New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 6, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 167, 6 March 1847, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, March 6, 1847.

" Oh that mine adversary had written a book !" was the exclamation of the patient Job ; and our feelings were of a similar description on perusing a pamphlet entitled, " Remarks on New Zealand, by Robert Fitzroy." We had hoped that the friends of this person, who while Governor of New Zealand had shewn himself so miserably incompetent and mischievous as t» bring the colony on the very verge of ruin," and to induce the belief that he was insane, would, on his retirement into private life, have kept him quiet ; they must have been conscious the sooner he was forgotten the better, for his own sake. But Captain Fitzroy appears determined, coute gui coute, to court notoriety, and has published a pamphlet of 67 pages, referring to the principal measures of his administration, and intended as an explanation and justification of his conduct while Governor. We will not weary our readers with a detailed examination of its statements ; in doing so we should travel over the old ground, and repeat our former arguments. We shall endeavour briefly to give an outline of the pamphlet, and a few specimens of the misstatements and perversions of facts with which it abounds. The pamphlet is divided into eight chapters ; the two first are introductory, and descriptive of the state of the colony previous to Captain Fitzroy's arrival as Governor; the four next chapters are in justification of his conduct as Governor; the seventh consists of general reflections and anticipations of the future; and the .concluding chapter contains a few allusions to the natural productions and commercial resources of the colony. The two first chapters we may dismiss summarily, merely premising that Captain Fitzroy does not hesitate to advance all the old misstatements and falsehoods which have been so often refuted and exposed, as to deceive no one but himself ; for example — " that every freeman in each tribe (of the aborigines) knew his boundaries, and

the history of his family and possessions for several generations ;" (p. 7.) — the allusion in note p. 9 to Wellington and Nelson, as " having very little available land" — the allusion to the treaty of Waitangi as the Magna Ch'artaof New Zealand — the exploded falsehoods now again brought forward respecting the Wairau massacre, and others of a similar character. We pass over these to notice a few of the statements referring to events of his own time, and where he is the hero of his story. " Quseque ipse miserrima vidi Et quorum pars magna fui" — At p. 16 we are told that he hastened his first visit to Wellington and Nelson, as those settlements were " then supposed to be in a precarious state. — not from the natives' natural ill will, but from the consequences of provocation given by the settlers," and this false assumption, that the disturbances in New Zealand have been caused by the misconduct of the settlers, and their " strong feeling of animosity against the natives," runs through the book. It is sufficient, in refutation of this falsehood, to point to the events of the late military operations in this district, where the settlers and the natives fought side by side — it is sufficient to refer to Captain Grey's despatch at the close of the campaign, whose testimony against this calumny is most decided and complete. — We then meet with the following morceau, intended to be a description of Wellington : — " Words could not express the surprise and disappointment with which Port Nicholson and the town of Wellington were seen for the first time. The port is too large to be sheltered, even from prevailing winds ; and it has a long narrow entrance from the open sea, between threatening and really dangerous rocks, making it almost a blind harbour. It is nearly surrounded by high hills covered with forests ; and appears to have but little level, cultivable land in its immediate neighbourhood. The stormy climate, the straggling, exposed, and indefensible nature of the town, and the depressing prospect for the future in such a locality, during at lpast the present generation, might well cause sorrow that such a situation should have been chosen." In his desire to gratify an impotent resentment against the southern settlers for their unanimous and successful opposition to his measures, Capt. Fitzroy only renders himself ridiculous by the absurdity of his statements ; if he wishes to be believed, he should preserve some semblance of truth, but such a picture but little agrees with the present importance of this settlement ; the number of vessels entering and departing from this port, and the increased revenue derived under Capt. Fitzrcy's successor; all these facts serve to show where the fault lay, — not with the place but the persons appointed to govern it. After abusing Wellington, the natives are the next objects of Capt. Fitzroy's calumnies ; — anticipating for Wellington " a fate worse than that of Korararika," the natives are described "as more numerous — nearly all heathens, unimproved in their habits." The settlers of New Zealand are then described in the following terms :—: — " Indeed one of the most melancholy features of the growing society in New Zealand is a disregard for honourable and virtuous conduct. Truthfulness and sincerity are not cherished. The very few persons who are not (to use the current expression) " colonial" in their ideas and conduct, are 'neither understood or estimated as they deserve to be, and as they would be in old countries." Such wholesale slander- carries its own contradiction, but Capt. Fitzroy himself further on refutes his own calumnies, when lamenting the difficulties of the New Zealand question and their aggravation by distance from England, he says — " Some of the difficulties which were felt by Spain, in governing her colonial Empire, are now pressing on the British Government ■with respect to the colonies ; although the integrity of personal character, and the freedom of the Press, prevent those greater evils which became so notorious in Spanish America, notwithstanding the unremitting exertions of that excellent tribunal, the council of j the Indies. But the effects of distance are being lessened yearly by improved means of communication : and if the home government will but listen as readily to the opinions of respectable residents in the colonies, as they

