TO CAPTAIN EITZROY, R.N., GOVERNOR OE NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 40, 12 July 1845, Page 3

TO CAPTAIN EITZROY, R.N., GOVERNOR OE NEW ZEALAND.

[ay it please your Excellency. The undersigned inhabitants of Taranaki, ssembled in public meeting, have been informed at the Police Magistrate of this district has iceived a private communication from your xcellency, relative to the memorial adopted on c 10th April last, wherein your Excellency as requested to afford her Majesty's loyal subcts in Taranaki the protection of a military rce. We regret that your Excellency did not teem our memorial of. sufficient importance to

merit a direct reply, addressed in the usual form to the chairman of the meeting; but as the substance of your Excellency's letter has been communicated to us by the Police Magistrate, we proceed to deal with it as an official document emanating from the Governor of New Zealand. Your Excellency describes our condition as' isolated. We are astonished that your Excellency should make such a statement after a residence of some weeks in New Plymouth \ and with perfect knowledge of the fact, that access to this settlement is easy and safe during by far the greater part of the year, to vessels of all sizes ; and that communication with it by land is not more difficult, than communication with Auckland from the other settlements of New Zealand. On the contrary, it is nearer than Auckland to Wellington and Nelson r where the principal body of European settlers reside ' r and as easily approached as any part of the colony. We would remind your Excellency of your own public declarations during your last visit to New Plymouth, as completely at variance with the assumption that Taranaki is " isolated" or mac-> cessible. It is certainly a subject of regret, and the occasion of constant inconvenience, expense, and injustice, that the seat of Government should be so far removed from the residence of the great majority of the governed j but the faulty position of the capital is no excuse for the de-r sertion of any portion of her Majesty's subjects in New Zealand, seeing that they pay as much for the support of the Executive, in proportion to their numbers, as if they were settled on the banks of the Thames, or the shores of Shouraki. Your Excellency states, that we are " unprotected" as well as 'isolated;" and this is unhappily beyond a question. The Government has, indeed, left upwards of a thousand Europeans, surroundedbynumerous tribes of savages, entirely to their own means of defence, after those Englishmen had emigrated from their native country with the sanction and encouragement of the then Secretary of State, for a colony in which it was pretended that British law and authority was established. Most true is the confession, that we are unprotected ; and we deeply regret to find, from the tenor of your Excellency's letter, that no improvement in our condition is to be expected from Government — that you are utterly unable to perform the chief function for the discharge of which all righteous government exist — namely, that of conferring , protection in return for the allegiance rendered and the taxes imposed. j Your Excellency throws us entirely on our i own resources, merely authorizing the occupation of some waste public ground for a place of defence. But we would represent the imprudence and danger of constructing a fortification of any description without a regular military force to defend it. It is impossible that settlers unpractised in arms, unpaid, and under the necessity of daily labour for subsistence, can abandon their homes and occupations to undertake the duties proper to a soldier. And yet, unless regularly defended, a fort or stockade would inevitably fall into the hands of those who would use it for our destruction instead of preservation. It is therefore unwise to avail ourselves of your Excellency's gracious permission to defend ourselves on Marsland hill or Mount Eliot, and we again call upon your Excellency to send a small body of regular soldiers to Taranaki ; in the full belief that a repetition of the same application to the Governor of New South Wales, which procured several hundred troops for Auckland and Wellington, would obtain a captain's company for Taranaki. Your Excellency may assure Sir George Gipps that soldiers would be safely landed, joyfully received, and that they are most urgently required in Taranaki. Moreover, that they would be cheaply maintained, as the settlers are now actually exporting flour and pork to other parts of New Zealand. Such aid, is daily becoming more necessary in consequence of the continued accession to the native population of strangers from various parts of the Island, against whom many of the older resident natives are themselves anxious to obtain military protection. In conclusion, we would remind your Excellency of your public promise to send soldiers to Taranaki, on receiving the first re-inforcement, even though that addition should not exceed half a company. New Plymouth, June 11th, 1845. Mored by Mr. Chilman, seconded by Mr., Shaw, and carried with two dissentients ;. " That his Excellency the Governor having refused any protection to the settlers of Taranaki, the continued imposition of taxes is unjust and unconstitutional." Moved by F. U. Gledhill, Esq., seconded by J. G. Cooke, Esq., and carried unanimously ; "That in the event of his Excellency not being able to afford us any assistance by a military force, it is the opinion, of this meeting that we should apply to th,e Home Government for protection." Moved by R. Gillingham, Esq. seconded by R. S. Lowe. Esq., and carried unanimously : " That the thanks of thi3 meeting be pre- v sented to Colonel Wakefield, Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company, fpu the pr,ompti-

tude with which he acceded to an application of several settlers conveyed to him by the resident agent, by forwarding a supply of ammunition out of the Company's stores at Wellington, for the use of this settlement." The thanks of the meeting were then voted to the chairman.