New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 27, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 95, 27 June 1846, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 27, 1846.

In this day's Spectator will be found the first part of Mr. Spain's Report on the New Zealand Company's Claims to the Port Nicholson district, a document extending over one hundred and twenty-eight foolscap pages. "With the view of placing the whole report with the most convenient speed before our readers, without overloading our columns with this official lumber, we intend next week to publish a supplement, so that by tthis arrangement the whole report will be included in two numbers. In this production Mr. Spain appears ±o have indulged in more than his usual prolixity, but like honest Dogberry, "and his tediousness were a thousandjtimes more than 'tis, he could find in his heart to bestow it all" on its composition. As the Report will be read, not from any intrinsic merit or interest but from its influence on the progress of the settlement, we will not enter into a detailed examination of " this conclusion in which nothing is concluded," but will notice a few of the statements contained therein as at this time deserving of consideration. One of the principal points is an admission Ahat out of the £1,500 agreed upon as compensation money, to be given to the natives of this district by the direction of the

Commissioner and the Protector on Capt. Fitzroy's first visit to Wellington, seven hundred and fifty pounds of this amount, or exactly one-half, was awarded to natives who had no claim whatever. As Mr. Spain appears to admit that all the natives have received compensation who were entitled to any, and does not award any further compensation to be granted previous to the issuing of a Crown Grant ; it would follow that the Company have been deliberately defrauded of that sum. He reminds Captain Fitzroy (to whom the report is addressed) that he strongly objected to the payment to E Tako and his people at Kurautoto of £200, to which he was not entitled, because he was a man of no standing or rank among his countrymen, and had signed the Company's deed and received one-sixth portion of the payment, and that it would probably have the effect of causing jealousy amongst the other tribes ; that he strongly objected to the payment of £400 to Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, because no claim had ever been advanced by them or their followers, or by Mr. Clarke on their behalf, to any portion of the Hutt, and that if such a claim had been brought before him, he should have decided against them. He also objects to the sum of £60 awarded to E Puni and Warepori, which Mr. Clarke had offered from motives of policy, but which these chiefs had honourably declined, because they had been fairly paid for the land they had sold, and were satisfied with what they had received. On the claim of the Ohariu natives to compensation, Mr. Spain observes, that he has never been able to see them, that he could obtain no certain information as to their numbers, and that it was exceedingly doubtful whether many of them are actual residents at Ohariu ; that they were part of the tribe of which Taringa'Kuri was chief, who executed the conveyance to the Company, and with his people received a sixth part of the goods first given in payment for the land, and without either expressly admitting or disallowing their claim, or even stating the amount appropriated by Mr. Clarke to this tribe (we believe it is £60 or £90), leaves the case to be disposed of by the Governor. It will be remembered that Col. Wakefield strongly objected to the exorbitant demands made by Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Spain's statements fully justify Col. Wakefield's objections, although at the time Mr. Spain supported the extravagant demands which the Protector thought proper to advance. The decided manner in which Mr. Spain objects to, and altogether disallows, the payment of £400 to Rauparaha and Rangihaeata as compensation for the Hutt district, as made without any communication or reference to him, and entirely without his sanction or concurrence, must have been very galling to the amour propre of Capt. Fitzroy. Those who were present on the Deputation that waited on him on his last visit to this settlement, will remember with what gusto he described his plan in petto for dealing with these wily savages, how he would haggle with them and bate them down. He evidently contemplated in his small way a triumph of diplomacy. But Mr. Commissioner Spain ruthlessly deprives him of his triumphs. This is a subject, however, that, will bear further examination. Mr. Spain's statements relative to the Hutt district acquire increased importance from recent events and- the present state of the district. He states that Mr. Clarke reported to him he had fully arranged the matter with Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, on the occasion of Capt. Fitzroy's visit to Waikanae: that Taringa Kuri and the intruding natives seemed determined to retain the land on the Hutt by force if necessary, in defiance of British law and authority but that he could not for a moment admit that either he or his people has, or ever had, the shadow of a claim to it. Mr. Spain chooses to consider the conduct of the intruding natives as one of the effects produced by " the lamentable rencounter at the Wairau, where the aborigines first learned to mistrust our justice, and to doubt our bravery." This sneer is worthy of the man -r-This reflection on the memory of the hon-

