EXTGACTS FROM THE LAST BLUE BOOK. Crown Lands Office, Wellington, February 15, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume X, Issue 977, 13 December 1854, Page 4

EXTGACTS FROM THE LAST BLUE BOOK. Crown Lands Office, Wellington, February 15, 1853.

'£xr, — I bare*4o relatD'tay thanks to bis Ex- * ceilepcy the Governor for having afforded me a perosal of the correspondence upon Mr. Wade's compensation case, enclosed in Secretary Sir • Jobn'Pakiogton's despatch of 28th July, 1852. In - tbtt correspondence, Mr. Fox, the late Agent of the New Zealand Company, unable to deny the correctness of my official report on s tbe ■case, has thought proper to retort by a serious accusation against me. In any other circumstances than those under "which he made that accusation, I -should hare passed it over without remark. For* the trtnsac•'tfdn to which he refers arose simply and solely out, 6i 'a political quarrel, which at ihe intercession of, our friends in England was entirely marie up; therefore, we were both bound-never to refer to it again, •and though Mr. Fox has chosen to break through "-that obligation, yet' if I only were concerned by Ms having done so, I should itill conceive myself bound to silence! But as Mr. Fox has thought-proper to accuse ihe of having appointed to an office of great Jrust and responsibility, a person whom he States 'ie had dismissed the Company's service tfoir " contumacious -conduct and .a gross breach

of official confidence,*" and as the New Zetland Company which S served for twelve year* haa'noi thought "it unjust to endorse ' that accusation by forwarding it to the Secretary of State, without contradiction or comment, I feel it due to his Excellency to lay the whole case before' him, and to pray that be will be pleased also to submit it to the Secretary of Stale. Before doing so, however, I may as well point out that When his Excellency offered me the appointment I hold, I was resident agent of the Company at Nelson:; as such, specially next in succession to the principal agency ; was one of the Company's attornies for the investigation of title and execution of conveyances • and, under the opinion of the Company's eminent counsel, Mr. Measure, was with Mr. Fox (as being the | two senior attornies) to have " so long as we both lived and were competent to act, the exclusive possession and ose of the Company's seal, and to act as such aiiornies exclasively of the others appointed." The functions to which Sir George Grey called me were therefore, as far as regarded the Company's titles, precisely similar to those which would have devolved upon me if the Company had lasted ; and Mr. Fox's affected surprise nt my " selection " to fill the office is, simply, absurd. I now come to his accusation : Mr. Fox says, "In 1849 I removed Mr. Bell from a highly confidential appointment under the Company, on account of contumacious conduct towards myself, and a gross breach of official confidence, in which, after hearing Mr. Bell's defence I was supported by the Court. This is the gentleman whom Sir George Grey has selected to examine the records of the Company's office, and criticise my transactions as the Company's agent." Now, there is just enough truth in this to prevent its being called absolutely false ; and yet it gives a most false colouring to the transaction it refers to. The facts are as follow :—: — In the early part of 1848 the Governor offered Mr. Fox the Attorney-Generalship of the Southern Province, he being at that time the Com- < pany's resident agent at Nelson, and I filling the corresponding office at New Plymouth. Colonel Wakefield (then principal agent of the Company) offered me, in consequence, the Nelson agency; which though it was no promotion either in employment or salary, had from first to last attached to it the succession to the principal agency. I was just leaving New Plymouth when I beard that Mr. Fox had resigned the Attorney-General-ship ; whereupon I offered to stay where I was, and let Mr. Fox remain Agent at Nelson ; but Colonel Wakefield decided I should go to the latter place, which I accordingly did, and assumed the agency there. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Wakefield suffered a dangerous paralytic attack, which incapacitated irim from the constant labour and application to business required by a number of critical questions just then pending. I happened to be in Wellington, and Colonel Wakefield asked me, as a great personal favour to himself, to stay here and assist him until those questions were settled. For his sake I agreed to do so; giving up the independent office at Nelson, and placing it once more at Mr. Fox's disposal. Withiu a month after this arrangement was concluded, Colonel Wakefield (unhappily for roe in every way) died of a second apoplectic stroke ; ami Mr. Fox, whom I had just restored to the succession to the principal agency, assumed it. Being at the time on very cordial terms