NELSON.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 149, 2 January 1847, Page 3

NELSON.

The following letter, relating to the claims of the Nelson settlers on the New Zealand Company, is extracted from the Nelson Examiner : To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sir — You have hitherto had the credit, or laboured under the imputation of beingf a warm and devoted advoc te of the New .Zealand Company ; in which character you could neither be ■expected .to scrutinize their- measures very closely, nor to lend a too favourable ear to any who impugned their motives or their actions. But in the opinion of many, among whom I am one, you have carried this policy too far. They think you would more effectually have advanced their cause and promoted their true interests, by noticing, from time lo time, our gradually increasing dissatisfaction and distrust, our causes of annoyance, and our reasons for complaint; in which case, instead of being only now on the point of being called upon publicly to explain and vindicate their conduct, they ■would by this time have either removed our -suspicions, met our charges with explanation, and our grievances with redress, or been deserted by every man who had the least regard for his own character. It is not my intention to go into the grounds of our numerous accusations against them; the breach of contract in selecting a site, the misappropriation of the emigration fund, the waste and misapplication of the money designed for improvements and public works, the character of the lands already distributed (which, in too many instances, instead of bread give us stones), or the impossibility of their performing their contract for the large portion still undistributed, called Rural, but which might more appropriately be entitled Transalpine or Transmarine ; neither do I propose to enter upon the whole Mibject of the celebrated "Regulations," ao unanimously and indignantly rejected by us and sent back to their authors; but I do wish to call attention to the fact that these Regulations, so far from having been mere proposals, •imple offers to their purchasers, which, on theii rejection, were suffered to fall to the ground, have been carried out- to their utmost extent and most unworthy results; fcT'ttie~ op'utting into the pockets of the New Zealand Company, and depriving this settlement within the last year of a sum scarcely less than jE.32,000, •received by the Directors as trustees for our exclusive usp and benefit.

But there is a difference of £84 : 13 : 1 between these two sums still to be accounted for ; and what is more, in our favour, and which I at first thought was intended as a present to the settlement, until, on a closer examination, I found that the College, Religious Uses, and Steam Funds had been increased exactly £85, which I suppose to be their proportion of land sales in the colony. This makes the accounts tally within a few shillings, and exonerates them from the suspicion of such liberality. The Steam Fund, I see, still nominally exists as such, but in the next statement will be probably dropped quietly out of sight, and absorbed into the Survey Department. The Emigration Fund, ♦ small by degrees, and beautifully less,' shows a diminution of more than £5,000, and by calculation must be, by this time invisible in the .northern hemisphere. ' Education' and * Religious Uses,' ' twin roses on one stalk,' or rather twin buds, which, aloe like, gave promise of flowering in the next century, still survive, but can hardly be expected long to maintain an existence which is already confined to the published Reports of the Company. Thus bubble after bubble bursts, and we shall shortly have to congratulate ourselves that the causes of our complaints hare been entirely disposed of, and that no substantial grounds of contention any longer exist between ourselves and our quondam trustees and protectors. , I am, Sir, yours, &c, J. D. Greenwood. { December 17, 1847.

The New Zealand Company's liabilities to this settlement were stated to be, on April 5, 1845 , £57,291 10 5 whilst on the same date, 1846, theyare 25,38111 0 miking a difference against us of £31,906 19 5 which is thus accounted for. The gross proceeds of the sales of land are stated at £161,700. The Company, under its new " Regulations," takes 5 per cent, on the gross proceeds, and onefourth of the principal; altogether £46,488 15 0 instead of, as formerly, l-6th, or. .26,950 0 0 leaving a direct increase in their profit of .' 19,538 15 0 to which add the surveys, or .. 12,452 17 2 *n& you have a total of \ £31,991 12 2