ored dead is suited to the genius of a country attorney. But how can such a one, whose highest ambition, whose only aim or object is his salary paid quarterly, asperse the character or question the conduct of those whom living he durst not assail ? How can he either understand the one or appreciate the other ? The true motive for the obstinacy with which the intruding natives have maintained their position on the Hutt, is to be found in the tacit encouragement which their first aggressions received from the Local Government, in Mr. Shortland's and Mr. Clarke's proclamations after the lamentable event referred to — in the long delays and obstacles which Mr. Spain has himself thrown in the way of a final adjustment of this question, and which are the less defensible, as he admits that from the first they never had the shadow of a claim. At all events, if these intruders first learned at Wairau to " doubt our bravery," we hope that subsequent experience will not lead to a confirmed scepticism. But the most striking feature in the report is the unmeasured condemnation with which Mr. Spain visits the conduct of the " Boy Clarke." After expressing his extreme surprize that, with hardly an exception, at every meeting which he attended at the appointment of the Protector, instead of ; finding the parties agreed to accept the sums offered, he had to talk over the subject with them precisely the same as if it had been the commencement of a negociation ; he complains of the very little intercourse the Protector had with the natives, of the great difficulty there was in getting him to use the slightest personal exertion in furthering the objects which were the great end of their efforts, and " of the little confidence the elder natives placed in Mr. Clarke, whom they used frequently to describe as a mere child, who was incapable of teaching them or affording them advice," and that instead of considering it his duty to assist, he often retarded the operations of the Commissioner to an extent that caused him much embarrassment and annoyance. Now, these were the very charges which the settlers urged against Mr. Clarke at the time, and their confirmation by Mr. Spain is as remarkable as it is unexpected. A considerable degree of odium was] thrown on them by the Local Government, they were accused of attempting to injure this official, and Capt. Fitzroy in a true Quixotic spirit came to the rescue, and formally approved of all that the boy Clarke had said or done. But what shall we think of Mr. Spain, who, knowing Mr. Clarke's inefficiency, and the low estimation in which he was held by both races, could allow so worthless an instrument to obstruct the settlement of this question, and so pave the way for the present difficulties ? Was it not his duty to have joined his remonstrance to those of the settlers, and have ensured his removal ? Or is Mr. Spain distrustful of the course he has himself pursued, and desirous of a scapegoat to relieve him of the responsibility which attaches to him and which subsequent events have rendered so serious? Whatever the moving cause, we have here unequivocal evidence that the settlers were right in their charges against the boy Clarke. And thus the.whirligig of time brings ,in his revenges*, . . The result of Mr. Spain's labours is, that after a protracted investigation of three years of the Company's claims to this district, at a cost to the Government of about £2,000 a-year, and at a cost to the settlers, from the ruinous consequences of the nonsettlement of these claims, that cannot be estimated ; — the amount of compensation to which the natives are entitled, after deducting those claims which he disallows, or does not formally approve of, is about seven hundred and fifty pounds.

We are informed that the report which was circulated a short time ago, about an attempt on the part of the rebels to surprise. a party of soldiers who, it was stated, had left the camp at Porirua to attend the burial of the two natives that were drowned, is without the slightest foundation. So far from any soldiers, attending the funeral of these natives, it was not even known at the time in the camp on what day the natives had been buried.

Rauparaha visited Te_ Aro yesterday and had a long interview with the natives of that pa. He appears to have been very coolly received by them.

There is a report current that Neni had attacked Heki in his pa, and had been defeated, that the greatest part of his tribe had been killed, and that Neni had been taken prisoner. Should this report unfortunately prove to be correct, it will account for his Excellency's prolonged stay in the North.

A large dead whale has been floating about in the Strait for the last few days. On Wednesday it was opposite Cape Terawite drifting with the tide, but it is possible that the south-easter will have caused it to drift on shore near Waikanae. If seen by th» boats belonging to the stations at Mana or Kapiti, they will no doubt endeavour to secure the valuable prize. It is supposed to have been struck at one of the stations, and afterwards to have escaped from its pursuers.

Among the imports in the' Ann and Sarah we notice a hundred bushels of native grown wheat. We should be glad to see the importation of wheat, grown by the natives encouraged, and hope they may be induced to increase their cultivations of wheat along the coast this season, as there is every probability that the price of flour will be hii^h, and there is but little prospect at present of the settlers in this district having the opportunity this year of growing much wheat.

Whaling Stations. — The Ocean arrived last night from Kaikoras. She reports that forty six tons of oil have been caught at Fife's station. The whales are setting in very numerous to the southward, and the whalers anticipate a good season. Bt the Ann and Sarah we learn that eight whales have been caught at the stations in Hawke's Bay, and two at the station at Tokumaru.

Coal. — Coal at the new settlement of Otakou is so plentiful, that on the banks of the Molyneux river it may be procured on the surface without any difficulty. The quality is stated to be superior to that at Massacre Bay, which is of a sulphurous description, while the Otakou coal more nearly resembles the English pit coal.

Private French of the 99th regt, who was wounded in the skirmish with the rehels on the Hutt on the 16th inst., died of his wounds on Wednesday morning last. The deceased was buried with military honours in the public cemetery on Thursday afternoon.

False packing op wool. — We have been requested to call the attention of flock masters to a circumstance which may operate materially to their disadvantage. A few bales of wool were lately forwarded to Sydney, which were sold according to sample, and which externally answered to the description, but the heart of the bale was composed of wool full of dirt and impurities. Too much care cannot be taken that the wool is clean and of a uniform quality throughout, as if from carelessness it once gets a bad name in the market, it is very difficult to recover itself. We are informed that something of the kind happened to Port Phillip, and it was some years before that colony succeeded in overcoming the prejudice which had been raised against its wool from this circumstance.

Vessels from Sydney. — The General Hewett, which was to sail from Sydney the last week in June for London, is expected to look in at this Port on her homeward voyage, which will afford the settlers a good opportunity of - communicating direct with England. The Comet is expected from Sydney by-way of Twofold Bay towards the end of this month, and therefore is nearly due. The Shamrock and another vessel with cattle are also shortly expected to arrive from Sydney.

Wellington Savings Bank.— Mr. I. Hoggard, Major Hornbrook, Mr. A. Hort, senr., and Captain Sharp the Managers in rotation, will attend to receive deposits at Mr. Ross's office, from seven to eight o'clock on Saturday evening, the 27th June, and at the Union Bank of Australia, from twelve to one o'clock on Monday forenoon, the 29th June.