New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, January 23, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 155, 23 January 1847, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, January 23, 1847.

The New Zealand Company's pretensions to the exclusive management of the affairs of this colony force upon the settlers the consideration how far the discharge of their previous obligations would entitle them to such a measure of confidence either on the part of the British Government, or of the settlers, as would justify such an extension of their privileges as they appear to be aiming at. Their recent attempt, in the furtherance of their objects, to disparage and injure our present Governor, naturally leads us to institute a comparison between their acts as a colonizing body and his Excellency's management of the affairs of New Zealand, as regards the Southern Settlements. In making this comparison it may be objected that the bitter and systematic opposition of the Colonial Office to the New Zealand Company has in a great measure diverted them from the prosecution of their original plans, and that they have not yet had a fair opportunity of carrying out their principles ; but after making all due allowances for disturbing causes, we shall find that there are sufficient grounds left for testing their pretensions and arriving at a correct conclusion. The settlers have just celebrated the seventh anniversary of the founding this, the first and principal settlement in Cook's Sttait ; seven wearisome years of vexation and disappointment have passed away, during which, while struggling against difficulties sufficient to bend the most determined spirit, they have persevered, nothing daunted, in the hope of ultimate success. For seven years the New Zealand Company have, subject to the interruptions adverted to, carried on their colonising operations. The principles on which they professed to act were, to give vigour and stability to their settlements by a concentration of the population, and by maintaining a just proportion between land, labour and capital to ensure the greatest amount of prosperity and to hold out the greatest inducements to voluntary immigration. In practice, howver, these principles have been widely departed from . The greater portion of the available landin the immediate neighbourhood of Wellington being owned by absentees, who for the most part have either appointed no agents or given them such limited instructions as to preclude their acting with advantage, has prevented the profitable occupation of the land, and contributed with other causes to create a forced inactivity that has driven the labour from the colony and wasted the capital and resources of those colonists who remained. Another element of dispersion is to be found in the extent of country over which the preliminary sections are scattered, instead of being confined to the districts in the immediate neighbourhood of the harbour and the valley of the Wairarapa, which appears to have been carefully excluded from the selection of the land owners. But of the many questions arising out of the claims of the land owners on the New Zealand Company it is sufficient for the present to refer to their letter to the Company in which these ques-

tions are fully discussed. The most cursoryexamination, however, of the Company's proceedings will show that their chief care has .been, not to concentrate their efforts on a single settlement, and after having taken every possible precaution to ensure success, then, — but not till then—to proceed in the task of forming new ones — but how they might in the shortest given time found, by means of the lottery system, the greatest number of settlements ; and it is worthy of remark, that in each instance, as if to make the principle of the lottery in all respects complete, when the scheme was propounded in England, the site to which the scheme was to be adapted was not known. Such a system could only be expected to produce dissensions and disappointments, and of these the settlers have reaped such a harvest that they have ceased to " place their reliance upon the Company for their ultimate security and well being" and would rather desire its dissolution than be subject to the continuance of this system. But what the Company have neglected to do his Excellency has endeavoured to carry out in a systematic and well considered plan of operations. Twelve months have barely elapsed since his first visit to Wellington, and the greater part of this time has been consumed in the efforts necessary to re-establish the supremacy of British authority. But enough has been done to enable us to form a correct conclusion as to the merits of his plan, which appears intended to prepare the way for future and extensive immigration by opening up the country, and rendering the surrounding districts available by means of roads, and by connecting the weak and isolated settlements along the coast with Wellington. Take Wanganui as an example. The New Zealand Company in their Twentieth Report propose to abandon that district altogether. The measures recently adopted by his Excellency have already greatly increased its importance, and raised the spirits of its settlers, and if this settlement be maintained, it will be found of the utmost importance for insuring the peace of the country, and for promoting and extending a trade among the natives both along the coast and in the in* terior. Can we wonder then at the anxiety and apprehension universally entertained by the settlers at the bare idea of a Proprietary Government, — at the prospect of any change which should occasion the removal of his Excellency from New Zealand,— an anxiety which becomes more painful from the suspense in which we are held by the absence of positive information.