EXTRACTS FROM APPENDICES TO THE TWELFTH REPORT OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, 28 September 1844, Page 1

EXTRACTS FROM APPENDICES TO THE TWELFTH REPORT OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

Appendix H, No. 15. Memorial by the late Captain Arthur Wakefield R.N., to Earl Minto, first Lord of the, Admiralty .' February 28th, 1837. My Load — Returning the other day to England, after passing three years on a foreign station as senior lieutenant of H.M.S. Thunderer — having spent nearly twenty-seven years in his Majesty's service, nearly twenty-five years in active employment, and upwards of twenty years on foreign stations, including two years and a half on the coast of Africa, — the first intelligence I received was of a coming general promotion, and the next that twenty-five lieutenants, sixteen of them my juniors, and five of the latter serving on the station which I had just quitted, have obtained the rank of commanders, whilst I remain a lieutenant of sixteen years' standing. Since then I have been led to entertain a hope that, as has unavoidably happened before on similar occasions, my exclusion from the recent promotion may have occurred through accidental oversight; for which, however, I take blame to myself alone, because, wholly occupied by the service, I have perhaps neglected to bring my claims fully to your lordship's notice. In truth, my lord, during a period of active service, with which that of few officers of my age will bear comparison, I have never been in the habit of making applications to your lordship or your predecessors, but have, as a principle or rule of conduct deliberately pursued, sought promotion by one means only, namely, fagging at the hard work of the profession, trusting always that in time a claim to notice would be established, such as could not but have effect with the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, even though unsupported by solicitations from myself or my friends.

In the hope then, that, provided my only claim to advancement, services and character, had been sufficiently expressed in due time, I should at least have been included in the recent promotion, I would now respectfully petition that the oversight of those claims may be remedied, by my being placed according to seniority amongst my brother officers, who have been recently thought worthy of his Majesty's favour. In May, 1810, at ten yean of age, I entered his Majesty's service, on board the Nisus frigate, commanded by Captain Philip Beaver, who was an old and intimate friend of my father's. I served on board the Nisus until May, 1814, having been present at the capture of the Isle of France and Java, under Sir Albemarle Bertie and Sir Robert Stopford. At Java, I was taken on shore by Captain Beaver, and was present when the breaching batteries sustained a heavy cannonade from Fort Cornells.

After Captain Beaver's death, in April, 1813, the Nisus was commanded by Captain Charles M, Scomberg, whose good opinion I am well known to have enjoyed until his death. In May, 1814, when the Nisus was paid off, I immediately joined the Hebrus frigate, Captain Edmund Palmer, under whom I served until December, 1816, when the ship was paid off. Under Captain Palmer I served as his aide-de-camp in the expedition which resulted in the capture of Washington, and at the affair of Blandensburg had the good fortnne to secure one of three flags taken from the enemy. I entered Washington close to Sir George Cockburn and General Ross, when the General's horse was shot under him. I had the honour to be mentioned in Sir George Cockburn's despatch, descriptive of this expedition. Immediately after this expedition, being then fourteen years of age, I was put in charge of a prize of 280 tons burden, and took her from Chesapeake Bay to Bermuda. Having rejoined the Hebrus, I was present in her at the bombardment of Algiers, in 1816, under Lord Exmouth, and remained- in her until she was paid off in December, 1816. Captain Palmer's opinion of me is testified by various letters and certificates; and I enjoyed his warmest friendship until the day of his death.

In December, 1816, 1 passed my examination in navigation, two years before my age enabled me to qualify for the rank of lieutenant.

In March, 1818, 1 joined the Queen Charlotte, Captain Thomas Briggs, bearing the flag of Sir George Campbell, and, in July, 1819, was removed into the Superb, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Thomas M. Hardy, with whom I served until July, 1821. Daring Sir Thomas Hardy's exercise of diplomatic and consular functions in South America, I had the honour to be selected to attend upon him as flag midshipman. Although it was with a view to my immediate promotion that I had been removed from the Queen Charlotte to the Superb, at the especial desire of Lord Melville, then first Lord of the Admiralty, expressed to Sir George Cockburn whilst holding in his hand the Gazette Extraordinary containing Sir George's despatch relative to^tw expedition to Washington, I was not advaneajyß| the rank of lieutenant until the partial promonmr of February, 1821. I served as lieutenant on board the Superb until she was paid off in June, 1822.

