The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 64, 27 March 1852, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

March 27, 1852. Why has Mr. Godley resigned ? As long \ as it was merely whispered about that his resignation had taken place, we forbore to notice the rumour. But recent private letters received from F-ngland, both here and at Wellington, announce, not only this fact, but that Mr. Fo«, the late Agent of the New Zealand Company, is coming out on the part of the Association. Much curious speculation is excited by these facts; —chiefly upon the question—why has Mr. Godley rer signed ? Is it on a question of policy ? If so, wiat is that policy of which Mr. Fox is to be the Agent, and which Mr. Godley will not carry out? Can it be that the Association are determined to carry out their recent Home-management and nonresponsible policy to which we have been objecting in late articles? Is it possible that Mr. Fox can have consented to become their Agent for these purposes ? At all events Mr. Fox's appointment is a most unfortunate one if intended to meet the opinions of the Settlers at .Canterbury. It is no disrespect to that gentleman to say that he is not suited to be the organ of the Canterbury Association ; however well fitted he may be for the political Agent of the Wellington Settlers' at London. Mr. Cobden may be a excellent man and a useful politican, and yet no one would think of making him Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Upon those distinctive points which affect the character of this Settlement, Mr. Fox's opinions are known to be as widely different from those of the Canterbury Association, as Mr. Cobden's from the Propagation Society ; and either the Association have renounced their principles, or Mr. Fox is not suited to represent them. Again, we ask for some explanation of these events, —the Colonists, have a right to expect it. We hope that at the Meeting of Land purchasers on next Thursday, Mr. Godley?s friends will be authorised to make some statement on the subject.

The Land question of New Zealand has become so strangely complicated, that we never venture upon the subject without fear ami" trembling. Still, as it is a question which ought not to be lost sight of by the public* ot' Canterbury, (for as much as if the Association discontinues operations we shall become*personally interested in its solution), vwe propose to call attention to the various aspects which the problem at present presents. Tlie New Zealand Company, was practically bankiupt in 1846, when the Government, by an Act of Parliament, granted it funds to the amount of £238,000, and invested it with the privilege of selling all the waste lands in New Munster, upon condition that, if at the end of three years, it could not then go on, it was to lesign its undertaking, and the Government was to cuter upon all its assets and

liabilities. In this event, the debt which the Company had incurred in their undertaking, calculated with interest at £268,000, was to be settled as a charge upon the land fund of the colony. That event was realized. The Company gave up its operations, and now only exists for the purpose of getting back as much as it can of the money which the shareholders have lost. The Company died, leaving its affairs in the utmost confusion with multitudes of unsatisfied claims for land sold—claims which were now transferred to the Government. To settle these matters, presented itself as an object of the first impor- . tance. simultaneously to the Home and Local Government. The Minister and the Governor both grappled with the question, each eager to win the honours due to a sagacious law giver. Unfortunately the two Greys have jostled each other in the race, and both are thrown out; the heat must be run again. : There was presented to the wondering eyes of the colonists the spectacle, of the two Governments which are over them, both making laws at the same time, upon the same subjects, and both contradicting each other. " When rogues fall out," says the proverb. " honest men get their own;" and so the rival Governments, neither of whom had ever before consulted the people in the constitution of laws, now cast each its scheme at the feet of the multitude, and canvass for the popular suffrages. Lord Grey instructs the Governor, in a despatch which might have been worded by one Lord Howick of old, to consult the colonists, and the Governor fullils his instructions by telling the colonists that if they will only stand by his scheme, he will pass over the Minister's enactment altogether. Upon this issue we are called upon to speak. Complicated as the case stands, as above stated, it is rendered much more so by two coincident circumstances. Ist, the Home Government endeavoured to annex to their law a clause for charging the debt of £268,000 before alluded to, upon the general revenues of New Zealand ; and, 2nd, they have put in force the pasturage regulations of the old and delapidated New Zealand Company. Now before we venture upon any opinion of 'our own, it may be not uninteresting to take a short survey of the state of parties in the other settlements upon the point at issue; as far, at least, as we can collect them from the opinions of the public press. First, all parties appear equally dissatisfied with the Home legislation. Probably Sir George Grey's disgust must exceed that of the colonists, because the honor has been plucked from his hands which he hoped to have gained, of having unravelled the tangled skein of difficulties with which he found the Land question surrounded. All parties alike repudiate with indignation the attempt to saddle the Colonial Revenues with the New Zealand Company's debt. Secondly, all parties agree not only in hooting at the pasturage regulations issued by the Home Government, but in approving of those previously established by Sir George Grey in the colony. Thirdly, the Goverment party at Wellington have caused a memorial to be prepared for public signature, expressing the entire approval of the colonists in the whole of His Excellency's legislation, and, in accordance with the hint given by the Governor, praying him to proceed to act on the Local law and to ignore the Act of Parliament. On the other hand, fourthly, the Anti-Government party at Wellington disapprove of the Local Ordinance as much as of the Act, and have issued a plan of their own ; and they urge the Governor to restore his Pasturage Regulations, but not the Land Claimants' Ordinance; they wish the rest of the law to be left in abeyance, until an appeal can be made to the Home Government, and the law finally altered. And I they propose a plan of their own, a part of which is, that the colony should consent to pay 150,000/. (ft' the debt of the New Zealand Company, upon condi&bn of the whole management of the land beinj? given up to the Local Government. Now upon all these conflicting opinions it is not easy to give a clear judgment. But there are some points upon which we may venture to decide. And (1), it is almost unnecessary for us to say, —having been the first Journal in the colony to announce and to condemn the injustice of the proposal,—that the colony ought never to consent to pay one farthing of the debt of the Company. (2.) We cannot agree with His Excellency's proposal to proceed to act upon the

