EXILES. Copy Of a Despatch From Earl Grey To Governor Grey. No. 32. Downing-Street, May 23, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 451, 28 November 1849, Page 3

EXILES. Copy Of a Despatch From Earl Grey To Governor Grey. No. 32. Downing-Street, May 23, 1849.

Sir, — I transmit to you herewith copies of certain resolutions which appear to have been passed at a meeting of the Directors and Shareholders of the New Zealand Company on the 27th ult., which was held for the purpose, as it was intimated, of adopting means for effectually securing New Zealand from being made a penal colony. I have not yet recei? ed any communication from the Directors of the Company on the subject, but I transmit in connection with the resolutions a report of the proceedings at the meeting as extracted from the New Zealand Journal. The grounds of the apprehension entertained on the point are stated as follows :—: — "First, the general declarations of the Prime Minister and Home Secretary with

respect to tbe new plan of dispersing convict emigration over many colonies ; Secondly, the fact, that although when the British colonization of New Zealand was commenced by this Company, an emphatic pledge was given by Lord Normanby, as the organ of the crown, at the head of the Colonial Office, that convicts should never be sent to New Zealand, yet, ere long, the Colonial Office secretly despatched to New Zealand a ship full of con-, vict boys from Parkhurst prisons, Lord Norraanby's pledge being evaded by the grant of a pardon to the convicts on their disembarkation in the colony, so that in law, since a pardoned convict is as if he had never been convicted, these criminals were not convicts when put ashore in New Zealand ; " Thirdly, the appearance in the colony of a despatch from Lord Grey to the Governor, by which his lordship points out New Zealand as one of the colonies to which the new plan of sending out convicts conditionally pardoned or as free Exiles, may be properly applied ; and lastly, the fact that this despatch has been withheld from the papers relating to New<Zea« land annually laid before Parliament, together with the fact that the Court of Directors of this Company, notwithstanding their intimate relations with the Colonial officers, and their known repugnance to convict emigration to New Zealand, have been unable to inform the proprietors that the Colonial office does not intend to treat New Zealand as it has treated the Cape colony." Ist. — With regard to the Convict boys from Parkhurst prison, I need scarcely remind you that the only party who were sent out to the colony proceeded so far back as the year 1842 under the circumstances stated in Lord Stanleys despatch No. 42, of the 25th of May of that yeat, and they were settled within the district of Auckland, at a distance from the Company's settlements — that there was no difficulty in finding employment for them — and that at the date of the last report sent home from their guardian, Viz., Ist March, 1843, they were reported ss generally giving satisfaction to their masters, although a subsequent report from the Protector of Aborigines spoke unfavourably of some of them. In consequence of that less favourable report, you were informed by Mr. Gladstone's despatch, No. 17, of the 30th March, 1846, not only that no more of those boys had been sent out, but that there was no intention of sending auy further number. That despatch was published in a Parliamentary paper, as far back at 1846, and I do not see it alleged, nor am I aware, that any Parkhurst boys have been tent to the colony since that date, 2nd. — The despatch which I addressed to you on the Ist of March, 1847, No. 12 (Military) had reference to the qnestion of employing a small body of convicts on the works under the superintendence of the Commanding Officer of Royal Engineers. The measure was suggested by that officer, and the suggestion was forwarded with your despatch No. 101, of the 6tb November, 1846. I perceive that you dissented from that recommendation, not on the ground of any demoralizing effect which the presence of the convicts might have generally in the colony, but from the danger | which you at that time apprehended might result from mixing up men of that class with natives cf so peculiar and warlike a character as tbe New Zealanders : and you then suggested the employment of a larger body of sappers and miners. I had already, as you were then informed, taken measures for supplying the deficiency oi labour complained of by the selection amongst the military pensioners, sent out to the colony, of 50 men wLo bad worked as artizans in the peculiar branches required, and I adopted the further measure of requesting the Master General and Board of Ordnance to send out a Serjeant and 12 sappers and miners who should direct the labour j of the others. I then pointed oat that the employment of convicts in New Zealand, under the effect of a general measure of transportation, would be entirely out of the question, but I suggested to you that it might deserve consideration whether a limited number cf men of that class whose conduct nnder confinement might renner them worthy of indulgence, might not be sent to the colony with conditional pardons, in which, in addition to the ordinary conditions of such instruments, it might be stipulated that the convicts so pardoned shall work for tbe Government for the period of two years. 1 have not been informed by you that this plan was considered necessary or advisable ; and, indeed, I fully gather from your reports that the supply of native labour on the works, in addition to the European labour otherwise at the disposal of the local Government, would make such a measure quite unnecessary. 3rd — With regard to the circular despatch of the 7th August, 1848, which was addressed to yourself in common with other Governors, on the question of introducing convicts, with tickets of leave and conditional pardons, into

New Zealand, ii is scarcely necessary to observe that the abject of that despatch was simply to ascertain whether such a measure would bt acceptable to the colonists, under tbe conditions proposed, in order that, if it should prove so, I might then take measures in accordance with their desire for carrying it into effect. The object of this circular was to apprise various colonies of the supply of this kind of labour, which was open to them to obtain, if they thought it desirable* No doubt New Zealand might have been set aside altogether, and tbe information withheld from it ; but I should almost doubt whether on reflection it will be judged that this woiild have been dealing by the colony so fairly at to put it in possession of the intelligence which was conveyed to every neighbouring colony, considered to enjoy favourable circumstances, and thus to afford the local Government and .the public the same option of using, if they wished, what, in some places, appeared to be deemed a great advantage* The despatch was not addressed peculiarly to New Zealand, but -was a circular ; and it appeared in its proper place in the very first series of correspondence on the subject of Secondary punishment, which was laid before Parliament after it was written. As the intentions of her Majesty's Government would seem to have been so much misapprehended, I thought it convenient to recapitulate the whole correspondence on the subject, in order that you may be enabled to remove any misconception which may be created in the colony. I need scarcely add that I should have been most willing to afford any assurance necessary to allay the apprehension expressed in the accompanying resolutions, if the parties con* cerned had thought proper to afford me the opportunity of so doing before giving publicity to their sentiments. I have, &c, (Signed) , Grbt. To Governor Grey.