NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, June 11, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 820, 11 June 1853, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, June 11, 1853.

Vaw>us circumstances have occurred to prevent us from makingsuch observations as we intended to offer on the late meeting at the Hutt, until perhaps the interest j felt by our. readers in its proceedings has altogether passed - away. • Still there are several topics connected with the meeting ' it may be desirable briefly to, notice, and the question proposed for discussion is j that.of all others' most intimately connected with the present.prospectaand future welfare of the colony. .The proceed- -! ings of tbe. meeting were very fully and faithfully reported in the Spectator, indeed Mr. Wakefield's essay was printed verbatim et literatim, from a report furnished by himself. It is very obvious that the whole affair was got up for electioneering- purposes, and that the. two contending parties were bidding .against each other for popularity ; it is curious however to observe how soon the Faction,who so- eagerly rubbed noses with Mr. Wakefield on his arrival at Wellington, and were, ready to swear an eternal friendship with him, have turned round upon him whom so .lately they professed toadmire. They appear -to' have quarrelled about the steer oar, and no longer pull together ; in the same boat. Leaving Mr. Wakefield for the present we shall advert, to one or two topics suggested by Mr. Fitzherbert's speech, which as.- an electioneering effort was extremely infelicitous. He "bawled out cheap land;"—he thought <"3s, and ,105.., an acre a very Vast improvement overdEl and-d£3" but lie could give W reason for his faith. This Mr. Wiiefieid called "not a faith, but only a droll kind iof sentiment" We will supply Mr: Fitfcherbert with areason. "ss^ and lOsVan acre 'is a very vast "impravement^Qver. £L.ajid. Jg%jy} -ftSSfe^ because this' Reduction made by the y Governor in, the price, of. land effectually prevents the colony from being monopolised by a-mere handful of stockowners/ from being hermetically scaled against the thousands, about to make it their adopted country. The, reduction in the. price of land lias allowed the. Southern Provinces to escape from - the thraldrom of the stockowners, under which they would otherwise have assuredly sunk; thanks to the Governor's late Proclamation, we are safe from a despotism which is firmly established in the neighbouring colonies. Mr. Fita&herbert claims some credit for" laying bare the iniquity and jobbing of the New Zealand Company," and refers to ,the proceedings of the Constitutional Association ' as a test of his sincerity. But it is notorious that Mr. Fitzherbert and the Faction did all in their power to bolster up the Company arid its, agent Mr. Fox, who was the life and soul of the Association,;.' and directed: its proceedings. Was it to "lay bare the inquity of the Company," that the Constitutional Association, in September, 1849, passed the following .resolution, which the Company in its 27th report (just before, its dissolution) referred to as a. certificate'of character, in which' it was "staled among other things, that. ■ , ,-., '^ Tiling itf to consideration that the most ami* noble 'relation* have- been firmly established between the Company and all classes of its settlers; — and that the' Company art now in possession of some of the most fertile and available districts in New Zealand, which are open for sale and depasturing licenses, — tbis Association is firmly persuaded that the New Zealand Company has now,, for the first time since its forma' tion, a fair field for its colonization operations, toith every reasonable prospect of such operations being productive of benefits equally to itself as to the colonists." And yet during the three years when^ according to the Faction, such " reasonable prospects" existed of the Company's usefulness, the amount of land sold by it in this Settlement was 2f acres, for which important benefit -ifylr. Fox re-, ceived during that period £1,000 a yeari Was it to expose .the jobbing of the Company that Mr. Fitzherbert and the Faction supported Mr. Fox, when the Duppa Compensation Job and other 'iniquities* of a similar nature were perpetrated, until his proceedings became a very bye word and reproach ? But Mr. Fitzherbert says compensation is a

"sore subject/ an especial grievance with him. "He did not get any," and he tells us '* no one deserved it more." The Fact is Mr. Fitzherbert wished. to make a special case of his claim, he wanted a good slice of compensation — and finding he could not succeed in getting it, he refused that which the Committee would haveawarded him, and now considers himself hardly used. But continues Mr. Fitznerbert, addressing the men of the Hutt, — and this certainly appears the drollest part of liis speech,-^-compensation has been of great service toyou, it has given you a taste for cheap landf like the taste of human - blood to the Lion,- when once tasted he always thirsted for it. And so the compensation granted to Mr.. Clifford, Captain Daniell, and others who received the lion's share, has been of great service to the working classes who did nptget,.any,,in. giyihg them a' taste far cheap land- To us it appears this taste is more like the savoury smell of a goqd dinner to a jmngry. man of which he is yet forbidden to partake ; compensation may have whetted the appetite of those who have not participated in it ; but we question if they will consider this Barmecide feast to have been of any service to them. In fine Mr. Fitzherbert who offers himself as a candidate for popular honors, refers with complacency to his efforts for the public weal, does he date his public usefulness we may ask, from his Hegira at the time of the Earthquakes ?