New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 21, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 76, 21 March 1846, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 21, 1846.

The statements contained in the letter from 'Wanganui, which appears in this day's Spectator, of excitement and disturbance among the natives, are folly borne out by other communications received from the same quarter, and by persons recently returned from the coast. Another writer, who recently had an interview with Rangihaeata, .says; •„• he was extremely and most grossly of the Governor, applying rail those disgusting epithets which maori. eloquence alone is so -.notorious for. He taunted us with Kawiti's 'success in the North, and |9amry informed us, that he had already sent , tip for assistance from theTaupo, Wanganui, and other tribes. Many from the latter $ace are already with him, and in walking up the coast we met frequently ,jdetached parties of four; six orseven.'aH going down tp, his place at , Porirua, called Taupp." Other" settlers who have recently visited Porirua have recognized among the natives there, some of the rebels who have recently been driven from the Hutt, and it is believed that the main body is encamped midway between the Hutt and Porirua waiting a favorable opportunity for action; Several natives from D'Urville's island, Queen Charliotte's Sound, and other parts of the Straits, have also recently 'joined Rangihaeata.

Our object in publishing these report* is I not to create an unnecessary alarm, but by j timely information to ,put the settlers on their guard against any meditated treachery, ' and render- the plans of our enemy abortive. . j We cannot too often repeat our fiim con- | viction that, as long as Rangihaeata is at large, we have no security for the continu ance of peace in this district, — and as long as the servants and advisers of the late Government are retained in office, the settlers have no security that Captain .Grey's policy will ever be fairly carried out. The best .proof of our assertion is the fact that the Governor has hardly left Port Nicholson on his visit to the other settlements in Cook's Steaks, before Taringa Kuri and ivis .followers receive permission from the Superintendent to return again to the district from which they have been so recently and with so much difficulty driven away. .Fortunately the precautions adopted by the officers in command of the troops prevented this step from being attended with the serious consequences which might otherwise have resulted ; for though they pleaded his Honor's permission, yet only a few of their number were allowed to pass the Hutt bridge and proceed to their former clearings, where they commenced digging potatoes, as they alleged, by the permission of Majpf Richmond. It appears almost inconceivable, after these natives have so long maintained themselves in' the Hutt district, at first by the tacit consent,, and afterwards in defiance of the local authorities, after the difficulty which their expulsion has occasioned and the losses the settlers have suffered before this was finally accomplished, that any of their number on any pretence vhitever could have been allowed to return. It is nevertheless a fact which his Honor will find it difficult to justify, and only affords an example of what may be expected from his superintendence, should any questions arise with the natives after- the Governor's departure for Auckland.

A case has this .week been decided in the Supreme Court possessing an unusual degree of public interest ; we alJude to an action of ejectment brought by Mr. David Scott against Messrs. Grace, Moore, and other settlers under a Crown Grant issued by Captain Fitaroy. "On the arrival of the Crown grants in August last we made a few observations on this case, and in our 46th No. will ■befoHnd a letter by Colonel Wakefield in vwhicb the principal circumstances connected with it are clearly 'detailed. It may be however necessary briefly to recapitulate them. On the 20th June, 1842, Mr. Scott advertised in the Government Gazette his claim to certain land on Lambton Quay immediately to the north of the stream at Kumutoto comprising about one acre and a half which /he alleged to have purchased from the natives in March 1831 for a cask of gunpowder; and this claim was advertized to be heard in the Court of Land Claims in Feb. 1843. In 1841 Mr. Scott purchased a part of this land from parties deriving their title directly or mediately from the New Zealand Company, which he sold again to persons who he now seeks under hisCrownGrant to dispossess, and in the interval between the notification of his claim in the Government Gazette and its hearing in Mr. Spain's court he acted as an agent for the sale of a portion of this land to one of the present proprietors, who by his representations was in a great measure induced to purchase it. These are we believe the principal points affecting the case so far as Mr. Scott is concerned. The points of a public nature are briefly these, — In 1 840 when this colony "was a dependency of New South Wales, a i deputation from the settlers of Port Nicholson waited upon Sir G. Gipps at Sydney in consequence of the state of the land claims, and a correspondence took place which was published in the New Zealand Gazette, Sept. 1840. Iv this correspondence Sir G. Gipps states'" that he wishes it dearly to be understood that the Government does uot guarantee the possession of any portion of these lands to the settlers, to the exclusion of persons who, may claim possession of them or any part, of, them by virtue of previous purchase from the natives; should any claims of this, kind appear, their pretensions and. the validity of ,their purchases must be enquired into and reported on by the Commissioners appointed under the recent act of. council. To this the deputation object that it would be highly unjust to the settlers to be {subject to the counter claims of persons ,in the town, "who have purchased from the natives only because it was known that a settlement was to be formed there ; who have contributed nothing to any public purpose ; and who, if the town were founded by Government, would be only entitled to compensation, in land." Sir G. Gipps replied that the deputation had rightly apprehended his meaning — Such claimants "must be dealt with under the act of council in the same way that they would be dealt with

