BLUE BOOK 1842.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 5, 20 May 1843, Page 4

BLUE BOOK 1842.

Despatch from Lord Stanley to Gover^f : Hobson. 3';% Dowuing-street, 24th Sept., ls4l. £i r , I transmit to you herewith the lei^er which' has been addressed to my Under-Sec-tary of State by the Commissioners of <fplouial Laud and Emigration, covering a cogy of : a letter from Mr. Sinclair, at WelßngtonJFort "' Xioholson, on the subject of a Memorialaddressed to Sir George Gipps, relative' to fte mode in which lands in the new town of Auckland had been disposed of, and I have to request that you will furnish a report on this subject : but in the highly improbable contin-o-en'cv of such grants of town lands haying been" made according to the terms described in the Memorial, it will be necessary that the persons in .whose favour such grants may have been made, should be distinctly apprised that Her Majesty's Government cannot recognize the validity of their titles. I am, etc, (Signed) STANLEY. No. 3J. Extract of a Despatch from Governor Hobson to Lord John Russell, dated Auckland, New. Ulster, Z\st July, 1841. . X -have the honor to forward at th-j xlesi?- 3 o£ J)'u3^ Sinclair, Esq., a letter addressed- to your Lordship, complaining of the appropriation of Allotments to the officers of this government, which I permitted, under the sanction of Sir George Gipps, in September, 1840, and of other matters relating to the land question in this colony. I trust your Lordship will coincide in the propriety of my declining to enter upon any defence of the charges Mr. ' Sinclair has chosen to allege against me. But to enable your Lordship to draw your own conclusions, I have the honour herewith to lay before your Lordship all the documents relating to the several subjects he has introduced into his letter. I do not profess to be well skilled in the mere jobbing part of selling or selecting town allotments, but I think your Lordship will admit that I have not been regardless of the public interest ; for even on reference to Mr. Sinclair's plan, it will be seen that every corner allotment, and all that can honestly be called water frontage, was either sold by auction, or reserved for future disposal. It may however, be proper to state to your Lordship, tbftt the appropriation of the subur-

communication with him. Why did he not put the question to Mr. Porter himself ?—? — we are persuaded, if he had done so, Mr. Porter would have soon undeceived him — he would no j, and never did attempt to deny the Purchase — why should he ? he paid dearly enough for it : it was no great bargain, and he could have no desire to conceal the transaction from any fear of loosing the land. The injury to Mr. Porter might have been a very serious one. He was always understood to be the owner of this valuable property, and as a man of business such a statement as that made by the Governor was calculated seriously to affect his credit. Gould Captain Hobson be ignorant of matters that every person in Auckland was conversant with ? Was it not well known that Mr. Shortland not only sold his selection, but also divided a triangular piece of frontage between this and Mr. Todds allotment, adding the half to his own, and giving the other to Mr. Todd; although this triangle was never put up to sale by Auction? Captain Hobson finds it "very hard to attach criminality to these transactions," perhaps Lord Stanley's sense of right and wrong may be a little more delicate. Captain Hobson or the writer of the Despatch would deem it "extreme injustice to oblige Mr. Shortland to retain it in his hands if he choose to live elsewhere;" he purposes also " to release his officers from all restraint ;" poor man, lie never kept them under proper restraint — had he done so, such disgraceful jobbing would never have been allowed to take place. He seems in this proposal to have forgotten the reasons why they were tied down bv Sir George Gipps to hold their allotments for two years — which was to guard against this jobbing, and to insure himself that no officer should enter the service merely tojobbinland, by requiring that two years' service should alone entitle an officer to hold the land. What other guarantee had he against all the officers acting in the same manner as Mr. Shortland did. The reasons given for allowing the selections of "the Collector of Customs, the Protector of Aborigines, and the Clergyman," are ludicrously absurd, "their numerous families could not be accommodated in the town." Alas for Auckland, if it could not accommodate families of "ton, nine, and eight children !!" This argument might satisfy a person who wanted a pig-run, but we cannot see the application -in this case. The attempt to prove that the distance of half a mile from the town is equal to four miles, is equally lame. We fear this is but one of the many attempts to convey false information to the Home Government regarding the actual state of the Colony. We should like to know why tho ii/£r,bita,iitb of '-Iniquity Cay," the Judge and the Attorney-General, have not as yet paid for their selections ? perhaps they liare taken out squatting licenses according to the New Act. A Sham cannot stand agaixst a Reality. — A man passes for what he is worth. Very idle is all curiosity concerning other people's estimate of us, and equally idle is all fear of remaining unknown. If a man know that he can do anything — that he can do it better than any oho else — he has a pledge of the acknowledgement of that fact by all persons. The world is full of judgment-days; and into every assembly that a man enters, in every action he attempts, he is guaged and stamped. In every troop of boys that whoop and run in each yard and square, a new comer is as well and accurately weighed in the balance, in the course of a few days, and stamped with his right number,' as if lie had undergone a formal trial of his strength, speed and temper. A stranger comes from a distant school, with better dress, with trinkets in his pockets, with airs and pretentious ; an old boy sniffs thereat, and says to himself, "it's of no use : we shall find him out to-morrow." "What hath he done?" is the divine question which searches men, and transpierces every false reputation. A fop may sit in any chair of the world, nor be .distinguished for his hour from Homer or SySskSigton.-; but there can never be any doubt concerning the respective ability of human beings, when we seek the truth. Pretension may still sit, but cannot act. Pretension never' feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nor drove back Xerxes, nor Christianized the world, nor abolished slavery, — (R. W. Emerson.) A Precocious Poet. — The Teacher of a Parish School in the neighbourhood of Ayr, who is a very rigid disciplinarian, excercised his authority the other day in depriving a boy in the Bible Class of three-pence, of which the m*chin seemed very much enamoured. This was accompanied by a threat that the money would not be returned. On the school being dismissed, the little penitent humbly presented his master with the folio-wing lines : Kind Sir, be pleased for once, I ask no more, My paltry purse of ha'pence to restore ! Fool that I was to bring them forth to view, But tiusting all, I ne'er suspected you. Of these few pence how proud I was — how vain ! Who knows if e'er I'll have the like again ? In pity then, return my little alt; I want a peery, marbles, and a ball. We need scarcely say the urchin was successful!, — (Ayr Observer.)

