New Zealand Colonist. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1842.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 11, 6 September 1842, Page 2

New Zealand Colonist. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1842.

Our contemporary has again girded up his loins for the battle. To do him justice, he litters “ prave ’ords,” though rather too much in the vein of ancient Pistol. We could, indeed, have willingly dispensed with a portion of the sublime and beautiful, with which he has favoured the public, in order that its place might be supplied by statements a little more intelligible and definite. We desire to confront our contemporary at the bar of public opinion; not in the heated atmosphere of a public meeting, where assertions the most palpably false, and sophistries the most contemptibly fallacious, too often pass current for truth and reasoning; but in the columns of our own and his paper, where no false statement can escape detection, and every sophism will meet exposure. -To this encounter we challenge him. Let him state and refute the “ absurd and injurious falsehoods” .circulated among the working classes. Let him disclose the names of “ the hired advocates of a rival community,” to whom these falsehoods are traceable. Or let his silence be received as proof that he dares to assert what he knows cannot be supported by evidence. The lists are prepared and open. Let him therefore, take up the gauntlet we throw down to him—or submit to be proclaimed a recreant. But we would interpose one caution. Although, as we have abundantly proved, we are among the most patient and placable of human beings, we may be provoked into retaliation. In that case, we might be tempted to enquire if there may not be a hireling advocacy of the cause which our contemporary so warmly espouses; if there has always been the manifestation of n perfect consistency even there ; and if disappointed ambition may not be as powerful an incentive as “ individual jealousy and personal revenge,” if these motives were wanting. These are questions which we should be sorry to be compelled to ask, and they are questions which we imagine our contemporary would do well not to provoke. We have never yet dealt with motives —but if enquiries of that nature are to be . made, we can promise our antagonists a tolerably searching investigation, which in our own case we invite and defy.

Our writings have heen attacked on two grounds —for we pass over the greater part of the article in question, as belonging to that class of vegetables which Swift was wont to denominate “ fudgefirst, for tampering with the native question; arid, secondly, for denouncing the Company. We shall say a word or two upon each point.

In the first place, then, we retort upon the Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company the charge of tampering with the native question. Almost from the first moment of our establishment in this place, he has known that there were questions of the gravest character at issue, between himself and the natives, as to the validity of the purchases which he had nominally made. For the adjustment of these questions we are not aware that he has made any efforts. If, in this respect, we are mistaken, let his exertions but be made public, and we will be among the first to acknowledge our error, and to give him the fullest credit for his labours. Of such exertions, however, we have never heard, and we must therefore presume that none have been made. For this seeming apathy in so important a matter, we should have been, at a ( loss to assign a reason, had it not been furnished by Colonel Wakefield himself. At a public meeting, held at the Exchange we heard the gallant Colonel declare, that he had not taken any great trouble to urge upoh Captain Hobson the necessity for the settlement of the native claims ; because, in compliance with the instructions of the Company, he was desirous of keeping. the question open, in order that it might be made an . instrument in the hands of the* Directors for attacking the local government.. If this be not tampering with the question, we know not what is. And to add to the impolicy and injustice of such a procedure, it has since appeared that Colonel Wakefield was at that moment authorised by Captain Hobson, to adopt the only really efficacious measures for putting a stop to the disputes thus occasioned, by buying up all unsatisfied native claims!

We have asserted what we believe to be the fact, that justice has not been done to the natives. If this is a mistake, it is easy to disprove our assertion, And here, as before, we shall be glad to perceive and acknowledge our error, if it can be shown to be one. But if our view of the case be well-founded, our contemporary and the public may rely upon it that any tern-, porary ease, which may be secured by silence, will be dearly purchased, and that every year’s delay will complicate the question, and render it of more difficult solution.

In the second place, we cannot plead guilty to the charge of. uttering any denunciation against the Company. On the contrary, we have uniformly stated that our interests;, and those of the New Zealand Company, properly understood, are identical. We have given the Company full credit for their exertions in the task of colonising New Zealand. We have done justice to their energy and skill. We admit their advocacy of our rights and interests. That this advocacy has always been prudent we may be permitted to doubt; but we have no doubt of its sincerity. Let our denunciations be quoted, and we will plead guilty to the charge; but we have in vain searched the columns of our paper for the purpose of discovering them.

There is an extraordinary statement of our contemporary, which we must notice in conclusion. He says “there is nothing to prevent them (the Company) as soon as the 110,000 are surveyed, from choosing the remainder of their grant in some remote district, and transferring their head quartars to some other place.” Nothing to prevent themj We should be sorry to think as meanly of the men who have the direction of the affairs of the New Zealand Company, as this statement would imply. Are their promises to us, the settlers in their “first and principal settlement,” nothing? Are we to assume that they have forgotten the degree in which their success has been influenced by our labours, and that they would deny or disregard, the obligation thus imposed upon them, to maintain us in the position which they had themselves marked out for us ? Nothing to prevent them! We believe that there is every thing to prevent them, which can restrain men of honour from violating their pledges: which can impel men of principle to discharge a debt of gratitude; and more, which can prevent men of business from abandoning their surest source of profit. If our contemporary cannot - understand or appreciate the other motives to which we have alluded, we doubt not that he will give due weight to this last.

We are requested to state, thatrMr. •Lybn*^^ # Lecture on Geology, postponed from test TiM*;,day, owing to the inclemency of the •Weather, ’- will be delivered this evening, at the Hall of the ; Mechanic’s Institute, at half-past seven o’clock. Is

We regret to learn that His Excellency the | Governor has sustained another severe attack-of

paralysis, from which serious fears are? entertained that he will not recover. This report , ; was brought by a passenger on board the Sisters , . ; which had arrived at Nelson from Auckland, which we sincerely trust is without foundation. ~ >