NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner, March 16.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 486, 30 March 1850, Page 2

NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner, March 16.]

We print to-day a despatch, from the Directors of the New Zealand Company to their Principal Agent, relative to the Trost Funds of this settlement. This -despatch was communicated by the Resident!Agtot ta .a meet-

ing of the landowners, held on Tuesday last pursuant to advertisement ; and at an cpen meeting of landowners and others, which took place on the same day, a resolution was passed requesting the Resident Agent to allow the document to be published. We gladly give up the necessary space, not only because the subject involved is one of paramount importance to the interests of all classes of settlers, hut because it is essential to the proper consideration of it that none but authentic information should be before the public ; and because it is only fair to the Company to give their own statement of the case, and not subject it to the possible misrepresentations of mere report. Wt assume that most of our readers are aware of what the upshot of the New Zealand Company's communication really is : and in fact it has been so .warmly debated already, that it may seem almost unnecessary for us to do more than refer briefly to the chief points of the despatch. Still, there is always something wanting in the verbal discussion of any question,'- Speakers often allow themselves to be carried away from strict logical application to their subject ; and hearers yet oftener accept what is said to them, being glad to save themselves the trouble of thinking upon it. We propose therefore, in a spirit of as much impartiality as we are capable of under the circumstances, to examine in this journal the position in which the whole settlement is now placed by the Company's conduct, and if it be possible to discover a means of getting out of the scrape ; and as we shall .endeavour to keep the matter before the public for some' time, we invite all those who take a sincere interest in it, to favour us with their opinions and suggestions, and contribute their aid to overcome the difficulty in which we all jstand. The Trust Fund mirage has now for nearly three years, tantalized our imagination and mocked our desires in the desert of expectancy. It was created, (in our fancy) by the 18th resolution of July, 1847, when every ; one declared it to be a real spring, from which the settlement would derive new life. It first visibly appeared to us, in the far horizon, in the shape of the Company's assent to the July scheme, and the hope ot teaching it redoubled our efforts to vanquish the obstacles still in our way. Stumbling over the dispute about Town reselections ; scrambling through the Rui=al choices ; driving an oft- refused bargain with the redoubtable tribe of Waitohi ; carrying oir civil war (qr an about scarce pasture (getting, by-tbe-bye, much scarcer); leaving these things for a while to fight a horde of Nominee ogres hard by; helping ourselves, and each other, to lots of suburban land, so called ; coming unexpectedly upon the California of compensation, and resting complacently for a while at its rich " diggings;" then starting off to lay out a new town for fresh pilgrims, who mi<_ ht wend their way after us ; and finally, appointing a chosen number of trustees and managers for us, as the last step we had to take., the last wonderful feat we knight errauts had to perform :—: — through all these vicissitudes and troubles, Per varios casus, per tot diacvimina rerum, we never lost sight of that glowing mirage that was, we thought, to be our exceeding great reward^ and was to give us refreshment and repose alter our labour of years. Now and then it waxed bright, when the Company's promises to give us ample accounts shed for a moment a new light upon it ; then again it waned in the distance, as these promises remained unfulfilled, and vessel after vessel arrived without any tidings. Thus it appeared uncertain at various times, till on a sudden we felt certain it was no mirage, but a reality :—: — this was when Company Sahib told us they had actually come to a satisfactory Report upon it : — but like all mirages, this last and brightest appearance, which was moat full of hope and comfort to the s'rght, was the falsest and most illusory of all.' And so we find at last, there is nothing but a glare of sand, and no present way to be seen out of the wilderness. The Company, after three years of expectation on our part, and promises "on theirs, have now written out to say that, upon, good advice, they must decline handing over the Trust Funds to the Board of Trustees recently appointed. Simultaneously there comes a report from Wellington, having some appearance of truth, that the Company had determined to break up at the end of their term, and instructed their Agents to prepare everything for the transfer to the Government. So we indeed fear, " it is true — without any slips of prolixity, or crossing the plain highway of talk — that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio — O that we had a title good enough to keep his name company !" will never let us see the money. The Trust Funds, and the hope we had of possessing them, will melt into thin air, like the baseless fabric of toy other vision, unless we both apply ourselves to understand our position exactly, and are resolute and united in the enforcement of our rights. And it must not be forgotten that, as we have bad to fight every battle

yet by ourselves, and have only' received aid and encouragement from others when we bad show u the way to a victory in the advantages of which they :rere to participate, so we shall, in all probability, have to fight this battle for advantages to ourselves, not merely without any encouragement from, but in resistance to, powerful men and powerful interests. The disposal of the Trust Funds by ourselves, for the benefit of the place in which we live, was the only stipulation of the July scheme which excluded the Company and the Absentee proprietors from direct participation. True, it was agreed that they should be represented in the rattier, but represented by residents in Nelson ; — they were absolutely excluded from any longer disposing of the Funds in England. This was the condition of unanimity in June, 1847; this was the consideration for the resident landpurchasers waiving, a short time afterwards, the claim they had for money compensation, and ac"cepting land instead ; this was the reason for j the community tacitly consenting to cat the ' settlement down to one-half for the benefit of a single class. We all said, " give us the Trust Funds, and we will cry quits ; we had j rather have half a loaf now, than starve any longer with these Funds in your bands." Can i it be supposed for a moment that the scheme j of July would have been agreed to, but for j this stipulation ? Never. Neither the landowners, nor the other settlers would have dreamed of even proposing the scheme without it. And not only this ; the community generally, who of right had a voice in the j matter equal to that of the landowners, were content to let the appointment of the Trustees to whom the funds were to be handed over, rest entirely with landowners, only because they would not risk any delay in bringing the the scheme into operation by encumbering the question with any claims of their own. They singly wished the Funds to be in the settlement by whatever means, trusting to the justice of the purchasers to recognise their claims at a future moment : and, it may not be out of place to say, that their confidence was justified, as was shown by the proposals of the recent Committee for tha constructioa of the Trust Board hereafter. And now how is the settlement placed ? After the Company has succeeded in evaiiing money compensation 10 the colonists, though it has itself received money- compensation from the Government to the tune of some hundred thousand pounds^ "after the Absentee aud Resident landowners have divided every inch of good land aniongst themselves, in a perhaps just fulfilment of their original purchases, and have rendered utterly impossible the growth of the settlement on the terms, upon the faith of which the other classes of settlers came out ; — these other classes, who let the Company and the landowners have the'r own way on the sole condition of the wretched balance of the Trust Funds being given to the settlement, may, and in all probability will, find it a desperately hard struggle to fight for the only thing that now remains to be had in the way of benefi- for themselves ; and, as we said before, may find arrayed against them powerful men in England, who, being already satisfied themselves, may unite to prevent the colonists getting anything. Indeed, we have a hint of the sort in the documents we publish to-day, for the Company's solicitors take upon themselves to say, that several of the Absentee landowners object to | the Funds being handed over. Did they object to the provisions of the July scheme, which .gave them large advantages at our cost? Not that we give much credit to this " objection," or can consider it other than a cunning introduction by lawyers to throw dust in people's eyes, as if, forsooth, we did not know how " cases" are got up by attorneys, to obtain counsel's opinion just the way they want it. But still, when such indications of resistance are even alluded to, we are bound to meet, that we may combat them. In standing, as we all do, then, " within this danger," . the only chance of overcoming it lies in the non-landowners as well as the landowners in Nelson, making common cause, and finding the money that uill be required for a contest. There is to be another open meeting on Thursday next, and we trust a fuller attendance than heretofore will prove both the reality of the interest taken in the matter, and the determination of the settlers to go through with it.