SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 435, 8 January 1890, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

NO. 11.

(By W. L. Rees.)

Brought thus into existence, the Company commenced its work of colonisation openly in direct antagonism to the English Government. Its first detachment of settlers reached New Zealand and disembarked at Wellington on the 22nd of January, 1840. These settlers had been allured by the prospects held out to them, and had paid large sums of money in London for the lands which they were to occupy in New Zealand. At the time of these sales the Company had no land, nor did it ! until the period of its dissolution ever place a solitary settler upon a single acre of land with a good title acquired by it from the natives. It sent a fleet with immigrants to Wellington and it had no land there on which to place them. It then located them at the Hutt and other places upon disputed lands, which led to a long series of sanguinary conflicts and murders. It despatched a large party to Nelson, and its efforts there to take tho lands of the natives by forco ended in the conflict at Wairau, where, after a smart skirmish, in which our people were defeated, the prisoners taken by the Maoris were killed by one of Rangihaeta’s natives, the chief being maddened by the death of his wife, the favourite daughter of Te Rauparahn. It attempted to locate a body of settlers at Wanganui; but there also it had no land. It sold the Chatham Islands, havine no title or claim to them, to a German firm, and when threatened by the English Government with the loss of its charter for so doing, attempted to escape from the consequences of its own acts by evasion and falsehood. It covenanted to give employment to its settlers, if available land was not found for them, and when these men applied at Taranaki for this employment under what were called their “ Embarkation Orders,” its agent in his own words “ endeavoured bo evade the promise mado by the Company, by sending the applicants for employment a long distance from home, making no allowance for time spent on the journey or for time lost in bad weather. The necessities of the men and their families were such as compelled them to submit for several weeks to these conditions, but many came home sick and claimed the promised medical aid ; and others commenced the trade of pig and sheep stealing , nob having yet had time to raise potatoes for themselves.” (See Appendix to Twelfth Report.) It deceived Lord Stanley and attempted in vain to obtain bis assent bo its denial of the rights of the Maoris ; and although when Lord Howick, having become Earl Grey, was invested with authority in the Colonial Office, and another of its great champions, Mr Hawes, became Undersecretary in the same department, and its legal adviser and organ of communication with the Government, Mr Charles Buller, became Judge Ad vocate-General.iteven then deceived the Government and the House in order to further its nefarious plans. Immense sums upwards of £230,000 were placed at its disposal by the English Government, of which bub a small proportion, less than £30,000, was, it is said, expended by it in emigration. (Report on New Zealand Company’s DebtPaper—Sessionsl. and II.). “A considerable sum was lent by tho Company to its own shareholders and lost. Other large sums were laid out ostensibly in the purchase of private estates, but really to buy up troublesome claims tor compensation, and further sums of considerable magnitude were appropriated by the directors of the Company amongst themselves on account of past fees.” (See Lord Grey’s speech on the second reading of the New Zealand Bill.) Finally, taking advantage of a very favourable arrangement (under the Act of 1847) which had been made by Mr Charles Buller, who drajted the letters]or the Colonial Office, and then drafted the letters for the directors of the Company in reply, which letters, on both sides, embodied the terms of the arrangement which he had prepared, “surrendered its charter, and, as a colonizing association, ended its career without having given a single legal title to a single individual of a single piece of land, leaving the whole of its engagements in respect of the disposal of land during a period of twelve years unfulfilled and uncompleted, and leaving the whole colony burdened with a debt of £268,000.” (“ New ZealandanditsColonisation,”p. .145, William Swainson.)

