 12th clause is merely the formal Interpretation of Terms in the Act. Such is the sum and substance of this notable piece of slap-dash, post-haste legislation, extemporised at the fag-end of the Session ; forming in connection with the accompanying despatch, and the previously enacted Colonial Ordinance, the effect of which is now " stopped," an instructive exemplification of the practical working of the system of making laws in London for the internal government of settlements at the antipodes. The Regulations issued by the Company in August 1849, — with all the sanction of an Act of Parliament— and now re-pro-claimed as superseding every other, complete the important "information" communicated in this remarkable Gazette, the contents of which will doubtless again, and probably more in detail, demand our attention. The following are the documents of the most general interest, to which we have referred above : — From the (New Munstcr) Govt. Gaxette, Jan. 13. Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 9th January, 1852. His Excellency the Governor-in- Chief has been pleased to direct the publication of the following despatch from Earl Grey, dated the Bth of August, 1851, together with the enclosed Act of the 14th and 15th Viet., c. 86, intituled " An Act to regulate the affairs of certain settlements established by the New Zealand Company in New Zealand." His Excellency has further directed the publication of the Terms of Purchase and Pasturage j of Land in the Settlements of Wellington, New Plymouth, and Nelson, which are brought into force by the Act of Parliament aforesaid. And His Excellency directs it to be notified, that all proceedings under the Ordinance of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, Sess. XL No. 15, intituled "The New Zealand Company's Land Claimants' Ordinance," will for the present be stopped, and that the same course will be followed in the Province of New Munster, with 1 respect to the Rules and Regulations for the issue of Pasture and Timber Licenses, and for the occupation of the Waste Lands of the Crown, which regulations are for the present superseded by those now published. By His Excellency's command, Alfred Domett, Colonial Secretary.

(Copy.) Downing Street, j Bth August, 1851. Sib, — With reference to a series of despatches, which I addressed to you on the 19th March last on the subject of the management of the affairs of the New Zealand Company's Settlements : I now transmit to you six copies of an Act for the regulation of the affairs of those Settlements, which has just received Her Majesty's Assent. 2. This Act has by no means determined all the questions which may arise with respect to those Settlements, in so satisfactory a manner as I could have wished. But inasmuch as the terms of Purchase were held by the Law Advisers of the Crown to be binding on Her Majesty as contracts of the New Zealand Company, Her Majesty's Government did not consider it to be competent to them to get rid, as fully as might, perhaps, have been desirable for all parties, of the impediments to uniformity of management of the Crown Lands of the Colony which those contracts create, without the assent of the other parties to the contract, namely the Land Purchasers, which ! at this distance it was impossible to secure, 3 The Act, however, leaves in the power of Her Majesty!^ Government to make terms and Kegulations for the Management of the lands comprised within the Settlements of Wellington New Plymouth, and Nelson : but not so as to alter the price at which they may be offered to purchasers. This must remain fixed by the terms now in force in each Settlement respectively. 4. Considering the great amount of land in and near the Settlements, which is now in private hands and can consequently be disposed of at any price I cannot but feel that there is little or no prospect of completing the Settlements on the original Terms. And if the Settlers are of ,the same opinion, and are willing to have the price so reduced, I cannot doubt that an unanimous or general expression of this sentiment on their behalf, will be sufficient to enable Her Majesty's Government to obtain from Paliament on another occasion a relaxation of this still existing restriction. 5 In other respects the modification of the existing Terms will be in your power : and you are authorized by Her Majesty to make (by yourself or through the intervention of the Lieutenant Governor]) any such modifications in your 1 discre- ( I tion, subject to the ultimate approval of Her I Majesty's Government. But this is a power which you are not to exercise except with the general assent, ascertained in such manner as you may think most advisable of the Settlers themselves. You will remember that they established j themselves in the settlements under the inducements afforded them by the terms in question : and that although, from the difficulty of giving them in their unincorporated state any powers by Act of Parliament, it has been found more convenient to take those powers for Her Majesty's Government alone, it is not the less necessary that their interests should not only be fully considered, but their opinions also consulted and acted on. And if any scheme can be devised by which the management of the internal affairs of the settlements and distribution of the funds can be placed in their own hands, I shall have great satisfaction in entertaining it, 6. Power is also given you to determine the Local Boundaries of the Settlements : a power which in my opinion you already possessed, and as to the exercise of which I have addressed you before, but which it was desirable to confirm by Act of Parliament. 7. sTou are also authorized to " close and determine the afiairs" of the Settlements. This is a power only to be exercised in concurrence with the Settlers themselves. If they shall in any settlement determine in such a manners as to leave no doubt of the general sentiment prevailing among them, that the original scheme as devised by the New Zealand Company ought no farther to be carried into execution, but that the settlement should cease and become included under one common administration, with the other Crown Lands of the Colony, you are empowered to accede to their wishes. But this is a power on no account to be exercised except with their full concurrence, nor without prior consultation with the Secretary of State. 8. The remaining clauses of the Act relate to the management of the Nelson Trust Fund. The circumstances under which that fund arose are described in the recitals, and you will observe that its amount is as yet unascertained. It is to be administered by a Board of Trustees. But it was not thought advisable, in the absence of particular local knowledge to insert in the Act particular provisions of the nature of those described in Sec. 5, as to the conduct of the Trust. Power to enact these necessary provisions is left instead to the Local Legislature : and it will be necessary they should be speedily exercised : but for this purpose you or the Lieutenant-Governor will consult with the nominated Trustees themselves, to whom it will be necessary that a copy of the Act should be transmitted, and their attention immediately invited to its provisions.