Local Ordinance, and to pass by the Act of Parliament. We speak diffidently upon this point, but there does appear to be some doubt whether it is competent to the Governor to exercise such a power. The question is one as to the validity of titles to land; and we doubt whether titles issued under the " Land Claiments' Ordinance" would be valid titles in law, as long as an Act of Parliament existed : and if the public have no confidence in the legality of the titles which the Governor proposes to issue, of course his whole object in persisting to act under the Ordinance is frustrated. Without therefore giving any opinion on the Ordinance itself, it would, we think, be most unwise to adopt the course suggested by his Excellency. But no such objection seems to stand in the way of the " pasturage" part of the question. The Pasturage regulations of the Home Government are not enforced on the colony by Act of Parliament —they are simply regulations previously existing, and said, in the opinion of the Home Government, to be still binding: and as the only reason for this opinion, as far as we can understand the question, is, that they are part of a contract between the Company (and therefore the Government as the Company's assigns) and the colonists ; and the colonists repudiate the contract, it follows the argument of the Home authorities so far falls to the ground. There does then appear no reason whatever why the Local Government should not levive and carry out the Pasturage Regulations established by law within the colony, wholly irrespective of the rest of the Land question. It would certainly be the wisest policy to restore the Government Pasturage Regulations, but to leave the rest of the" land question still unsettled until 7—when ? This brings us to the question of the policy the colonists ought to adopt for the future. The Government party will recommend the sanction of the Land Claimants' Ordinance by the Imperial Parliament. The Settler's Association at Wellington propose a plan of their own. We refrain from discussing both the Ordinance and the scheme of the Settlers' Association at Wellington. There is, however, an obvious objection to the latter: it is too long and complicated, and therefore unsuited to gain popular sympathy. The moment popular and unauthorized bodies begin to deal with the details of government and to propound schemes, they fight at a disadvantage ; they place it in the'power of their opponents, to attack the details of their schme, and so to detract the discussion from the principle at state. , Even in the House of Commons the impolicy of an Opposition introducing measures is admitted, and therefore Opposition usually contents itself with simple motions embodying the principle at issue. If the scheme of the Settlers' Association be good, the pi-oper place to discuss it would be in the parliament of New Zealand, when such shall exist. Almost all the great struggles which our days have seen, have been upon some simple intelligible principle, capable of description by a single word, —Catholic Emancipation,—Parliamentary Reform, —Repeal of the Corn Laws, —Emancipation of Slaves, —Repudiation of Convicts. Now is there not one great principle upon which we can all agree;—one which the very children in our schools can comprehend;—one which every man, woman, and child in the colony will unite to strive for? We mean —the Local Administration of the waste Lands of the colony ; New Zealand for the New Zealanders; the Colony for the Colonists. Why fritter away our energies in details when the principle itself is to be contested ? Why recommend methods of settling land questions, when our whole right to have anything at all to do with the land is disputed? Why complain of debts being settled on the estate, when the right of our property in the estate is denied? Is not tins a question in which all the settlements, and all the parties in all the settlements, will consent to lay aside their common differences, and to devote themselves to the common cause? Nay more, will not our Local Government in this one question consent to act in unison with the people ? Sir George Grey is almost pledged to do so. He at all events has as much reason as any one to detest the interference of the Home Legislature. His most cherished schemes have been destroyed by this meddling of the Home Government. Upon this one question we may have the satisfaction of acting in unison with our Government. Until this principle is settled, it is worse than hopeless to enter upon details; we shall be but playing at cross purposes with the Hume Government to the end of time. Once let the

land question be wholly given up to the colony, and who can doubt but that all difficulties will vanish, that the Parliament of New Zealand would soon find some method of equitably adjusting all differences, and satisfying all claims? When this is done, let the New Zealand Company bring its claim for payment to the Colonial Legislature; and who can doubt but that that claim would be fairly and impartially considered ; and that if a debt upon the colony can be fairly proved, that debt would be paid ? We do therefore most earnestly put it to our friends in the other settlements, whether the time has not arrived, as the only hope of putting an end to all these unfortunate difficulties which hang like an incubus over the energies of the Colony—the time for uniting all the Settlements in one common endeavour to rescue the waste lands of these islands from the gross mismanagement to which they have hitherto been subject, and to place them under the control of those alone who can manage them so as ensure ' the prosperity of the colony—the Local Legislature of the country. Those who love technicalities more than justice will object—these waste lands are the patrimony of the Crown of England. Be it so: but they are held in trust for the benefit of the people, and that is the reason why in late times, Parliament has assumed a control over them. If the waste lands are better managed, the colonies will flourish more, and the more the colonies flourish the more will they attract the superabundant population of the mother country to come and take possession of its inheritance. How then can the trust be better fulfilled ? And lastly, If the colonists in the settlements will consent to unite for this great common object, we do not believe the colonial office will long resist the demand. They are pledged to accede to it. The very Act of last Session when first brought into the House of Commons contained clauses for placing the management of the waste lands in the hands of the Governor-in-Chief. Mr. Gladstone and the Duke of Newcastle resisted those clauses as tending to put additional arbitary power into the hands of the Government, and the clauses were consequently withdrawn ; but the local principle was so far conceded by the Colonial office. But when the power of the Governor is properly limited by a Local Parliament, Mr. Gladstone's objection will no doubt be withdrawn. Once for all, we say it is of no use troubling ourselves with the question of how the waste lands are to be managed. Let us join to get the management transferred to the Colony ; we will then find out some mode of having them well managed.