[From the Times, July 3.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 246, 8 December 1847, Page 4

[From the Times, July 3.]

The papers relating to New Zealand which have lately been laid before Parliament, are among the most interesting and encouraging that have yet been published with reference to thatcolony. Appearing at this criticaljuncture, when the subject of systematic colonization is in a manner forced upon the attention of Government, they derive additional importance from their immediate relation to that difficult question. The history of New Zealand is the history of a great design defeated by the incapacity of those who have been intrusted with its execution. It is a history of petty jealousies, of personal quarrels, of Colonial-office intrigue,- of rapacious avarice under the garb of religious zeal, of malice pretending to humanity, •of civilization triumphing by fraud over barbarian ignorance, of barbarian revenge wreaking itself in cruelty upon the weakness of its oppressors, of alternate neglect and meddling folly, of imbecile indifference, and presumptuous misgovernment. The annals of European colonization do not, with perhaps one exception, furnish an example of so fair a beginning conducted to so foul a conclusion. Certainly, with no exception, do they contain so lamentable a record of failure, produced by no external or unavoidable circumstances, but by the sole inherent corruption of internal organization. No better proof can be given of this fact than the reaction that £as taken place in the colony since Captain • Grey assumed its government. From that moment the prospect brightens and prosperity returns. Slowly, indeed, it has come back as yet, but its steady progress has not been interrupted. The present Governor found a savage population in open and successful rebellion, smarting under wrongs for the most part imaginary, and emboldened by the vacillating indecision of a government without justice or judgement. He found a Company, the head and origin of a once flourishing settlement, paralyzed by acts of pppressiop. He found settlers expelled by pretence or sufferance of law from lands which they had brought and paid for. He found a soil but lately rescued from nature, returning again under her solitary reign. He found a bankrupt treasury, an unequal and suicidal taxation, a legislature without confidence in itself, and a people without trust in their rulers. Such a complicated tissue of error had Captain Grey to unravel, so much to undo, and yet more to construct. His first proceedings were directed to the re-establish-ment of order and authority. He drove the native rebels from behind their wooden stockades, captured some of their chiefs, and dispersed the rabble ; and this he did without one act of cruelty, with very little severity, and almost without bloodshed. Then having given security to life and property, he took the wisest measures for restoring public credit, recalled the debentures issued by his predecessor, and remodelled the Customs. The hardest task he reserved for the last, after mpfe pressing dangers had been averted, and tranquillity had left leisure for mature consideration. This , task was the adjustment of land claims, a difficulty inconceivable by any who are not intimately acquainted with the internal history of New Zealand from the treaty of Waitangi to the present moment. Here the Governor met with opposition, from a quarter not unexpected, but to a degree most troublesome and vexatious. The Protectorate establishment had been formed in 'the' infancy of the colony, for the purpose of guarding the interests' of the natives, and preventing their being' defrauded by the white settlers. Its chief occupation was in adjusting alleged sales of land, a matter of great delicacy and requiring patience and no little penetration ; . for the New Zealand savage is as cunning as he is ignorant, and generally : quite as expert in over-reaching others as he is revengeful when 'overreached himself. The Clarke family, however, do not appear to have displayed (Captain Grey asserts that they never possessed) those qualities whether of industry or energy of character, which alone, could Bt them for so responsible a situation. They- were, moreover, themselves large purchasers of land — a circumstance, to say the least of it, as subjecting them to the possibility of partiality and the certainty of, suspicion. From whatever cause, the Pro-

tectors gave general dissatisfaction, except to the missionaries, whose interests they espoused on all occasions, and a few natives whose complaints were favourably received. Capt. Grey was not long in detecting the injurious tendency of their proceedings, or in perceiving that the continuance of their functions was incompatible with a good understanding between the white and native population. Therefore Captain Grey Tesolved upon breaking up the Protectorate establishment, as a necessary preliminary to clear the "nay for the free progress of his own measures. Having done this he appointed a substitute under the title of " native secretary," to have the care of native interests, and to receive their correspondence, but without a separate establishment distinct irom the general government. With respect to the adjustment of land claims, and the settlement of future sales upon a fixed and rational foundation, we apprehend that whatever has been done in the colony may have to be revised, in consequence of the agreement lately made between the Colonialoffice and the New Zealand Company. The circumstances that have led to this agreement are too long to be mentioned in this place, and probably all who are interested in the affairs of the colony are perfectly well acquainted with them. The terms, as proposed by Earl Grey on the 10th of May last, and accepted by the General Court of proprietors on the 14th of the same month, have been lately published; and we beg to refer to them as most important, not only to the colony, but to the general welfare of the empire. Year after year, as the already redundant population of Great Britain increases by its daily thousand, the stream of emigration in some form or other must increase in due proportion. Of how great magnitude, and how serious in its remote consequences, may be the system now adopted for directing this vast and swelling stream, it is not left for us to describe. The subject, if not fully understood, is at least most deeply appreciated by all who pretend to the management of public affairs. Now, if ever, a foundation must be laid for good government in our young colonies, and provision made for forming a nucleus of order and authoiity in the elements of an intelligent and moral society. To this end, in part, was the New Zealand Company established. Its proceedings may have been too exclusive and rapacious ; but its plan, if efficiently carried out, could not but have produced the most extensive advantages. England might then have shown at least one dependence of her central empire, which was neither founded in violence nor extended by fraud, neither polluted with convict blood nor disgraced by misgovernment and rebellion. It is through a consciousness of the Company's deserts in this behalf, and also, we believe, through a well-grounded hope that much may yet be done by its continued efforts, that the Government have consented to take the Company under its protection, and, in a manner, to maintain it in existence for three more years ; to supply it with funds and to guarantee its debts. But if, at the expiration of that period of time, the prospect should be no better than it is at present, the Company will be dissolved, and the whole responsibility of colonization will fall thenceforth upon the Government. No space is left for further remark on the internal affairs of the colony. It would, however, be unjust not to mention here that some measure^ have been adopted and others projected, of a nature calculated to conciliate the native population, and to insure their peaceable amalgamation with the settlers. In conclusion we must allow ourselves the pleasure of adding to the many proofs of respect and admiration of the conduct of the new- Governor which these Parliamentary papers contain, one other tribute on behalf of the public in this country, in return for his having saved a fair colony and rescued the English name from foul disgrace. j