Saturday, July 22, 1843. THE PORT NICHOLSON COMPANY. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE COLONISTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 14, 22 July 1843, Page 2

Saturday, July 22, 1843.

THE PORT NICHOLSON COMPANY. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE COLONISTS.

Luceo non Uro. " If I have been extinguished, yet there rise A thousand b* aeons from the spark I bore.

Ocn time has been necessarily so much occupied with tho policy of this government towards the head settlement, Auckland, that ■we may have appeared almost to have forgotten that others than -oar settlers might be suffering from the same ruinous measures which have been so repeatedly condemned in their perverse application to the inhabit--auts of the northern districts. Bat Ne*r Zealand does not entirely consist of the settlements on -the Thames, or at the Bay of Islands. A very "important portion both of our European and native population is to be found settled around Cook's Straits, who have tho same interest in New Zealand, the ;same claim upon the government, and the samo reasons, and equal right to complain •of their conduct, as we have ourselves. Hitherto an unhappy state of feeling has '"boen engendered, and assiduously kept up 'hy the organs and members of the govem--xnent and Company ; until tho settlers in each district were almost led to believe and to feel, that they had no common interest. That the prosperity of the one settlement must injure that of tho other. In short, that if Auckland flourished, Port Nicholson -and Nelson must suffer. Why have such feelings been endeavoured to be kept up by these parties ? The reason is obvious : the settlers at Gook's .Straits, and those of Auckland and the northward would, if . united, T>e very powerful opponents to either the government, or the Company, whereas, divided, they could produce no effect. Where the one party was opposed to the government, it was always made to appear through a" government paper, or a government agent, <that tho opposition was directed against the settlement, and not against the government. When the settlers at Port Nicholson justly petitioned for Captain Hobson's removal, the Auckland settlers were taught to believe that a blow was aimed at this settlement ; that their countrymen at the southward had •no just grounds of complaint ; that they were merely making aa effort to obtain the removal of the seat of government to their own settlement. The settlers in both places have always been misrepresented to one .another, both by the government and the Company, In their blind and 'infatuated policy, they imagined it was tlieir interest to do so ; and sinking that of New Zealand generally, and of the private settlers in particular, it was doubtless the selfish, narrowminded interest of the paid servants of the .government and Company, to sell the largest possible quantity of land, ana to obtain the largest possible amount of maaey at each t>f the settlements, where each of thoste millStones strangled the energies of the people. The Company and the Government merely sought the people's money ; and it is high time the people should be made alive to this. We fear many of them feel too practically its truth, to render iriany" arguments necessary .to enforce conviction. While the settlers in Auckland have been tormented with the presence of the persons whose unwise policy and unjust measures, have brought such a weight of mischief on ike whole xiolony. It was stiftsroiae consolation to feel that t&ey suffered their torture merely' from one engine ; the very intensity of wiiose operations gave them a ray of hope- that by the' breaking up'of some .part of the machinery, the whole concern jnight stop, if not tumble to pieces. It was ibis feeliner tliatlcept up v the spirits of the

