The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1853

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 720, 9 March 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1853

Be just and fear not: Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

By ilie Overland Mail, which arrived on Saturday, wo have received ‘Wellington papers lo the slh, and the Taranaki Herald to the 16th of February.

The only information respecting the Go-vernor-in-Chiefs movements is a statement in the Independent of the 22nd lilt., —brought by the schooner Governor Grey from Wanganui,—that His Excellency (as had already been reported here), not finding Bishop Selwyn at Wanganui, as he had anticipated, had proceeded on a trip to Taupo in company with the Rev. Richard Taylor, and that he had not returned when the schooner left. It is added that the Bishop arrived at Wanganui on the 291h of January, by way of Kawhia and Taranaki, and was wailing (lie return of His Excellency. At the last dales the Government Brig was still at Wellington.

It will be seen by an extract in another column that the Nelson Mining Company had declined lo accede to the terms proposed by intending shareholders at Wellington, and were resolved to retain the entire management of the enterprise at their own town. The Independent deplores this decision as "throwing away the fairest opportunity that has yet presented itself for the cultivation of a cordial and friendly relation between the sister settlements," and adds that, unless the Nelson settlers retrace their steps, good wishes "will be all the co-operation they can receive" from Wellington. A correspondent of the same journal suggests an application to the Governor for a grant of a certain number of acres of the Pakewau Coal Field (which is said lo extend over 1200 acres) in order to the formation of a Wellington Coal Company. The Spectator re-publishes a despatch from Lord Grey enclosing a report from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners on the "Duppa Compensation Job," which, although dated June 1851, has only appeared in one of the last Blue Books. The practical importance of these documents is confined to the South, but they have some local interest here also, from the light they cast upon the character and conduct of an unblushing calumniator of the Auckland Settlement,—Mr. William Fox. The Commissioners,—evidently after a careful investigation of the affair—conclude,—"We cannot but think that, looking to the peculiar circumstances of the case,— lo the large amount of land awarded to Mr. Duppa,— lo the dissatisfaction, not unreasonably as we think, created thereby among the Nelson Settlers, —and to the commercial connexion between Mr. Fox and Mr. Duppa, it would be desirable that the arrangement should not be confirmed until it shall hayc been investigated on the spot." Lord Grey, while he leaves the matter ultimately to the Governor's deciaion, remarks, "I consider the award given in favour of Mr. Duppa to be one which, unless there be reasons in favour of it of which 1 am not aware, ought on no account to be confirmed." It appears

I that a further investigation has since; taken place before Mr. Dillon (Crown Commissioner), and Mr. Poynln- (Crown Solicitor), and that those gentlemen have confirmed the award of 2,000/ compensation to Mr. Bnppa, but do not consider him entitled to the 8,000 acres of land selected by him in respect of that sum; and the Spectator' regards the affair as not yet concluded. So much for the purity and disinterestedness of that "tried friend of the colony"—The Author of «« The Six Colonies of New Zealand." We regret to observe that a destructive fire had'occurred at the Church. Mission Station at Ahuriri. The account of this, with several other extracts from the Wellington paper will be found in our other columns.

The scarcity of land at Taranaki continued to engage the anxious attention of the residents, and a numerously attended Public Meeting was held at New Plymouth on the 13th ult. to devise means for that "acquirement of additional land" on which (as declared in one of the Resolutions) " the prosperity and advancement of the Settlement of New* Plymouth mainly depend." Nothing can be more natural than that this want should be deeply felt, -nothing more reasonable than that all prudent and judicious steps should be taken to meet it. We more than question, however, whelhcv it is either prudent or judicious to maintain a correspondence with the Natives so little calculated to lead to safe and practical results, and involving so much risk of sowing dissatisfaction in their minds as the following, which was read by Mr. Hulke at the Meeting :

