ADDRESS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 163, 20 February 1847, Page 2

ADDRESS.

To His Excellency George Grey, Esquire, Lieutenant- Governor and Commander-in-Chiefin and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand, and Vice Admiral of the same, SfC, #c, BfC. We, the undersigned, inhabitants of Auckland and its vicinity, deem this the seventh Anniversary of the Foundation of the colony, an appropriate occasion to present to your Excellency our heartfelt congratulations upon the success which has attended the Government of New Zealand since your accession to it, and upon the cheering promise of futuie prosperity which the affairs of the colony now give, as compared with any former period of its history. To set forth fully the debt of gratitude which we owe your Excellency for the wise administration of this government, we should require to give a retrospective view of the affairs of the colony from the date of your Excellency's arrival; this, however, we deem supeifluous, it is sufficient to say that, when you commenced the task of reducing to order the chaos into which affairs had fallen, you found armed rebellion abroad in the North and in the South. You have given us peace, and we fervently hope a solid and lasting peace, based upon the confidence in, and attachment to the Government, which is rapidly growing in the minds of the native people. The monetary affairs of the colony your Excellency' found in

most wretched disorder; the levenue nearly annihilated ; an enormous and increasing Government debt being contracted on the assignats of a bankrupt Treasury : — for a decreasing, you have given us a rapidly increa- ■ ing revenue ; for a debased debenture, you have given us a genuine metallic currency ; and all public claims you have put in train of speedy and equitable adjustment. To the confidence reposed in your Excellency by the home authorities we owe the extended grant in aid of the colony of £30,000, and the admirable use to which this sum is being put, the noble work ot opening up the country by means of roads, and rendering available and of easy access the whole territory between this place and Cook's Strait, demands our warmest gratitude, and justifies the high trust reposed in your Excellency by her Majesty's Government. In this, a great boon is conferred on both races, tending to develope the grand internal resources of the colony, and opening a profitable field to the employment of the immense, but now unproductive, native labour of the interior. Although it is difficult for each one who subscribes this address to give an unqualified approval to every measure of your Government, so many individual interests having been affected, and so many cherished hopes having been disappointed, by some of the acts of the last Legislative Council; — we nevertheless would all cordially testify our belief in the general remedial tendency and enlightened cha- : racter of the measures introduced, and our entire confidence in the ability of your Excellency successfully to administer the government of this colony, securing its future prosperity and our own immediate welfare. In thus tendering our approbation of the past, we cannot refrain from expressing a hope for the future, that your Excellency, at the earliest possible period, " will not fail to endeavour to devise and introduce some system by which lands, the property of the natives, may be brought into market, under such restrictious as are required for the interest of both races ;" and, also, a regulated system of squatting, to facilitate the extensive depasturing of stock, as we know that many flockmasters in the sister colonies, as well as many of our settlers, are anxious to embark in such enterprizes, as soon as it may be done with propriety and safety. The rumours which are now abroad of a meditated change of capital, induce us further to pray your Excellency that by your aid, our interests- may be fairly represented with the home government. You have been enabled by personal observation to institute a comparison between the different portions of the colony, and cannot fail to have observed the unparalleled combination of natural advantages with which this settlement is favoured. Its splendid and accessible harbour ; the safely of its extended coast line ; the immense extent of level and cultivable land around, and in its neighbourhood ! the many navigable rivers in its vicinity, rendering easily available further immense, and still unexplored tracts of country ; the variety and singular richness of its mines, the facility of working and shipping their products ; and though, last by no means least in importance, the value of an immense and intelligent native population, rapidly becoming civilised, industrious cultivators of the soil, large producers of exportable articles, and excellent customers for our manufactured goods. Reposing on these our natural advantages, we had deemed the question of change of capital set at rest for ever ; but we now find, and we confess, not without alarm, that other ground has been taken by our enemies. When it was found that Auckland could not be deprived of its natural gifts, and that in spite of all attempts to retard its progress and destroy its very existence, it still advanced slowly, but steadily : and that when compared with the settlements of the Company, which sought its extinction, it rose superior to them all; then the attempt is made to defame and malign its settlers, and no mis-statement, however gross, no fabrications, ho wever outrageous, are left untried to effect this purpose. In the pages of the JVifti- Zealand Journal, the avowed organ of the New Zealand Company, we have been accused, not once or twice, inadvertently or casually, but systematically, of being a treasonable community, and that to accomplish our own purposes, we hesitated not to excite the natives to rebellion, and array them in hostility against her Majesty's Government ; and an inference is then drawn that it is dangerous to permit the capital lo remain contiguous, or exposed to such influences. That any community could be so blind to its own interest, is so palpable an absurdity, that we can only wonder how such a charge could ever seriously have been made. With the natives in our neighbourhood we have ever lived, and still continue to live in friendship and confidence ; but that we have at any time sought to use them as a means to promote our individual purposes, or to embarras, or subvert the Government, we utterly and indignantly deny. They have been still peaceable, and always supporters of the Go-

vernment; they have pride in having the Chief, the Governor, in the midst of them, and we believe would regard any change which would remove him, and place him amongst turbulent and unfriendly people, as an ungrateful return for their loyalty and attachment. In every society will be found individuals vicious and ill-disposed, and we learn with much regret, that your Excellency has been annoyed by threatening and anonymous communications from parties of this description ; but we trust that you will not permit this to prejudice your mind against us as a community, and we pledge ourselves to use our best efforts to detect and bring, to shame the authors of such productions. As an apology for the introduction of these remarks, and for N praying your Excellency to represent our interests at home, and disabuse her Majesty's Government of any false impressions with regard to us as a community, we may mention, that so entirely is the influential portion of the press in the mother coun- | try enliste4>i»«adftocati ug&hg cause of the New j Zealand Company, that the friends of this settlement now in England, have found themselves totally unable to cope- with their more | powerful opponents, and, like ourselves, have been obliged to sit down in patience, trusting in the power of truth and time, eventually to obtain us justice. In conclusion, we assure your Excellency, that, relying implicitly upon your capability to carry on with wisdom and vigour the government of this colony, we will ever continue to give to your administration that warm, cordial, and active support and assistance to which it is so fully entitled ; and earnestly hoping that on the next and many succeeding anniversaries, we shall have the pleasant duty to perform of congratulating your Excellency upon the improved and still improving prospects of the land of our adoption, with the warmest wishes for your restored health, and continued happiness, we subscribe ourselves, your Excellency's grateful and obedient servants, [Here follow the signatures.]