SPEECH OF THE GOVERNOR TO THE NATIVE CHIEFS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 136, 12 October 1844, Page 3

SPEECH OF THE GOVERNOR TO THE NATIVE CHIEFS.

Friends, chiefs, and elders — I salute you kindly. lam glad to meet you. I wish that you may enjoy peace and prosperity. My interest in your welfare is great and lasting. My heart's desire is to do you good. I am come here to talk to you about matters of great importance to yourselves ; and I have much to say. Have patience. The subject uppermost in my mind, as in your own, is that which has caused this meeting. About six weeks ago, the town of Kororarika was disturbed by a party of young men, headed by Hone Heke, who alarmed and insulted the inhabitants ; broke into and ransacked a house ; carried away a native woman, the wife of Mr. Lord ; and cut down the Government flag-staff. Had not the inhabitants been most peaceable and forbearing, lives might have been lost ; and then what would have been the consequence ? But, although no life was lost, thanks be to God ! and although there were circumstances tending to diminish part of the blame attached to Heke, there was undoubtedly much meaning attached to the act of cutting down the flag-staff, which it is my particular duty to notice seriously. The conduct of Heke and his party, while at Kororarika, was so unbearable that it obliged me to place soldiers there to prevent any repetition of such provoking annoyances.

I will now speak of the flag-staff, in itself worth nothing, a mere stick, but, as connected with the British flag, of very great importance. I have heard that Heke and a few others have said that the British flag has done them harm, and that it was for that reason they cut down the staff. I have also been told that some few persons have been suspicious of the British Government, and doubtful of our intentions. It is the existence of this feeling that I consider so injurious to your welfare; so necessary to be removed.

The more fully and openly it is discussed, the better. There is nothing to conceal or disguise. The more plainly we talk about this matter, the more thoroughly shall we remove those suspicions and doubts which have been raised in the minds of Heke and some others, by designing and wicked Europeans ; by persons who care not what disasters, what violence, what ruin may be brought on yourselves.

I do not blame Heke and those who acted with him nearly so much as those bad Europeans who poisoned his mind with their false and malicious assertions. I believe that Heke himself would take a very different view of the subject if he had heard the whole truth ; if he had heard all that I and others have to tell you openly — defying contradiction.

I will begin by reminding you that only thirty years ago you were wild barbarians, utterly unlike Christians — utterly uncivilized. I need not say more, for you well .know what you then were. A few ships visited your country, and your sad condition was told to good men in other parts of the world. Some few of those good men collected money from their frienda ; bought tools and clothes, and came to this land to teach you to be like themselves — to be Christians, knowing the way to salvation — civilized, peaceable, and happy—enjoying life in this world, and preparing for a better. Those good men had no other object in view. They were even thought very foolish by their countrymen for risking their lives, and, as it was ■aid, throwing away their existence among the most barbarous of the human race.

Those men were not then known. They were not heard of by the British Government till after they had been many years in this land. They never had any kind of connexion with the Govern* ment.

After those good men had taught you to behave kindly to strangers, many people came to trade with you, and among them came some bad men, whodid much harm. The mischief done by those

bad men was told to King William in a letter from yourselves.

The King of England sent Mr. Busby to stop such mischief, and send away the bad strangers : but Mr. Busby could not do so because he had not force to support his authority. About that time other great nations of the world began to think about New Zealand. Those great nations were France, America, and Russia. The ships of those nations are very numerous ; and their power is irresistible by those nations who have neither ships, guns, powder, nor shot of their own.

Formerly, European nations attacked and conquered countries inhabited by uncivilized men ; and, to their everlasting disgrace, killed multitudes of their men. But England acted differently. England determined to save and protect the inhabitants of New Zealand. King William, and after him Queen Victoria, have defended the New Zealanders. When King William was asked to send ships and soldiers to take away part of New Zealand by force, he refused, and said he would protect the natives of New Zealand and guard their lands. He would never allow those dreadful scenes to be repeated in New Zealand which had eternally disgraced other countries.