The first letter was addressed to Ihaia, at the Wailara: — " Friend Ihaia, we greet yoa. The servants of the Governor in (his place inform us that (hey can purchase no land for the white people, because the Maories are unwilling to sell. This we do not hear from yourselves, hut from the servants of the Governor stationed here, and we do not believe it. Write a letter to us, therefore, and tell us yourselves have not you and your people offered your land for sale to the Governor, to M'Lean, to Halse, or to Cooper, that we may know—we, the free white men of Tarariaki who do not work for the Governor, and do not lake his money—(hat we may all know your thoughts towards us and that it may not be hidden in the breasts of the Governor and his servants. Write to us that we may send your letter to the Queen, that she may allow you to sell your lands to (he while men, who want to cultivate them, and not to the Governor only. The white men, not the Governors people, meet together on Saturday next to talk about land, and we want to read your letter that you will write in answer to this to the people assembled." The following is a correct translation of lhaia's answer to the above: Waitara, Feb. 11, 18S2. Friends Watt & Hulbe— I greet you. Your lelfer has reached me, and I understand its contents. This is rny word to you. You and the pakeha know bow anxious myself and Tamily are (bat (he land should be sold (o (he Governor, and paid for —but he is not agreeable to buy it. Many years have we both been anxious that Waitara should be paid for, but the Governor has not consented.

Listen ! lam desirous to sell the land, and you lo purchase. If you are desirous lo buy Ihc land we are agreeable lo let you have it. Let it be straight, however, and care not for the anger of the natives who are opposed, as the Governor did, who considered the opposition of some of the natives, and thus the land has never been purchased. J)o not take any notice of the anger of my friends the natives.

This is all —from liiaia. [There were other letters received from several native chiefs lo the same effect.]

We have not the remotest disposition to impute to the gentlemen who engaged in this correspondence any deliberately formed intention to excite disatTeciion and distrust on the part of the Natives towards the Government; but we think no impartial reader can help apprehending that such must be its tendency. This seems to us so obvious that we willingly refrain from the disagreeable task of critically examining the import of the expressions used in the letter of" the while men, not the Governor's people, "or commenting on the feelings they are calculated to foster in the Native mind. As.respects the failure of the efforts which it is admitted have been nrnde by the Government to purchase land,' lliaia himself explains the matter. It was owing to the " opposition"—" the anger" of " his friends the Natives :". —that is, as we may conclude, while some of the Native proprietors were willing to sell, others having an equal right of properly in the land, were not willing, and the land thus owned in common could under such circumstances be procured only by the course of defying the opposition of these latter owners, —at .the price of a gross infraction of the Treaty of-Wailanga and the risk of a sanguinary collision with the Natives whose land would thus be wrested from them in spite of their refusal to part with it. Some of the speakers at the New Plymouth meeting evidently were but imperfectly acquainted with the limits of the powers either of the Governor, the Superintendent, or the Colonial Legislature under the new Act of Parliament. Indeed, as the Herald admits, " there seemed to be some stumbling as to how the matter should be treated" in various particulars. However the object of getting more land into the market is in itself an unquestionably proper one, and we can only hope that the Committee appointed by tho Meeting to carry out its purposes wilf conduet their proceedings, with that knowledge of the subject in all its relations and bearings, and with that superiority lo mere political prejudices and strifes which may be quite as important elements of success as " the perseverance and despatch" enjoined by the Resolution appoinling them. To illustrate what we mean :—the advice of one of the Speakers, that "His Excellency should be haunted night and day,—every post that left should carry messages to him—every hour should whisper the same tidings—his-mid-night dreams should be of that one thing requisite 'Taranaki wants more land!"'— may, when shorn of what is " mere oratory," be regarded as sjrnply an exhortation to diligent and active effort, and may therefore be substantially sound advice. But when another speaker tells the meeting that "the only question was-to ascertain where the land was lobe had, and then say to the Governor

—here is land ; if you won't buy it we mil?' and when a third speaker declares "The time is come when wc must help ourselves and Inn/ Jand on our own account ," '—whf>n sue!) recommendations as these are advanced and cheered; it appears only kind to hint to these gentlemen that before they fc * tell the Governor" ail this, and act out their views of dealing with the Natives "on their o\va account," it may not be a total loss of time if they would give a few minutes to a' perusal of the 73rd clause of the New Constitution Act, together with the comment upon it in the 20th paragraph of Sir John Paktngton's accompanying Despatch. It is because we sincerely wish our Taranaki neighbours success in their reasonable as well as important object of getting a supply of land for immigrants to their Settlement, that wc should feel regret at their taking any other than the course most likely at once to attain their own end in a satisfactory manner, and to conduce to the general harmony of government and people, Europeans and Natives.