New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, November 14, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 135, 14 November 1846, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, November 14, 1846.

On Thursday last was published a Letter to the Directors of the New Zealand Company from the Resident Purchasers of Land in this Settlement, claiming Compensation for the Company's Breach of Contract, and calling upon the Directors to fulfil the Terms of Purchase, x .*--''-•

This letter, which is from the able pen of Dr. Featherston, is signed by nearly every i original Land-Purchaser in the Settlement, and sets forth in a clear and forcible manner 'the principal points of dispute, and the grounds on which the Purchasers seek for compensation from the Company. We shall therefore' endeavour to give an outline of its contents, reserving our remarks for a future opportunity. In introducing the subject to the consideration of the Directors, the letter reminds them that the Land Purchasers have hitherto studiously refrained from pressing their claims, from an earnest desire to afford the Company every assistance in their arduous struggle with the Government, and from a firm conviction that as soon as these " unhappy differences" were composed, the Company, deeply impressed with the forbearance displayed' by the Land Purchasers, and the assistance afforded by them during the continuance of the struggle, would hasten to fulfil their promises, and discharge their obligations. That though many circumstances had occurred during the interval calculated to shake this conviction, yet their confidence in the names, .position, and character of j those composing the Directory, induced them to forbear, until the recent arrangement of the Company with the Government, and their answer to Dr. E?ans repudiating their liability to compensate the settlers, and referring them to the Government, have I 'convinced them that they should at once submit their claims to the Company, and as parties deeply injured — not as suppliants of their bounty — demand redress for wrongs inflicted. In urging the claim to compensation, the letter contrasts the position of the Settlers with that of the Company, and shows from their own statements, that though the Company have been engaged in an angry and harassing contest with the Colonial Office, during which, for the last three years, they have been compelled to suspend their payments, and to stay their colonising operations,- yet by the arrangement - with Lord Stanley in 1845, in which their claim to 1,300,000 acres has been acknowledged, the cordial assistance of the Government promised to enable them to complete their purchases, and an allowance in land agreed to be made to them, at the rate of an acre for every five shillings, for any sums expended by them in perfecting their titles, that the Company have obtained an ample remuneration for the capital they have expended. That this is admitted by the Directors, and that their pecuniary embarrassments are not attributable to the Land Purchasers, but to the unwise precipitancy of the Company in founding other settlements before they had completely established this, and' before they had received a title from the Crown to the lands they professed to sell. But that even in the worst possible view of the affairs of the Company — admitting the whole of their capital had been been lost — the amount of their suffering was not to be compared to that of the Settlers. "We extract the following passage describing the position of the latter — " Look now at the other side, and contemplate the sacrifices we have made ! Relying on your representations — feeling confident that men such as are at the bead of the New Zealand Company would never lend the sanction of their names to any scheme which might by any possibility involve others in ruin, without being at any rate prepared to take upon themselves any responsibilities they had fairly incurred, we purchased land* to which j you said you could give us a good title, and of which you assured us you could put us in quiet and peaceable possession — we severed all the ties of kindred — abandoned our occupations — sacrificed all our prospects in the mother-country — and planted ourselves amidst savages in a country almost unknown,' bringing out with us a- capital which has been estimated at from £1,000,000 to £2,000,000. .And what have been the results ? To not a single acre at the present time have we a Crown title! — and of all the land selected, we have only obtained a precarious possession of a few thousand acres. For six years we have been doomed to inactivity — instead of employing our capital productively, we have been obliged to subsist upon it — we have during nearly the whole of this period been exposed