together, we acted in friendly concert for the Company's interests until the end oi 1848, when 1 accepted a seat in the Legislative Council. Mr. Fox, being politically opposed to the establishment of the Council became very angry at my taking a seat, and chose to forget iv a day the friendship of years, and the sacrifice by which I had replaced him in the Company's service, and the succession to Colonel Wakefield. He wrote me in severe terms of official censnre, and even went out of bis way to threaten me in the local news-paper, by means of a letter to a person to whom neithei he nor I were in the least responsible, with a kind of espionage lest I might give any of the time that belonged to the Company to political duties in the Council. 1 appealed to the directors against what appeared to me an unfair interference with my private independence; showing that if I was obliged to refuse a seat in the legislature, merely because it displeased Mr. Fox, I might also have been obliged to take one, if his political opinions and mine had been reversed, against my will. My letter to the directors was dated 24'h February 1840 ; on the 26tb, two days after, I received an order from Mr. Fox to proceed at once to Nelson, and resume the agency there ; the only reason given me being that the "negotiations respecting the purchase of the Wairar»pa had been indefinitely postponed, aud that there was no i «lher matter requiring my services in connexion with the Wellington agency." Upon the 2nd of Maich the ship Cornelia sailed for England, carrying to the directors the whole of the correspondence^ to that lime; end I prepared to go to Nelson. Some days afterwards, I had eccasion ts see Mr. Fox on Nelson business, wbea, to my astonishment, lie informed me of another reason, hesides our political difference, forJiis desiring me to go to Nelson. That reason was the following : — In a despatch to the Company respecting the negotiations with the Wairarapa natives (in which I had been engaged, together with Mr. Ksrop, the native secretary), written by Mr. Fox just after our £oarrel, be had contradicted some statement in a report of mine, and insinuated that I had given false information to the directors. This despatch- coming in the course of business through my hands, I applied to the native secretary for evidence of the matter referred to, which he imraedUtely afforded, and which completely established the correctness of my ieport. I tbougfit it was absurd that an official contradiction of a true report should go home whenoneline from Mr. Kemp woulJ correct it; and I had no more idea of Mr. Fox being offended at my applying to Mr. Kemp, than I bad of that circumstance having anything to do with my l-etarn to Nelson. Mr. a Fox, however, chose to-say he considered it a breach of confidence on my part ; whereupon I begged him by all means to report it to t<fae director*; and on Sliding hiflomnwilling to do so, I,' on tbe-Bih March, officially required it, and it' was. done on tbe" 9th ; but a copy of tbe despatch he wrote on the subject was never famished me, and 1 was so confident that I never could be blamed by the directors for preventing their being deceived, that I never even took tbe trouble to address them about it myself. None of Mr. Fox's despatches can be furnished

bere, as he took all the despatch hooki with him to Kpglapdt So far as regards the correspondence on this side, Now with regard to the reply. On the 4th July 1849, the Company answered the first despatches Mr. Fox had sent by the ship Cornelia, and which related solely to the political difference, by two despatches from their secretary, of which -I beg to enclose copies ; and upon which I shall make only this comment:: that the directors, while they disapproved of my accepting a seat in the Council contrary to Mr Fox's opinions, treated the difference between us as a alight political one, which it was extremely probable would have passed away before taeir reply could arrive; , referred in a marked way to my services ; and folly confirmed roe in the offices I held. But to Mr. Fox's further despatch of 9th Match on the subject of the " contumacious conduct and gross breach -of official confidence," the directors never gave any reply whatever, nor noticed it in any way 'except by a mere acknowledgment of its receipt:; a sufficient indication of their idea of the frivolousness of the chr.rge. With regard, therefore, 'to Mr. Fox's statement that I " was removed by him from a highly confidential appointment," fhe fact is, that I was merely directed by him to resume the duties of a higher and all but independent office, which I had left for Colonel, sake when his life i was in danger. With regard to the statement j that I was so removed for "contumacious conduct and a gross breach, &c. &c," the fact is, first, that such a reason for my removal was not given j me at the time, and therefore I had oo opportunity 1 given me of defence from it ; second, that but for ray insisting on if, the directors would never have been aware such a charge existed ; and, third, that when it was made, they never even noticed it. Aod with regard to the last statement, that " after hearing my defence, Mr. Fox was supported hy the Court," the fact is, that the only thing 1 defended was my acceptance of a seat in the Council, and that as to the other charges, the directors not only nevei supported Mr: Fox in them, but dismissed them, as they deserved, with* out the slightest remark. I trust 1 shall not lay myself open to the imputation of improper motives by contrasting for a moment with Mr. Fox's unscrupulous accusation, the humble services I have been able to give during more than thirteen years in public matters connected with New Zealand colonization, and the estimation in which I have been held by my' fellow colonists since I came to this country. As regards the New Zealand Company, I was in its service from the earliest time, and long before its incorporation ; in England as assistantsecretary, and forsorae time acting chief secretary ; iv New Zealand as agent at Auckland for carrying out Lord Stanley's agreement of 1843, and afterwards as resident agent at NewiPlymouth and Nelson, and c tie of the attorneys for executing conveyances. Throughout 'that time, namely, from 1839 to 1851, 1 received repeated acknowledgments of my services' from the Com-J pany, besides 'being "honored "with 'the pnvate'l friendship ofall the principal directors,ftmong whom I might especially number the 'late ''Lord Pet re, the late Mr. Charles Buller, Mr. -John Abel. Smith. Mr. Ross Mangles, &c, v&c. ; letters from some of whom 31 venture «o place in his Excellency's hands for perusal. (Out of the Company's immediate service 'I have been fortunate enough to contribute' in -some degree to the settlement of many 'important 'questions in the southern settlements, 'i w-as selected chairman to the body of landowners -at Nelson, -who remodelled the scheme of that settlement upon the basis of a plan proposed by mysAlf some lime previous, and provided a mean> ((known as the resolutions of July, 1847*) for equitably adjusting the differences between the Company and its purchasers; upon which occnsionOolooel Wake-, field wrote me, "In writing to Harrington on the' subject, I have not omitted to mention that to you. the chief merit of the amicable arrangement with the land claimants belongs." I was also able materially to assist in the final adjustment of the Wellington land question, which private quarrels aod a number of peculiar circum.Ntances had made so difficult a task, that in con*, sequence of them Colonel Wakefield considered my co-operation indispensable. I had strong objections to taking any part in the negotiations, but at the earnest request of Color. el Wakefield and the intercession of Mr. Justice Chapman, I waived them, and a meeting was held at which the beads were drawn up by myself of the arrangements which finally settled the differences between the Company and its purchasers resident in this settlement. Lest I should seem here unfairly to ascribe importance to myself I extract the following minute from Colonel Wakefield's diary, 9th September, 1848 :—": — " Three hours talk with Judge Chapman and Bell, which resulted in Chapman receiving Bell's permission to propose to Featherston to meet and arrange the claims to land." I have also been often engaged in negotiations with the natives for the acquisition of \*ui ; a duty which Mr. Fox's profound ignorance of the native language and customs had throughout prevented him (com undertaking with any success on behalf of the Company ; and I may mention that on more than one occasion my services in this respect ►have been favourably noticed both by the local -and by Her Majesty's Government. Upon three occasions f I have been publicly entertained at dinner by my fellow colonists, iv special acknowledgment of some particular service on my part; «nd notwithstanding my acceptance of a seat in the legislature, I was at the end of 1850 unanimously elected chairman of what I believe to have been the largest political meeting ever held in New Zealand, at which magistrates, clergymen, and influential men of all shades of opinion assisted, and which desired to rest its influence not on the violence of faction, but on a calm and impartial deliberation, uninterruptedly continued for fifteen hours. Finally, as the public officer of Government, to whose selection Mr. iFox makes such an objection,'! have hid. to work for week* together, from ten to twelve hours a day, to remedy the confusion be had bequeathed ; and have been able at Nelson and Wellington to investigate and determine since the Company's cessation nearly one thouMnd claims to land, generally complicated, and to prepare about fifteen hundred gran la in respect of them. I have &c, &c M (Signed) F. D. Bell. L H. Wodehouse, Esq., Private Secretary, •&c M &c, &c.