About this time the French prepared an expedition to this country; and to save the men of this land from such usage as might be feared from that nation — from such a fate as that which has since befallen Tahiti and the Marquesa Islands —to save them also from the acts of lawless Europeans who were settling in various parts of the country, the British Sovereign proposed to take New Zealand under the protection of that flag of which we have been speaking, the only security that could be effectual. Without such protection it was probable that the New Zealanders would soon be exterminated. In order to protect them effectually, he offered to make them a part of the great British family — the greatest nation in the world : to give them all the advantages of English laws ; but not to interfere with their own laws against their consent while affecting only themselves. His offers were accepted gladly by the greater number of the chiefs ; and the consequence has been that no one injures or molests them ; that their lands are secured to them ; and that they are perfectly free.

The British flag is the signal of freedom, liberty, and safety. That flag is esteemed sacred because it defends and protects us. In sharing its advantages with you we make you our brothers. We place you on equal terms with ourselves. Every advantage that we obtain from that flag is open to you, and we are instructing you how to make use of those advantages. Can we do more ? No.

But I have found that some of the regulations of the Government about ships, and goods brought in them, have been injurious ; have done harm to those who live near the Bay of Islands.

Being truly desirous of promoting the welfare of the settlers among you and yourselves, I have altered those regulations ; and you will, in future, be able to trade freely with all ships. You must remember that disturbances and bad conduct to Europeans make ships, settlers, and traders go to other places and forsake you. To keep them among yourselves, you should always treat them kindly ; never alarm them, but assist them when in trouble. Disturbances, insults, quarrels, or other annoyances must drive away even your best friends : and, if they were to leave you, must you not become destitute, wanting everything ? The Queen of England is the protector and defender of all who belong to her nation. She, by means of her Government, her soldiers, and her ships, protects their land, their property, and their lives. In order to enable her to protect your land against those who would buy more from you than you could spare, without distressing your children, an agreement was made at Waitangi that no land should be sold without the consent of the Queen. This was much for your advantage.

Let me now remind you of the immense sums of money subscribed for you every year in England ; for the support of your teachers ; for your instruction and improvement.

All this has been done for you without your being able to make any return for such disinterested exertions, except that of yearly progress in improvement.

It is necessary that I should tell you that some years ago the natives of Tahiti asked the King of England for his protection and assistance, but he refused to comply. He refused to join Tahiti to the great English family.

What has been the fatal consequence ? They hoisted their own flag, which was of no use to them ; and the French sent large ships full of soldiers, who have taken possession of the land after killing numbers, hundreds of the natives. The French have done the same at the Marquesa Islands; and, if it were not for the security you have in the brotherhood of England, they might do the same here.

Ask your oldest and most trusted friends about these things. Ask the oldest missionaries.

The guns, and powder, and shot, and clothes of the natives of these countries soon go ; and if men of war prevent more from coming, how can such powerful enemies be resisted for any length of time?

It made me very sad. It made my heart sick to be obliged to bring soldiers and war-ships here on account of bad conduct; but I cannot allow such behaviour or such insults as those of Heke to pass unatoned for. lam very desirous of acting in such matters in concert with the principal chiefs. I wish to consult with them on all important occasions. My wisffcis for peaceable measures, although I am prepared to act otherwise ; but with your help, under God's providence, we shall succeed in our object of restraining the ill-conducted and checking the bad men.

I have consulted about this matter of Heke's misconduct with several chiefs ; and he has written me a letter of apology about the flag-staff, and offered to put up another. I shall now only reSuire further that a certain number of grins- be elivered up as an atonement I Shall not demand many, because I only wish to mark the nature of his offence by a public acknowledgment ; not by any acquisition of property belonging to him or his friends. I shall therefore only require that ten guns be immediately given up to me, as atonement for the misconduct of Hone Heke.

EXTRACTS FROM APPENDICES TO THE TWELFTH REPORT OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY. AppßNnix A, No. 5. Mr. Hope to Mr. Somes. Sib — I am now directed by Lord Stanley to reply to your letter of the 29th of February, which has already been the subject of personal discussion with you, and also to your recent letter of the 2d instant. It is not Lord Stanley's intention to enter into or discuss the allegations made by you on behalf of the New Zealand Company in those letters (more especially in the first) as to past transactions between her Majesty's Government and the Company. He desires me merely to enter a decided protest on his part against being taken to acquiesce in several of the positions there laid down by you ; and, having done so, to direct your attention to what passed on the several occasions on which the personal communications between you and himself took place, to which you refer in your letter of the 2d instant.

