THE GOVERNOR AND THE LAND CLAIMS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 148, 4 January 1845, Page 173

THE GOVERNOR AND THE LAND CLAIMS.

[From the New Zealand Spectator."]

If, to infringe acts of Parliament, to trample upon ordinances of the Local Legislature, to treat with utter contempt the repeated instructions of the Home Government, if, in short, to substitute hU own will and caprice for all laws, be the principal or the only qualification for the office of Governor, then it must be admitted that Cuptain Fitz Roy is pre-eminently qualified for the office he holds, and that of all Governors he is facile princeps. The penny proclamation has already afforded us an opportunity of doing some justice to the adventurous spirit displayed by his Excellency in his crusade against the laws, whether of the Imperial or the Local Legislature ; but, as our duty has compelled us to advert to his administration in terms of censure oftener than of praise, he might impugn our partiality, if we did not call public attention to the bold and efficient manner in which he has burked the Land Claims Ordinance.

By the ordinance passed on the 9th June, 1841, in accordance with the instructions of Lord John Russell, and confirmed by the Home Government, the maximum grant of land which the commissioners were under any circumstances authorized to make, was 2,560 acres. Captain Hobson, in February, 1842, repealed this ordinance and enacted another, in which no limitation was put upon the size of the grants. Lord Stanley, in a long and able despatch, dated December, 1842, censures Captain Hobson severely for having, by repealing the ordinance of 1841, acted contrary to liis instructions, alludes to the evils attending the accumulation of land in new colonies, in the hands of persons without capital or the means of introducing labour, and then proceeds — " By the ordinance of 9th June, 1841, which has been assented to by her Majesty, this evil (the accumulation of land) is guarded against by the limitation to 2,560 acres, beyond which no grant enn be claimed. This re«triction the ordinance now under consideration abandons, and placing no limit upon the size of the grant which each claimant may require, might prove the means of exposing New Zealand to those evils which have resulted in other colonies from throwing large and unmanageable grants into the hands of individuals unable profitably to use them. What the extent of this danger may be in the present instance, it is impossible, from the imperfect state of my information, to calculate; but when I see it officially reported that nearly 900 claims had been already lodged, involving demands for not less than 20,000,000 acres, I cannot think that it would be prudent in her Majesty's Government to dispense with the direct and wholesome check upon the undue acquisition of land which the former ordinance had imposed, and which from the earliest proclamations the settlers must have been led to expect. I feel, therefore, no doubt as regards the interests of the colony at large, that they will be best consulted by reverting to the ordinance of June, 1841. Under such circumstances, I need hardly observe that it became my duty to advise her Majesty to disallow, and her Majesty is accordingly pleased to disallow, this ordinance (of February, 1842). It follows, that you will be guided in future by the provisions of the enactment of June, 1841, which will of course be revived by the disallowance of the act which repealed it." So writes Lord Stanley, but of what importance is it to Captain Fitzßoy, who by his ransom of the British flag at the Bay of Islands, by his abolition of the-customs, by his reversal of Mr. Spain's decision at Taranaki, by his penny proclamations, has virtually admitted that he is Governor of these islands by Maori sufferance alone, whether her Majesty be pleased to allow or disallow ordinances ? We suspect that the details of the transaction which we are now called upon to expose, will convince Lord Stanley that it is a work of supererogation on his part to write despatches to our present Governor, or at all events that her Majesty's Government would do well to send their instructions through Hone Heki, or some other of those " highly-intelligent chiefs," to whose merits and tomahawks his Excellency yields such implicit obedience.

Captain Hobson, when he wished to get rid of the inconvenient maximum, repealed the ordinance imposing it, and enacted another which contained no such provision. This, however, was acting according to law. Captain Fitzßoy allowed the ordinance to remain, but requested the commissioners, in their awards, to pay no attention to the limitation put by it upon the size of the grants. The commissioners, however, not having arrived at " that elevated position " from which so many curious things are ice-n, and from which acts of Parliament and local enactments are viewed as so much waste paper, having apparently some absurd and antiquated notions of the respect due to the instructions of the Home Government, refused to violate the ordinance. Captain Fitzßoy then took the responsibility upon himself, and proceeded to give grants far exceeding, in numerous instances, the maximum Of 2,560 acres. But his kind consideration has not stopped here, for^ he has not obliged the parties to whom these grants are made to take their land in the district where their claims existed, or to take any land at all, but he has allowed them a credit at the Treasury fdr as many pounds as theyhavehtrd acres-granted ito. [them. . • ' • „ . j • .. , j This credit was issurcl ji.nder the name of Land Scrip, and was im'toe'diaYeiy" hawked about Auckißintfor sale, like my oihez article of merchandise.