if the land claimed by them were required for any public purpose, in fact the formation of the settlement is a public purpose, they therefore cannot retain their lands in it — but any compensation which may be awarded to them by the Commissioners for the loss of their lands must be made by the settlers collectively or by the Company." In June 1841, the Land Claims Ordinance was passed : this was confirmed by the Crown and is still in force. By this act the Commissioners are restrained from recommending grants to claimants in any sites of towns, and compensation is to be given to them in land. In August. 1841, Capt. Hobson paid his first visit to Wellington, and with the view of removing any apprehensions which the settlers might entertain on this subject, wrote a letter to the Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company dated 6th Sept., 1841, which was afterwards published in the Government Gazette (in which also the town of Wellington was proclaimed) where he states ** It may be satisfactory for you to know that the Crown will forego its right of pre-emption to the lands comprised wjthin the accompanying schedule, and that the Company will receive a grant of all such lands, as may by any one have been validlj \ purchased from the natives, the Company compensating all previous purchasers according to a scale to be fixed by a Local Ordinance." In this schedule is comprised the town of Wellington, as laid out by the surveyors of the New Zealand Company, containing 1,100 acres in sections of one acre each. This letter which was published for general information, clearly pledged the Government as to its mode of dealing with claims of this nature. We shall not be deemed uncharitable in asserting that Capt. Fitzroy has, in issuing this grant, abused the power with which he was intrusted for the purpose of injuring the settlers of this district. He knew that such a grant was in direct violation of the public pledges and arrangements of his predecessors which had been approved of by the Colonial Secretary, and that it was opposed to the provisions of the Land Ordinance, and an Act of Parliament. He knew that in acting thus illegally, he was guilty of the further injustice of depriving the present proprietors of their houses and improvements, which they have been induced to make on the faith of these public pledges, that many of them had suffered severely from the calamitous firj^of 1842, and that in thus depriving them of their property contrary to law, many of them would be absolutely ruined. Nor is Capt. Fitzroy the only person to blame, for if this grant be founded on Mr. Spain's report he is still more to be censured, for the Land Ordinance expressly enacts that no grant shall be recommended by the Commissioners which may be required for the site of any town or village reserve, or any other purpose of public utility, nor any land situate on the seashore within 100 feet of high-water mark, but that in every such case they shall in lieu of such land propose to grant a compensation in such quantity of other land as they shall deem an equivalent. The grant itself (a certified copy of which we have had the opportunity of examining) is in keeping with the other circumstances of the case. The description of the land, and the plan in which it is " more particularly set forth and delineated," agree as little together that it would be impossible for any surveyor to point out from them the boundaries of the land granted. The grant states the allotment to contain one acre and a half as delineated upon the plan drawn in the margin, and coloured red. The area contained within the red line is stated in the plan to contain 3| acres. In the description, the land is bounded on the " north by the next small creek beyond Kumutoto stream falling into the harbour;" in the plan the red line extends to the second creek beyond Kumutoto ; on the west the land is described as " bounded by the said small creek, along the brow of the hill at the back about 400 feet to Kumutoto creek at its first turn," but in the plan the red line extends at least 100 feet beyond the brow of the hill ; — in fine, by the plan the grant would convey to Mr. Scott all that part of Lambton-quay in front, and so much of Wellington Terrace at the back of the land in question as effectually to interrupt the line of communication of those streets, if he could establish its legality. Such are a few of the featutes of this case which for the honor of the Government and the good of this settlement we hope the decision of the Court on Monday last has virtually disposed of.

Yesterday some excitement was caused in Wellington from reports of firing which was said by some to proceed .from the Hutt, and by others from the Porirua road. Mr. Clifford with a party of his company who volunteered for the expedition scoured the bush between the stockade on the Porirua road and the Hutt, but no traces of any natives were found. It was afterwards ascertained that the firing had proceeded from the military stations on the Hutt.