When an Imperial guarantee was sought for a loan of £200,000 which the Company agreed to take in full of all demands, it was stigmatised by men like Sir J. Trelawney as “ nothing but hush-money, in order that all discussions about past transactions may be put an end to,” while Sir James Graham regretted that it was no longer advisable to debate thequestionabletransactionsof which this Company had been guilty. Its own settlers, overwhelmed by disappointment and woe, “ afflicting the directors with their complaints of disappointment and ruin ” (Mr Charles A. Buller to the Secretary of State for the Colonies), thus addressed them while claiming compensation : “ We address you nob as supplicants for your bounty, not as men suing for favour at your hands, bub as parties deeply and grievously injured by you, and as such demandingredress. Andtowhatcausearethe disasters which have befallen usatbributable? You cannot and dare not deny that the immediate and proximate cause of our ruin has been the non-fulfilment by you of a contract formed with us seven years ago.” (Swainson’s “New Zealand,” p. 125). Alarmed by these and other threats from the victims of their cupidity and selfishness, the directors took legal advice as to their liability. The counsel who advised, a member of their own company, and a man of character and standing, gave his opinion that the Company was nob only liable lor the original money paid by the settlers with interest, but could also be made to pay compensation for all their losses. True to its character, the Company suppressed this opinion, obtained more favourable advice from a more pliable lawyer, butlibtle known in his profession, and sent out this second opinion to the settlers, thereby entrapping these unhappy people into making compromises disadvantageous to themselves. Upon this it was charged before Parliament with deceiving its own New Zealand colonists by means of a deliberate suppression of the truth. So tortuous and disingenuous were the proceedings of this Company, that Sir James Stephen, then permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, requested Lord John Russell, then principal Secretary of State in the Department, “ to relieve him from tho duty of ever again receiving any of the directors of that body at any interview ielating to their affairs. ” This significant request, which showed clearly that Sir James Stephen feared to trust himself at an interview with unscrupulous men, was granted without hesitation by Lord John Russell. Prior to tne advent,of Captain Grey the Company had ruined hundreds of settlers, brought about the massacre at the Wairau; it had harassed the gallant Captain Hobson to death, and driven Captain Fitzroy well-nigh inti

lunacy; it had deceived the English Govern ment and a Committee of the House o Commons, and had commenced a civil wai in New Zealand, which, but for the in flexible determination and great sagacity of Governor Grey, might have ended in the total extermination of the white population of these islands.

The report of the Committee of the House of Representatives of New Zealand upon the matter of the New Zealand Company's debt is most damaging. And with respect to the debt generally, resolutions were agreed to by both Houses to the effect that the charge on the land fund of the colony was an oppressive burden on its resources ; that it appeared to hav«* been created by Parliament in ignorance of the real facts and to have been obtained by the New Zealand Company by means of the suppression of material circumstances, and that the colony was entitled to obtain from Parliament a re-consideration of the case. So severe became the contest between the Company and Captain Hobson that he wap completely overwhelmed. The Company’s settlers, misled and misinformed by its agents, clamoured to be put into possessirn by force of the lands they alleged they haa purchased. Governor Hobson, had he been convinced of the justice of their claims could not with any effect have acced'd to them, but being assured that all their alleged titles were disputed by tne principal Maori chiefs of the tribes to which the lands belonged, he refused tho aid of the Government. When their titles should be proved before Mr Commissioner Spain, he would then see that justice was done, but until then he declined to move. The Company became furious. It accused the Governor of cowardice and favouritism ; it clamoured for his recall. In the midst of these attacks, in September, 1842, Captain Hobson sank and died. Two years of the incessant worrying of the Company and its agents had destroyed his life.

The natives sent an address to Her Majesty mourning over the death of Captain Hobson, and praying that his successor might be “a good man like the Governor who has just died.” The Native Commission Court, to determine the justice and legality of the titles claimed by the Company as well as other colonists, was at this time sitting in Wellington under Mr Commissioner Spain, having commenced in the month of May. Mr Spain and Colonel Wakefield soon came into collision, as the Commissioner refused to give titles without proof of purchase from the proper owners. Delay, dispute, and vexation marked the next twelve months. The Company was only able to continue its operations by obtaining monetary assistance from the Imperial Government.

