New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 7, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 558, 7 December 1850, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 7, 1850.

Ws recently took occasion, in discussing the merits of the Provincial Councils Ordinance, the draft of which had been published for the consideration of the settlers, to state the fact of Mr. Fox's having suggested to the Governor that the conveyances from the Company to their landpurchasers , might be issued by their Principal Agent, and that this illegal act might afterwards be legalized by an Ordinance to be passed for that purpose. Mr. Fox, in the following number of his organ the Independent, assumed the injured innocence style, talked of breach of confidence, of the influence of the

officials over the Spectator, and much more to the same purpose. We took but little notice of this characteristic ebullition at the time, since it was hardly worth while dwelling on the absurdity of his affecting to consider as private and confidential a public matter which affected more or less the property of nearly every person in the community, still less was it necessary to refate the assertion, that our repeating a fact which had become a matter of public notoriety, afforded "dear evidence of the direct influence of the officials in the conduct of the Spectator." Neither did we trouble ourselves to contradict the insinuation which, acting from that feeling that induces him to hate those whom he has injured, Mr. Fox levelled at the Colonial Secretary as the authority for the report, since we were satisfied that the slightest inquiry must have eon- , vinced any one that the Colonial Secretary had nothing whatever to do with the matter. Indeed Mr. Fox was at some pains himself to show that the matter was not of a " confidential" nature, since we are told he made the suggestion " at the request of several landpurchasers," and no doubt must have acquainted them with the want of success which attended his suggestion. But as we intend to devote a " spare half hour" on the present occasion to the consideration of a subject intimately connected with the titles to land, it may be worth while previously to examine and dispose of a few of the inconsistencies which Mr. Fox has been guilty of in connection with them. The issuing of conveyances by the Company to their landpurchasers, as proposed by their Principal Agent, was a monstrous job — the bare mention of which excited opposition and disgust— a job in which no one was interested, and from which no one would have derived any benefit, but those who were mixed up in it — a job that would have inflicted a tax of several thousand pounds on this settlement alone, and would have pressed with the greatest severity on the class least able to afford it, the country settlers who by their industry had become the owners of a few acres of land. It has been resisted on these grounds in the different settlements, and we have great satisfaction in knowing that our advice given in July last to the landpurchasers, to wait until the dissolution of the Company, and receive their titles direct from the Crown, has been generally acted upon. Indeed the whole affair is conclusive as to the extent of the Principal Agent's influence where men's interests and property are at stake. If his own party had implicit confidence in him, we might suppose that they at least would have lost no time in securing a title to their lands through the facilities he offered them. But how many have taken conveyances from the Company ? We may wait in vain for an answer. Indeed Mi. Fox must himself feel greatly relieved by having the matter takeq out of his hands, since it has averted the storm of indignation which such an attempt at extortion must have raised, and obviated the uncharitable suspicions which might otherwise, perhaps, have been entertained that the job had -not been altogether devised for the purpose of rewardinga useful hack.but might possibly have been looked upon by the public as an agency business, or, like a sheep-station, managed upon thirds. From such temptations, from such suspicions, the timely dissolution of the Company has happily saved him. But those who look for consistency in Mr. Fox must be somewhat startled from their propriety to find this habitual declaimer against the Austrian tyranny and Old Bailey honesty of the Government deliberately recommend Sir George Grey to act in defiance of the law, and afterwards to pass an act of indemnity for his conduct ; to see this champion of freedom suggesting to the Governor -to play the part of a despot, and trample on all authority but his own. And this was no question of casuistry in which Sir George I might have been urged to Wrest once the law to his authority; - To do a great right do a little wrong:

I since the coarse recommended was dis- , honest and tortuous, he was required to consent to be aiding and abetting a piece of injustice and extortion, to assist in perpe- * trating a rank job, while the plain and simple path of duty would lead him to take such steps as would enable him to confer oh the landpurchasers, without any payment, or for some inconsiderable sum, that title to their lands which they have waited in vain for eleven years to receive from- the Company. But still more astonished must they be to find their Coryphseus, who has registered "a Hannibal oath of enmity to the Nominee remnant of despotism"— -who has sworn " to resist all its devices, to scorn all its blandishments," of his own accord .seek the friendly protection of an Ordinance to* be passed in a Nominee Council ! We leave him to explain these inconsistencies, and pass on to the subject to which we /desire 4 " to draw attention. . " It is now pretty generally known that the New Zealand Company, in granting compensation lands to their purchasers, had no legal power to grant titles to them. The Act of Parliament passed in July, 1847, which gave effect to the agreement between the Government and the Company by which the existence of the latter was prolonged for three years, expressly stipulates that the Company shall not dispose of any lands without consideration or for less than twenty shillings an acie. The following is the clause referred to — 1 111. And be it enacted, That it shall not be lawful for the said Company, in the exercise of any of the rights or powers hereby conferred upon or vested in them, to tell or ditpote of anyof the land* hereby vested in them as aforesaid (other than and except such lands as may by the said Company be granted or conveyed in trust for, or be dedicated to public purposes, or used as hereinafter authorised) without consideration, or for any lets consideration than the turn of twenty shillings for each acre. This clause still remains in force. On the 15th November, 1848, Mr. Fox, who had a short time previously assumed the duties of Principal Agent, addressed a letter" to thp- •* Colonial Secretary, inclosing a copy of a. letter from the landpurchasers to Col. Wakefield expressive of their satisfaction with the amicable adjustment of their differences which had been effected, and requesting its publication in the Government' Gazette. The details of this adjustment Mr. Fox was entrusted with carrying out, to complete and give effect to the arrangement which was the last act of his lamented predecessor, was almost the only duty of any importance he had to discharge as Principal Agent. As a lawyer Mr. Fox must have known that the compensation land was &> sham and a delusion without a title, and \te cannot suppose him to have been ignorant of the clause above referred to restricting the Company from parting with any lands for less than twenty shillings an acre. TheAct empowering the Company to grant conveyances to their purchasers, subject to the restrictions contained in the previous Act, was passed in 1849. Either, therefore, Mr. Fox must> have neglected to make the necessary representations to the Company in connection with these titles, or J (which, seems a very ' improbable - suppbsitidbY the Company have not paid the slightest attention to his representations. So tbat^ though the Act of 1849 was expressly passed to enable the Company to discharge their various obligations to their land purchasers*, no provisions was made in it to give to theNelson settlers the management of their Trust funds, no care was taken to assure to the compensation holders a title v to their lands, while the act itself came into operation just as the Company were preparing, to* surrender their Charters to the GovernmentIn the mean time we suppose another Act of Parliament will be necessary to rectify these mistakes and enable the holders 1 of compensation lands to obtain their titles, but if any Government Officer receiving £I,ooo' a year who had so little to do, had donethat little so carelessly, we can easily imagine with what furious invectives he would haver been assailed, what a fertile theme for declamation his culpable neglect would have fur-

nisfaed to the learned Editor of the Independent. ,

Ths weather at Wellington daring the month of November, 1850 :—: — Days of continuous Rain 0 Showery Days !>'. 4 Days on which no Rain fell , 26 Quantity of Rain— l inch, 25-100. Highest. Mean. Loweit. Barometer ...30-32 29*84 29*36 Thermometer. 74» 62° 500 Two slight shocks of earthquake.