It was sold willingly at the rate of 2s. the one pound ; in many instances for less : and we know that in some cases it was actually parted with in the public houses for a pot of beer. At the Government land sales, the holders of this scrip are enabled to bid for any land that may be put up, their scrip, purchased at the price just stated, being by the Government at these sales deemed equivalent to a pound sterling — so that an acre of land, which on the face of the report would appear to have been sold for £20, in reality cost the purchaser just so many shillings or pots of beer. Besides, instead of the Government receiving the large sums of money reported to be realized at the land sales, not one farthing by this system is ever paid into the public Treasury. But mark the position in which those parties are placed, who, having purchased land in England, and paid their money into the Land Fund there, bring out a letter of credit for the amount upon the Auckland Treasury. j They find that their competitors at the land sales are the Auckland settlers who have purchased the scrip at the prices above mentioned ; so that while they are bidding their pounds sterling (already paid), the scrip-holders are bidding their shillings and pots of beer — in other words, the pound of the purchaser in England has to compete with, and goes no further than, the pot of beer of the Auckland settler. The obliquity of Caytain Fitz Roy's views and feeling is such, that he may possibly be able to reconcile this with his principles of justice ; but, we ask, will Lord Stanley and the Lnnd Emigration Commissioners at home consent to be made parties to such a fraud? We confess ourselves unable to discover the reasons which have induced Captain Fitzßoy thus to violate the main provision, thesme qud non with Lord Stanley, of the Land Claims Ordinance. We are not aware that Honi Heki ever expressed his disapproval of it. We cannot for one moment imagine that the missionaries in the north considered 2.5G0 acres too small " a slice " to recompense them for their labours of love and Christian charity, for we still remember and appreciate the moderation displayed by the head of the Church Mission (now a venerable Archdeacon), when he only claimed one solitary acre as his slice of our town. We cannot suppose that the support of any portion of the Auckland press has been deemed worth such a price, by one so callous to public opinion as Captain Fitzßoy professes himself to be. It cannot be that the temptation to indulge in that spirit of favouritism, which has been the curse and ruin of so many colonies, has proved too strong for that delicate sense of honour, for those high, moral, and religious principles, which his Excellency seems to claim as his peculiar attributes. Still less can it be that the disciple par excellence of Bright and Cobden, after having allowed Honi Heki and hii associates to resume a free trade in their female slaves, should wish to establish for himself a monopoly in jobbing, bribery, and corruption. Be, however, the reasons what they may, the effects of this violation of the ordinance are as evident to all as they are manifestly injurious to the be»t interests of the colony, but more especially of Auckland. By these improvident grants, the whole of the best and most available land near Auckland has been disposed of, so that even if the penny proclamation had never been issued, no Jand would have remained /or sale by the Government. The land revenue is thus completely annihilated. All immigration, whether of capitalists or labourers, is effectually prevented; and all those expenses of surveys, land claims commission, public works, aborigines, &c, amounting according to the estimate for the present year to £10,510, which are chargeable upon this land fund, must now be defrayed out of the general revenue ; that is to say, the settlers must be further taxed tojthe amount of £10,510, to meet the deficiency occasioned by his Excellency's destruction of the land revenue. The depreciation in the value of land caused by this reckless prodigality in granting, must prove ruinous to all those who purchased two or three years ago upon the faith of the stability of the land regulations ; for, judging by the price current of the scrip, the value of an acre near Auckland may be stated to vary from 2s. to a pot of beer. We forbear commenting at length upon these transactions, because we have every reason to believe that the Caledonia will bring out such intelligence as will have the effect of upsetting all Captain Fitzßoy's proceedings, and will leave his Excellency no other course but to retire from an office, the duties of which he has proved himself utterly incompetent to discharge. Such intelligence, we venture to assert, will be hailed by every- settler in these islands as the glad tidings of our salvation. The Universal Magazine of Leipsic states from Rome, that it is proposed by the Papal Court to create in the East Indies a " filial central establishment for the propogation of the faith." • The National announces the death at Haxheitn, near Landau, of the Israelite Salomon Herz Levi, born in the year 1735, and consequently 109 years of age, in the full possession to the last moment of all his intellectual faculties. His funeral was attended by flighty- one of his descendants, grandchildren and great grandchildren. A daughter aged seventy-three wept over g the coffin of her deceased parent. The Emperor of Russia has issued an ordonnance suppressing, upon the European frontier 6f bis dominions, the duty hitherto levied upon I the importation of horses.