The New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, November 4, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 132, 4 November 1846, Page 2

The New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, November 4, 1846.

Agreeably to our promise we will now endeavour to give a brief outline of the proposals made by the New Zealand Company to tlie British Government, as embodied in the correspondence printed in the Appendix to their Twentieth Report. These proposals are contained in a letter by Mr. E. G. l^akefield to Mr. Gladstone, the Secretary for the Colonies, and are adopted, and on some points further elaborated in the Report of a special committee appointed by the Directors to peruse and consider Mr. Wakefield's plan. In proposing this plan, Mr. Wakefield admits that his ingenuity has been driven to its last resource in its composition, and failing this, that he is unable to devise any

other. A very cursory examination will suffice to convince our readers that it is utterly impracticable and unfitted to the present condition of the colony, that it is conceived in utter ignorance of the relations existing between the two races, and is diametrically opposed to all the Company's former views and expressed opinions. It appears a desperate attempt, a latt effort on their part, to grasp the whole authority of the islands, and it requires but little penetration to predict its total failure. Mr. Wakefield begins by stating the New Zealand Company have always regarded the arrangement made between them and the Government through the mediation of Mr. John Lefevre as a kind of suspension of hostilities, and nothing more ; convenient to them, for the pecuniary part of it saved them from bankruptcy, but in any other point of view most unsatisfactory, as it left all the main questions unsettled, and was only a method of postponing or suspending those questions for the present accommodation of both parties. "It is right to add " he observes " that to my knowledge many who are unconnected with the Company, consider the arrangement in question .as an unworthy sacrifice by us of the interests of the colony and the public ; and there is some reasen to fear that amongst these will be found the statesman who has most completely mastered the subject of New Zealand affairs — 1 mean Lord Grey." This opinion was also entertained by the great majority of settlers as soon as the terms of arrangement were known in the colony. They felt that while the Company were at issue with the Government, the wrongs and sufferings of the settlers were the most powerful arguments whereby the sympathies of the British public were enlisted in favour of the Company, but in the arrangement with the Government, as we pointed out at the time, no stipulation was made on behalf of the settlers, and all idea of compensation to them was repudiated by the Company. — It is not to be wondered at then that the settlers should be impressed with a conviction that an unworthy sacrifice has been made of their interests — a conviction which the last Report of the Company is fully calculated to strengthen and confirm. To return, however, to Mr. Wakefield's letter, — after expressing his despair of improvement under the present wretched system of Government, under which even Captain Grey would fail to govern New Zealand with advantage to the people and credit to himself, he proceeds for the last time to propose a plan for remedying the present disorders in the colony. Acting on the suggestion of Sir Robert Peel, he proposes that a municipal Government, with functions like those of any of the old English colonial municipalities, should be formed for each of the present settlements, the sphere of which might be gradually enlarged with the progress of settlement and road-making, and of which representation should be the basis. To each municipality should be entrusted the business of disposing of waste land with a view to public purposes, and especially the constant immigration of labour. Each settlement should defray the whole cost of its municipal government, and the cost of a general government, when expedient, should be defrayed by a general taxation of the islands. In dealing with the Native question, Mr. Wakefield, after lamenting the necessity of upholding the treaty of Waitangi, proposes that for the present we should abstain from attempting to subdue the natives to our authority, except in those parts of the country where the acknowledgement of British authority is essential to the well-being of bodies of colonists, and in those where there are few or no natives. Elsewhere, except within the limits of the proposed municipalities, he would leave the natives to themselves, and conceives that it would be a comparatively easy task to sustain this defensive policy by means of the municipal militia, until by degrees the pale of the settlements would be extended with the full consent of