9. Unless it is the strong wish of the Trustees themselves, or the Nelson Settlers generally, that any control or super-vision over the accounts or over the appropriation of the Trust Fund should be reserved to the Local Government, it is certainly not advisable that any provision giving it such control should be inserted in these Laws. The Local Government should be ready to render the Trustees any assistance (not involving expense to the community) which is really desired by them : but ft is far better thaf. the responsibility for the management of this Fund should be towards the Land Purchasers themselves, who are the parties interested. You will observe that the power to make laws for this purpose is given to the General Legislature, but with power todelegate it to that of the Province. In the uncertainty which prevails, and must for the present prevail, as to the ultimate form and powers of the Provincial Legislatures, I have thought that this provision will best meet all the circumstances of the case. 10. On the subject of the expense of administering these settlements, I have nothing to add to the discretion given in my despatch of March 19th, circumstances remaining the same. So long as the receipt of Land Revenue in these Settlements continues to be quite insignificant, I hope that the special expense which they may occasion is also very trifling, while, if any circumstances should revive the demand, the Land Fund especially with the power which you will now possess to vary the Terms, and appropriate larger sums to management (if more management is required) will meet the exigencies of the case. 11. Section 10 of the Act is intended to meet a difficulty whic]i is thought to have arisen, and to which I referred in the concluding paragraph of my despatch No. 47 of 31st May last ; as to the decision on conflicting claims on the New Zealand Company's Land Orders, through the Company's notice of surrender : and its provisionj which is of a strictly legal character, will be easily apprehended by your law advisers. 12. By the printed correspondence which accompanies this despatch, you will learn that the Act as now passed contains only part of the pro- [ visions originally intended. Those which have been omitted formed a plan for changing the ! present liability of the land Fund for £268,370 to the New Zealand Company into a liability to the extent of £200,000 only, but charged in the form of debentures both on the general and land revenue of the Colony ; with powers to holders lof those Debentures to commute them for ! remission orders available at sales of the demesne lands. 13. This was an arrangement which I considered could only be properly adopted with the general concurrence of all parties whose interest it would have affected, so far as this could be ascertained without the great delay of communicating with yourself. When, therefore, it became apparent that it would meet with the opposition of some of these parties, I had no doubt ! that it ought at once to be abandoned. 14. I am still however of opinion that the arrangement is one which it would be for the interests of the colony to effect. The -continuance of the claims of the New Zealand Company upon the whole proceeds of the land revenue, except that proportion of them ■which may be expended on emigration and surveys, will create so much difficulty in the management of the Crown Lands and in the extinction of Native Titles, and will tbus"prove so serious an obstacle to the progress of the Colony, that I think it would be well got rid of by the exchange of this claim for debentures on. the terms proposed. 15. For although the annual charge on the resources of the Colony for the interest on the £200,000 would, no doubt, be a serious incumbrance, it is to be remarked on the other hand that the whole Capital of the Company has been, sunk in forming these Settlements : in addition to which, large sums advanced to it by Parliament have been applied to the same object/as well as annual grants toja large ampunt_which_hava afforded means ' Tor carrying on the important public works which have contributed so much to the prosperity and peace of the Colony, without interfering with other objects. 16. Considering the extent of the advantages thus conferred upon the Settlers, it does not seem that the annual charge which it was then proposed by way of commutation to transfer to the General Eevenue, would have been -one for which the' settlers would have had to complain that they had not received an ample return. Nor would the debt, in the form in which it was thus proj posed to establish it, have proved any more seriousj obstacle to the progress of New Zealand than "a debt incurred under somewhat similar circumstances, and which has already been in a great measure liquidated, did to that of South, Australia. 17. The subject must, however, now be left for the consideration of the Local Legislatures, with which I have no doubt that Parliament will be ready to co-operate for such a purpose. ! I have transmitted the Act with a copy of this despatch directed to Lieutenant-Governor Eyre : but have informed him that he is to take no step in order to carry it into execution without previous consultation with yourself or authority from you. I have &c. (Signed,) Gkbt. Governor Sir George Grey, X.C.8., | &c, &c,, &c.