At. this time, when his Majesty George ore Fourth rrcafe to ScoUmml, fey oca, Lord St. Vincent, who honoured me with his kindest regards, was desirous that I should accompany him as his aide-de-camp, when he waited upon the King at Greenwich, and was alone prevented from fulfilling his intention by some official objection to his being so attended on board the Royal yacht. Consequently, I accompanied his lordship no further than to Greenwich.

In January, 1823, 1 was appointed to the Brazen, Captain George W. Willes, under whom I served until September, 1826, on the South American Channel and African stations. During six months of the Brazens service in the Channel, twenty-one smugglers were taken and convicted, and smuggled goods captured to a large amount. On the coast of Africa, 900 slaves were taken ; and I had the satisfaction of taking 420 of them, when in command of the ship's boats, from a Spanish vessel of four guns and forty-eight men, the crews of the boats amounting only to twenty-five, and the vessel being nine miles distant from the Brazen.

In the following month of September, the commander of the Conflict having invalided, Commodore Bullen was pleased to appoint me to the command of that brig, which I held till she was paid off in February, 1828 ; having, during this command, captured two slave-ships loaded with goods (of the estimated value of £40,000), for the purchase of slaves, and actively engaged in the traffic. With respect to my services throughout the, above five years, I hold the strongest testimonials from my commanding officers, Admiral Bullen and Captain Willes.

In June, 1828, upon the application of Sir Eaton Travera) I was appointed senior lieutenant of the Rose, in which I served on the Cape of Good Hope and North.American station until January, 1830, when her commander was promoted and superseded by Commander J. G. Dewar, vrho was drowned on the coast of Labrador in August, 1830. The Commander-in-Chief, Sir Edward Colpoys, was then pleased to appoint me to the temporary command of the Rose, which I held until I had completed the execution of Commander Dewar's orders [for the protection of the fisheries in the Gulph of St. Lawrence, when I was superseded by my junior officer, Commander W. Pilkington.

Sir Edward Colpoys, however, after expressing his regret at this circumstance, took me into his flag-ship, where I served a great part of the time as senior lieutenant, until Sir Edward's death— thus losing the prospect of that promotion, which, if he had lived, the senior lieutenant of his flagship might have expected, and which, on that account, is so frequently bestowed on senior lieutenants of flag-ships when their friend in command happens to die on a foreign station.

After the death of Sir Edward-Golpoys, I continued to serve as first Lieutenant of tie Winchester, under Captain Wellesley, until she was paid off in June, 1833. With respect to my services during^the above period of nearly three years, I have the honour to refer your lordship to the enclosed testimonials from Captain Wellesley.

In October of the same year (1833), I was appointed first lieutenant of the Thunderer, Captain Wise, underjnrhom I served in that ship on the Mediterranean station until the present month of February, when she was paid off. With respect to my services during the above period of more than three years, I have the honour to refer your lordship to the enclosed testimonials from Captain Wise.

Upon three occasions I have jumped overboard after drowning men, firstly at Halifax, in February, 1830, in very severe weather, when I assisted Mr. George Starr, the purser of the Rose, who had also jumped overboard, in rescuing a corporal and private of marines ; and again at Halifax, in 1832, when, although I picked up the man before he had been two minutes in the water, life was unfortunately extinct; and, lastly, at Voosla, in 1834, whea I had the satisfaction of saving a life. It happened on the two former of these occasions that I was the commanding officer at the time ; and, as no report was made of the circumstances, in all probability they would still have remained unknown to your lordship, if I had not been impelled by my present feelings to overcome a natural repugnance to speaking of myself in this memorial. The above statement is not the only proof that I can adduce of that devotion to the service, and those professional qualifications- on which alone I rest a claim to your lordtbip't consideration. Be-

