THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Saturday, October 16, 1847.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 3, Issue 121, 16 October 1847, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Saturday, October 16, 1847.

Earl Grey's Arrangements with the New Zealand Company.

LUOEO NON TJRO. "If I have been extinguished, yet there rise A thousand beacons from the spark I bore."

In our last number we published the *' Memorandum" of agreement made between the home government and the directors of the New Zealand company ; it now behoves us to offer some comments upon this ill-judged compact. It is possible, however, that the motives which prompt us to speak in deprecating terms of this agreement, may be misconstrued. There is some danger lest the observations "we make, should be attributed to a want of sympathy and kindly feeling towards our fellow colonists of the south. Objurgations levelled at a system, may be mistaken for reproaches heaped upon those who have been duped by, as well as identified with it. Dangers, however, whether they assume the form of physical peril, or of moral ■error, are in a great measure already averted, whon their existence is foreseen, and their approach provided for. As, in the case of sudden bodily peril, fortitude may sometimes turn deserter at the hour of need, so, in the operations of the mind, when caution is aleep, prudence may be thrown off her guard, and be guilty of unpremeditated errors. But when resolution is pre-summoned, and caution is on the alert, dangers, either physical or moral, may be ►encountjred with safety. In the present instance, we havo a moral error to avoid. We have to guard against the appearance of unkindness and injustice towards the settlers of the company, while speaking in the strongest terms of condemnation of the system pursued by the company itself. Thus guarded in our purpose, and with a monitory caution to our readers to disconnect our remarks from any idea that would involve the , character of the settler with that of the system ; let us glauce at the proceedings of the New Zealand company, in order that we may judge of tho validity of the claim for help and support which they have unblushingly advanced, and thus test the propriety of the concessions made by Earl Grey. The New Zealand company entered upon the colonization of this country, not only "without the sanction, but in direct defiance of the Crown. This fact has been distinctly recordedby a committee of the house of commons, and even though it should be aimitted that the calamities which have resulted from the enterprize, did not necessarily arise out of this first false step, yet this fact would alone form a sufficient justification for any minister of the crown m refusing to acknowledge the claim of the company for present aid and assistance. Besides, the practical operations of their

agents were directly opposed to the vaunted professions of philanthropy and humane consideration, with which the company were wont to beguile the people of England. Even the directors, who issued such seemingly wise and thoughtful instructions to their pioneering agents, seem to have forgotten their professions of regard for the rights and claims of the aborigines almost as soon as they had uttered them. How else are we to account for the headlong- haste with which they offered acre after acre for sale, before they were certain of having acquired a fair and unimpeachable title to an inch of land in New Zealand ! Much has been said and written about tho disparity between the price paid for the land by the company's agents, and the quantity claimed as purchased ; and it is doubtless true that little or nothing was given, in comparison for the immense tracts alleged to have been acquired: but we attach no importance to this fact, we rather lay stress upon the visionary character of the negociations. Colonel Wakefield might have supposed that he had purchased at a marvellously cheap rate, vast tracts of country, embracing many degrees of latitude ; but he was never more cgregiously mistaken. He soon discovered this, and if the truth had been honestly stated, when the erroneous notions of the agent as to the magnitude of his purchases, were first made apparent: if the misunderstanding had been then explained, instead of running all risks in order to keep up the delusion, and the credit of success, by accusing the natives of dishonesty and breach of faith, — how much vexation, disappointment, and loss, would have been prevented ! But no, the fact had been proclaimed in glowing terms to the world, that the company's agent had acquired, with perfect ease, and on the most equitable terms, extensive tracts of rich and fertile land, and rather than destroy the pleasing illusion, equity was disregarded, and justice outraged. Did not the natives give abundant proof that they had never contemplated the sale of such extensive tracts, when they remonstrated against the occupation of the present site of Wellington? So long as the emigrants were confined to that side of the harbour of Port Nicholson which the natives acknowledged to have sold, all went on smoothly and well, but when the winter-floods had swamped the habitations of the denizens of Britannia, and it became necessary to look out for some better locality, and the surveyors were sent to lay out the present township, then the suspicions of the natives were aroused, and the seeds of future discord were sown. Was it in conformity "with the philanthropic professions of the company that their surveyors, when obstructed by the natives, — men who were but contending against the unauthorised occupation of their lands, — menaced them with threats of vengeance, and finally accomplished the survey of the township by a show of arms? When Rauparaha — incensed at the pertinacious attempts of the surveyors to pre- \ pare the unbo tight valley of Wairau for occupation — determined to exercise the power of a proprietor, and expel the tresspassers from his land, was it merely a novel and peculiar development of those humane and philanthropic principles upon which the system of the company was founded, when an armed force was embodied to take this chicf — guiltless in that instance — prisoner ? It would be unpardonable to lift again the veil that time has thrown over the horrors that marked the termination of that fatal enterprize, but it must be borne in mind that the unfortunate, and lamented sufferers were acting under the influence of a system but for which in all human probability they would still have been numbered with the living ; and it may be asked, whether this tragical incident, — one of the fruits of colonization as carried on by the New Zealand Company — is included in the catalogue of public services, which give a reasonable claim for assistance from the public purse, and support from the Home Government ! The Directors think " that the circumstances of the case justify them in asking, on public grounds, for such aid as may be required to enable them to continue operations acknowledged to be advantageous to the community at large. And they also think themselves entitled to prefer a claim for compensation, on the ground of justice to the company. That claim they base upon the injury which has been done to the company, by the acts of the Government at home, and of the local government of New Zealand." Indeed ! will it be advantageous" to the community at large, that this body of speculators should be again placed in a position to entrap the unwary, and pocket the cash of an additional number of dupes ; who will find to their cost, that certificates of purchase are much more easily obtained from, the company than possession of the

