NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 787, 16 February 1853, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

The following report of the Directors of the New Zealand Company submitted to a general meeting of shareholders held on the 7th October, together with a letter from Sir John Pakington, the Colonial Minister, to the Committee of the Canterbury Association, which was read to the meeting, are extracted from the report of the proceedings in the Time* of - October 8. " The last session of Parliament was productive of a legislative measure likely to exercise the most important influence upon the welfare of the colonial communities which the New Zetland Company has been instrumental in establishing. Retaining the deepest interest in that welfare, bat feeling at the same time that questions of a political character are foreign to the object for which you are here this day assembled, ye propose on the present occasion to confine ourselves to matters in which the shareholders of this company are more immediately interested. Following for this purpose the division laid down in our report for last year, the three subjects to which we have again to draw your attention are these : " 1. The claims of the company upon her Majesty's Government : " The engagements entered into on account of the Canterbury Association :*and " 3. The current expenses and other liabilities outstanding. " Upon neither of these, we regret to say, is it in our power to present a report in any degree satisfactory to ourselves. " The claims of the company upon the Government have, as you know; been the subject of discussion in both houses of Parliament. It being determined, in granting a representative constitution to the colony of New Zealand, to grant also to the local Legislature the power of regulating the future administration of the waste lands, and the debt of the Crown to the company being secured upon the proceeds of the sales of such lands, it became necessary to make provision with regard to that debt in anticipation of the contemplated change in the administration. The security previously existing was contained in the 20th section of the Act of 1847, 10th and 11th of Victoria, chap. 1 12, printed, in the Appendix to our 23rd report. The provisions of th^ section had come into force upon our giving the notice of discontinuance, resolved oo at the adjourned aonual meeting held in this place on the 4th of July 1850. But in carrying those provisions into effect, it had been found that the wording of the Act (owing no doubt to the great baste in which it had of necessity been prepared and passed) left room for two impottant and unforeseen questions: the first, as to the portion of the proceeds of Crown sales which ought to accrue to the company ; the second, as to the obligation to pay over to the company any portion whatever of proceeds arising from Crown lands in any manner other than upon sales. Both questions bad been matters* of correspondence with the late Government. Upon the former, it had been agreed with Earl Grey that in all parts of New Zealand not affected by the company's special arrangements, tho proportion to be paid to the company should be one-fourth of the gross proceeds ; upon the latter, no definitive arrangement had been come to. In Parliament, at you are doubtless aware, different individuals advocated very different views. Your Directors, finding it impossible to give effect to their own convictions io regard to the just claims of the company, deemed it desirable that that arrangement should be adopted which promised to give greatest freedom of action to the colonists ; but, as declared by some of their body, in their places, they determined to leave the decision of 1 the question entirely in the hands of the Govern-

ment and Parliament. Sir John Pakiogton decided, and this decision Parliament supported, to adhere to the proportion of one fourth, as agreed by Eatl Grey, with regard to sales ; and to extend the same proportion to all other alienations of wa«?te lands of* the Crown, except for pastoral purposes under licenses not exceeding seven years in duration, and except for ceitain specified public objects, leaving th« regulation of the price, however, to the local Legislature. Such accordingly is the tenor of the Act 15th and 16th Victoria, chap. 72, an extract of which is annexed to thia report. " This decision, as we have already stated, we cannot regard as satisfying the equitable claims of the company. We have, always thought, and with deference to our opponents we continue to think still, that in common justice this company is entitled to larger and much more favourable terms than any that, except in one quarter (to be advertefl to immediately), have as yetbeen recognized. Seeing the great benefits which it has procured for the public, the difficulties and opposition which in pursuit of those benefits it has itself had to encounter, the energy and painstaking with which it his administered the means by which the effects of that opposition were intended to be repaired, and the prosperity of all exc*pt its own shareholders which has been the result of that administration — the least which, in our opinion, it bad in such circumstances a right to expect, was an extension to it (or rather to the colony of New Zealand, to which the advantage would have been as great as to the company itself ) of such a guarantee by the British Government of the interest upon the capital expended bj "the company on colonisation as had already been granted with the sanction of Parliament in the cases of Sooth Australia, Canada, and the British colonies on the continent of South America, in the West Indies, and the Mauritius. See the respectire Acts, 4tb Victoria, chap. 13 ; sth and 6th Victoria, chap. 61 ; stb and 6th Victoria, chap. 108; and 11th and 12th Victoria, chap. 130.) For the .recognition, before alluded to, oi the claims of the colony of New Zealand and the New Zealand Company to such a guarantee, and the forcible advocacy of the same by Governor Sir George Grey, we beg to refer you to his despatch of the 6th of January, 1852, printed at pages 60, 61, of the New Zealand papers, presented to Parliament on the 14tb of last May. These views, however, not being entertained by those who alone had power to give them effect, it only remained for us to pursue the course which has been indicated above. " To, so doing, we gave also such answers as the occasion admitted, to the accnsations of misrepresentation and fraud, with which, as you are aware, the company irai assailed in quarters from which such injustice was least to have been anticipated. To those accusations yet fuller and more conclusive answers will be supplied by the papers which were moved for, and prdered by the House of Commons to be printed. Until those papers are printed, we do not propose to enter further into the matter, but are of course at all times ready to afford you every information that you ' desire. " By the annual statement which has been put into your hands, made up as usual to the sth of April, you have been apprised that the position of the Crown dabt was oa that date is follows :—: — The amount of interest due to the company, under the provisions of the Act of 1847, was £16,437 14s. 2d. Of this, the amount actually paid was £8,179 14s. 2d. The difference, £8,258 added to the principal sum of £268,370 155., •left a balance then owing to the company, upon this account, of £276,628 15s. The said sum of £8,179 14s. 2d. had accrued wholly from one sixth (applicable to the said Crown debt of £268,370 15s. and interest) of the proceeds of Canterbury land sales effected, to the amount of £49,078 ss. Id., between the stb of July, 1850, and the sth of October, 1851 ; and was exclusive of the sum of £4,329, claimed by her Majesty's Government, upon sales effected, to the amount of £25,950, between the 23d .of April and the 4th of July, 1850. Between the 6th of October, 1851, and the Ist March, 1852, a further' sum of £4,215 35., applicable to the same debt, has accrued from farther- sales effected to the amount of £25,290 18s. 3d., but has not yet been paid over by the Canterbury Association, under the circumstances which will be stated presently. A sum of £1,049 12s. 6d., applicable in like manner, has also accrued from Otago sales effected in thiscountryto the amount £4,198 10s between the sth of July, 1850, and the 30th of June, 1852 ; hitherto, this has remained in the hands of the Government, pending the decision of a question relating to the private estate heretofore acquired by the company in t ccordance with the Otago terms of purchase, and now transferred to the Crown ; but a portion of it, amounting 16 JJ472 15s. 9d. (less the income tax) is now paid over. A third sum, of about £1,500, accrued "from sales in the Northern Province of New Zealand, effected in the colony between the sth of July -and the 31st of December, 1850, has not yet been remitted to England ; probably in consequence of the negotiations between the Home Government and the company, which you will re<nemba»were conducted to a certain point, but eventually failed, in the course of 1851. Other -questions of claims and accounts between the company and the Government are still the subjects of correspondence, and, we regret to say, remain still unadjusted, but it does not appear <to be necessary or advisable to enter upon them at tbe present time. " The same annual statement has apprised you also of tbe position of the account between the •company and the Canterbury Association. The total original debt of tbe association to tbe company was £29,012 14s. lid. Deducting from this the sum of £6,252 7s. received during two years from the one-twelfth (applicable to this debt -and interest) of tbe proceeds of Canterbury land sales from the 22nd of April, 1850, to the sth of October, 1851, and £48 9s. 4d. received forsundries: and adding £1,704 18s. sd. as interest to the 31st of Marcb, 1852, tbe balance owing to the company, on the sth of last April was £24,416 17s. Towards liquidation of this balance a sum of £2,120 17s. 7d. is or ought to be in tbe hands of the association, as the proportion applicable to this purpose, of the proceeds of land gales effected between the 6th of October, 1851, and the Ist of Marcb, 1852. But this sum has not been paid^over to tbe company, the association assigning as a reason that the company has taken from the public objects for which sums advanced to it under Parliament authority were exclusively intended, and has applied to other pur-

poses a considerable portion of such advanct * -' Iv consequence of this repudiation, your direcu have filed a bill in Chancery to oblige the assoi •tion to render an account and payment ; a % - pending the issue we lefiain from making any qggg marks, with the exception — 1 . That the allegations made by the association are inconsistent with the fact ; and 2, that even if those allegations were not only well founded, bat fully established, they would not invalidate the company's light to repayment. " In connexion with this subject there is another painful matter to which also it is our duty briefly to adrert. In the correspondence which took place between the association and the company, in the months of March and Aptil, 1848, and in the * plan of colonization agreed upon ' between the two bodies, which was anuex-d to the pamphlet issued by the association on the Ist of December in the same year, it was provided that within six months from the dates therein respectively mentioned land should he sold by the association to the value of £300,000. Id August, IS4B, at the instance of the association, this quantity was reduced to land of the value of £100,000 only; and the reduced