To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 153, 16 January 1847, Page 3

To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner.

Sir — I am extremely unwilling to enter upon the subject of the Company's accounts, on which other parties have addressed you for the last two weeks ; for, being about to leave Nelson for a short time, I shall not have the opportunity of seeing any reply which may be offered, nor of rejoining to it. However, after the very undisguised charges of dishonesty which Dr. Greenwood has thought proper to bring against the Directors of the New Zealand Company, based upon a somewhat superficial examination of the subject, it would be improper in me to decline the endeavour to correct the impressions which his statements may have made upon the public mind. The Company's statement of April, 1845, in which it admits liabilities to this settlement, amounting to £57,291, is followed in page 32 of the same Report (the Eighteenth) by an account of " Receipts and Expenditure of the Nelson Settlement, from April, 1841, to the sth of April, 1 843." In this acount, the only item charged on the fund for selecting the site and establishing the settlement, is the £25 which had appeared in earlier statements; but a note is added at the bottom of the page, stating, that " the accounts for the year ending April 1844 not having been received from the colony, the particulars of the large expenditure which in that period had been thrown on the Company, could not be stated/ The fact is, and it was apparent on the face of these accounts, that the Company's admission of liabilities, under the date of April, 1845, was in reality a statement of its liabilities in April, 1843, and was subject to a very extensive reduction to be made on the receipt of accounts expected home from the colony, involving by far the larger part of its local expenditure. „ How any person could be sur-^ prised to find such reduction occur in the statement of 1846, when the colonial accounts might be expected to have got home, and how the note above referred to should not have compelled a solution more charitable towards the Directors than that arrived at by Dr. Greenwood, it is unnecessaryfor me to enquire. I was however very much surprised, on reading his letters to you, to find that he did not hint even at the possibility of such a solution ; as I had only two days before the publication of the first, intimated to him, in a conversation in the Literary Institution, my belief that it might be accounted for in that way. I can only account for his having omitted to advert to this possibility, and his having persevered in putting the public on a scent so unfavourable to the characters of the Directors, on the supposition of the conversation alluded to having escaped his recollection. It seems to me also, that the argument urged by Mr. Jollie, in his letter of last week, is quite conclusive against the supposition of the Company having put £30,000 into its pocket by a premature and indecent resort to the £»ew Regulations. Those Regulations affect the Religions, College, and Steam funds equally with the Emigration and Site funds, but no diminution occurs in them ; but on the contrary, a small increase. Was npt this con-

elusive, that the diminution of liabilities had not been attained in the way suggested ? The fact is, that the sum of £10,487 45., by which tbe Immigration fund is reduced, is the only one about which there is any real difficulty ; and I am not clear that it may not be satisfactorily accounted for by the same means as the other. ' In order to make the whole subject as intelligible as possible, I subjoin two statements; one shewing the actual expenditure and liabilities of the Company under the three heads of, 1, Emigration, 2, Selecting Site and Establishing Settlement (which includes Public Works, &c), and, 3, Religious, College, and Steam Fund, with tbe balance due upon each; the other showing what the balance would have been under the New Regulations, correctly estimated. If any landowner has any farther difficulty, I shall feel much obliged if he will, in my absence call upon the Company's accountant, Mr. Daniel, who will endeavour to elucidate the subject to him. The sentiment contained in the blank verse with which Dr. Greenwood concludes his second letter, viz., that dishonesty is the characteristic feature of men who combine for a common purpose, however honest in their individual capacity, I shall notice, because its tendency is to create distrust of the Company which I have the honor to serve. The lines are an amplification of Sir Edward Coke's saying, that "Corporations have no souls," but it will not bear the test of historical reference. England's commercial greatness, from its commencement down to the revolution, was almost entirely developed and sustained by chartered companies. For a long period there were few merchants who did not conduct their bL siness as shareholders in such, and they possess? d, as British merchants still do, the highest ebaracter all the world over. Then the American colonies were founded by, and attained all their greatness under, chartered companies. Of late years, the railway system, and a great part of the steam-vessel traffic, have been conducted with admirable skill and high character by large companies, and lastly, since the year 1825 almost every private banking establishment (except the London ones, which have a monopoly by act of Parliament), has merged into a jointstock company, while a great many new banking companies have also arisen, but scarcely a single new private banking establishment. I might extend the list, but it is unnecessary; let it suffice, that a large portion of the capital of Great Britain has at all times been worked by chartered companies, that they are particularly employed on undertakings requiring great skill and great integrity, and that though a few instances of fraudulent ones, such as tbe South Sea Company, may be pointed to, it were easy to shew that their fraudulence was no necessary result of their being a company; that when fraudulent companies have been numerous, it has been in seasons of speculative mania, when fraudulent individuals were numerous also ; and that men of good private character are much more likely to maintain each other in what is honest and good, than to change their natures and become suddenly corrupt, when they associate to carry out a common object. I should perhaps have abstained from noticing the lines alluded to, but there are many persons who consider a proverb or a rhyme more conclusive than a fact, and I have lately heard the same sentiment in prose from parties whom I should have expected to know better, and whose sayings might have influence on those about them. With many apologies for the length of this communication, I remain, &c, William Fox, Resident Agent of the N. Z. Company. Nelson, Dec. 28.

