New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, July 1, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 96, 1 July 1846, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, July 1, 1846.

In our previous notice of Mr. Spain's report on the Port Nicholson district, we pointed out a few of the contradictions and inconsistencies with which that document ! abounds ; ye will now advert to that por- ! tion of it relating to the Hutt district as deserving 3 more particular examination. Mr. Spain begins by stating that no claim was ever advanced by Rauparaha, Rangihaeata, or "any of their followers, or by Mr. Clarke on their behalf to any part of the Hutt, and thatjthe only judiGial notice he ever had of their claim was Mr. Clarke's reservation of a portion of the compensation for them : and that after having taken every means in his power to ascertain the grounds of this claim, according to his- opinions of maori customs with regard to titles to land, in his judicial capacity he should have decided , against it if it had been brought before him.

Now as soon as Mr. Spain arrived at this conviction, it was his bounden duty at once to have communicated the fact to the Government. Since the middle of the year 1842 a forcible usurpation of the district had been made by these natives, their encroachments led to repeated disputes between them and the settlers, which obliged the latter continually to appeal to the Magistrate for protection. Every year these encroachments increased as did also the number of intruding natives. Mr. Spain must have been perfectly aware that his decision would have the effect of causing the expulsion of the intruders by the Government by force if necessary, nay he himself recommends in this report, that the British Government should compel the absolute cession to the Europeans of the land. And yet three years are suffered to elapse 1 efore this decision is formally delivered, the difficulties of settlement increasing from the delay until when extreme measures are resorted to, the authority of the Government is defied, settlers are murdered, their property plundered or destroyed, the troops are repulsed, and the result is that twelve persons have been killed and several wounded ; the rebels escaping with little loss, and the settlement placed by these proceedings in a very critical situation. It appears, then, that Mr. Spain has incurred a very serious responsibility J)y the course he has pursued. Again, he formally refers in terms of grave displeasure to the payment by Mr. Clarke, at the request of Capt. Fitzroy, of £400 to Rauparaba without any communication or reference to him, and entirely without his sanction or concurrence. And yet Mr. Spain makes two journies?, one to Porirua on the Bth March, 1844, and another to Otaki on the 21st of the same month, for the express purpose of inducing Rauparaha to accept the compensation, devotes 24 pages of this Re^ port to an explanation of the steps he took to accomplish this object, and it is only after the failure of all his attempts that, finding Mr. Clarke had succeeded in effecting this arrangement, he makes the protest referred to. The priggish pedantry of quoting Chitty's new edition of the Law of Nations to Rauparaha, and the observation that even in addressing a New Zealand chief he would .not assert any international law not borne out by some admitted authority is so absurd and so characteristic as to render any comment superfluous, but a moment's reflection would have taught even Mr. Spain that an appeal to the plain notions of right and wrong, admitted and acted upon equally by the savage and civilized man, would have had more effect with a person of llauparaha's proverbial shrewdness than all the newest editions of the best professional authorities, Mr. Spain from the same premises draws totally opposite conclusions. In the case of the Hutt he decides that mere conquest without possession and residence was insufficient to give to Rauparaha and Rangihaeata the shadow of a claim, while in the case of the Wairau, which' is precisely the same, he confirms their pretensions to that district. His decision on their claim to the Hutt gives additional weight to the arguments made use of by Mr. Fox in referring to the Wairau in his despatch to the Principal Agent which we published about four weeks since. But there is one part of this Report which we cannot pass over in silence ; we allude to the unwarrantable attempt made by Mr. Spain to give weight and importance to his proceedings by the sanction of the Rev. O. Hadfield's name and authority. In his tribute to the virtues and exertions of this gentleman all will readily concur. Indeed it is not too much to assert that from his sickbed, to which he has been reduced by liis unremitted and laborious efforts to improve and advance the physical and moral condition of the natives, and from which we fear the probability of his return to health and strength is extremely remote, he exercises a more effectual and powerful control over their minds for the preservation of peace and the protection of the settlement than all the authority of the Government both civil and

military. But any one who has the pleasure of knowing Mr. Iladfield knows that his invariable rule was never to interfere with matters out of his vocation, because he considered, and justly, that by doing so he mio-ht lessen the confidence the natives reposed in him, and thereby diminish his usefulness. And we have no hesitation in asserting that the translation of Mr. Spain's letter inadebyMr.Hadfield was wrung from hisgoo.l nature by Mr. Spain's importunity, and that this attempt by Mr. Spain to give authority to his proceedings by the unauthorized use of so respectable a name, is in keeping with the rest of his conduct. It was also left for Mr. Spain to commit s breach of confidence which we will not venture to describe, by publishing officially the private communications addressed to him by Mr. Hadfield. The inference is inevitable, that Mr. Spain was conscious that by his proceedings he had lost all influence over the natives, if indeed he ever had any, and was desirous to attach importance to his decisions by any means however unjustifiable. There is only one other point to which we will now allude. Mr. Spain throughout this Report expresses in the strongest and most unqualified manner, the absence of any right or claim to the Hutt by the intruding natives, and of his intention to award this distinct to the Company : and yet by the terms of the award the district is virtually conceded to the intruders, and this circumstance as our readers are aware, occasioned considerable embarrassment to his Excellency. We have entered into the examination of these reports at some length, because of their influence on the prospects of the settlement. We have shewn their inconsistencies, their contradictions, their dishonesty ; and we cannot refrain from again expressing the hope that his Excellency will resolve to set them aside, and settle the land claims according to his own sense of justice. It is time these claims were set at rest. For seven years we have borne their harassing anxieties, and there can be no peace or permanent advance in the settlement, until Government has finally disposed of this question.

At length the anxieties entertained respecting the Ralph Bernal, were happily relieved by her safe arrival on Sunday last. She left the Downs on the 6th Dec, and went to Plymouth to take on board Government stores for the use of the colony, from thence she sailed on the 2nd January, and on the voyage touched at one of the Western Isles. She afterwards touched at the Cape, and obtained English Papers there to the 23d January. She arrived at Nelson 10th June, which place she left on the 26th inst. We have extracted the Queen's Speech and a summary of the Debate on the Address, from the Nelson j xaminer as the latest and most interesting news.

From the Sydney Morning Herald of June 3rd, we perceive that on the arrival of the Jose} k Somes at Hobart Town, an absurd report reached Launceston that war had been declared between England and America, but it was contradicted immediately afterwards.

Rauparaha returned to Porirua on Monday morning.

We call the attention of persons interested in dairy produce to the high price of butter in Sydney, arising from the great scarcity of feed for stock in New South Wales, a state of things which may exist for a long period, and is certain to do so for some time. We hear that sprinkled butter is worth there about one shilling and ninepence a-pound ; and it is supposed the price will further advance. It is generally admitted that there is no butter better than that supplied by the dairies of New Zealand, and from what we hear, there is reason to believe that New Zealand will be able this year to provide this article in excess of the local demand to the extent of several thousand pounds. It should be carefully packed in casks suitable for families — say about 601b. each, and we doubt not the return would be most satisfactory all this year. The expenses of packing and shipping would not exceed one penny per lb. Fresh butter has been as high as five shillings per lb within the last few years, and it was expected to advance this season in Sydney to three shillings per lb. We have been told of a dairy in New South Wales, at which one hundred and fifty co-vs-are usually milked, which is not this season yielding enough butter for the use of the family, and we could furnish numerous similar cases.

On Sunday, being the anniversary of the Coronation of h<?r Majesty Queen Victoria, a royal salute was fired by H.M.S. Calliope, and colours were displayed from each mast head of the vessel.