I am directed by his lordship to remind you that the propositions contained in your letter of the 29th of February were the subject of discussion at two interviews — the one on the 14th ultimo, the other on the 27th ultimo, — at both of which yourself and Mr. Aglionby met the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Stanley; and that on those occasions his lordship and the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that, having maturely considered the propositions of the Company, they did not feel that her Majesty's Government would have any case which would justify them in recommending to Pailiament to sanction a loan of £100,000 on the security of the lands of the Company, whose circumstances did not seem to warrant such an intervention. They further observed that the whole advance of money made by the Company on their own account amounted only to £200,000; that on this the Company had received~and distributed in the shape of dividends no less than £44,000, exclusive of the sums laid out in very extensive establishments, both at home and in the colony ; that, exclusive of a claim to have confirmed to them the title to many hundred thousand acres of land, understood to have been purchased by them in New Zealand, the Company were in possession of assets (some of which, however, were not immediately available) to the extent of £42,000, while their debt did not exceed a similar amount ; and that there remained £100,000 of unpaid-up capital. To this it was answered, that that capital was pledged to the amount of the debt to the holders of debentures; and that, even were that not.the case, there would at present be great difficulty in calling it up, unless confidence were restored by a proof of good understanding with the Government. It was stated that, in the last two months, bills had been received drawn on the Company to the amount of £11,000; that it would probably be six months before Captain Fitzßoy's arrival in the colony would be made known ; and that, during those six months, bills might be expected to be drawn to the amount on an average of somewhat less than £5,000 per mensem; that the bills already received, though protested, had not yet been returned to the colony; and that their nonpayment would occasion the greatest difficulty to the settlers, on whose behalf the intervention of the Government was solicited.

It was on these distinct considerations that, while the Government absolutely rejected the proposals made by the Company, they expressed their readiness to receive a proposition from them, based on certain conditions, which were specified. It was requested that those conditions should be noted in a private and unofficial memorandum, to be communicated to the Directors; which was accordingly done the following morning. On the same day on which it was sent you (viz., on the 28th ultimo), Mr. Aglionby and yourself called on Lord Stanley, and requested to be authorized to assure the shareholders generally of the disposition of her Majesty's Government to cooperate cordially with them ; which assurance his lordship authorized to be given. On the 30th ultimo you called at the Colonial Office to communicate to Lord Stanley and the Chancellor of the Exchequer what had passed at the meeting of the shareholders, and to request that some words in the previous private letter might be altered, as appearing to give it the character of an official reply, which, if it were so, ought to be laid before the shareholders. Your request was at once complied with ; and it is not without extreme surprise that Lord Stanley now receives an official and laboured answer to that private note, expressing the regret of the Company — not that they are unable to make proposals on the basis suggested, bat that they cannot accept proposals which they assume to have been made by the Government, and adding some fresh propositions on a totally different basis. It is, however, with much more surprise that Lord Stanley now learns for the first time that which, to say the very least, was not avowed at the former interview — that the advance, if made by Government, would be of no benefit to the settlers; that all the evils against which it was asked to protect them are irremediable; that two months ago advices had been sent out throwing discredit on their bills ; and that in June next their agent would not only be without funds, but without credit. Her Majesty's Government cannot be responsible for such a state of things, now for the first time made known to them; nor can Lord Stanley understand on what ground the communication of the whole case was not made at the interview on the 27th ultimo; nor how, with a knowledge of these facts, which were not known to the Government, and also with a knowledge of the ultimatum of the Government as to the conditions pf the pe-

cuniary aid to be afforded, the Directors justify the expectations which they appear to have held out to their proprietors. Lord Stanley can only hope that Captain Fitzßoy, with whom there is now, according to the statement in your letter of the 2d instant, no time to communicate before the crisis arises, of which the Directors of the New Zealand Company have for two months been aware, will, on his own responsibility, take such steps as may be necessary, and within his power, for relieving the distresses which wul have been caused to the settlers by the act of the Company to whose protection they were entitled.

The whole of this correspondence will be immediately sent out to the Governor, with such directions for the benefit of the settlers as her Majesty's Government may deem expedient. ;.