the natives, and the whole colony would be brought under the municipal regime. By this plan it is not proposed that British authority should be abandoned, but only that its enforcement should be partially suspended outside the municipalities. The right of the Crown to all lands not occupied at the time of the treaty of Waitangi, together with its pre-emptive right of purchase in those districts should for the present be declared to be reserved for future enforcement. To prevent the evils of smuggling and irregular squatting, the protection of the British law should in no case extend ..to white persons, against the acts of the natives outside the municipalities, while offences against British law in the outside territory, if committed by whites, should be punishable within the municipalities whenever the offenders were caught there. Mr. Wakefield takes for granted, that with equality before the law, there would be an equality of privileges, and that within the municipality the natives would enjoy every right possessed by the colonists. He considers it most desirable that the natives should be encouraged to avail themselves of these privileges by schools and other institutions for their benefit, by the plan of native reserves, and by establishing a native force somewhat resembling the native military force of the East India Company. Finally, he proposes the establishment of officers who should instruct the natives in useful arts, and in the English language, so as to encourage them to desire the extension of the municipalities ; and to promote the ultimate amalgamation of the two races, he would encourage Christian missions to the natives in the outside tenitory as well as within the municipalities. Such is a brief and imperfect outline of Mr. Wakefield's plan (almost in the words of its fratner), with the main particulars of which the Special Report of the Committee of Directors agrees, but it enters in greater detail on the subject of the outside territory, and the policy to be pursued towards the natives, and to this portion of the Report we will at present confine our attention. It ! proposes then, that the Crown's right of pre-emption should be enforced no less strictly than the proprietary rights of the natives, and that all their schemes of colonisation should be framed, with a view of directing the course of European settlement as much as possible, in the first instance, to those portions of New Zealand in which the treaty presents no obstacle to the best mode of dealing with the waste lands, and suggests that the settlements should be withdrawn from the North, the settlers compensated for the losses occasioned by the change, and all their efforts concentrated in the colonisation of Cook's Strait and the Middle Island. To render the separation of the two races complete in those portions of New Zealand which such a policy would leave under the practical dominion of the natives, as a general rule the Company would prevent the residence of white persons in any place beyond the limits marked out for British settlement. But as it would be desirable to preserve the establishments of whalers or sawyers which have been established on those portions of the coast which would be left to the natives, and to remove any obstacles to establishment of missions among the tribes, the Crown should be empowered to grant licenses for residence in the outside territory, and the residing in any part of New Zealand not included within the municipalities, and purchasing therein any land, or interest in land, should be made punishable offences. The following are then proposed as the main provisions of the act : — " All the country beyond these Municipal Districts should be included in the genet &1 denomination of Outside Territory. " The laws of Eugland should be in force in such Municipal Districts, as well as any bye-laws or ordinances passed by the respective Municipal Courts, or by the General Legislature of the Colony. In the Outside Territory the laws of England or the Colony should have no force unless where it may be specially included in an Act of the Imperial or Colonial Legislature. " Each Municipal District should have it*

Lieutenant appointed by the General Government, to be the head of its executive, and also its local Legislative Body. "These Municipal Bodies sbould elect Representatives to form the Representative Branch of the General Legislature. The number of these Representatives should be in proportion to the population of the Municipal District. A The Legislative Bodies of the Municipal Districts should possess such powers as the General Legislature might from time to time think proper to determine. They should at first have all the powers which the General Legislature itself would have. These powers would be subsequently restricted as the General Legislature should think proper. The tendency of things would be to a gradual absorption of Municipal powers by the General Legislature. But that absorption should be general ; whatever powers were left to our j Municipal Legislature should be enjoyed by all. " The General Legislature should have the power of altering the limits of the Municipal Districts, and dividing or enlarging them as it might think fit. It should also have the sole power of managing all relations with the Outside Territory, and of forming new Municipal Districts out of that Territory. " The General Legislature should have power to make all laws, and exercise ail powers, not specifically withheld from it by the Act. " In the Outside Territory we would abolish all semblance of jurisdiction. It would be advisable to keep among the various tribes the control of some Agent or Resident, who might watch their movements and exercise a superintendence over their condition. The mischievous name and office of Protector should be at once abolished. And the whole of our relations with the Outside Territory should be placed under the Governor and General Legislature of the Colony. " The Act, after declaring that no laws in force in the Colony should have any effect or force in the Oiatside Territory, except when specially named, should go on to provide that it should be a misdemeanour for any person not an Aboriginal Native of New Zealand to make any contract for land therein : that all such contracts should be utterly void : and that it sbould also be a misdemeanour for any white person to reside within the Outside Territory without special license from the Governor and Council of the Colony. It should declare Captain Fitzroy's proclamations and all purchases under them null and void: and that the purchasers should receive back the amount of their purchase-money whether paid to the Government or the natives. Another clause should declare void all grants in the Outside Territory : the grantees receiving full compensation for all outlay in respect thereof. " These are the main provisions which we would suggest for regulating the general management of our Settlements and the Outside Territory. It should, in conformity with Sir Robert Peel's expressed view, be left to the General Legislature to determine the seat of its residence." In the formation of the districts they propose to abanddn Wanganui, which would be placed in the Outside Territory, (the district of Wellington being bounded by the Rangitiki river,) compensating the settlers for their land and outlay by money and grants in the principal districts. Mr. Wakefield in his letter reluctantly suggests, as the alternative of the rejection by the Government of the plan of a proprietary charter to the Company, the abolishment of the Company altogether, allowing them time to dispose of their property and wind up their affairs. The Report considers as most eligible the proposal made last 'year by the Company to invest them with the Government of New Zealand, under a proprietary charter, but, if Mr. Gladstone should not be prepared to adopt this large scheme, it suggests that he might deem it expedient to entrust the Directors with the entire business of colonizing New Zealand, and might with that view, make over to them the whole rights of the Crown in the soil of New Zealand, limiting their profits to a reasonable commission on their land sales, and appropriating a portion of the proceeds of the land sales to emigration, and another portion to other public purposes incidental to colonization, and imposing on the Company the expense of defraying the compensation, which the execution of their plan would render necessary. But unless one of these alternatives is adopted, the Directors think it better that Government should on just terms put an end to their operations, and take on itself the whole work of colonizing New ZeaUmd,