sides the most constant attention to the brdinary duties of every appointment that I have filled, and having performed for a long while, as senior lieutenant of a large ship, those arduous and responsible duties which are held to qualify for the situation of commanderjt'of a line-of-battle ship, I can safely declare (and the fact ought to be known to your lordship) that I have paid especial attention to the management and discipline of men : and to show with how much success, I would mention the circumstance that, hi the short space of nine days, tine Winchester was dismantled and paid off, without >an accident • during the dismantling, or an irrecularity, or the omission of a single formality ; anafthat, on the recent occasion of paying off the T&imderer>t Plymouth, with a crew of 600 men, us or irregularity occurred, although JEnng ten days of that disorganizing process, the •jjjjlp was without marines, and had no other than blue-jacket sentries. Moreover, the few hours that I have been able to steal from the most active routine duties, have "till been occupied with my profession ; as some proof whereof I venture to remind your lordship that my invention for the " imitation of shot practice " has been so far adopted by his Majesty's Government, as to be in full use on board the Excellent, " trial gunnery ship," at Portsmouth ; that Sir Josias Rowley, the Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, after witnessing and approving my invention for facilitating the fishing of anchors with a double hook, officially submitted the same to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and that this improvement has been in constant use during the last two. years on board the greater part of the Mediterranean squadron. Lastly, I have hot made holiday' even when not in actual employment; for the brief periods which I have spent on shore, amounting altogether to but little more than two years out of twenty-seven in the service, were employed in a thorough examination of the French naval arsenals of St. Servan, L'Orient, Brest, and Cherbourg, and 1 in acquiring, always with a view to my profession, a familiar knowledge of French and Spanish — the two foreign languages of which the use is most frequently required by a British naval officer.' Indeed, my lord, I have become a stranger to my family ; I have no home but in the service ; no tie, or enjoyment, or wish, or serious thought, apart from it; nor any hope, consequently, except in your lordship's justice, of that distinction which 1 1 know not how to seek, otherwise than by respect- 1 I fully asking your lordship to reconsider whether I have deserved it. I have the honour, &c, (Signed) Arthur Wakefield.

Committee to Inquire into the Affairs or New Zealand. — The following is the committee appointed on the 30th of April, to inquire into the affairs of this colony : — Mr. Aglionby, Lord Francis Egerton, Viscount Howick, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. George William Hope, Mr. Robert Clive, Mr. Hawes, Sir Robert Harry Inglis, Viscount Ebrington, Mr. Charteris, Sir John Hanmer, Mr. Milnes, Viscount Jocelyn, Mr. Roebuck, and Sir. Wilson Patten.

The New Pbnai System in Van Dismbn's Land. — Lord Stanley deserves the credit in this instance, if not of inventing, of sanctioning and taking the responsibility of, a system perfect in it* kind. In so far as the colonists are concerned, he has left them exposed to all the disadvantages inflicted upon a settlement by being converted into a great gaol or penitentiary— a kind of moral dunghil upon which the mother country is to throw all crime that has become too rank to be longer endured at home ; and he has, at the same time, effectually prevented them from deriving any of the counterbalancing advantages from the presence of convicts among them which their predecessors enjoyed. In so far as the penal law of the empire is concerned, he has contrived to combine the maximum of suffering on the part of the criminal with the minimum of public example. The system is perfect in its kind—a perfect cqput mortuum of good— potent for evil. When Lord Stanley's character as a Statesman comes to be summed up by some future historian— when full justice is done to his colonial achievements, to his crippling of the West India colonies for want of labour, to his mischievous interference in the destinies of Canada, to his poor and purblind thwarting of the development of the resources of New Zealand, to his utter neglect of the Cape, harassed by a savage border banditti— it is to be hoped that the laurelleaf due for his kindred achievements in penal legislation may not be withheld from him. — Cbhnial Gazette.

We read in the Courrier Francait :— " We have been assured that the question of the right of search is! arranged with England, and that, the Ministry of October 29 keeps the news in reserve, in order to make use of it in. case' of urgency. According to this arrangement, France is to be at liberty to let the treaties fall into desuetude, by abstaining from renewing the warrants of the cruisers." V Bbidoswatbb Canai. — Preparations are making for carrying ou an extensive trade in salt between the mines at Norwich, in Cheshire, and the Port of Hull, through the medium of the Manchester and Leeds, the Leeds and Selby,andthe Selby and Hall Railways. This communication, it is said, is to b6 completed by converting the Duke of Bridgewater's canal, which was constructed about the year 1760, under the direction of Mr. Brindley, the engineer, into a line of raitaty.from the salt-mines to Manchester, to join the railways passing eastwards and communicating -With tne German Ocean.— l*erfr Aferacry,- :" , ; ,;