New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, March 5, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 583, 5 March 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, March 5, 1851.

His Excellency Sir George Grey returned on Monday from his visit to Nelson, having met with the warmest reception in that settlement. Addresses, dinners, demonstrations of all kinds were got up by the good folk of Nelson to show that they entertained the most sincere -sentiments of respect for Sir George and warmly appreciated his •exertions to promote the welfare of the colony, to prove that they were not infected with the radical itch of disaffection of the Constitutional Association Mongers, how•ever in this respect their opinions may have been misrepresented, however strenuously certain political quacks may have laboured to inoculate them with their political virus. The extracts in our Journal from the Nelson Examiner give a somewhat meagre account of the proceedings to which we have alluded. At the dinner given to Mr. Dillon Bell his Excellency’s health was drank with , j i— c cuvkiuaictaui, cifcxu wc xuay supply huiu pilvu™ sources of intelligence a brief account of the occurrences immediately preceding his Excellency’s departure. On Monday the 24th instant, a general assembly of the Schools at Nelson was held in honor, as the advertisement expressed it, “of Sir Grey as a Patron of Education.” At this meeting, over which the Hon; C. A. Dillon presided, six hundred and fifty children were collected, while upwards of five hundred and fifty adults attended to testify the personal interest they took in the cause for which they were assembled. At this meeting an admirable speech was made by Sir George Grey, which we hope will be duly reported by our contemporary of Nelson. In the evening a dinner was given to Sir George, in the terms of the advertisement, “as a mark of welcome and esteem to himself personally, and of respect to the representative of her Majesty in New Zealand.” The tickets were low in order to give every one an opportunity of attending; .the attendance was most numerous, upwards of one hundred and sixty persons sat down to dinner, many of them travelling upwards of twenty-five miles iii older to be present, and upwards of thirty more who were desirous of being present, were prevented from attending by distance, or by the unavoidable pressure of business. Mr. Jollie officiated as chairman, and, in proposing the health of Sir George Grey, gave a masterly sketch of his Excellency’s administration of the Government of the colony. Sir George’s speech at the dinner in acknowledgment of the compliment paid him gave, we understand, very general satisfaction. But we can only pre--1 tend to give a brief outline of these proceedings and must trust to the Nelson Examiner , for a more detailed account of what 1 took place.

To revert to another matter of importance; we understand Mr. Dillon Bell, the Company’s Agent at Nelson, has freely placed at the disposal of .the Government all the papers, plans, and records of the Company in his possession, with the right of making any copies that may be required, subject to any equitable arrangement to be made between the British Government and the New Zealand Company. In other words, Mr. Dillon Bell, while protecting the interests of the Company of which he was Agent, as an honorable man has thrown no obstacles in the way of his fellow settlers in Nelson obtaining a title to their lands, while

the registers, plans, &c., relating to tie lands of that settlement are in such perfect order that the issue of Grants in that settlement will, in consequence of his good management and the facilities afforded by him, be so easy of accomplishment that it is expected that upwards of two hundred grants foi land at Nelson will be ready for the Governor's signature within the next month, and that all the Nelson grants (with the exception of those Compensation Jobs into which inquiry may be necessaiy) will be issued within the next two months. Contrast this with the conduct of Mr. Fox, —according to the Independent, save the mark! “one of the principal leaders of the popular cause!”—in throwing every possible ■obstacle in the way of the settlers of Wellington obtaining titles to their land, and we may arrive at a fair estimate of the characters of the- two men. Mr. Bell, by the liberal and manly course he has pursued, has won “golden opinions from all sorts of people,” who have united to do him honor on the cessation of his duties as Company’s Agent, while the only .compliment, —if it deserves that name, —-which Mr. Fox received on leaving “ his adopted country ” was the constrained attendance of the handful of followers who form the Constitutional Association, that mouth honor from them

“ Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not.”

The only criticism made at Nelson on our observations on the “ Duppa Compensation Job,” we understand, is that the case has been understated, that many circumstances might have been introduced which would have greatly aggravated its features ; for instance, we made no allusion to the Taylor Valley Job, by which settlers at Nelson were prevented from obtaining a run for their stock, and subjected to considerable loss and expence by Mr. Fox’s unfair leaning towards his former partner, neither did we make any mention of Mi. Christie, who was harshly treated and obliged to abandon his run in consequence of the arrangement sanctioned by Mr. Fox. We understand, also, that Mr. Duppa received two hundred acres of suburban land.at the Waimea, instead of one hundred as we formerly mentioned. The arbitrators, we learn, are deeply mortified by the statement put forth by Mr. Fox on the eve of his departure. He there states the compensation award to be the result of a regular submission to them, in which, with the exception of the rate of interest, “ everything connected with Mr. Duppa’s claim was unreservedly left to their decision whereas in fact, Mr. Fox, by admitting Mr. Duppa’s claim for £2OOO, left the Arbitrators nothing to do but to record his proceedings. In fine. Mr. Duppa, for eight hundred pounds originally paid to the New Zealand Company, receives eight town acres in Wellington, two hundred acres of suburban land at Waimea, worth about £3 per acre, and a compact block of eight thousand acres in the Wairau, from its position commanding the greater part of the country in its immediate vicinity.

The history of the Duppa Compensation Job was published in the Spectator three weeks before Mr. "ox took his departure from “his adopted country,” and though we frequently reverted to the subject in that interval, Mr. Fox could never summon sufficient resolution to vindicate his character, however actively engaged in attacking the characters of others, until the day appointed for the vessel s sailing, and his defence was such a miserable piece of Old Bailey equivocation, that it was generally thought he woiiiu nave acted more discreetly if he had said nothing. Nor does he fare better at the hands of his friends, the only resource of his former coadjutor being to asperse the characters of his opponents (an old and a congenial occupation), since he feels himself utterly unable to defend that of his friend who at all events, even the Faction are forced to admit, can only pretend to be the agent of “the persons calling themselves a Constitutional Association;” since all the other settlers repudiate him. Perhaps we shall find the Independent claiming fresh victories in the recent proceedings at Nel-

son. May, they ever have such triumj to boast of. j