New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, February 12, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 577, 12 February 1851, Page 3

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, February 12, 1851.

“I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent saueiness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration." — Second Part King Henry IV, Act. 2, <S’c. 1. The questions raised by the recent public discussions, and by the correspondence published by Mr. Fox in the Independent of Saturday, are of so grave a nature, and so seriously affect the interests of the public, that we are desirous of giving them a full and dispassionate consideration. The questions to which we refer are the issuing of titles to the purchasers of land from the New Zealand Company, Mr. Fox’s attempted vindiI cation of his conduct in the Duppa compen- ■ sation job, and the general question of the operation and influence of chartered companies on the progress and future prospects of the colony. Confining our attention for the present to the question of the issuing of titles to the purchasers of land from the New Zealand Company, we shall merely premise that it is not our fault if, from Mr. Fox’s having withheld his apology for his conduct with reference to the two first questions to the very eve of his departure from the colony, the discussion of them be pro-

1 traded in his absence. • That we may not be accused of anv un- | fairness towards Mr. Fox, we republish his • own account of Ins conduct with reference 1 to issuing titles to land from Saturday’s i Independent. It is in substance to the effect that, on the arrival of his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief in Wellington in NovemI her last, he applied to be allowed to issue ? conveyances to the Company’s purchasers, which were to be confirmed by a local ordii nance to be passed by the Governor, and i that this arrangement “ would, if assented i to, probably have removed all uncertainty in • reference to the ownership of the land,” but | that Sir George Grey declined to accede to | his application. That on the request of the | Colonial Secretary, that “he (Mr. Fox) I would at once transfer to the Government I the various documents, plans, and records | in the offices of the New Zealand Company,” | not having received “at that date” instrucI tions from the Court of Directors as to the | course he should pursue, he refused to corn- | ply with this request, but made an offer | which he submits is “as fair a one as man lean make”—“so reasonable and business

| like an arrangement” as, in his opinion, to | absolve him from all blame in the matter, is This, in substance, is Mr. Fox’s statement, I let us now examine how the case really | stands. • After the native disturbances in this disI trict had been suppressed by the measures adopted by the Governor-in-Chief, his first J care was to extinguish, by an equitable and 5 liberal compensation, the native title to the | districts in the vicinity of Wellington, and I to the Wairau; thereby demonstrating to I the natives that, while he was determined | to put down by the power entrusted to him I by the British Government all resistance to | its authority, their just and reasonable claims | would always receive his attention, and be | fairly and equitably considered; and this firm. | and conciliating policy, we believe, has laid | the foundation of that implicit confidence | which the natives repose in him. At the I time, Mr. Fox and his party desired that the glands of the natives should be confiscated ; I that might, not right, should establish the | title of the settlers to their lands. Fortujpately, for the best interests of the colony, | his Excellency took a more humane and Ijast view of the course to be pursued, and I the native claims were equitably disposed of. | tn 1848, a Crown grant was issued to fhe Company for the town of Wellington, | and the greater portion of the country lands J deluded in the First and Principal Settle-

