ARRIVAL OF HIS EXCELLENCY CAPTAIN FITZROY.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 37, 30 December 1843, Page 2

ARRIVAL OF HIS EXCELLENCY CAPTAIN FITZROY.

poses, would be confirmed to them by the ; Crown. A strong assurance of the equitable J and impartial administration of justice was guaranteed to European and Native. Upon the whole, we may certainly state that we derived more pure and unmingled , 'pleasure from His Excellency's expression yf .the wise, humane, and enlightened principles upon which his Government is to be established, than from all that we have seen and experienced during the whole of our residence in this country. We need not conceal from our friends and readers that personally we felt it to be full of the utmost comfort. We had been to all appearance hopelessly advocating principles which we knew and felt to be based upon truth ; but for which we were forsaken by all (but a faithful few) because our views were deemed too chimerical and Quixotical to bo realised. We have still hoped on even against hope, and if we should to-morrow be obliged to abandon New Zealand for ever, it would be one of tho happiest recollections of past life, to remember that the justice of our native Government has indelibly stamped the truth of the principles which we have been humbly, it may be hopelessly, but fearlessly advocating. _ i For our adopted country we would strongly hope, and believe that the day-star of her prosperity, peace, and happiness has now at length arisen. From the high moral and intellectual character of our Governor, from his firmness of purpose, and enlightened views, we have every expectation. The elements of natural wealth, of physical and social happiness, are abundant in our country, } requiring and waiting only to be called into existence by a competent person. Let _us hope that this person has been happily, and providentially, sent to us. We have written this from the pure impulse of heart feeling and faithful impression. Our few friends know that we would not either for the frown or favour of any man, adhere to opinions, or maintain principles which we did not believe to be true ; and, while we thus publish our entire satisfaction with the views expressed by His Excellency, and earnestly hope and trust that he will be the means of immeasureably advancing the prosperity of this colony ; we would still freely, and fearlessly oppose any, and every one of his acts which we believed to be prejudicial to the interests of tho Colony.

to allay the fears and apprehensions of the Natives, to generate a friendly and a generously sympathising feeling between the two races, and to raise the character ' of our Government in the estimation of both, than the four years' Government, the. expenditure of the countless thousands, of pounds of Captain Ilobson and Mr. Shotg; land. The injustice of the one, the profligacy of the other, will alone be remembered, but the principles on which Capt. Fitzroy promises to establish the Government of New Zealand will, if carried into effect, raise a monument to himself and to the humanity and enlightened benevolence of our age and country, more enduring than brass itself. — The preservation of the Aborigines of New Zealand, the acknowledgment and maintenance of their rights, and their consequent exception to the general melancholy fate, will form the brightest, tho almost only bright page in the history of Colonization. The immortal Penn and Pennsylvania are still the only names among the many British Governors and British Colonies to which tho lover of his race can look without the blush of shame for the deeds that have been done. Dare we venture in these degenerate days to hope, to believe that another name and another British Colony may be added to the first, the gloriously solitary names? We know that England can well afford to consecrate one colony to the purposes of humanity, she can well afford to make one conquest without the effusion of blood, the paths of her other conquests are sufficiently deeply tinged already. Let us trust that this good, this noble purpose is being now (not yet too late) commenced. For the sake of our friends at home and in the neighbouring colonies, for the sake of those who have looked upon New Zealand with feelings higher than the mere pride of extending the already immensely extended British Dominions, we would briefly advert to the reasons of our hope for the prosperity of these lovely islands. Captain Fizroy has unequivocally and with most perfect sincerity disowned any and every intention on the part of the Government to appropriate to themselves the surplus lands of the original settlers, they are to revert to the original owners. The Government is to act as Umpire between the two for the purposes of Justice solely ; the claim to the " Lion's share" is abandoned. The absurd American dogmas of Sir Geo. Gipps and Captain Hobson are deprecated, > as we knew they would be by our country. The sense of justice and humanity inherent in the roughest English character, could not by possibility admit that infamous philosophy that declared the right of the Government to profit by the immorality and dishonesty of the subject. Reason, truth and morality are all in favour of the inquiry to the titles of lands purchased by Europeans from the Natives, and tho justice that would not even overlook the conduct of the subject towards a foreign but a more helpless people, will raise higher and higher the character of that country which claims for and demands of its Government the exercise of it. That this decision will of itself give satisfaction to reasonable land claimants, we are certain. For our own part, we would be silent if tomorrow the Government of this country were upon fair enquiry to declare that all the lands we claim were to be taken from us and to revert to the original owner. It might be a hardship and a loss to us, it might be an ' extravagant extension of the good feeling of humanity for an inferior, a more _ helpless people, but even its severest exercise could not impose a stain iipon the character of our country for honesty and integrity of purpose. Not only arc the surplus lands of the Claimants to revert to the Natives, but there is every prospect that before long the Aborigines of this country shall receive the fullest rights and privileges of British subjects in being permitted to sell their lands to whom they please. We understood His Excellency to say that the Protectors were no longer to purchase lands from the Natives for the Government, and that he could wish that even the Government itself should purchase no more. But, he said, emphatically, that he had instructions to enquire into the working of the system of preemption, originally established, with a view to benefit the Natives, and which, if found injurious, would be discontinued. These statements were made in reply to two sensible, and well written addresses from some of the leading Native Chiefs of New Zealand, expressive of strong attachment to British Government and British Laws, but complaining of the great hardship and injustice of not being permitted to sell their lands according to the treaty of Waitangi ; the terms and conditions of which had been broken by the local Government. His Excellency further stated , that arrangements would immediately be made for enabling the Natives to grant Leaser to Europeans desirous of settling among them. All lands bought by public Societies or public Bodies for public pur-

