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THE FOUNDERS’ SOCIETY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your summary for England on Saturday, you describe some of the “ old colonists " as having “set on foot an agitation for the benefit of those among the founders of the province who yet survive in Wellington—and they are numerous." I can only speak for myself when I say that my object has a far wider scope than your understanding of it; as any one may see, who will look at the definition of my proposal in your issue of the 9th inst. I include aU persons who have paid their own passages to the colony, previous to the passing of the Immigrants Land Act, 1873, and their families. I admit of no limitation to the founders of the province: that was founded, with five others, by the Constitution Act of 1852. I would admit the claim of children of those who do not survive, wherever living, provided that one or both of the departed parents come within the above description. I have received a letter, dated the Bth inst., bearing the anonymous signature “Aurora/' the writer of which has utterly misunderstood my proposal in another direction. He says I “ seem to have entirely lost sight of Mr. Wallace's suggestion, and ignore all, excepting those who bought land from the New Zealand Company and paid £IOO for their 100 acres, included also their town acre. I ask have they not been already sufficiently recompensed—a cabin passage, the profits obtained on that land, * * * Whatever you' or others think, I consider the claims of the other settlers, in no ways deficient in respectability, and who have borne the heat and burden in assisting founding the prosperity ■ of this colony, far more entitled to consideration than they were." He then speaks of there being nobody “ ready to attend to those other settlers who arrived in the Aurora, and of their having no shelter'excepting under a flax bush or Maori whare. The Volunteers and others, military officers, and officials, ore recompensed ; but those who are the most - worthy arc spoken of but as a lot of needy adventurers hot worthy consideration." I have not put forward any claim on the part of land purchasers from the company, or of persona of any other class, who got their passages paid out of the purchase-money. X consider all such, of whatever class, disqualified by the fact that their conveyance hither was a charge upon ihe then land fund ; which, according to Gibbon Wakefield’s principles, adopted by the company and the founders, was to be chiefly expended in making the land worth the price by carrying capital and labor to it. I only admit the claim of those whose conveyance hither, whether as capitalists or laborers, was not paid for .out of the proceeds of land sales by either company or Government. But I extend the claim to the descendants of such persons as they can prove to have so contributed the value of their aid iu founding the colony, without payment out of those proceeds. Under the Immigrants Land Act, 1373, it is heads of families, who shall have so contributed to our population since the passing of that Act, that are entitled to £2O worth of land each,- for himself and for every member of his family fourteen years old and upwards, and to £lO for each member under that age. Several conditions are attached to the grant, some of which are fairly applicable to old colonists as well as to new-comers, while some others are not; and one clause is derogatorily exclusive of our many valuable recruits from Australasia. The chief conditions are:—Continuous residence in New Zealand for five years or more from the date of arrival; occupation by some member of the family for two years; and specified improvement of one-fifth of the land granted. As regards colonists, of whatever class, who ought to receive at least the same reward for their unaided immigration, I would impose the improvement, but not the personally residential or occupational, condition before grant. That is to say, a proof of past residence in any part of the colony for the same term should satisfy that condition, which, of course, has yet to be fulfilled by new-comers. But the obligation to improve by some occupation of the land itself, not necessarily personal, should be as imperative in the case of old colonists as of new-comers. To exemplify how very differently I view a legitimate claim to such a grant,, from the description of it which my anonymous commentators have understood me to advocate, I may be allowed to cite my own case. I was not an original purchaser from the company. But I bought land from original land-pur-chasers at a profit to them, and I received compensation scrip bn the scale of absentee land-purchasers. I also received a free cabin passage In the Tory, in 1839, as private secretary to ray uncle, Colonel Wakefield, the company’s principal agent, but no salary. I a second time received a free passage in the Lady Nugent, in 1849-50, as private secretary, without salary, to Mr. Godley, the chief agent of the Canterbury Association; my passage being paid for out of the company’s advances to the latter body—and those advances being ultimately repaid out of the laudsalearcvenue raised by the association for foundation and immigration purposes. I have no claim on my

own account under the Founders’ Land Bill, which I suggest should be introduced next session. My father was an original land purchaser from the company, and received compensation scrip on the absentee scale. He paid his own passage to the colony. But I inherited some of the land bought by him. and have no claim through my relationship to him to any such land grant as I propose should be secured by an Act to those who are, in my opinion, entitled to such grants, on the same grounds as those who may receive land under the Immigrants Land Act, 1873. I offer my services, as well to assert the claims of those who are entitled to reward for coming unaided before 1873, as to uue my knowledge of previous circumstances in defence of the land fund from diminution by the satisfaction of any claims put forward by persons not justly entitled to such reward, “ Aurora " is, in my humble opinion, inclined to advance a claim that cannot be defended, —that is, if he means to include as claimants passengers of any class—first or second cabin, or steerage—who received a passage free out of the proceeds of land sales. As to the comparative hardships of landing then, I think ho paints them too highly. Colonel 'Wakefield personally '‘attended to the immigrants in the Aurora, by going on board immediately on her arrival. There were subordinate officers of the company to “attend to" the whole or the passengers; and if they did have to build wieir own barrack huts of rough materials at flrst_ -which is what I suppose he means by the .“shelter of a flaxbush or Maori warri,"—so did many of the cabin passengers in part or entirely pat their own shelter up. But many of the laborers who then arrived were better off in many respects than the present newcomers. They had not only officials to attend to them and find them employment from public funds if they stood in need of it; they also had cabin passengers—persons not strange but familiar to them, very often intimately known to them for years before their departure from England—to employ, advise, and aid them. As soon as the immigrants got to be landed on the site of Wellington, wooden barracks and rations, until they could get private employment, were supplied to them with quite as much care as at pr i S hope soon to he co-operating with others, who will not remain anonymous, in forming the society and preparing the Bill I have advocated, as a definite and practical embodiment of Mr. Wallace’s praiseworthy, but rather vague suggestion. —I am. &c., E. Jesninouam Wakefield. General Assembly library, February 13.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750215.2.13

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4339, 15 February 1875, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,347

THE FOUNDERS’ SOCIETY. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4339, 15 February 1875, Page 2

THE FOUNDERS’ SOCIETY. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4339, 15 February 1875, Page 2

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