Total amount of land sales to the 31 st March, 1845 £132,240 0 0 To which add Company's estate 30,000 0 0 Total £162,240 0 0 Under the original .ippropriation, the above amount would be apportioned thus: Emigration, 3-6ths 81,120 0 0 "Founding Settlement, &c. l-6th 27,040 0 0 Religion, Education, and Steam, l-6th 27,040 0 0 Company's profit l-7th.. 27,040 0 0 £162,000 0 p Expenditure under the different heads, to the 31 st March, 1846, as per account appended to Twentieth Report. Emigration : — Passage of emigrants, re- £ s. d. muneration to surgeons and others per emigrant ships, hospital expenses, &c, &c... 65,489 15 9 Allowance towards cabin passages 7,992 12 6 63,482 8 3 Proportion of expenses of local establishment .... 3,740 6 11 £67,222 15 2

Founding Settlement, &c ; — Roads, bridges, buoys, &c. Proportion of expenses of local establishment . « . . Selecting site •" i 29,251 19 6 3,740' 6 10 25 0 0 £33.017 0 4 £33,017 0 4 3 Religion, Education, & Steam :— Subscriptions to church trust, chapel, and schools £5,070 18 0 Proportion due to Emigration 81,120 0 0 Expended on ditto as above 67,222 15 2 13,897 4 10 Proportion due to religion &c. 27,040 0 0 Expended on ditto as above 5,070 18 0 21,969 2 0 £35,866 6 10 Proportion due to Founding Settlement .. 27,040 Expended on ditto as above 33,017 0 0 0 0 Excess onFounding Setlmt. 5,977 6 4 5,977 0 4 Under the New Regulations, the amount of £162,240, as before specified, would be apportioned thus :— Emigration, 3-Bths, £60,840; Founding Settlement, (including Steam). 2-Bths £40,560; Public Purposes, Religion, &c, l-Bth £20,289; Company's Profit, 2-Bths, £40,560; and the result would stand thus — Proportion to £. s. d. £. s. &• Founding Settlement 40,560 0 0 Expended on ditto ..: .... 33,017 6 4 7,542 13 9 Proportion to Religion, &c. 20,280 0 0 Expended on ditto 5,070 18 0 15,209 2 0 £22.751 15 8 Proportion to Emigration . . 60,840 0 Expended on ditto 67,222 "«5 0 2 Excess on Emigration . ► 6,382 15 2 It may be however observed, that the accounts published in the Company's Report must not be considered as accounts between the Company and the settlement, but only between the Directors and the shareholders.