We need hardly say that an attempt to establish a proprietary Government would be so unsuited to the character of the country, and so repugnant to the wishes and feelings of the settlers as to unite them in the strongest opposition to such a measure. In this outline of the Company's plan we have considerably exceeded our usual limits, but we must be permitted, however, briefly to refer to a few material points connected with the subject. In boasting of superior sources of information, the Company have betrayed the most lamentable ignorance of the real condition of the colony. Their information whencesoever derived could not have been obtained from New Zealand. And to attempt, on such information, a partial assertion of British authority such as they propose, would be attended with such disastrous results, as to render the colony unsafe for the occupation of the settler, and would be tantamount to abandoning it. Under such circumstances the attack upon Captain Grey for the firm assertion of British authority, for carrying out, in fact, the views foimerly advocated by the Company, without giving time for a fair trial of the experiment, without waiting to learn the issue of the event, appears highly unjust and ungenerous. By the timely adoption of this policy, his Excellency has secured the gratitude and confidence of every settler, and if J any were disposed to cavil, it would be at any hesitation in the assertion of this principle.

Owing to the unsettled state of that district, the Katherine Johnstone sailed on Monday for Wanganui in ballast, although there was a full cargo waiting for her. This little vessel has for the last four years been constantly engaged in the trade between Wellington and Wanganui, and has always, previous to this last occasion, taken a full cargo each trip.

The Kate arrived on Monday from the East Coast. From Capt. Salmon we learn that the Bandicoot was in Hawke's Bay with a large mail from Auckland for this place and may therefore be hourly expected. The Kate left Hawke's Bay on Thursday, the 29th inst.

Cricket. — On Saturday evening a numerous attendance of the members of the Britannia Cricket Club was ljeld at Jenkins' Rooms, when the following officers were elected for the season : Mr. Cator, President; Major Baker, Vice-President ; Mr. G. D. Lardner, Hon. Treasurer ; and Mr. Douglas Wallace, Hon. Secretary. Several of the Naval and Military officers have enrolled themselves as honorary members of the Club, which musters between thirty and forty members'. The Club commenced practising on Monday, at Te Aro.

Custom House, Wellington, Ist November, 1846. Spirits and tobacco under bond This Day. Brnndy 1360 gallons Rum 3542 do. Gin 435 do. Liqueurs 5§ do. Cigars \6l tb Tobacco 59,05016

Welltnoton Savings Bank. — Mr. A. de B. Brandon, Mr. Edward Catchpool, Mr. Justice Chapman, and Mr. J, H. Wallace, the Managers in rotation, will attend to receive deposits at Mr. Ross's office, from seven to eight o'clock on Saturday evening, the 7th November, and at the Union Bank of Australia, from twelve to one o'clock on Monday forenoon, the 9th November,