[From the Morning Chronicle, March 2.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 207, 24 July 1847, Page 4

[From the Morning Chronicle, March 2.]

The infancy of a colony presents us with the same unvarying record of struggle against the powers of nature, and the faulty legislation of man. The strong hand of power follows the settler into the wilderness. It is not sufficient for him there to labour and delve from sunrise to sunset. The stock he breeds, the crop he sows, the shed he has erected to cover himself and his family from the inclement skies, are exposed to a thousand accidents from drought and storm, fire and flood, peculations from his fellow wanderers, and hostile attacks from the savage occupants of the country he must henceforward call his home. Were this however, and ten times this, all — the settler would be content. Before abandoning his native shores, it is to be supposed he had taken these difficulties into account. He had calculated his physical and moral energy, and pronounced them sufficient for the task. The natural powers of man are capable of overcoming the natural difficulties of such an enterprise. Take the other side of the picture. Add to the obstacles which nature and nature's savage children interpose between the settler and success, those other impediments which civilization alone can introduce into society. Instead of religion and law let the abuse of these prevail. Put the infant settlement under the rule of a governor from whose despotic power an appeal lies to the Antipodes, and let him be such a one as shall present a signal example of fatuity even amongst Colonial governors. Encourage the race of land-jobbers. Throw a doubt upon everybody's title to every acre of land in the colony, and you will have produced such a state of things as it would be difficult to match out of New Zealand — that colony which Mr. Ward has pronounced to be the Britain of the South — the Queen of her own hemisphere. It is necessary that the public attention should for some time be fixed upon this colony. Nearly seven years have passed by since Governor Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty in the settlement. For nearly seven years have the missionaries been compelled to abandon the notion of establishing a theocracy inpartibus infidelium at the expense of a few blankets, and British sovereignty has nominally prevailed. In those seven years we have seen men and families, who had invested all their earthly possessions in the purchase of land in the colony, go from amongst us, and return ruined and broken-hearted. Their wrongs (if indeed they were the parties sinned against) can never be repaired ; an equitable settlement between the Government and the New Zealand Company at the twelfth hour can never restore to them the years and energies they have lost. It is not with this melancholy first chapter in the history of New Zealand that we are concerned to-day. We do not wish to prove, but to disprove title to land within the limits of the colony. A meeting was lately held at Auckland (as we find by the last arrivals) of persons interested in the purchase of laud from the natives. Captain Grey had issued an announcement of another land commission in the Government Gazette, before which the claims of all parties were to be substantiated according to the forms of law, and numerous speculators in land were to_ be put to the proof of their titles. We may on a future opportunity go more fully into the story of who and what these purchases and these purchasers really are. Suffice it for the moment to say, that ; Captain Grey, in answer to a deputation from 1 the meeting, declared " that the unrestricted sale of lands was a concession wrung from his predecessor by conspiracy and intimidation ; and if the public attempted to contravene his measures by agitation, or intimidate by conspiracy, he would leave Auckland." Captain Grey is fairly at issue with the land-jobbers, the great curse of the colony. What the middleman is to Ireland, or the . keeper of a store on the truck system to a mining district, that is the land-jobber to a new colony. His influence pervades every class of society. He has trucked and bartered town lots and country lots ; he holds a mortgage over one, a bill of sale over another ; — few of the colonists can be said to be altogether free from his fangs. It is in stamping

down this monstrous abuse that Captain Grey is at this moment engaged. We have, however, deeply to deplore, that on reviewing the past history of the colony, we find that one essential and numerous section of these land-jobbers have received countenance and support at home. Not open countenance and open support — no one could walk the streets of London and lend them that ; but at least such support as has enabled them to conlinue their nefarious speculations, up till this date. We have not forgotten the monstrous manoeuvre of Waitangi in the year 1835, and the attempts of the missionaries to erect New Zealand into a maori-missionary state, of which they were to be lords paramount. Was not this a good land? Like Cromwell's saints, all they had to do was to go in and take possession. Henry Williams and George Clark, both of the Church Missionary Society, with James Clendon and Gilbert Muir, were the English witnesses to the famous Declaration of Independence. We find in the Parliamentary reports the missionaries recommending " that 200 acres of land be given to each of their children ;" and refusing, through Mr. Dandeson Coates, their secretary, the control of a bishop. We are speaking of what has been, what is on Parliamentary record, and what is patent and notorious to all persons acquainted with the circumstances of the colony. Has the evil been stopped ? Are, or are not the Church missionaries as active as they have hitherto been in the unfair acquisition of land in New Zealand ? If so, what steps can be adopted to put a stop to this nefarious peculation, so much the more nefarious as it is carried on under the cloak ot religion ? It is a question of vast importance to the colony. It is a question of vast importance to the credit of the missionary societies in this country. Captain Grey will apply the temporary remedy in New Zealand ; it is for us here at the Antipodes to devise a something which shall be a permanent settlement of the question. If we were to leave out of the question, or if we could ever, on considering the subject, dismiss from our thoughts the ruin of all parties concerned in the New Zealand Company, we should find great Teason for hope in the present condition of the colony. During the late disturbances the natives rose in immense numbers on the side of the British Government. - The settlers showed no less alacrity ; many gentlemen carried muskets as privates, and suffered great privations and dangers without a murmur for the preservation of the public peace. Nor does the financial condition of the country wear a less promising aspect when the management of it is entrusted to the parties most deeply interested in the result. Captain Grey, in a despatch to Lord Stanley, dated May 12, 1846, .states it thus :—: — Probable general ordinary annual expenditure of local government £27,000 0 0 Probable extra expense on account of natives, police, roads, &c 31,000 0 0 Total expenditure £58,000 0 0 Probable revenue, but rapidly increasing 22,000 0 0 Immediate annual deficiency, yearly decreasing £36,000 0 0 Less parliamentary grant £30,000 0 0 With this financial statement, however, must be read this passage from the despatch of Captain Grey :—: — "The present condition of the colony, in reference to its financial state, is different from all other portions of the empire. It is not in the ordinary position of a young country, the establishments of which would grow in extent in the same proportion as its population, revenue and commerce. The fact is, that a large population, rapidly becoming civilised, and capable of immediately affording a considerable commerce nnd revenue, already exists here, but no establishments have been formed for the protection of life, property, and commerce, or for the collection of revenue." The speech of Captain Grey to the Legislative Council on the sth October, 1846, was delivered in anticipation of the coming constitution.