to the outrages and aggressions of hostile savages — we have seen armed bands of natives for three days taking possession of the most populous agricultural district in the Settlement, driving the settlers into the town, and then plundering and destroying all their property ; — we have seen houses destroyed — crops burned — and recently we have had to mourn over the murder, in open day, of some of our industrious settlers : For months and years the whole Settlement, including the town itself, has been kept in a state of perpetual alarm and insecurity — the whole community has been obliged to arm and defend the lives of themselves and families. In short, there are few who are not irretrievably ruined : Many have already left the Colony, in several instances so utterly destitute as to have been compelled to accept some menial office on board the vessel in which they returned : Of those who remain, many are without the means of leaving ; and even if they had the power to return, how vain would be their attempt, with funds exhausted, and/ connexions broken, to regain their original position at home ! Such, Gentlemen, is a plain statement of facts, which cannot be disputed. We need not now dwell upon the privations to which many have been subjected during this painful period, for you have depicted them most vividly and most faithfully, when availing yourselves of them to obtain the favourable terms recently conceded by Government. Can, then, yonr losses (estimate them as high as you will) for one moment be compared to such as these 1 And to what cause are the disasters which have thus befallen us attributable ? You may reply, if you choose, that they are owing to the * jealous rivalry' — to the ' unhappy differences' — to the ' bitter contentions between the Government and the Company ;' but you cannot and dare not deny, that the immediate and proximate cauie of our ruin has been the non-fulfilment by you of the contract formed Kith us seven years ago." A reference to the debates in Parliament and to the proceedings at the last annual meeting of the Company will show that this description of the sufferings of the settlers can not be considered exaggerated or too highly coloured. The letter then proceeds to show that the Company in seeking compensation from the Government virtually admit the claim of the purchasers to compensation from them, aid after expressing the surprise of the purchasers at the Company's repudiating their liabilities, and attempting to throw them upon a third party, reminds the Company that in ordinaiy mercantile transactions, a party selling goods and receiving payment for them is bound to deliver the goods sold or to compensate the party for any loss arising from the breach of contract without reference to any third party ; and that the Directors have enforced the application of this principle when in their letter to Lord Stanley, they say — " ' The Crown, like any other party contracting with another, may find that it has made stipulations which it cannot fulfil ; but morality and equity bind the Crown, like any other party, having by such inadvertence misled another, not to evade its engagements, by lightly assuming the impossibility of fulfilling them ; but, on the contrary, to do its utmost to execute its undertaking ; and, in the event of finding that impossible, to make ample compensation to the other party :' " That the Company in, their reports and despatches to their Frincipal Agent expressly admit their liability to make compensation to their purchasers, and by setting aside the arrangement made by Sir George Gipps with the settlers in 1840, by which a title to their lands was guaranteed, for their own agreement with Lord John Russell in the same year in which it is expressly stipulated that — " ' The Company having sold or contracted to sell, lands to various persons, her Majesty's Government disclaim all liability for making good any such sales Or Contracts ; it being, nevertheless, nnderstood that the Company will, from the lands to be granted to them aforesaid, fulfil and carry into effect all such their sales or contracts;' " the Company have relieved the Government from their responsibility to the settlers and have themselves assumed this liability, although, they now refuse to make any compensation to the land purchasers for the losses arising from their inability to fulfil their contract. The following summary is then given of the arguments previously adduced — " lstly, That, whatever temporary inconvenience the Company may have suffered dv-

ring the period of its contest with the Colonial Office, yet that the amount of land now awarded to it, without any further expenditure in respect of it being- required, affords an' ample return for its capital, if land be worth onefourth part of the sum at which you have hitherto sold it. " 2ndly, That we, on the other hand*, have lost everything, and have been exposed to dangers of no ordinary magnitude. " 3rdly, That, while whatever value your lands possess is derived solely from our personal enterprise, all the disasters which have befallen us are entirely owing to the noncompletion of your contract, and that therefore we are, by every principle of justice and equity, entitled to compensation at your hands. " 4thly, That you distinctly admitted, in 1841, that you were under positive and moral obligations to afford us, out of the lands placed by Government at your disposal, compensation for the sacrifices and hardships to which we have been exposed, and that therefore the subsequent privations which we have endured have rendered our claim to such compensation at the present time much stronger and more just. " And, lastly, that you have by express agreement guaranteed the Government against all responsibility to us, and have taken upon yourselves the sole liability of making good your engagements with us." We shall resume the consideration of the subject in our next number.

Native Hospital. — The first stone, or to speak more correctly, the first brick, of this building, was laid at Thorndon flat, on Wednesday afternoon, by his Honor the Superintendent, in the presence of a numerous assemblage of persons. Presents of flour and tobacco were afterwards distributed to the natives. The building will be erected on a portion of one of the native reserves.

Sheep Shearing. — We understand that preparations for shearing are making at the stations at Wairarapa, and at those in the neighbourhood of Wellington. Sheep shearing will commence at many of the stations at Wairarapa in the course of next week. A very plentiful yield is expected.

Mr. Sutton, who was formerly Sub-Editor of the New Zealand Colonist, was found by the master of the Ariel in a late visit to New Caledonia, living with the natives of that island, having entirely adopted their customs and habits, and degenerated into a savage or barbarous state. Mr. Sutton was one of those who sailed from Auckland in the Brigand for the Feejee Islands, about three years ago, when several persons were treacherously killed by the natives, in an attempt to take possession of the vessel, and Mr. Sutton was supposed to have been one of the number.

Wellington Savings Bank. — Mr. I. C. Crawford, Mr. Rowland Davis, Mr. James Dun, and Mr. Kenneth Bethune, the Managers in rotation, will attend to receive deposits at Mr. Ross's office, from seven to eight o'clock on Saturday evening, the 14th November, and at the Union Bank of Australia, from twelve to one o'clock on Monday forenoon, the 16th November.