ban allotments (alluded to by Mr. Sinclair,) Nos. 1, 2, and 3, were made to accommodate the individual gentlemen who now hold them, namely : the Collector of Customs, the Protector of Aborigines, and the Clergyman, neither of whom, with their numerous families of ten, nine, and eight children respectively, could be accommodated in the town, nor was it desirable they should be too far removed from the sphere of their duty. The distance of these allotments from the town, is under the proscribed limit given by Sir George Gipps; but between them and it, there intervenes a deep ravine, which denies access from one to the other by means of a wheel carriage, except by making a circuit ol at least four miles, or waiting for the tide to ebb, when a cart may, with some precaution, be driven round the rocks. Mr. Sinclair has informed your Lordship, that one government officer had sold his allotment by auction, and had obtained considerable profit on it, before ho had paid for it. This was the first information I received that any such transaction actually had taken place ; but a month previous to the date of Mr. Sinclair's communication, I heard that such an act was contemplated, when I sent for the officer, and warned him that I would resume his allotment for government if he presumed to violate the conditions on which he had been allowed to make the selection. On the subject being brought again under my notice, in a very aggravated shape, I again sent for the officer, who fully satisfied me that he had annulled the sale immediately after my former conversation, and that he had sold the allotment in perfect ignorance of the impropriety. Mr. Sinclair admitted that he was aware of the whole circumstance, when he forwarded his letter, but sheltered himself under the plea, that it was true that the allotment was sold, and it was not necessary to state what followed. Mr. Sinclair's assertion that the Colonial Secretary has sold his allotment is incorrect ; but, having bought another at the sale, he has let it, having first paid for it, and he now occupies the other. I find it very hard to attach criminality to these transactions. Mr. Shortland has actually paid at the rate of .£734 10s. per acre for his land, and it would be ' extreme injustice to oblige him to retain it in his hands if he choose to live elsewhere. I have written to Sir George Gipps for his interpretation of the order, which directs that tha officers shall pay for their allotments when the average price is ascertained, but denies them the controul of their property for two years ; these regulations, considering the high jjrice the land sold for, seem so unfair that I fife^proiJO'sec! to receive che payment at once release tlie officers from all restraint ; and this course I will pursue, unless Sir George Gipps shows a very strong reason against it. Mr. Sinclair further alludes to the transaction that has taken place between this Government and Mr. Clendon : for the elucidation of which I have to refer your Lordship to a separate Despatch, svhich I hope to foi'M r ard by this opportunity. No. 38. Despatch fi om Lord Stanley to Governor Hobs on. Downing-street, 28th January, 1842. Sir, — I have received your despatch marked "Separate," of the 31st July last, relative to the complaint which had been made by Mr. Dudley Sinclair, of the manner in which the officers of your Government have been permitted to acquire allotments of land in the town of Auckland. In my Despatch No. 2 of the 24th September last, I mentioned to you, that Her Majesty's Government could not recognize the titles to land so acquired ; and 'I perceive nothing in your present Despatch to justify a departure from that decision. I am, etc., (Signed) STANLEY. . «£*i publishing the above Correspondence, we" cannot allow the Despatch signed in the name of the late Governor to pass unnoticed, containing as it does statements not only incorrect, but grossly false. — We could scarcely believe that Captain Hobson would be guilty of such gross misrepresentation and wilful deception — and yet we cannot free his name from this charge on any other supposition than that he never knew the nature of that which bears his signature, perhaps he was unwell at the time, and did not know what he was about. — How else can we account for his denying that Mr. Shortland had sold his selection to Mr. Porter. We cannot give him credit for ignorance of the transaction between Mr. Porter and Mr. Shortland — the precision with which he calculates the price paid by Mr. Shortland, "£730 10s. per acre," shows at once that he knew the whole affair. But he deliberately tells Lord Stanley that Mr. Porter had only leased the land from Mr. Shortland, and that Mr. Sinclair was incorrect in saying he had sold it. Could Captain Hobson be mistaken ? it is not possible — he had daily opportunity of seeing Mr. Porter, who on account of being a Member of Council must have had. frequent