amount was made the basis of the agreement entered into by the association and the company on the Ist of December, 1849. In April, 1850, on the further representation of the association an additional modification was made, and the provisiou for the sale of a given quantity of land by a given date was omitted altogether. In consenting to this omission/ we stipulated that in case the quantity of land sold on or before the 30th of June following should be less than £100,000 worth, the company should be placed in the same position with respect to the financial engagements between the company and the association as if the whole £100,000 worth bad been sold under the waved provision. A guarantee, intended to give effect to this stipulation, was accordingly placed in our* hands in the following May, 1850, of which guarantee the following is a copy : — « " ' In consideration of the New Zealand Company having waved the provision in their agreement with the Canterbury Association, whereby the latter are required to sell £100,000 worth jot land on or before the 30th of April, the undersigned promise to pay to the company (each to te liable only to the amount or iv the proportion „ the sum set below opposite to his name) on t .'„ 31st of December, 1851, any deficiency then r ■ maining unpaid in the sum which the company i , entitled (under the present agreement between t\ r , two bodies) to receive from the association a the 30th day of April, 1850 ; but if the cori pany re-enter on the Canterbury district befol the 31st of December, 1851, all the, money rj ceived by them ai the price of land shall be col sidered to diminish the amount to which the ul dersigned will then become liable under tbL guarantee. I (Signed) " ' Ly ttelton £3,7» " 'Richard Cavendish 3,7 a " ''John Simeon .... 3,7 £f • "E. G. Wakefield.. 3,75 •Total £15,00< " Under the agreement of the Ist of Decen ber, 1849, herein referred to, the company wou have been entitled to receive from the associa tion, on the 30tb of April, 1850, upon sales land to the value of £100,000, two sums araoun ing together to £15,000. The sutus actual] paid over by the association to the Go vernrrient and the company up to the 31st o December, 1851, from the proceeds of land sale: amounting in .all to £18,757 Is. 2d. only, ap plication was made to the four guarantors on th Ist of January, 1852, for payment of the differ ence, £6,242 18s. lOd. After a corresponl dfnce, which ended, we are sorry to say, in % virtual adoption by these four gentlemen of thti reasons for non-payment assigned by the associad tion as above mentioned, we have been compelled to institute legal proceedings against them, in addition to those in Chancery against the associ ation. Pending such proceedings we abstain from further remark. "The correspondence on the several subjects connected with Canterbury is too voluminous to print, but is now upon the table and open to the perusal of any shareholder who may desire it. In addition to the information supplied by such correspondence, a notification, dated the 15th of July last, has been inserted in the public newspapers, whereby the association announce that they have resolved to carry into prompt effect the power of transferring their functions which has been conferred by the act of last session above mentioned ; and, further, that from and after the 30th of September, 1852, they will no longer dispose of land in this country or rarry on any other functions under their charter, except so far as may be necessary with reference to pending transactions. " Upon the power of the- association thus to terminate their operations, or upon the probable effect of such a proceeding, if ultimately carried out, we forbear to offer any opinion until favoured with a reply to our inquiry as to the sentiments of her Majesty's Government, " Out of the sums received from Cantetbury during the past financial year, amounting to £11,193 Os. 6d., we have bean able to set apart a sum of £662 15s. sd. due to the Government on account of that settlement ; and also to pay off the debenture for £10,000 mentioned in our last report as having been bogpowed from the Baron de Goldsmid on the same account ; but the interest on this debenture.is still unpaid. 11 For the bills held by the Union Bank of Australia, drawn on account of the Canterbury Settlement, and amounting to £14,987 16s. 2d., exclusive of interest, 26 members of the compauy have given, as collateral security, their persona] promissory notes, to the amount of £14,460, falling due on the Ist of next December. Before that date, it is obvious that effective provision for meeting the said notes must be made. For such provision we cannot disguise from you that, failing every other resource (if such failure shall actually be experienced) we shall be compelled to make a call upon the unpaid-up capital of the company. To this step we need scarcely state your directors will have recourse with the utmost reluctance, and only under the pressure of absolute necessity. " The other outstauding liabilities, as stated in the annual account, amount to £4,057 4s. 2i., exclusive of the sum of £556 11s. 4d., considered by us to be chargeable to the Government, but as yet not admitted by the latter. Against thsse can be placed, at present, only such portion

ami tfie 30th of September7^ool7t««nfaWst date recognized by the Lords of the Treasury. This is one of the questions before alluded to as being not yet finally adjusted. " Since the date of our last report two of our body, Sir Ralph Howard and Lord Courtenay, we regret to say, have resigned their seats in the direction. M The notice of the 7th of May last has apprised you that Mr. Gowen, Mr. Pilcher, and the Baron de Goldsmid, go out of office this y.ear by rotation, and are recommended for re-election. " New Zealand. Home, 9, Broad-street-build-ings, London, October, 1852."