New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN Saturday, January 3, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 65, 3 January 1846, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN Saturday, January 3, 1846.

From the first formation of this settlement, up to the present time, a most severe and harassing contest has heen carried on between the settlers and the New Zealand Company on the one side, and the Colonial- office, the Missionaries and the local Government on the other. The settlers, believing that their interests were completely identified with thoseof the Company — reposing the most unlimited confidence in the honour and integrity '6T its Directors — satisfied that their 'exertions would be readily acknowledged, and that their claim to participate in the fruits of any triumph would be cheerfully and unhesitatingly admitted — have ever repelled the attempts made by the local authorities to ' create discord and division amongst them — have constantly refused all the inducements held out to them.^o separate themselves from ■the Company, as for instance, when thevre- .. jected with scorn and derision Capt. Fitzroy's offer of the-absentees' lands, — and have, in ■ short, through good and* through evil report ' remained firm *and unflinching allies of the Company. * - * - Upon-this struggle the Directors end the Shareholders of the" Company may be said (speaking generally) to have staked a few ? hundre'ds each, so that, if the scheme had ' utterly failed — if every farthing of the sums advanced by them had been for ever lost, few of them, if any, would have been materially injured either in their- fortune -or future prospects. The settlers on the contrary, have risked not merely the whole of their property, but the lives of themselves and families, and now, after a period cf six years, during which they "have lieen subject e"d to the most painful trials, firid' themselves almost irretrievably ruined. We need not now dwell upon the manner in which this contest has been car- ■ ried on by the settlers in New' Zealand and the Company in England, for while we are ready *to acknowledge the ability and energy which the Directors Tiave displayed in- carrying on their operations against the Colonial -office, • we feel that'they wiHall foe ready "to admit, that if the settlers had not made common <:ause with them, they never could have gained their present advantages. Thanks to their combined exertions, a great victory has at length been arhieved — Lord Stanley has sustained a more signa] 'defeat than Colonial Minister ever before received — the recall cf his protege, Captain Fitzroy, has been forced upon him, under circumstances the most humiliating to both of them — and the whole policy of the home and local governments in reference to this colony has been declared by the Prime Minister to have been from the very first utterly untenable and indefensible. -What then are the fruits<of this-apparently decisive.victory ? and in what manner is it proposed to apportion them, between the allied Tictors — the New Zealand Company and the settlers ? For an answer to these .queries, let -us turn to Lord Stanley's letter of 7th August, 1845, in which the terms'of the capitulation are fully explained. • - First,v Lord Stanley gives an unconditional grant both" of the ' lano's declared by Mr. Spain to have been validly purchased, and «Iso of those which he has swarded to the Company, in his capacity of recognised arbitrator between them and the natives — and Lord Stanley will authorize the employment of force, if necessary, to give the Company possession. •' Secondly, 'With respect to a»l other lands in. dispute, Lord Stanley- will OFder the Governor to aid and co-operate with the Company's Agent in bringing to a prompt and Satisfactory conclusion the negociations with the natives for the purchase or extinction of their rights. . Thirdly, Lord Stanley gives the Company an unconditional grant of 400,000 acres at Otago, allowing them to select 150,000 acres j ©r more, and thento reconvey x the surplus to j

the Government. The Governor will also be directed "to use his best exertions for securing' the immediate consent of the^natives to thepurchase by the Company of 300,000 acres in the Wairarapa." Fourthly, Lord Stan]ey grants to the Company the pre-emptive right of the Crown for a limited period in the land comprised in those portions of the Northern and Middle Islands usually termed the Company's districts. Fifthly, Lord Stanley admits the Company's right to a reimbursement in land at the rate of ss. an acre of the monies they shall advance in buying up the natives' claims In any land the Company ma/ select — and his lordship offers to send out forthwith a Commissionei , whose duty shall be (not as before, to defer the adjustment of the claims to the Greek kalends but) to facilitate by every means in his power, the arrangement above proposed. ' ; Sixthly, Loijd Stanley -intimates that in order to avoid any delay, he will not insist upon any minute examination of the expenditure in respect of which the Company claim land — but that he will take it in round numbers. Jn addition to these terms assented to^bjj the Government, ttie Company insist upon a loan for seven years of £150,000 — and although no decided answer has been given to this application, it is generally understood that it will be granted. The effect, then, of this arrangement is to entitle the Company to a grant of 1,200,000 acres, exclusive of additional claims — for future payments to the natives — for surveys — -for fees to the Commissioner's court, and as compensation for their past losses. The fruits, therefore, of this victory, as far as the New Zealand Company are concerned, are not only most satisfactory, but are really all that they could hope or desire to obtain. But what are the stipulations made, in this treaty -of peace with the Colonial- office, in favour of the settlers ? What advantages do they derive from this termination to a struggle, in which they have "borne so .conspicuous a part' — and from which they have been the chief sufferers ? iDo the Directors insist as a sine qud non upon the removal of the evils inflicted upon us by the great distance of the seat of Government ? We -look in vain for the slightest allusion to this grievance — in comparison with which all others are of trifling moment — seeing'that if this were removed the others must of necessity follow. Do they call for (he fulfilment of -the prqpise made by Sir R. Peel, "that the Government of New Zealand should be constituted in connexion with those most deeply interested in its local prosperity, assigning them a due weight and influence in the administration of its affairs ?" We cannot find that -they ever mention it. Do they, when asking for compensation for their losses, urge our claims at the same time? Far from it. What, then, we •again ask are the stipulations in our favour? They are two in number. The first is, that every settlement containing 1000 inhabitants shall have " municipal powers" conferred upon it^ — the meaning attached to " municipal powers" appears to be — that after giving up the whole revenue derived from the Customs to the general purposes of the Government, we shall have full permission — that is to say — we shall be compelled to defray all the expenses attending the police, gaols, the administration of justice — the militia, and a host of other things, and that to defray these expenses yje shall have the privilege of taxing ourselves to an indefinite amount. Now really, to make such a stipulation, appears to us, to be little else than to add insult to iojury — for the Directors must have been fully aware, that we might have had these municipal powers conferred upon us at any time during ' the last two years by expressing our wish for tljem to Captain Titzroy — and they cannot have been ignorant that the offer of a municipal, corporation was twice refused by the Nelson settlers. Lord Stanley, of course, assents to a proposal, by which such heavy burdens will be laid upon the settlers, instead of upon the local Government. The second, and the only other stipulation in our favour is, that the municipalities shall elect representatives to the Legislative Coon-