sections bought. Compensation too, is claimed on the ground of justice ! Blind indeed, must this goddess be, if under cover of her sanction, the grossest violations of her attributes are admitted as meritorious deeds, deserving of reward ! The company talk loudly about the injuries they have received, but are silent on the subject of those they have inflicted. By their precipitate, and unjust occupation of unbouglit land, they have injured the native proprietors, by their flattering, but false pretensions, they have injured those who emigrated from Great Britain, relying upon their good-faith ; by intrigue, misrepresentation, and slander, they have thwarted the wishes, and harrassed the operations of the local Government authorities, and traduced the character of the Government settlements ; by a dogged adherence to the system with which they set out, of surveying and occupying disputed land, they have plunged the Government into a disgraceful war, and caused the arms of her Majesty to be employed hi dispossessing one portion of her subjects of the land of their birth-right, in order to make room for strangers, and still they prefer a claim for compensation J Truly, we are at a loss to distinguish, out of this catalogue of eminent services rendered to the community, that particular one upon which their claim to compensation is based. Time would fail us to follow, through all its windings, the erratic course of the New Zealand Company. Many a man with wasted means and blasted hopes has rued the day that brought him into connexion with this heartless body of speculators, and the authorities at home ought to have been convinced from the history of the past, that the interest of the future would be far more safely promoted by the dissolution and utter extinction of the New Zealand Company, than by its resuscitation through the influence of Government money. We are too well acquainted with the character of the system itself to suppose that it can be permanently re-estab-lished. Bolstered up by the powerful support of Government patronage and public money, it will doubtless flourish for a while, but a reaction will ensue, and the pulse of its existence, after having quickened into a state of feverish activity by the stimulns of Government aid, will sink when that aid is withdrawn, and finally cease to beat. But how much mischief may be perpetrated during the interval ! When we reflect upon the uniform hostility that has characterized the i'elations subsisting between the company and the natives, and connect this fact with the additional power that it is to throw into the hands of the directors, and their agents, by granting them the entire control over the Crown lands, and the sole exercise of the right of pre-emption, we tremble for the consequences. The alienation of feeling, even now too remarkable, and too widely spread to be regarded with indifference, will be confirmed and augmented, — strife and discord will be perpetuated, and a prolonged war, with all its horrors, may be looked forward to as the consummation of Earl Grey's injudicious and ill-omened compact with the New Zealand Company. Whatever may have been tha predilection of Earl Grey before he was called to power, we should have thought that he would not have ventured to compromise his character for disinterested fidelity to the interest of his Sovereign and the public, by adopting a course that may be attributed to motives of a personal aggrandizement. As Lord Howich, the present Secretary of State was known to the public as the friend and patron of the company, and was even supposed to be a shareholder. Did his Lordship give up every connexion of this nature with the company when he assumed his present office ? We hope and trust he did, for while we admit it to be possible for a disinterested Minister to commit as grave a political blunder as this new compact certainly is, we should hardly be inclined to excuse-such conduct as an error of judgment, if it could be shown that Earl Grey had private reasons for wishing to secure the prosperity of the Company.