naturally attend to the voices of those who join in parliamentary debates, it will be impossible that misapprehensions of much consequence can exist long, or that difficulties should arise, which perseverance and talent will not find means of overcoming." If to be colonial is to have a disregard for truth and sincerity, why does he recommend the Home Government to listen to colonial opinions ? Of the New Zealand Press Capt. Fitzroy observes that " the Wellington paper was then under the influence of the New Zealand Company, and a branch of the Union Bank of Australia," and in a note that "the Nelson paper also was greatly influenced by the Branch of the Union Bank of Australia, which was much mixed up with the Company's proceedings, and appeared to identify itself with that body," — and both these papers are accused of unceasingly " misrepresenting the motives and acts of the Governor and of propagatiag falsehoods." Of the Auckland Times, he says — " One of these Editors, who used to write and publish a notoriously virulent paper called " Tbe Auckland Times," was an unhappy man, whose existence was lately brought to an untimely close by hard drinking. That such a man, utterly regardless of truth or character, should have been countenanced, was a lamentable proof of a very low tone of moral feeling in the colony." Capt. Fitzroy knows, while making these statements, that they are utterly unfounded and untrue — he knows that this Journal was never under the influence of the New Zealand Company, or of the Union Bank of Australia, but was established by the settlers for the purpose of exposing and resisting his mad career, which threatened the destruction of the settlement — he knows that our statements received credit in England, because they faithfully exposed the consequences of his proceedings. Take the debenture question for example ; we showed at the time the working of this monstrous compound of ignorance and dishonesty, the effects of which have hardly yet ceased to be . felt, that while by his own ordinance he was limited to £15,000, he had issued debentures to three 'times that amount, which has been subsequently verified — we exposed (in our 24th Number) the dishonesty of his bills drawn for " defraying expenses arising from the suspension of the Company's operations as authorised by a despatch of Lord Stanley's," which said despatch had no existence. But it is irksome to refer to the past — it is enough to know that Capt. Fitzroy has earned the unenviable reputation of being the most incompetent person that ever disgraced and abused authority, and that the New Zealand press, by chronicling his misdeeds contributed to his recall. We forbear to stigmatise as it deserves Captain Fitzroy's ungenerous attack on the Editor of the Auckland Times, now that he is dead, we should have thought if not for shame, at least for charity this aspersion of the dead might have been spared, but we will remind him he has never answered the, question so often proposed in that Journal, " Who vrote the Postscript ?" In the pamphlet it is admitted " that two dead bodies were partly mutilated by heathen natives, portions of flesh having been cut from the back part of the thighs," while the postscript asserts that Captain Grant's body (one of the two referred to) " was not mutilated" — but Captain Fitzroy does not tell us " Who wrote the Postscript ?" There are many amusing statements and opinions in the pamphlet worthy of its au^ thor — such as that " the practical effect of the debentures was not only the removal of all want, but the promotion of much, industry and general improvement." " That they were the foundation of an export trade from the necessity under which the principal holders of them lay in getting rid of them as speedily as possible." "That a house is a fit object for taxing in a new colony, because it may be easily rated without the possibility of eraeion — and that cattle and stock may also be taxed, because they could not be smuggled." Capt. Fitzroy's forebodings on the Protectorate being abolished are of the most dismal kind, and he cannot bring himself to

believe so important a change will be confirmed by the British Government — but our space will allow us only to refer to these and other anticipations of a similar nature, all of which the result has proved to be, as might be supposed — totally incorrect. All the nonsense he formerly uttered respecting the Land Question at New Plymouth is reasserted together with a repetition of the calumny that New Plymouth is " almost debarred from free communication with other places either by land or water, — that it was without a port, — without even a safe roadstead for shipping," — though when at New Plymouth he assured the settlers there " that for the purpose of landing cargoes, and the facilities of ingress and egress, the roadstead of New Plymouth, was preferable -to the harbours of Wellington or Nelson."

His Excellency on his way to Taranaki landed last Friday at Waikanae, and remained some time on shore. He took the opportunity of visiting the native chapel at Waikanae, and of inspecting the party of police stationed there, and expressed himself highly pleased with their efficient state.

The Carbon arrived on Wednesday evening from Wanganui. The works of the stockade were proceeding satisfactorily. Tt was currently reported that a few cases of typhus fever had occurred among the troops.

On Wednesday evening between five and six o'clock, the unusual phenomenon of si double rainbow was observed at Wellington. The wind had changed to the south-east, accompanied with a sudden shower of rain. Both arches were perfectly distinct and well defined, but the colours of the inner arch were the most brilliant.

Sale of Stock. — -At Messrs. J. Smith & Co.'s sale of stock on Thursday, the heifers realized from £7 to £9 each, and the ewes averaged 17s. 6d. each. The above were considered to be very good prices.

We observe in the Ecclesiastical Intelligence in the papers recently received, that the Rev. G. H. Hadfield, M. A., late Fellow of Pembroke College, and brother to the Rev. O. Hadfield of this place, has been appointed Principal of the Protestant College at Malta in the room of M. Gobat, now Bishop of Jerusalem.

Wellington Savings Bank. — Mr. P. M. Hervey, Mr. P. D. Hogg, Major Hornbrook, and Mr. W. Lyon, the Managers in rotation, will attend to receive deposits at Messrs. Johnson & Moore's store, from seven to eight o'clock on Saturday evening, the 6th March, 1847, and at the Union Bank of Australia, from twelve to one o'clock on Monday forenoon, the Bth March.