cil, and Lord Stanley generously consents to this upon condtti&h that the officials shall form a majority — in other the Directors ask and obtain for us that, which was pressed upon the acceptance of the Nelson settlers by Captain Fitzroy a year ago — but which they rejected with such wholesome conteropt^that Major Richmond was deterred from making us a similar offer. Such, we repeat, are the favourable terms obtained for the settlers in Cook's Straits from Lord Stanley by the Company. Now when we remember, the flourish of trumpets, with which the Directors announced tpfthe public at home in May last, that they had indignantly rejected the offer then made by Lord Stanley to ." buy up their interests," simply because " the Government would give no sufficient guarantee for the welfare of the Cook's Straits settlers." — "When we remember how they proclaimed, " that they would never cast a stain upon the honour of, the Company, by sacrificing the iiiterests'ofliße colonists, whom they bad been the means of planting in New Zealand, and by whose instrumentality their early successes had been obtained" — when we call to mind, the dexterous use made of the sufferings of the settlers in the recent debates — how anxious the advocates qf the Company were to place us and our miseries in the foreground, studiously keeping the Company and its interests in the background — when we remember all this, we confess ourselves unable to reconcile the past professions of the Di • rectors with the utter disregard which they j have shewn to our interests in this arrangement with Lord Stanley. We cannot but feel that they have made the same use of us, that the beggar-woman makes ef the squalid and sickly child in her arms — we have been pinched and squeezed, until our cries have attracted the attention and excited the sympathy of the. whole world — and then, the Directors Tiave quietly pocketed all the halfpennies — leaving upon us the marks of pinches which it will require years to efface. But when, in addition to the complete silence maintained by them upon the subject of our claims upon the Government, at the very moment when hj means qf cur sufferings, they were wringing from the Colonial-office-grants of 4and to the amount probably of 1,500,000 or 2,000,000 acres, we find that in reply to an application made in our behalf by our fellow colonist and fellow sufferer Dr. Evans (whose exertions have, we know, materially contributed to the Company's present triumph, and to whom the colonists owe a debt o( deep gratitude for his able advocacy of their cause) the Directors, deny in the most unequivocal manner that we have any right to claim compensation for the losses we have experienced from their inability to fulfil their contracts made with us six years ago, we feel it difficult to refrain from characterising such conduct in proper terms. Most assuredly it is a decided improvement upon " Pensylvanian repudiation" — for while the drab-coloured men of Pensylvania merely repudiated their debts at a time, when they were in a state of utter bankruptcy, the Directors of Broad-street take the opportunity of repudiating their liabilities at the very moment that they are on the point of reaping most excellent profits. We candidly confess, that we would most gladly have deferred making the remarks which we have now made with.so much pain, in the hope that the next intelligence from England may, in all probability, place the conduct of the Directors in a much more favourable 4ight, but as there seems a prospect of the Devid Malcolm saUingpnext week, we have felt it our duty not to lose the opportunity of expressing the very unfavourable impression created in the minds of all here, by the complete sacrifice of their interests in the recent arrangement. We would only further express a hope, that Dr. Evans, (in case the Directors have really abided by their answer) will have insisted (by bringing the subject before the Government) upon the Company restoring to the settlers here, the 200,000 acres which they have gained by means of our money, and which they cannot have the shadow of a pretence for withholding from us, seeing that they have been paid according to our agreement, their commission of 25 per cent. (£25,000) and that the remainder of our money (£75,000) was to be expended solely for- our benefit.