meat. In 1849, an Act of Parliament was passed (published in the Spectator, Jan. 19, 1850), authorising the Company to grant conveyances to their purchasers, but from the long interval intervening between the Company’s receiving their grant and applying for the necessary powers for granting conveyances and the delays on the part of the Company and their agents, in putting the Act in force, its powers have lapsed without any use having been made of them. Mr. Fox could not therefore be surprised that the Government, after the experience of the last eleven years, should refuse to allow the settlers to remain any longer the victims of the Company’s delays, that it should refuse a further delegation of its powers to those who had neglected to use those powers which hadbeen granted to them. Rut when Mr- Fox is callprl nnnn tn oiv® Q n _ ~ _ r _„ — account of his stewardship, when he is required to put the Government in a position. “ by the surrender of the various documents plans, and records in the offices of the New Zealand Company,” to afford that substantial justice to the Company’s purchasers which they had so long in vain waited for from his employers, does he, as an honorable man, afford the necessary facilities ? does he shew any disposition to carry out, according to its true intent, the agreement between the Government and the Company, the former having offered to pav such sum, if any, to the Company, for those plans and documents as the latter might be considered entitled to? Quite the reverse. The terms offered by Mr. Fox, instead of being “ a reasonable and business like arrangement,—as fair a one as man can make,” are such as Mr. Fox well knows no Government can accede to. The object of the Government in applying for these documents atiu piaiia, iu uc piaecu m a position to issue titles to the Company’s purchasers. For this purpose it is necessary to know who are the registered claimants of the land in the Company’s books, and that each Crown grant should contain a map or plan “ more particularly setting forth the land” intended to be granted, copied from the public and registered plan of the district in which the property is situated, and that, for the purpose of future and legal reference, these public plans should remain in the custody of the Government. But when Mr. Fox will only permit the Government to have access to the Company’s plans and documents through parties approved of by him, but paid by the Government, when the latter is to be bound in honor “ not to take copies of the registers, documents, or plans,” thus placed at its disposal, and when this permission, so clogged with restrictions as to be practically useless, is to be witlidrawn st tlis cuprice of Mr. Fox, or the person left in charge by him of the Company’s affairs, can he venture to assert that this is a reasonable and business like arrangement ? When with Old Bailey honesty he dares to prescribe conditions, the very nature of which must ensure their rejection, can he for a moment suppose that he will be relieved from all blame in the matter ? Mr. Fox affects to consider the anxiety of the Local Government to get possession of the Company’s lands, plans, &c., as of very recent origin, but he must be aware that it refrained from making any formal application to him, in the impression that he would have acted in an honorable manner, and have carried out the spirit of the agreement between the Government and Company. The delay in the application arises not from any want of promptitude on part of the former, but from a feeling of delicacy towards him, which is proved to have been misplaced. Mr. Fox then complains of the want of official assistants to enable him to furnish the Government with the necessary schedules of the Company’s property, and of their contracts and liabilities. But when it is known that he had received several intimations from the Company to set his house in order in expectation of their dissolution; when the news of their dissolution arrived in sufficient time to allow of the necessary arrangements being made, how can he suppose such an excuse will avail him ? How have «• his spare half-hours,” and those of

his highly paid and useless staff of officers been spent, that this necessary work has been altogether neglected; that no information has been furnished to the Government by him in any particular respecting the Company s affairs ? Could he, as an honest man, prepare to quit " his adopted country,” and feel no compunctious visitings of conscience at the serious delays and losses that would be entailed by his conduct on those he affects to consider his fellow colonists ? Or has he been acting as the unscrupulous agent of those who hope to extort further concessions from the Government at the expense of the colonists by such a course; —of those who were mad enough to think of locking up their charter, and defying the Government, regardless of any considerations but their own selfish objects ? Mr. Fox has published the correspondence in such a garbled shape as he thinks will best suit his purpose, carefully suppressing the most important letters, to which he only makes a passing allusion, but which if printed would have conveyed a very different impression to that he is desirous of creating. We need only give one instance to enable the public to decide on the degree of credit to which Mr. Fox’s account is entitled. Mr, Fox says, alluding to the letter No. 3 . —

Since the above was in type, I have received the letter No. 4, printed below, which, with my reply No. 5, I presume closes the correspondence. W. F.

It will be observed that the Colonial Secretary’s letter (No. 4) was written on Thursday, February 6, Mr. Fox’s reply (No. 5) which he “ presumes closes the correspondence” though dated by him February 8 (Saturday), was really written and senton Friday, February 7 th; to this he received a reply from the Colonial Secretary the same y, Immci VOIICOJJUUUCHUC, to which he makes no allusion whatever, and would lead his readers to believe that no reply had ever been sent, while the trick of post dating his own letter has been resorted to evidently with the view to publication. The public will draw their own conclusions from these facts. We absolutely shudder at such conduct.

We believe it is the intention of the Go-vernor-in-Chief to apply an effectual remedy to these evils, and to take the requisite measures for issuing, with as little delay as possible, Crown grants to the Company’s land purchasers. Some delay must occur in making the surveys rendered necessary by the course Mr. Fox has pursued, but in the end, perhaps, the grants will be more satisfactory and complete. We understand that the grants for the town will be issued first, and those for the country districts will be made from time to time, as the surveys advance.

These fresh surveys and plans will occasion a serious additional expense, but this, or course, must be deducted from the sum of £268,000 to be paid to the Company, as it is not to be endured that the colonists are to be made to pay this tax. It will probably form an item in the reckoning to be made between the ex Principal Agent and his employers in Broad-street. The Government, we should think, can never sanction such a charge to be made against the colony.