In March, 1843, spurred on by the discontent and menaces of the Company’ settlers—not yet located upon any lands—the Wakefields determined to proceed with the survey of the Wairau Valley, notwithstanding the decided opposition of Rnupavaha and Rangihacta. They were warned from many sources of the danger of this proceeding. Friendly natives, as well as missionaries and persons acquainted with the Maori character, joined in an earnest but unavailing caution. The surveyors’ pegs were pulled up, and everything used, made of materials obtained from the land—such ns timber, flax, etc.—was destroyed. Tents, survey instruments, and things belonging to the surveyors themselves, remained uninjured. Rauporaha aud Rangihaeata personally attended before Mr Spain and requested him to adjudicate upon the claim of the Company to the land in the Wairau. To this request Mr Spain acceded, merely stating that he must first finish the business before him at l’orirua,which would probably take a month or five weeks. The two chiefs then returned to the Wairau and removed the surveyors, their instruments and provisions from the ground. A warrant was issued on a ridiculous information laid against the two chiefs on tho 12bh of June, and a party of fortynine Europeans led by Captain Wakefield and Captain England proceeded to make the arrest. As might have been expected, the matter ended in bloodshed. The Europeans, ill-armed and ill-disciplined, fighting against trained warriers, were defeated. The saddest part of the affair was the massacre of the Englishmen after the fight was over. This was the first conflict between the English Government and the Maoris in New Zealand, and it was directly brought on by the Company. From that time to the Hauhau revolt in 1865 every conflict between the Government and the natives has been, directly or indirectly, traceable to the action of the Company, the principles which it advocated, or the agents which it had employed. Prior to the advent of Governor Fitzroy, who landed in Auckland on the 23rd ol December, 1843, the native mind had become strongly excited by statements industriously promulgated, having reference to the determination of the English Parliament and the English Government, moved by the New Zealand Company, to deny the Treaty of Waitangi, and the rights of the Maoris to any lands upon which they had not bestowed labour and been at one time in personal occupation. The fight and massacre at Wairau had destroyed the fear which had long existed in the minds of the Maoris, regarding the superior prowess and warlike skill of the Europeans. On the 9th of July, 1844, Hone Heke, a son-in-law of the famous Hongi, asserted the rights of the Maoris and their determination not to submit to spoliation, by cutting down the flagstaff ut Kororareka and the flag of England which it carried. In January, 1845, this was repeated, and on the 11th of March Kororareka was taken, tho Block-house burned and all the English people driven away. This was followed by the disastrous attack upon Ohaewai-on the Ist of July. It has been stated that Hone Heke’s war did not arise through the Maoris’ fears about their land, bub the concurrent testimony of all competent authorities affirms tho fact. (Bishop Selwyn to Earl Grey, August Ist, 1848, “New Zealand Papers,” Imperial Parliament, July 1849, p. 37). Bishop Selwyn distinctly states it in his answer to Earl Grey. Even the Chairman of the Company, when writing to the Secretary of State, speaking of the difficulties which the Company had to face, says: “These difficulties must, we think, be ascribed to one cause, namely, the disputes respecting the Company’s title to land. This is the one thing that appears to have led to all the bad blood between the natives and the settlers. It was the direct cause of the unhappy business at Cloudy Bay (the Wairau), and oj the sub sequent disastrous state of feeling. ” (Swainson’s “New Zealand,” p. 126.) Indeed, it was only when tho recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee before alluded to was communicated to the natives in the North, that Hone Heke and his people rose to protect themselves against what they considered to be a gross intended violation of the Treaty of Waitangf. Governor Fitzroy was recalled. The Company meanwhile made propositions to the Government in London, the knowledge of which tended still farther to alarm Abet natives. The position of affairs ia New Zealand was the subject of a fixe days, debate in the House of Com»>ousi. and was determined to appoint Captain Grey, then Governor South Australia, Qll p«ye 6'4