ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator Wellington, 11th January, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 152, 13 January 1847, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator Wellington, 11th January, 1847.

Sir, — In your paper of Saturday last, you state that " We have received numerous complaints lately, of the mysterious silence which has been preserved by the Company's Agent on the subject of the contemplated alterations in the Government of the colony. It is argued that on former occasions there was always an appearance of anxiety to inform the settlers of, any changes likely to affect the rising fortunes of the colony : but that on the present occasion, although the information received is of sufficient importance to induce the. Governor to return to Auckland, there to await the communication of the Colonial Minister, the settlers who are deeply concerned in any change are left to their own conjectures." It is perhaps as well that I should correct the impression which your above suggestion might create, and I beg to inform the public through you, that my " mysterious silence" has been caused simply by the fact that I have had nothing to communicate, except such information as has already reached the public eye either in your own columns or in other printed documents. His Excellency the ' Lieutenant Governor received no information from me which is not equally within the reach of every person in the settlement, and I should have thought that the change of Ministry and th r : ether nz-'is. H common circulation which / >c received on ii» arrival here, might have f u?r< -i^Qtly accented for his return to Auckh~ i, where he slight hope to find despatches, without resorting to the supposition of my t I^v,ag gives him some mysterious information wbi< "i 1 had withheld from the public. The v*rK 'Jh (fojumentn which have been published, %'&i >*.t^ asoc * ,t for my not being in pos-

session of further knowledge respecting the contemplated arrangements ; for they show that though initiative steps had been taken at home no decision had been come to, and the only despatch I have received on the subject merely communicates that fact of which the public was at the time of its receipt by me already "in possession. Having", I hope, satisfactorily explained the mystery of my silence, I may perhaps be excused if I call attention to the subsequent portion of your article. After referring to Mr. Buller's Victoria province scheme, as that which is likely to be the basis of any proposition made by the Company to the new Government, you say, " To read these proposals in New Zealand it would appear as if they had been written in burlesque of the Company's pretensions," and you intimate that the scheme is altogether unfeasible, and opposed to the views of the colonists. On referring to your paper of the 15th November, 1845, (little more than a year ago) I find in a very carefully written and evidently well considered article, the following passage, " Undoubtedly, in our opinion, the plan (vritb some modifications) recently submitted by the Directors of the New Zealand Corapaay to Lord Stanley, (that is, Mr. Buller's Victoria piovince scheme above mentioned) is of all others, the one best calculated to retrieve the disasters of the past, and to promote our future prosperity ; and, seeing that it is essentially the same plan which, in 1837, was proposed by Lord Glenelg on the part of the Ministry, to Lord Durham, as the head of the New Zealand Association, we still entertain a hope that it will be adopted ; but if it be not • • * then we must urge the adoption of another, and it is — to sever our connection with Auckland, and to erect the whole of the Southern Settlements into a separate and independent government. We repeat, until this intolerable grievance is re-moved—^-whether by an immediate transfer of the Government to Wellington — by the proposed province of Victoria — or, &c, we shall | be to all intents and purposes without a Government." I It seems to me impossible to account for the discrepancy between your opinions above quoted. What was pronounced by the director of public opinion at the end of 1845, to be " the plin of all others best calculated to retrieve the past and secure our future prosperity" is in the beginning of 1847, according to the same authority " a burlesque" essentially impractkablep&nd not 'to be heard of in New Zealand without exciting ridicule. I think also that the opinion expressed by you in 1845, sufficiently refutes your remark of 1847, about "the cool way in which the ready acquiescence of the settlers and the natives in these arrangements is taken for granted, and the Company hiving reckoned without its host." Surely in making their recent proposals to Government the Company was justified by your article of 1845, in thinking that their leading stipulations contained the very provisions whict would meet with concurrence in the colony, and were "of all others the best calculated** tb satisfy those who had already put their deliberate approval of them on record. In conclusion, I think that I am justified in requesting the public not to come to any foregone conclusions f / the important topics which are naturally Inciting so much interest. At present we are very much in the dark as to what will be the ultimate results of the negociations commenced at home between the Government and the Company, and it is not possible to form any just opinion on the subject till we have more information, though it is very possible that by taking things for granted which have no existence in fact we may so prejudice our minds as not to be in a position to form impartial opinions when we really learn what arrangements have been, made at_b©jjje. % . JLfflfcjrfjraJd that some persons have already suffered themselves to be run away with on a fa<se alarm taken at the term " Proprietary Charter,'' fancying or persuaded that the coloni *§ .will be handed over, bound hand and fotf, yj the Company, whose object is adroitly \o ,slip the slave's collar on and snap the locV- For my part I can see no foundation for ,%ich suppositions. In every proposal made by foe Company the most express stipulations (have been contained for bestowing the fullest forms of Municipal and RepresentatimGovernment on the colonists themselves ; it %-almost the one string they harp upon, and tie frequency with which it is touched ought to sjny candid mind to obviate all doubt on the sutgeet, and set aside what I cannot but consist the senseless fears that the Company is ftb^ift to possess itself of the arbitrary doDWDioiof the colony. I In the only despatch I have reared by the Hope, relating to the subject, i"be Directors express their confident expectatton that " the new constitution will be such asjtn imparting self-government will satisfy thjntaost ardent wishes of the colonists." ItisTpar that the leading object of a Proprietary tliar,ter is to get the lands of the colony so 'tested in the