Having already stated the full extent to which they were prepared to go in aid of the Company, they must decline the discussion of any further propositions until they Bhall have received from Captain Fitzßoy a report of the state of affairs on his arrival, and of the measures which he may have adopted in exercise of the discretion vested in him. I have the honour to be, &c, G. W. Hops. 1 Downing Street, April 4, 1844. —A, No. 6.— ■ Mr. Somes to Lord Stanley. My Lord — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Hope's letter of the 4th instant, and to inform your lordship that, in consequence of the lateness of the hour in the afternoon of that day at which it reached my hands, I was unable to lay it before my colleagues until our next weekly meeting on Thursday last, or to obtain their approval of this reply until to-day.

As in that letter your lordship declines to enter upon the matters of a public nature which formed the subject of my letters of the 29th February and 2d instant, we readily bow to your wish, that the correspondence on those points shall cease for the present ; but we are sure your lordship will not deny us an opportunity of self-defence against the imputations on our discretion and honour, of which Mr. Hope's last letter almost wholly consists. It is to these alone that I am now desirous of respectfully calling your lordship's attention.

In that letter Mr. Hope does not directly charge us with any breach of propriety or good faith ; but no third party could read the letter without drawing the inference and receiving a strong^ impression that we had incurred your lordship's censure by unworthy conduct in several particulars.

The first imputation conveyed by Mr. Hope's letter is that we bad been so wanting in what was due to your lordship and ourselves as to lay before the proprietors at their public meeting on the 29th March a communication which we had asked your lordship to make us unofficially for the private information of the Directors. To this accusation we reply that the first mention of a document to be communicated to the Directors unofficially was made by your lordship to Mr. Aglionby and myself on the 27th ultimo, and that on the following day, when Mr. Alderman Thompson and Mr. Aglionby accompanied me on a deputation and waited upon your lordship at your private residence, you not only distinctly authorized us to lay before the proprietors next day such parts of the document as we should think fit, but also expressly desired that any such communication of the views of the Government should be made in your own words.

We are further reproached with having made the private document in question the subject of laboured and official notice in my letter of the 2d instant. The statement is most correct ; but not so the injurious inference to which Mr. Hope's use of the words " private note " and " official answer " necessarily leads. When we first received the letter in question, it bore all the marks of an. ordinary official letter. Before we answered it, by far the greater part of its contents had been published with your lordship's permission, and had appeared in our printed report of the meeting of proprietors, and in the newspapers. It could no longer, therefore, be deemed by anybody a private document. But we are far from relying solely on this technical view of the subject, hqwever completely it justifies our having answered the letter in question. The nature of the suggestion which we received from your lordship absolutely compelled us to notice the document containing it. If we had adopted that suggestion (which was that the Company should, as if spontaneously, make new proposals to the Government), we might have abstained from mentioning the document in which the suggestion was made to us ; but if we declined it, it was impossible for us, in announcing our determination to your lordship, to avoid answering the letter in which alone it had been conveyed to us. This necessity arose out of the position in which we had not placed ourselves, but been placed by your lordship, when you desired that what was really an offer from the Government should appear as a new request from the Company to the Government. When this form of proceeding was proposed, it was probably not contemplated by your lordship that we might decline the suggestion. The suggestion itself was no longer confined to the knowledge of your lordabip and the Directors : it had been formally and publicly laid before the proprietors for their consideration : if, then, we declined it, we were bound to explain fully to your lordship on what grounds; and in doing this it was simply impossible for us to avoid giving our communications the form of an answer to Mr. Hope's letter of the 27th ultimo. The inference against our sense of propriety which arises from Mr. Hope's mode of stating