people here. Tho government they knew, and suffowiugly felt, to be the very worst of I all the infamously governed colonies of Great Britain : and on this very account, they oxpected to get rid of it. It was too bad to last. But our friends and fellow-colonists to the south had no such hopes ; they were in point of fact, roasted between two fires. They had to contend -on tho or>e side, with a rapacious Company, and on the other, with a highly unjust government. They might get rid of the one or the other, but half the suffering still remained to them ; there were two biting evils, any <ono of which would ■ blast tho prospects of 'a hundred colonies, j That our readers both at home, and in' the colony, may be enabled clearly to understand the condition of our enterprising, ■and unjustiy treated fellow-colonists at Port Nicholson and Nelson, we shall briefly advert to tho history and formation of the Company's settlements, and then state seme of the most prominent /blunders of the 'government, together with their special acts of injustice towards the Company's settlers": The condition of tho colonists at Port Nicholson is, in many respects, different from that of our settlers. The owners of land here, have purchased either from the natives, or directly from the government ; they are either land claimants, or purchasers of government land ; the former of whom have been ruined and harrassed through the doubt thrown "upon their^ titles, and the delay in settling their claims to land, while tho latter have had nearly all their means extorted from them in the purchase of town property and small suburban farms. The settlers at Port Nicholson have puschased their land neither from the natives nor from government, but from a large and -wealthy Company of English Merchants and Speculators, to whom their money was paid in London on the faith of obtaining possession -of the land so bought on their arrival in the Colony, which possession, however, few of them have as yet (to their <\wn individual loss and to the great injury of the whole Colony) "been able to obtain, from various unhappy causes, for which the infatuated Government of this Colony is chiefly to blame. The New Zealand Company sold their land in England on the faith of a purchase made or to be made by an Agent specially sent to this country for that purpose. The Company's Agent bought or fancied he had bought certain tracts of land from the native inhabitants of New Zealand, this land was surveyed, portioned out and allotted to each of the parties whose money had been received by the Company. Many of the persons, however, to whom such lands had been allotted, discovered to their costthat a Land Order was not enough to obtain peaceable or any occupancy of tho land so allotted. The natives in many instances opposed their settlement, on tho just plea that the land had never been purchased by the Company's Agent. In such a case tho settler's remedy was .plain and obvious, he could either compel tne company or its agents to satisfy the claim of the native, or to give him full compensation for the loss sustained. The Company would doubtless have done this, but f or the interference of a third party. Immediately on tho back of the purchase or pretended purchase of the New Zealand Company's agent in this country, #he Government started as a rival Competitor or land shark, -whose greed was such as to induce it t© make an effort to swallow -up all the other land sharks, the Company as well as the minor pne^s, the latter they devoured at once, but they deemed it necessary to excercise (what Captain Hobson in its application to his Colonial Secretary, Mr. Shorthand, would call) tact in dealing with the- large Monster or New Zealand Company. A regular contract was made with the Company, and a Royal Charter was granted, whereby the Company agreed to, surrender all their purchases, real and pretended, to the Government— as compensation for the same they were to be allowed to retain one acre of land for every five shillings which they could prove to have been paid for or expended on account of the same land. The Company also agreeing further to lay out on the importation of Euoopean emigrants and labourers an additional sum of fifteen shillings per acre. A certain limit was also prescribed, beyond which the Company's settlements were not to extend. The Company naturally expected and acted on the belief 1 that by this" arrangement the Government, became' bound in their steac£ and for them a'nd their settlers to extinguish the native claim, to settle native disputes, and to maintain the settlers in peaceable possession of the lands which had been allotted to them. And whenever a settler or a body of settlers applied to the Company's agent, and coinplained of native interference, they were invariably told that they must have recourse to Government. Three years have in this unfortunate state of affairs overtaken the I Port Nicholson settlers, and the majority of

