New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, September 4, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 531, 4 September 1850, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, September 4, 1850.

Although Mr. Pox, in his recent lecture on the British colonies delivered at the Mechanics 1 Institute, lost no opportunity of introducing his usual common place invectives against colonial governments and government officers, it was remarked that he made no reference to colonizing companies, that in his observations on New Zealand there was not the slightest allusion to the Company of which he is Principal Agent. This silence is the more remarkable, inasmuch as it has been the habit of Mr. E. Gibbon Wakefield, the Gamaliel at whose feet Mr. Fox has sat, the master from whose experience in, the art of colonization he has derived instruction, to refer with approbation to the old plan of colonizing by means of chartered companies, as something very different from, and superior to, the practice of these degenerate days, and to claim for the New Zealand Company the credit of having revived what he describes to be a lost art. As these companies took a very important part in founding the British colonies of North America, and exercised a material influence ovet their rising fortunes, any sketch however slight, any compilation however meagre, of the history of British colonies which omitted to make mention of these companies, must necessarily be deemed very imperfect. But this silence is the more significant, when we consider the position of the lecturer — himself the agent of I a Company which advances such pretensions, and which is so intimately connected with the history of New Zealand, — and warrants the conclusion that this silence was not accidental, and did not proceed from want of information. To supply this deficiency, as far as New Zealand is concerned, we have published from the last Blue Book a despatch of Sir George Grey's, whose authority and experience on these matters will be considered entitled- to greajter weight- than that of Mr. Fcx, — a despatch which places in a clear light the position of the Company with reference to the Government and the settlers of this Province. The despatch was occasioned by a correspondence between the Lieutenant-Governor and the Agent of the Company (which was printed last year by order of the Legislative Council of this Province, and subsequently published in this Journal) relating to the payment by the latter of the instalments due on the Porirua and Wairau purchases, and the contemplated acquisition from the natives, of those districts in the Southern Island which have since been obtained by Messrs. Kemp and Mantell, the commissioners appointed by Government for negociating those purchases. Here it is plainly shewn that the New Zealand Company by the sanction, we had almost said connivance, of the noble Secretary for the Colonies, are virtually irresponsible either to the Government or the colonists, that they are not bound to publish any accounts

in the colony of the modes in which the funds obtained through the sales of land are disposed of, that neither the Government nor the Local Legislature " can exercise any control over the manner in which these funds are applied, or over the salaries or number of the officers who may be paid out of this portion of the local revenue, that, in short, while all the responsibility is thrown upon the Government, all the power derived from the disposal of the land fund is given to the Company ; and while in the neighbouring colonies, by the Australian Colonies Bill, the disposal of the land fund is given to the colonists, in New Zealand by Lord Grey's improvident arrangement the settlers are made the serfs of the Company, and are subject to their irresponsible tyranny. These facts, though sometimes lost sight of by the settlers, cannot too often or too earnestly be impressed on their, attention. WEen wVfiiJa isr. Fox aricf "niV'partisans declaiming about an expensive Government establishment, we are only the more forcibly reminded of the' yet more expensive staff of faineants quartered by the Company on the colony. If gaols remain in ruins, if *oads are out of repair, if the public communication is interrupted, if the progress of improvement is arrested for want of ;the necessary means, it is because the funds from which these expenses should be defrayed are diverted from their legitimate object to provide for the exigencies of a needy and grasping Company. However the colony may prosper, or the sale of lands increase, the settlers would not be benefited ; the Company, like a huge wen wasting the strength and vital energy of the body on which it grows and by which it is nourished, would appropriate to its own purposes, to the jsupport of its array of hungry officials, to the payment of the dividends of shareholders, and all those expenses by which it* influence would be extended and maintained,those funds which ought to be devoted to the advancement of the social and moral condition of the colony. But the history- of all these companies is the same, from the time- of planting^e colony of Virginia to the present day ; and *'• it behoves all," says Mr. Roebuck, "-who really know how mischievous these companies were in fact, how seriously they impeded the progress of adventure, and retarded the growth of the colonial communities, to lay this experience with' earnestness before the world," And a little further on in his work occurs the following remarkable passage :—- "In the history of our American colonies, we find indeed ample experience of every form of mischievous schemes for the planting of colonies; and more especially does that history teem with evidence to prove, that evils always followed when the office of planting a new settlement was intrusted to a chartered company; that so long as such connection existed between the company and the colony, the evil continued, and success was impossible ; and that the colony never fairly flourished till that connexion was completely severed. The company has always sat like an incubus on the new community. It has been a millstone round its neck — a drag upon its. wheels — a weight upon its springs — in short, every example and illustration of evil retardation and mischievous restraint maybe employed with truth, when speaking of the influence of a privileged company upon the fortunes of a colonial settlement." The testimony of the settlers in New Zealand only strengthens and confirms all past experience on this subject. By the Mariner We* leaf 11 "ffiat "a* desperate eflrart is being made to prolong the existence of the Company, and that the final result will not be known for another month. But what where the terms of the compact ? Three years of probation were granted to the Company by the Government, at the end of which period, if it was found they could neither benefit the colony nor themselves, the Company was to be dissolved. Who can say that this condition has been fulfilled? Who have derived any benefit from the prolonged existence of the Company but their creditors, who have been satisfied out of the liberal advances made by the Government, and their officers who have received large salaries for doing nothing ? How can they go on without more money ? And if the) expect that assistance from the British Government, how can Lord Grey, after having already thrown away £336,000 upon them venture, in these days of retrenchment and economy, to ask the House of Commons to sanction another grant to bolster up their credit ? It

is impossible, and though the announcement of the final result be delayed, the issue can hardly be doubtful, especially when we remember that the dissolution of the Company is as eagerly desired by their shareholders as it is by the settlers themselves.

The Mariner arrived on Monday, from Otago on the 26th ult., at which port she arrived on the 6th August, after a passage from England of 119 days. The Lord William Bentinck sailed a few days before the Mariner, for Auckland and Wellington. The ship Barbara Gordon was advertised to sail for Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury, on the 10th May. The Mariner has brought no definitive news about the Company, the Directois were in correspondence with the Government, but the impression seemed to be that the Company would be dissolved, and it is reported that this was the general wish of the shareholders.

Wi imd«r«tan<i thatthe^lessing of the first itjone'af&t. Mary's Catholic Church is to take place on Sunday next, Bth September, weather permitting, if not, on the next Sunday ; the bell will ring to announce the ceremony at two o'clock, and at three o'clock the' Bishop and his clergy will prcceed to the Blessing of the Foundation Stone, after which an explanation of the ceremonies will be givem— •Communicated.