THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY AND THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 110, 12 February 1853, Page 7

THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY AND THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

(From the New Znaland Journal.)

The New Zealand Company held their annual meeting on Oct. 7th, under the presidency of Mr. Lyall, the result of which is to leave the ■matter in dispute in the hands of Government, and the shareholders in a state of suspense. The Shareholders protest tlnit if the Directors

of the New Zealand Company, in spite of actual warning from Earl Grey, borrowed and lent money on their own responsibility, they have nothing to do with the repudiation of their debts by the Canterbury Association. Meanwhile, Sir John Pakington very properly refuses to sanction the transfer of the functions of the Canterbury Association to the local Government, until they have made arrangements to redeem their obligations. The Shareholders in the Company seem to have their interests judiciously watched over by General Briggs, and there are not a few besides who will take care that fair play is accorded.

We regret to find that a difference has arisen, between our neighbours in Broad-street-build-ings and the now expatriated Canterbury Association. "We quote that section of the report which refers to the dispute, as setting forth tha Company's view of the matter : —

"In the correspondence which look'place between the Association and the Company, in the months of March and April, 1848, and in the 'plan of colonization agreed upon' between the two bodies, which was annexed to the pamphlet issued by the Association on the Ist of, December in the same year, it was provided that within six months from the dates therein respectively mentioned land should be sold by the Association to the value of £300,300. la August, 1848, at the instance of the Association, this quantity was reduced to land of the value of £100,000 only; and the reduced amount was made the basis of the agreement entered into by the Association and the Company on the Ist of December, 1849. In April, 1850, on the further representation of the Association, an additional modification was made, and the provision for the sale of a given quantity of land by a given date was omitted altogether. In consenting to this omission, we stipulated that in case the quantity of land sold on or before the 30th of June following be less than £100,000 worth, the Company should be placed in the same position with respect to the financial engagements between the Company and the Association, as if the whole £100,000 worth had been sold under the waived provision, A guarantee, intended to give effect to this stipulation, was accordingly placed in our hands in the following month of May, 1850; of which guarantee the following is a copy : — .

"* In consideration of the New Zealand Company having waived the provision in tlieir agreement "with the Canterbury Association, whereby the latter are required to sell £ 100,000 worth of land on or before the 30th of April, the undersigned promise to pay to the Company (each to be liable only to the amount or in the proportion of the sum set below opposite to his name) on the 31st December, 1851, any deficiency then remaining unpaid in the sum which the Company are entitled (under the present agreement between the two bodies) to receive from the Association on the 30th day of April, 1850; but if the Company re-enter on the Canterbury district before the 31st of December, 1851, all the money received by them as the price of land shall be considered to diminish the amount to which the undersigned will then become liable under this guarantee. {Lytxelton . . £3,750 Richard Cavendish 3,750 John Simeon . . 3,706 E. G. Wakefield 3,750 Total . . £15.000 " Under the agreement of the Ist December, 1849, herein referred to, the Company would have been entitled to receive from the Association, on the 30th of April, 1850, upon sales of land to the value of £100,000, two sums, amountiug together to £25,000. The sums actually paid over by the Association to the Government and the Company up to the 31st of December, 1851, from the proceeds of land sales, amounting in all to £18,757 Is. 2d. only,application was made to the four guarantors, on the Ist January, 1852, for payment of the difference, £6,242* 18s. lOd. After a correspondence which ended, we are sorry to say, in a virtual adoption by these four-gentlemen of the reasons for non-payment assigned by the Association as above mentioned, we have been compelled to institute legal proceedings against them, in addition to those in Chancery agumst the Association. Pending such proceedings, we abstain from further remark."