ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the "New Zealand Spectator." Wellington, June 21, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 510, 22 June 1850, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the "New Zealand Spectator." Wellington, June 21, 1850.

Sir, — It has been with feelings of pain and surprise that I have remarked during the past few weeks such remarks upon the Government here as have emanated from the Wei' lington Independent. First conies the attack, or I may rather say calumny, against the Government brig, the author of which we are all aware must be the accredited Agent of the New Zealand Company, Mr. Fox. This was too absurd and ridiculous to excite any other feeling than that of laughter in the minds of those who were in the least acquainted with the geneml circumstances of the case. We would only recommend to his Excellency the Lieute-nant-Governor not to trust a Fox again among his turkeys, — seeing that, like his brethren in other countries, he has so little discrimination between -the rights -of meum and tuum, and cares not a whit for any one while he is enabled to "feather his own nest." But apart from this circumstance, which, as I have said before, is almost too trivial for any comment whatever, there have been attacks made upon the Government with respect to its Bank of Issue, and a certain fund at Nelson of which they are reported to have appropriated the stock. Now, without entering into any arguments upon these two points, about which neither I nor Mr. Fox are called upon to make any inquiries, let me call to your attention, Mr. Editor, another startling fact, which certainly ought to make the Agent of the New Zealand Company shiink from wilful abuse of a Government to which he himself, as representing the New Zealand Company, is so heavily indebted. After wasting their money in payment, of officials such as my learned friend, men whom practical experience must have already taught the colony are in every sense nonentities ; after, I say again, wasting their money in socalled improvements and benefits to the colony, the New Zealand Company are obliged to satisfy the claims of their creditors by the do nation of compensation land, instead of the i payment of dividends due for the past few years. Not content with the stock jobbing principles (to use the words of a learned M. P. on the same subject) which have been the ruin of so many, who would otherwise have been an ornament — and not like some of the present — a disgrace to the colony at large, they are again endeavouring to involve in the labyrinth of difficulties, those who are still fools enough to be gulled by fallacious promises and plausible pretences. And you may ask me why I make these remarks? Ido it because I hear every day of the miseries and vexations to which the purchasers of land from the Company have been subject in past times, and especially at the present, with regard to the so called compensation land at Rangitikei. Mr. Fox advertises himself as capable now of giving conveyances of the property. No doubt his j legal experience would enable him to draw out those conveyances in a proper manner; but I doubt whether his legal knowledge or subtlety will enable him to get over the difficulty of conveying what is not really and virtually the property of the New Zealand Company. I would ask Mr. Fox whether the instilment due some time back to the natives has been paid? And still he has the assurance to promise titles and deeds of conveyance of this said land to those who still cling to the idea that the Company are solvent, and who, like drowning men, grasp with avidity that which they are induced to believe will compensate for the former deficiencies. Has be and his partisans the hardihood to call the Government "bankrupt," through whose means alone the Company has been enabled to tieep itself from bakruptcy. Can he retort upon the Government, who is not himself able, as the representative of the New Zealand Company, to pay an instalment of a paltry £500 f 01 land which he is daily assigning to some misguided individuals. If the New Zealand Company had maintained the upright character and integrity which they ought to have done, then we might

have found an excuse for the worthy gentleman and his partisans in the words of Terence " Facile omnes cum valemus, recta consilia aegrotis damus." but in the present state of the case, and with the startling fact before our eyes, that the New Zealand Company, and with it Mr. Fox and his set of officials, may already have been dismissed from the stage of public life, and consigned to that obscurity which is their just portion, in consequence of the inability of the Company to meet its liabilities to Government, no censure can be unmerited, no remarks uncalled for, with reference to the past observation! .which have appeared in the Wellington Independent. Certainly Mr. Fox may meet me with the old adage of Aristophanes He pou sophos htn hostis ephasken Prin an amphoin muthon aioutet Ouk an dikasais — Aristoph. Vesp. • but to hear a party abusing a Government for its proceedings, and declaiming against its bankruptcy who are deeply indebted to Government, and who are themselves ma state of bankruptcy, calls for some explanation and for some remarks, which if not in Wellington may at least find a responsive chord and a tone of sympathy in our friends in England. Too many have been already deceived by the bubble of New Zealand, too many have alreadj wasted the best energies of their youth in attempting to realise the promises of the New Zealand Company, let there be no more added to the list who are already declaiming against the deceptions which have been practised, and to which they have been the innocent victims; rather if New Zealand is destined to be the great country of the Southern Seas, let her win her way by truth and straightforward dealing. Being in such a state, and iinder the superintendence of a liberal and enlightened Government, she will be always able to say with Lord Byron — " England with all thy faults I love thee still." and if she loves the Mother -country she will love her laws and institutions, being assured of this that the goods of Government far counterbalance the evils, and that according to the greatest phi osopher of old " the abuse of a thing is no argument againt the use of it." I enclose my name for your benefit, and beg to remain, Your's faithfully, A Member of the University op Oxford.