[From the London Times.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 56, 1 November 1845, Page 3

[From the London Times.]

Mr. C. Buller last night gave notice that he should, on the 17th of June, move for a committee of the whole House, to take into consideration the petition of the New Zealand Compauy. Our readers will rememher that on the Ist of the present month, the hon. member withdrew his me lion to the samr effect, stating that a new arrangement for settling the affairs of that colony was under the consideration of Her Majesty's Government. A statement of the various offers and negotiations that had been going on in private, before this announcement of the cassation of hostilities was made public, has reached us, and from it we learn the danger at all events that attends such overtures. Naturally enough, the gentleman whose conciliation is no longer limited, was the mediator between his colleague, the Secretary for the Colonies, and his assailant: Sir James Graham, in a conversation with Mr. C. Buller in the House of Commons, suggested the idea that the disputes between Lord Stanley and the New Zealand Company had better be settled amicably. The pamphlet then goes on to state that Mr. C. Buller had interviews with Sir James for this object, with the knowledge of the Colonial Secretary, and by Sir James's suggestion he transmitted certain proposals to his Lordship. These proposals wete subsequently discussed at an interview, held for the purpose and by appointment, at Lord Stanley's private residence, Sir James Graham being present: and it was then agieed by the three that the proposals should be formally renewed in a letter which Mr. C. Buller was to write to Lord Stanley. On the 26th of April the letter was written, pursuant to this arrangement. It then wanted only five days to the time on which Mr. C. Buller's motion was to come on, and in the middle of this interval, viz., on the 28th of April, Sir James spoke to Mr. C. Buller, and told him that " the Government could not negotiate under an appearance of pressure, or of a wish to shrink from discussion, and that his notice of motion must be withdrawn before any further communication took place." Sir James added, that he had thought it due to Mr. Buller and to himself to say to Lord Stanley, that he could not have undertaken to make such a communication to Mr. Buller, unless Lord Stanley would authorise him to say that he (Lord Stanley) had no insuperable objections to the plan of accommodation set forth in Mr. Buller's letter." On the faith of this repiesentation from Lord Stanley's colleague, distinctly and expressly with Lord Stanley's assent, Mr. C. Buller induced the directors of the New Zealand Company.to assent to his withdrawing his motion. The very next night after he had so withdrawn it, Mr. Hope, Lord Stanley's representative in the Commons, declared that the withdrawal wai wholly uiispli-

cited on the part of the Government, and unwished/or by them ; and on the 19th of May Lord Stanley himself wrote to Mr. C. Buller to say that he and his colleagues could not agree to any arrangement on the scheme proposed. The scheme that had been proposed was in the nature of a compromise, the southern and least populous portion of New Zealand being by it to be given up to the management of the Company under a Royal charter, and from the northern portion the Company was to be excluded. On the 22d of May Mr. C. Buller had another interview with Lord Stanley and Sir James; and Lord Stanley stated that he was prepared to enter upon a fresh treaty with the Company, either on the basis of attempting a settlement of the questions at issue, leaving the powers of the Company and of the Government on their present footing, or on that of the Government buying up the interests of the Company and dissolving it. The Company, however, have rejected both these proposals, on the ground that, whilst there was no prospect of their leading to any satisfactory result, they would inevitably prevent the appeal of the Company to Parliament for redress during the present session. Whether this putting-off of the evil day formed any part of Lord Stanley's reason for hinting at further private negotiation, we do not undertake to express any opinion ; but we must remember that his Lordship's contest is with adversaries who meet him wilh one victory in hand — who have had the report of a committee in their favour — and in his correspondence Lord Stanley confesses " that the state of New Zealand is one of embarrassment for the Government as well as the Company." — Times, May 29.

We give in our impression to-day at considerable length, but at a length only commensurate with the vital importance of the subject, a report of the proceedings at the annual Court of the New Zealand Company, held yesterday at b. evv Zealand-house. From authentic documents which were before us, we were enabled yesterday morn'ng to acquaint our readers with the exact position of the dispute, as it now stands, between the Company and Lord Stanley ; and every word that we then said is borne out by the report since read at the meeting by Mr. Harrington, the Secretary. This report details the various circumstances that had induced the Company to empower Mr. C. Buller to negotiate privately with Lord Stanley, when an opening had been afforded through the mediation of Sir James Graham and his proposal for an amicable arrangement. It also bears out all that we stated as to the terms offered on each side, and the reasons that induced the Company finally to break off the treaty and revive their appeal to Parliament. From w hat appears on the face of the report, we conceive the Company had no other course left open to it which it could have pursued without the danger of being entrapped and of compromising its own character; aud from the statement of a gentleman at the meeting yesterday, who has been many years a settler in the colony, we are distinctly of opinion that the Company would have incurred the risk of a still more serious responsibility if it had allowed any overtures for a compromise to have succeeded in throwing its appeal to the country over the present session of Parliament. What we mean by this remark, and by onr advisfedly used epithet, the " vital 11 importance of the present discussion, will be best understood from the following passage in the speech of the gentleman who has been so long in New Zealand. Dr. Evans said — He would now state his own impressions relative to the present state of the colony. When he left New Zealand the consequences of what the local government had done were exhibiting themselves in a complete alienation of the natives from the Europeans. There was a degree of distrust, coldness, and jealousy manifested by all parties throughout the country, which convinced him that the colony was on the eve of some very severe catastrophe. He had no feai for those who were settled in large towns, but for those who were scattered throughout he did confess that he entertained the most serious apprehensions. Unless he could take them into the hut of a native, and point out to them the savage whettiug the edge of his tomahawk — unless he could take them into the cabin of the white settler, and show them the European sleeping upon loaded arms, preparing for any attack which might be made, it would be impossible to convey to them an adequate idea of the danger which he believed ithreatened both the native and the settler in that country. Without the most energetic, and, he would add, well-direated measures were adopted by the Government, he feared that something might take place in that country which might be recorded in history, as equalled only in magnitude and in its dire effect by the Sicilian Vespers. Native delegates were travelling the country in all directions, reconciling the hostile tribes; they were accumulating arms and^ ammunition in large quantities, and that not for any clear and definite purpose, but with some ill-defined feeling that an occasion might soon arrive when such weapons would be required. After such a warning as this, fresh from the spot, the Company would be clearly liable to the guilt of blood if they any longer delayed to bring all facts and all circumstances relating to this once promising settlement, and-

now ruined colony, before Parliament stud th* public. Lord Stanley's last bid for further time bas been rejected. It was a high and a tempting one ; his Lordship suggested the plan of Government's buying up the interests of the Company. But the Company had already allowed two entire months of the session to be consumed in overtures and treaty ; and the lesson appears not to have been lost. — Times, May 30.