Tins was an event to which every person in New Zealand, both Native and European, looked forward with the utmost anxiety. The interregnum has now lasted upwards of fifteen months, and " a weary time — aweary time" it has been. We have waited patiently, we have suffered much ; but patient suffering deserves relief. Patience is a manly virtue, it is based upon true philosophy, it is that consciousness of right which teaches a man to feel that he cannot be disappointed. A man may suffer wrong, he may lose even in the^estimation of friends and relatives ; his motives, his principles and his character may be called in question, his feelings may be keenly wounded, he may esteem himself almost alone in the world ; but if he have the inherent, the self-satisfying consciousness that truth, eternal and unchangeable truth is on his side, he will still patiently abide the result. Ho knows that prejudice and error will sooner or later give way, and that justice like truth itself will prevail. There is a strong under-current of reason and of righteousness in mankind, which, like the magnetic needle itself, invariably points to the same object. The paste board may for a time hide its bearing from our sight, but it will not, it cannot destroy its existence. "VVe have often been relieved by the consideration of this truth in thinking of the conduct of our native Government towards the inhabitants of this Colony. We were persuaded that even that which we experienced to be bitter evil in its practice, was nevertheless founded upon principles of good. The very wrongs which we were made to suffer, were in themselves but the misdirected, and perhaps excessive operations of this principle. The very harshness, the injustice of our Parent Government towards its own subjects, was doubtless the result of a high degree of benevolence towards the aborigines of this country ; an over-anxious desire to benefit, has been the means of allowing measures to be adopted too extremely rigid to continue just. Benevolence, like every other good-feeling of our nature, requires in order to be safe and useful in its exercise, to be kept under the direction and control of enlightened reason and intellect. In New Zealand it has been permitted to run wild, to unite itself with some of the very lowest propensities of our nature. Those to whom its keeping was entrusted, have grossly mistaken the character of the charge and abused their "trust. •" A change however, a happy, and we trust a permanent change has taken place ; the proceedings of Tuesday, the enlightened, the humane and generous views expressed by His Excellency Captain Fitzroy must have been highly gratifying to every person really interested in the welfare of the colony. The manly, unequivocal, and deeply interesting manner in which these views were expressed, leave not a single doubt as to their sincerity, and the certainty of their "being carried into effect. His Excellency has truly " cut the Gordian knot," but we rejoice to say, on account of onr country, on account of humanity, and on account of hi 3 i own high character, in a manner different from that which some unthinking persons, even in this colony would recommend. His address to the Native Chiefs on Tuesday, has done more to advance the interests of this Colony, to inspire confidence in the people,