Extract from a Letter from a London Firm to a Nelson Merchant.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 145, 14 December 1844, Page 163

Extract from a Letter from a London Firm to a Nelson Merchant.

" We do hope and believe that the time is now not far distant when New Zealand affairs will assume a very different aspect to that which they have borne for the last two years. The dreadful state of uncertainty and suspense to which all connected with your colony have of late been subjected is now fast passing away. A few weeks at most, and we shall know what the Government intend to do. The Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on New Zealand affairs has not yet been brought up, and of course* is not yet made public/ but enough has transpired to let us know that everything has gone most favourably both for the Company and the settlers; and never before was Teport presented to the house, couched in such strong and damnatory language of the actions of the Ministry and their tools, both here and in New Zealand, as the document in question. It wholly Condemns Hobson's attempt to build up new towns, either at Auckland or elsewhere; and advises that future Governors should be taught that it is their duty to fix their abode in the most populous part of a colony, and to govern people where they find them, without attempting to build up places of their own at the expense of other towns already existing. The Committee also express their conviction that the chiefs now claiming lands in the Company's settlements have no title whatever to them — that they are really the murderers of the former inhabitants of the districts they now claim — and that the New Zealand Company have a clear and undeniable right to all the land claimed by them under their agreement with Lord John Russell; and the Committee, think it a matter worthy of consideration whether the Company are not justly entitled to compensation for the serious losses they have already sustained. It is expected that the Report will be presented in about eight days hence, or probably less; and the Ministry are not likely to lose much time in disposing of a question which must prove so very disagreeable to Lord Stanley.- The Com*

pany are therefore now looking out for a fastsailing vessel, to despatch with full particulars the moment the business is settled. The vessel will be advertised, we believe, for the Ist t>f August, and will, if necessary, be kept waiting the Company's time afterwards. " London, July 15, 1844."