Company as to make its future colonizing operations a matter of certainty not liable to interruption by hostile Local Governments or decisions of litigious Courts of Claims. If the Government of the colony were, as has been once proposed, entrusted to the Company for a year, it could only be with the object of its obtaining for us a larger measure of those representative institutions than we might get if they came to us direct from the Colonial Office. You will perhaps also permit jne to suggest that the consequences of a premature expression of opinion may do much harm at home. Your readers will remember that on the present Lieut.-Governor's arrival in the colony, the necessary delay which occurred in his visiting Wellington, and some of his earliest measures induced a display of coldness towards him on the part of the Wellington Spectator, which little accorded with i the general feelings of the colonists at large, and which contrasts strongly with the cordial approbation of his subsequent conduct which has lately appeared in your journal. I perceive by the English papers that the tone first adopted by you has done mischief, and indeed the erroneous supposition that Captain Grey was not likely to be popular might, if its correction did not reach England in time, be the very cause of the substitution of a new Governor which you so strongly deprecate in a late article. It will be wise to avoid a similar mistake in the present case, and I venture to hope that your readers will suspend their judgments for the short time which must elapse till the arrival of more definite information. I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, W. Wakeiield, Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company.

On Monday evening the Superintending Committee of the Wellington Savings Bank submitted their first annual report to a general of managers and depositors. The document which we have printed entire we have no doubt will be perused with great ! satisfaction not only in this settlement but wherever any interest in New Zealand is felt. In the short space of seven months the amount of deposits is nearly £900, the number of separate accounts 94. Not only are the advantages of the Institution enjoyed by the settlers, but the natives, among whom the Committee have extensively circulated, by means of a translation in the Maori language, an account of their rules, now seek to participate in its benefits. The Committee dwelat some length in the Report, on their unj successful application for interest on the old Debentures up to the time of funding. We certainly agree in the view taken by the i them on this subject, and regret that I this interest should be disallowed. The Debentures issued by Captain Fitzroy were a debt incurred by him on the part of the British Government on the faith of his promissory notes. These notes on the face of them expressed that the bearer would be entitled "to interest thereon, at the rate of five per cent, per annum," and his Exceli lency having acknowledged the debt incurred by his predecessor, by exchanging these Debentures for others of a larger amount and bearing a higher rate of interest, cannot consistently repudiate the interest on the unfunded Debentures.