them are still unable to obtain possession of their lands, or if they have settled upon their lands, they are subjected to daily annoyance from the native owners, so that delay, disappointment and doubt have been alike fruitful of mischief North and South. The Local Government have precisely acted by the Fort Nicholson settlers in the same manner as they have done by ourselves. Although they we're clearly bound either to insist upon the Company's giving possession of their lands to the settlers, or to put them in possession themselves, seeing they had stept in between them and the Company, they have neither done the one nor the other. It is true that a Commissioner has been sent to Port Nicholson to enquire into the titles of the Company, and that he has discovered that much of the land sold by the Company to private settlers was never really bought from the natives ; but nothing further has been done. Neither the Company nor the Government will arrange with the natives about tiio disputed lands. In truth, the Government have 1 prevented the Company's agent from so doing, ■while the natives might have been treated with. Their expectations are now so high that it is very questionable if the whole capital of tho Company could satisfy their demands. But worse than this. Mr. Shortland, by his own Proclamation, published in the native Gazette, which we copy into our present number, has not only prevented the possibility of settling with the natives, but he will assuredly by this most unwise pro- ' duction, encourage all tho natives in tho southward to rise in mass against the settlers. The natives will look upon this notice, especially after the late unfortunate occurrence at Cloudy Bay, as a full license to commit any outrage. If already, without this sanction, they have pulled down so many fences and houses, they will now feel themselves fully entitled to remove the settlers by force. After this Proclamation, we do not envy the position of the Port Nicholson settlers, or of any person living on native land. For where is the land to which some motive may not be found to prefer a claim ? and if such happen, Mr. Shortlaftd requires tho European settler to give up the land at once, until a Commissioner wffll decide ,the point in dispute. When this may take place, be has not condescended to state. But this we tell him, that he has most effectually injured, and ruined Port Nicholson ; for. by this Pro- 1 clamation he has fairly put a stop to all the operations of the settlers. He has at length | brought the colony to a stand stilL We cannot think he could have foreseen such an effect ; "but whether or not, it matters little to the settlers; for such is the inevitable effect of this lamentable Proclamation. | How the other two members of the Execative Council could have given their con- ' sent to the publication of this document, we are at a loss to conceive. Mr. Shortland has, from the first, been unfriendly to the Port Nicholson settlers, ! he, it was, who made them disgusted at the outset, with this government. He, it was, ! whom they accused of decoying their omigrants to this settlement. He, it was, whom they accused of prejudicing the late gover- 1 nor against them ; and he, it is who has published in the native language a notice, the tendency of which will be to suspend all their agricultural and farming operations; and he it is, who, if a new governor does not very speedily arrive, will be the means of driving all the settlers out of New Zealand. We are extremely sorry for tho present unhappy position of the settlers at Port Nicholson, and while we have ever felt doubtful of any ultimate benefit to New Zealand through the agency of the New Zealand Company, we are still of opinion that this government has manifested little wisdom or tact, in their conduct towards them. Had Governor Hobson and Mr. Shortland been possessed of half the political tact, or common sense, for which they, and they only give one another credit, th6y might have used the Company as a powerful colonizing- engine. Had they, instead of throwing every conceiveable and unbelievable obstacle in the way of the operations of this Company, exercised sufficient discretion and ordinary perception, they might have made it conducive to many good purposes. The Company had abundance of means, credit, and connexions to keep up a tide of emigration for years to come, and this government might have directed this tide, until settlements bad been established, in every corner of New Zealand. But like the Upas-tree, every thing that came in sight of this government, was doomed to destruction. The sight, without even the touch, was enough to kill. Thte old settlers were unwisely, unjustly, and cruelly sacrificed. The recent settlers were so fettered, that they could do no good, either to themselves or to the colony ; and last of all, the New Zealand Company, though rich and

powerful, must suffer the same fate witj '. the rest ■< We trust, however, that whatever maj J be the fate of the Company or the govern' i ment, the private settlers of Port Nicholson ] Nelson, Auckland, and the Bay of Islaud^ i will always regard one another as fello* i i colonists, bound together by common feeling 1 and common interests. The settlers <n < Aucklarid never cherished unkindly feeling! ; towards those of Port Nicholson. On tit ; contrary, they have some time ago mado i ' strong effort to establish, and to keep up i friendly, and it might be a profitable, inter course with them, by starting a packet, t< 'sail regularly between the two settlements; by which attempt however, several of thi settlers here, unfortunately sustained considerable loss in consequence of our wisf ! government refusing to give, according t< promise, a sum stipulated (when the under taking was projected) for carrying the mails. This sum the government -withheld and the intercourse ceased. The following is tho document, or Pro clamation referred to in the body of thii article: — Proclamation. — " Whereas it is essential to the well-being of this Colony, that confi. dence and good feeling should continue to exist between the two races of its inhabitant, and that the native owners of the soil should have no reason to doubt the good faith ol Her Majesty's solemn assurance that theii territorial rights would be recognized and respected, Now, therefore, I, the Officer administering the Government, do hereby publicly warn all persons claiming land in tliii Colony, in all cases where the claim is denied or disputed by the original native owners, from excercising acts of ownership thereon, or otherwise prejudicing the ques tion of the title to the same, until tk question of ownership shall have beej heard and determined by one of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to investigate ! Claims to Land in New Zealand."