the facts, is supported by the further statement, that on the 30th ultimo I called at the Colonial Office, and requested that some of the words in the letter of the 27th" might be altered, " as appearing to give it the character of an official reply, and which, if it were so, ought to be laid before the shareholders." Whereas, the fact is, my lord, that our objection to the words afterwards struck out were originally made, not on the 30th, by me alone, and still less on the ground supposed by Mr. Hope, but on the 28th, by Mr. Aglionby, Mr. Alderman Thompson,* and myself; when, Mr. Hope not being preBent, we complained of the words in question on the ground of their conveying an implied censure of the Company, under which we could not remain silent, and of their being calculated, if ever they should be published, utterly to destroy that public confidence in cordial co-ope-ration between your lordship's department and the Company which you were desirous of promoting. In making this communication to your lordship, the deputation only complied with a written resolution which their colleagues had passed in the morning ; and our report to them of the interview with your lordship leaves no doubt that we objected to the words afterwards struck out, not, as Mr. Hope imagines, on the ground of their giving the letter an official character, and requiring that it should be laid before the proprietors, but on that of their offensive and hostile tone, which, if ever the official form of the letter should lead to its publication, would be no less fatal to your lordship's declared object than injurious to us. On the 30th instant, again, in compliance with a resolution passed by my colleagues, I had the honour to wait upon your lordship alone, and to request either that the letter of the 27th ultimo might be withdrawn (the unobjectionable part of it being returned to us in another form), or, that it might be marked " private," with a view of rendering its publication impossible. Your lordship at once complied virtually with both of the requests which I thus made as alternatives. You gave directions, first, that the letter should be rewritten, omitting the passages which had induced us to request that the whole might be withdrawn ; and, secondly, that the new- copy should be marked "private," though our sole motive for desiring that precaution was removed by the omission of the objectionable passages.

A heavier imputation is laid upon us by that statement of Mr. Hope's, from which the reader must infer that we wilfully concealed from your lordship for two months our knowledge of approaching disasters in New Zealand, and communicated it only when the time had gone by for the adoption of measures of prevention by the Government. A moment's reflection will show your lordship the injustice of this reproach. In relation to the ruin of our agent's credit in New Zealand, I communicated to your lordship no new fact in my letter of the 2d instant. I merely explained, by reference to dates, distances, and commercial usage, that at the time when I was writing (namely, the 2d of April) it had become impossible to prevent disastrous effects from the non-acceptance by the Company of those bills, which your lordship was informed, by a deputation from this body on the 17th February, that it was out of our power to accept. On that occasion I held the bills in my hand. The facts of their non-ac-ceptance, and of our inability to accept them, were made known to your lordship on that day ; and the inferences, which are unaccompanied by any new, statement of fact in my letter of the 2d instant^ were as open to your lordship's department as to ourselves. The fulness of the mere explanation which my letter of the 2d contained, was occasioned by the necessity of showing that your lordship's sole object in proposing to lend the Company £40,000 in April — that is, the prevention of disasters from the temporary ruin of our agent's credit — had become unattainable.

By Mr. Hope's letter, we are further accused of having held out to the proprietors expectations which we were not justified in entertaining. We are wholly unconscious of haying deserved this censure. We had not been informed that the suggestion conveyed by Mr. Hope's letter of the 27th of March was the ultimatum of the Government; and although your lordship's frankness and cordiality of manner towards the several deputations which had waited on you really induced us to hope that you would consent to some arrangement more efficient for the objects we had in view, than a temporary loan of £40,000 on the whole property of the Company, we nevertheless stated distinctly to the proprietors that other points remained unsettled which we deemed of more importance than that of pecuniary aid. It was not until we received the letter to which I am now replying that we imagined your lordship wished to put an end to the correspondence on those points.

"With respect to the mention in Mr. Hope's letter of the amount of dividends paid to the shareholders, and the extent of our establishments at home and in the colony, I beg leave to remind your lordship that the great bulk of those dividends was paid from the most legitimate ■ource, namely, realized profits from the sale of land, which we are satisfied would have continued to accrue if we had been permitted to carry out the objects of our incorporation by the Crown; that our establishments have been maintained for public purposes, such as surveys, public works, and the whole management of emigration, and on a scale, we will now add, of singular' moderation as respects the number and salaries of the* persons employed; and that into these, as into every other part of our conduct, we anxiously court the strictest scrutiny.

With an expression of our deep regret at the alteration of your lordship's tone towards us

since we declined the suggestion of the Government, as indicated in Mr. Hope's letter, I have the honour to be, &c, Joseph Somes, Governor. P.S. I beg leave to add that on this day, and after the above letter had been approved by my colleagues, we were, for the first time, informed by a depulation from the Directors of the Union Bank of Australia that, early in February, they sent out to New Zealand, by way of Sydney, notice of the non-acceptance of the bills presented to us on the third of that month. New Zealand House, 18th April, 1844.