[From the Times, Oct. 16.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 281, 8 April 1848, Page 4

[From the Times, Oct. 16.]

We print to-dayareportoftheraeetingofthe New Zealand Company. They have again commenced their operations on ft more satisfactory bssis than before. In the year 1837, according to a statement made by- Mr. -Edward

Gibbon Wakefield before a committee of the House of Commons, he and some friends, being shocked at the lawless practices which were going on in the island? of New Zealand, met and formed a company. The first principle they laid down was, " that the society should be rather of a public than a private character ; and that, at all events, no member of it should have any pecuniary interest in the object in view." At the close of lasc session a bill passed through Parliament, by which, among other beneficial provisions, the whole of the demesne lands of the Crown in New Munster and Stewarts Island are handed over to the Company as trustees, as well as the southern part of the Northern Island of New Zealand. An additional sum of money, moreover, making the total advanced nearly a quarter of a million, is to be paid to them in rapid instalments by the Treasury. The conditions of repayment are all that could be desired by a board of guardians in Clare or Tipperary. In a public point of view, however, this anomaly is but of little moment. If it can be shown that the machinery of a company interposed between the settlers an 1 the Crown is for the public advantage ; that it does more effectually promote colonisation, and produce a greater amount of wealth and happiness at the Antipodes, we acquiesce cheerfully in the arrangement. That a few disinterested men should be carried on the top of the mounting wave to riches and honour is no objection to such a scheme. It would not be the first time that a company of merchant adventurers had added one of its brightest jewels to the island diadem. Be this as it may, the affairs of New Zealand are now taking something like intelligible shape. In the person of Captain Grey, in the Broad-street Company, and in the land itself, we have at last three facts within the reach of the comprehension of simple men. Hitherto what with Mr. Dandeson Coates and his missionaries ; Captain Hobson and his treaty ; Lords Glenelg, Normanby, Russell, and Stauley, and their instructions ; the settlers with their groans ; the Company with their complaints ; Mr. Charles Buller with his speeches; Captain Fitzroy with his assignats ; and Rauperaha, Rangihaeata, and John Heki, with their tomahawks and boomerangs;* and, last of all, Lord Grey with his municipal constitution, it was impossible to form anything like an accurate estimate of the real position of affairs. The perplexed mind of the observer " Found no end, in wandering mazes lost;" and thus a due and accurate conside.-ation of the subject was constantly postponed by the public to others of more pressing and instant importance. The matter will now be taken up in a very different sp rit. If it be at length possible to obtain a perfect title to the land for which the emigrant has paid nearly all the capital he possessed in tt c world, there are thousands of young men entering into life whose purpose it will answer to carry the arts and institutions of their country to the other side of the globe. The change to ease and abundance, seasoned by healthful toil in a beautiful country and a healthy climate, will be welcomed by many who at home would be compelled to linger out their days hi serfdom amidst the burning struggles and fierce competition of the capital, or be consigned to hopeless obscurity in some petty provincial employment. When the door of escape is opened plenty will be found to rush through, and carry their hopes and exertions to a land which will admit them to a participation of its fruits, and an indulgence of the natural feelings of humanity, without the certainty of having called down as a consequence poverty and misery on their heads. The acts of the New Zealand Company will be more closely scanned now that the happiness of so many of their countrymen, and some portion of the future glory of Great Britain, are involved in in their decisions. We are disposed, then, for the present to acquiesce in the arrangement which vests the •trusteeship of the islands of New Zealand in the Company. We regard it not as the best possible, but not as altogether a bad settlement of previous difficulties. There are other points besides in the actual position of affairs in the colony which inspire confidence in its future destinies, and of its permanent connexion with the mother country, In the first place, we may be said to have abandoned that exclusive system of commercial policy which stunted our colonies of their natural growth. We no longer aim at founding a great empire for the purpose of raising up a nation of customers. For the future we shall not demand the monopoly of the articles we want from our colonists, and compel them to sell others which might interfere with the gains of the traders of the mother country to the south of Cape Finisterre. The right of British colonists to manufacture nails for horse-shoes is now beyond all question. The dictum of Sir Robert Feel has been substituted for the dog-

* Boomerangs ire not used by the New Zealanders, but by the natures of Australi».-T-ED.^.2V,i?.£.

ma of the Earl of Chatham. Colonies. aarte t as far as possible, to be treated as though they were integral parts ot the kingdom. The Company have declared that they are about to resume their colonising operations on the existing settlements of Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, and Otakou. As far as they are concerned, and, we hope, as far as any fresh body of colonists may be concerned, all promises fairly. There are, however, a class of men whose situation it is impossible to regard without compassion and interest. The New Zealand Company have been successful in their struggle with the Government; but what has become of the original settlers ? Where are the men whose sufferings and losses were constantly put forth as the pretext for compensation from the national bounty ? Some of them have died in the inhospitable country of their : adoption, involved in inextricable difficulties ; others are scattered on the islands of the South Sea, or on the American shores of the Pacific; some few have held on a f Wellington, in expectation of a favourable adjustment of the disputes between the Government and the Company; and still f-wer have returned to their native land ruined and heartbroken men. We have received many complaints from them of the proceedings of the Company, but we are unwilling as yet to assent to the anathemas of a premature exasperation. Scarcely three months have passed since the Company obtained their bill ; it is yet too early to censure them for not acting upon its provisions. The settlers, in a lengthy letter we have received from Port Nicholson, after recapitulating the story of their connexion wkh the Company, claim a share in the benefits which, have been so lavishly bestowed upon that body in consequence of the sufferings of the claimants. They refer to the terms of the original prospectus of July 30, 1839, in which it is set forth that of the moneys to be paid to the Company by purchasers, 25 per cent, only was to be reserved by the Company for local expenses and other purposes. The remainder, being 75 per cent., was to be laid out by the Company for the exclusive benefit of the purchasers, in giving value to the land sold by defraying the cost of emigration to the settlements. The language of the Company is now, " As far as in us lay we have fulfilled the condition ; we cannot help the obstructions the Governmen; threw in the way of your success.', The settlers answer, " That may be true, but, in consideration of our losses, you, the Company, have obtained important advantages, in which we are entitled by every notion of justice to participate." Setting aside, for a moment, all questions of detail and special acts, by which the Company sometimes assumed to act for the settlers, and sometimes left them to their fate, that we take to be the real matter at issue between the contending parties. This is not a question to be settled on a mere technical point. We are satisfied, if it shoull become publicly known that in j any well-accredited instances the New Zeal- ! and Company have trampled under foot the men by whose misery they themselves have ! risen into importance, it will do more to discredit them throughout the country, and ultimately to injure their material interests, than ! another series ot squabbles with the colonialoffice, which shall last as Jong as another Trojan war. Those unfortunate persons who originally left their homes and their friends to found another Britain at the Antipodes are just now disappointed men, and, like all disappointed men, in all probability somewhat unjust in their judgment of the proceedings of others. But when we come to read over the act of Parliament of last session, with the advantages it bestows upon the Company, and the glowing prospectus they have just published of the felicities of the territory intrusted to their care ; and when we take in connexion with this the complaints of the original settlers, and our knowledge of the hardships and disappointments they have endured, we cannot but think it will be a very harsh and unwise proceeding if the parties who have suffered are the only ones excluded from partiripation in the recent gifts. We should, however, in justice add, that in our opinion sufficient time has not yet elapsed to pronounce authoritatively on the future line of policy which will be adopted by the Company with regard to such of the original settlers as may have bond fide claims upon their recent acquisition. We trust it will be such as will inspire the public with confidence in the spirit of iairness of their future proceedings, and justify the recent bounty of Parliament.