Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

The New Zealander.

Be just and fear not: Let ail titf ends tliou aim'st at, be thy Country's, Thy God s, and Truth's.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, SEPT. 4, 1852.

Sir John Pakington's " Representative Constitution for New Zealand" being- prey eminently the topic of interest just now, we have little doubt that our readers generally will approve of our giving room and precedence to the most ample details respecting it which the English papers enable us to lay before them. In our last (by an effort which — taking into account the length of the document, and the late hour on the preceding day at which it came into our hands — we may be permitted to say was not inconsiderable), we published the entire Bill as it -was introduced into Parliament. This morning, we follow up that 1 publication by copying from the Times, without any abridgment, the full report of the Colonial Secretary's speech, and of all the other speeches delivered in the House on the occasion of its introduction The > demands made upon our space by this insertion, and by the copious Election Reports which will be found in our other columns, "unavoidably restrict any observations wliich we may ourselves desire to offer within very narrow limits. But we shall have abundant opportunities of supplying this deficiency, especially as no remarks which can be made here can have any immediate effect on a measure which not improbably is already an Imperial Act, — whether in the form in which it has reached us, or with alterations at which we can now only guess. We may generally remark, however, that, while there is much in the Bill of which the advocates of Free Institutions ' cannot but approve, the whole scheme seems adapted for a more advanced state of population and progress than the Colony has as yet reached ;*— that, — to adopt a homely but expressive phrase which we have heard applied to it, — it is "like a man's coat put on a boy." Where adequate and suitable material is %o be found for all these Councils and Chambers, especially for the Upper Chamber of Nominees appointed for life, we confess ourselves unable to divine. But there is one clause in the Bill so flagrantly unjust, so cruelly oppressive, and fraught with such ruinous consequences to New Zealand, and especially to New Ulster, (should it " actually be brought into operation), that we cannot, in any notice, however brief, of the measure, pass it by without anxious and indignant comment. The reader will anticipate that we allude to the 74th clause, which provides that " upon all sales of Waste Lands'i Five Shillings per acre shall be paid to the New Zealand Company till their debt is discharged." we have here a fresh evidence of the powerful influence of the Company, and one reason, no doubt, of the favour •with which the Bill was regarded by some of the members, who, while they profess to feel a lively concern in colonial prosperity, are also directors or shareholders of this grasping and unprincipled Association. It is plain that, notwithstanding the nominal surrender of their charter, the Company still retain their corporate existence suf-

ficiently to continue to draw away for their own gaiu the life-blood of the colony to which they have been so long- and ' so deej) a curse. "We observe in the Times an advertisement conveningthe ''Annual General Court" of the Proprietors and Directors of the Company, to be holden at Broad-street Buildings, on the 27th of May, " for the election of Directors of the said Company, and for the transaction of other business." Business no doubt they will have according to their hearts' desire, if they can secure for their coffers a tax of five shillings on every acre of Waste Lands sold in New Zealand ! Mr. Aglionby's short speech which will be found in another column lets out the fact tliat Sir John Pakington's ear had been filled, at " interviews," with the claims of the Company, and that it had been urged upon him that the honour and good faith of England were involved in the payment of the alleged debt ; and the simplest way of meeting the difficulty seemed to Sir John, as it had seemed to Lord Grey, to saddle it on the colonists. Indeed, considering the history and existing state of the question, far less blame attaches to him than to his .predecessor in office. We never had any doubt that New Ulster was technically included in the Act which gave the Company a lien on the land of " New Zealand," although the monstrous injustice of the infliction of any part of the amount on this Province made us, with many others, willing to hope that, if the case were once fairly brought bofore the Imperial Legislature, so crying a wrong would be righted. Now, we apprehend, the inclusion of the Northern Province in the liability proposed in the new Act can admit of no question. And it is most certain that New Ulster would have to pay not only a portion, but by far the greater proportion of the claim. The Crown* Lands to be sold in New Ulster are more extensive and more valuable than those in New Minister, where the bulk of the unsold land is more likely to to be employed in pastoral purposes on lease than to be purchased for permanent cultivation. Thus the heavier part of the burden would be laid on the Province which cannot by any pretext be represented as having derived benefit, or anything but injury and insult, from the Company and its agents. The Petitions forwarded on this subject a few months since, and entrusted for presentation to Parliament to the Duke of Newcastle and Mr, Gladstone, made such cogent and clear appeals to the honour and equity of the Legislature that we can scarcely believe they could be without effect, had they arrived m time. But unfortunately there •was no possibility of their reaching before •the end of June, when the dissolution of Parliament was expected to take place, as they were only sent from Auckland on the 4th March by the Moa,nnd the first vessel by which they could have been forwarded from Sydney to London (the barque William) did not sail till the 23rd of that month. One hope, however, there is, — that the Bill may not have passed, but that the alternative at which Sir J. Pakington hinted — the passing of a short Bill continuing the Suspension rAct for another year — may have been adopted. We confess, however -we do not think this likely. At all events, we i would suggest the propriety of an iteration and a reiteration of our protest against the infliction of the claim in any form or proportion on this Province, — as being grossly unjust in itself, and as calculated by a stroke to destroy the prospect of attaining cheap land, which all parties are agreed is essen ■ tial to the due development of the resources of the country. It is possible that before the sailing of the Cresswell for London, the Raven may arrive with the news brought by the English steamer of the 3rd of June. In that case we shall most probably have information amounting almost to certainty as to the course which Parliament would adopt on* the measure. The Committee appointed at the Great Public Meeting on this subject in February last, although not formally constituted Committee, may, we tbhik, in strict accordance with the spirit of the charge confided to them, deem themselves competent still to take any steps which they may judge likely to promote the object of the protest ; and, should they see that anything further can be done with the prospect of a beneficial result, we have no doubt they will have the warm concurrence of the public in doing it.

We believe there is no doubt that the Ordinance authorising the appropriation by the Governor of a third of the proceeds of Land Sales to the purposes of the Corporation has been disallowed, and that this source of endowment is now swept away, although Lord Grey expresses a desire that if possible the loss might be compensated from «ome other source. We are not informed what has led to the disallowance of the Ordinance; but we think it very likely that the New Zealand Company, on discovering how the case stood, interposed their claim, and 'frustrated the intention of Sir George Grey to place this amount at the disposal of the representatives of the Burgesses. The practical part, however, appears to be, that money which our Common Council might have obtained and expended months ago for the public benefit, cannot now be had at all ; and that their dereliction of duty has thus done far more mischief than we had before apprehended, as it has actually deprived the Borough of the advantages which must have been derived from the expenditure of a sum which might have been legally obtained and spent then, but which now we apprehend will go into some channel widely different and less conducive to the public good. Kauri Gum. — We learn with pleasure that this abundant product of our district, which at one time was so valuable an article of export, but lately had fallen into comparative neglect, is once more in demand. It will be seen by an advertisement in our columns to-day that Mr. Nathan announces himself as a purchaser of it, and we understand that other parties also have recently been buying it up, and that two or three shipments of it are likely to be sent to England by the CresswcU.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18520904.2.4

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 667, 4 September 1852, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,607

The New Zealander. New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 667, 4 September 1852, Page 2

The New Zealander. New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 667, 4 September 1852, Page 2

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert