DESPATCH FROM LORD STANLEY TO GOVERNOR FITZROY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 178, 2 August 1845, Page 87

DESPATCH FROM LORD STANLEY TO GOVERNOR FITZROY.

Downing Street, 30th November, 1844. Sir— Although I am led to believe that no long period will elapse before I receive further intelligence from you, yet I am unwilling to let the New South Wales mail go, without adverting, in detail, to the many important subjects brought under my notice by your Despatch. No. 12, of the 15th of April, which has received all the consideration to which the gravity of the questions discussed in it justly entitle it. I am happy at the outset of what I have to address to you, to be enabled to convey to you my general approbation of the course which you appear to have adopted, and of the tone which you have taken in reference to the various subjects by which, on your arrival, you found the community distracted. Ido not refer to single expressions here or there, in your intercourse with Europeans or with natives, to which perhaps exception might be taken ; but to the strong cause of justice, and the earnest desire of reconciling differences by an effectual and authoritative mediation, which appear to have influenced your conduct: to the boldness and promptitude with which you have promulgated and enforced your views, and met by decided measures the emergencies of your embarrassing position.

If, in these circumstances, you have been compelled to overstep the letter of your instructions, I find sufficient vindication for your course in the necessity for prompt and efficient action, and in the impossibility, within a reasonable period, of obtaining my sanction to your proceedings. When her Majesty's Government selected you to fill a very laborious, responsible, and ill-remunerated office in a very distant colony, they were fully aware that the discharge of your duties would be impossible, unless the largest discretion were left to you ; and they felt they had the best guarantee for your conductin your high personal and public character, and in your peculiar fitness, at that time acknowledged by all parties most interested, for the post which was assigned you. On your arrival you found a very general dissatisfaction prevailing on the long-agitated question of titles to land : jealousies between one part of the colony and another : discontent on the part of the emigrants sent out by the New Zealand Company against the Government, the Company, and the natives ; and alarming animosities between the settlers and the aborigines in the southern districts, recently raised to the highest pitch by the melancholy catastrophe at Wairau. In this state of things you very properly decided to interpose your personal influence and authority, and to proceed at once to the quarter in which the greatest excitement prevailed; and I think you were right in taking the earliest opportunity of explaining to the British settlers the views which you entertained, however much they might be at variauce with their preconceived opinions. lam happy to learn from you that the temporary irritation, not unnaturally caused by the first announcement of your sentiments, had shortly subsided ; and I trust that no subsequent events have occurred to interfere with or interrupt the amicable and equitable arrangement into which you entered with Colonel Wakefield, entirely in accordance with the understanding come to with myself and with the New Zealand Company previous to your departure from England.

I am happy to find that the anticipations have been confirmed which I expressed in my despatch of the 13th of August, that you would discourage any exorbitant demands upon the settlers ; and I congratulate you on the successful result of the firm stand which you appear to have made in the conferences from the 24th to the 27th of February, against the unreasonable demands of the natives ; which I trust has led to a settlement satisfactory to all parties.

I have read with the deepest interest your report of the conference which you held at Waikanai, on the 12th February, with the chiefs Te Rauparaha and Ranghiaiata, in the presence of the Chief Police Magistrate and other Europeans, and of a large concourse of natives. The decision which you had to take was one of great difficulty. On the one hand, a large number of the Queen's subjects had been put to death in a conflict with the natives, and some of them, I am afraid, it is too clear, after the conflict had ceased ; and I am well aware of the force of the argument (as well as of the additional force which it would derive from tne natural feelings of the European community, excited by so tragical an event), that to overlook such an offence against the laws, and to abstain from subjecting the offenders to the vigour of justice, must tend to shake British authority and to encourage further aggression and outrage. On the other hand, the straightforward narrative addressed to you by Rauparaha himself, and the account of certain circumstances preceding the affray by Mr. Tuckett (which you enclose), confirm in the strongest manner all the previous evidence tending to show that the unhappy event was mainly caused by the imprudence, to say the least of it, of those who were its victims; that the natives' entertained a belief that the land in question had never been sold by those to whom it belonged ; that the settlers persisted in surveying it, although they knew that resistance would be made ; that the natives were willing to refer the whole case to the Commissioner, for whose arrival the Company's agents would not wait ; that in destroying the branch hut erected by the surveyors, the natives believed (and I am not sure that they incorrectly believed) that they were legitimately resisting a trespass ; that they studiously abstained from injury to persons or property, and removed the yoods of the surveyors before they set fire to the hut ; that, under such circumstances, the charge of arson was one which it would have been very difficult to support even according to the strictest construction of law; that to attempt on such grounds to arrest and handcuff a proud and warlike chief in the midst of his own people, without au overwhelming force, was an act of the greatest rashness; that the couflict wus not sought by the natives; that the first shot was not fired by them, nor the first blood shed by them ; and that the prisoners, though brutally, were slain in the fiftt moments of excitement, before passions had had time to cool. These appear to have been the j facts of the case ; and, on a full and deliberate view of them, bearing in mind also that the capture and trial of the chiefs could not have been effected without further bloodshed; that, in the excited state of the public mind, an impartial trial

could hardly have been hoped for; and that judicial proceedings commenced af(er such a lapse of time could only have had the effect of reviving and aggravating the animosities existing between the two races, and rendering future amicable relations more difficult ; lam of opinion that, in declining to make the conflict at Wairau the subject of criminal proceedings, you took a wise, though undoubtedly a hold decision ; and I trust that the lenity of your course, accompanied by the warning which you gave to the assembled natives, will produce a better effect than an attempt to enforce, to the utmost the severity of British criminal law. I see no reason to disapprove your acceptance of the resignation of the magistrates who signed the warrant for the apprehension of Rauparaha. In reference to the appointment of Mr. D. Sinclair, as Chief Police Magistrate, and of two other gentlemen to support him, I defer my expression of opinion till I shall be in possession of further despatches, which you lead me to expect ; generally speaking, I am disposed to place the fullest confidence in your selection of gentlemen to. fill the various offices essential to carrying on your administration ; and I feel that you must, ou the spot, have much better meana of judging oi the relative fitness of individuals, candidates for employment. On the subjects of the new appointments which you have felt yourself called on to make, I am in communication with the Lords Commissioners, of her Majesty's Treasury ; and when I shall be in possession of their lordships' views, I will not de-> lay the issue to you of further instructions.

I have brought under the notice of the Lords of the Admiralty the high terms of commendation in which you speak of the services rendered to you by Captain Sir Everard Home.

I entirely approve of the language held by you to the chiefs in the neighbourhood of Auckland, at the meeting which you summoned at Government House, in reference to the rescue of a native prisoner ; and I think that the observations made, and the temper displayed by the chiefs, are well calculated to refute the erroneous impression which would stigmatize the New Zealanders as savages ; and to encourage those who, like myself, entertain a sanguine hope that in New Zealand may be set the first example of an uncivilized race peaceably incorporated with an European population, and subjected to our laws by no other compulsion than that of equal justice and firm moderation, and without any sudden disruption of their own social ties, or any violent interference with their native usages. I now proceed to the discussion of those parts of your despatch which treat of the steps which you had already taken, and those which you contemplated, in reference to the possession and occupation of land— the subject of all others the most deeply interesting, because it lies at the root of all the evils which have hitherto agitated New Zealand ; and its early and satisfactory adjustment is of primary importance to the wellbeing, if not to the existence, of the colony. With these opinions, I conceive the surprise and regret which you have expressed on finding upon your arrival that not one single Crown grant had been issued for country lands ; that the boundaries of claims were in but few cases sufficiently defined to enable a grant to be made ; and that at least one year's active investigation remained to be gone through on the part of the Land Commissioners.

In notifying to you my approval of this arrangement, I must at the same time observe that you do not state whether in your opinion the delay which has occurred in issuing the title deeds, after investigation of the claims before the commissioners (and which must have caused much inconvenience and injury to the settlers), has been owing to any remissness on the part of the officers of Government. If such be your opinion, you will not fail to make knowa to those concerned the serious light in which her Majesty's Government look upon such a dereliction of an important duty.

I approve generally of the measures which you have adopted for enabling persons in possession of larje tracts at a distance to dispose of them to the Government, making the orders for payment receivable as, purchase-money at sales by auction of land in the neighbourhood of Auckland. This plan, Iti'leed, is somewhat similar to that whic?i was noticed in my despatch, of 21st August, 1843, and approved, except a3 to one decall, which is now' corrected.

There is, however, one part of the present measure which would appear to call lor explanation. [ By fie third clause of the published Regulations' it is decluved that the land which h Uken in exchange must be surveyed by the Govemraent, but it is not stated whether the survey is to be at the Government exppn&e. It is very proper that the Crowa should have the means of ascertaining t':e quantity and value of the land tendered in exchange, and this probably could only be named with uccuracy through the means of a Government surveyor. But, as the exchange is chiefly for tha benefit of individuals, it would appear to be ooly fair they shouM bear the expense of the survey and it is possible this may be intended, but I do not understand the regulations, as at present worded, to convey any such meaning. 1 would therefore direct your attention, to the subject, -with the view of providing for the expense of the survey of lands surrendered by the Crown. Among the questions connected with, laud which Lave engaged the anxious attention of. the Government and of yourself, there are none more intricate and embarrassing than those which relate to the settles under the New Zealand Company. With regard to the claims of the Company itself, it may be safely assumed that they have claims upon ihe waste lands of the Crowa lyhjg within a certain district, to a certain number of acres, to. be taken in blocks of certain defined shapes and dimensions, and to be selected within a limited period. , The main difficulty in complying with and holding the Company to the strict fulfilment of the letter of these engagements, is thut of ascertaining what are the waste lands of the Crown. There is no doubt that, at the time of entering into the required undertaking, it wss believed that there was an immense tract of territory, the claims to which had been previously obtained by fair purchase on the part of the Company, or to wliicii no one could assert a valid c!aiui. But subsequent experience seems to show that much more land than was supposed.is owned in New Zealand, according to titles well understood, either by some individual*, or at all events by some tribes, and that of the vest amount sup-

posed to have been purchased by the New Zealand Company previous to their application to her Majesty's Government, they would experience insuperable difficulties, not in substantiating their own claims (from the necessity of doing which they had been relieved by my instructions to yourself, of the 26th June, 1843), but in disproving the claims of other parties, even to the extent awarded them by Mr. Pennington, amounting to little more than one-twentieth of the land assumed by them in their first negotiations to have beenvalidly purchased. This being the case, lam of opinion that, so far as the Company are concerned, the concessions already made by her Majesty's Government are most liberal. But I admit that the settlers under the Company, who have embarked their fortunes in the purchase of land, and have emigrated to the colony on the faith of a title to be obtained through the Company from the Crown, and who have been subjected to such severe privations and disappointments, have a legitimate claim upon the consideration of the Executive. It was, lam aware, with (his feeling that you entered into, and it is on this ground alone that I could sanction, the agreement which you made on the 27th of February with the Agent of the New Zealand Company, in the expectation of the immediate arrival of a body of Scotch settlers, who, but for that interposition on your part, would "have found themselves, had they executed their original intention, absolutely unprovided for, and without an acre of land to establish themselves. The difficulties of the New Zealand Company were fortunately made public before this body of settlers embarked ; but, under expectation of their immediate arrival, I approve of your having taken, in conjunction with Colonel Wakefield, steps for enabling the Company to meet the engagements into which they had entered so far as the possession of land was concerned. By the arrangement thus made, you consented altogether to waive, in the Company's favour, the right of the Crown to preemption in respect to 150,000 acres in New Munster, wherever selected by the Agent of the Company; and to instruct Mr. Symonds to cooperate with the Agent for the purpose of securing the validity of the purchase and obtaining the consent of the natives. In this arrangement you direct that no regard shall be had to the regularity of figure insisted upon in all the previous arrangements of the Company with her Majesty's Government. You have also, I perceive, given your sanction to other purchases being made direct from the natives by the New Zealand Company, in the Northern Island, and which are to be superintended by Mr. Spain, and to consist of tracts of land amounting respectively to 160,000 acres, in or near Wairarapa, or Wyderop valley, in the Wellington district, and 200,000 acres elsewhere, within the limits claimed by the Company under Mr. Pennington's award. These purchases are also to be made without regard to figure or continuing of block. Acknowledging, as you candidly do, that the whole of this arrangement is entirely at variance with your instructions, you defend the first portion of it on the ground, which I am quite prepared to admit, of the necessity of making some provision for an extensive emigration immediately expected; and in vindication of the latter part you state that your object was to enable the New Zealand Company to locate their settlers, who, having purchased certain lands of them in England, could not get possession on arriving in the colony, because the natives would not sell particular sites, whilst on the other hand they were quite willing to alienate parts contemplated in the present purchases. You inform me that Mr. Spain agreed with you in thinking this measure necessary to preserve the good feeling between the two races, which would otherwise have been seriously endangered. You add, as an argument of more general application, that the system of continuous blocks in the form of parallelograms is totally unsuited to New Zealand. That whilst but small spots are available for settlement, the mountainous, woody, and barren parts are useless to purchasers ; and moreover that it is highly advisable to keep those unalienated, owing to the difficulty which would otherwise be caused to settlers and natives in finding spots available for commonable rights, of which cutting fuel would appear to be the most valuable. For you add that when all the woody and mountainous parts near the settlements are alienated, although they never will be fit for cultivation, the agents of the owners feel themselves bound to keep off trespassers, in order to assert the rights of their employers. This inconvenience you state to have been already felt in the neighbourhood of Wellington, and to have been much complained of by the natives. But you consider the chief objection to regular blocks to lie in the interference it causes with the natives, who will not part with particular spots to which they are attached, though desirous perhaps to sell all the land around them, and would rather not sell at all than be compelled (as they would be by the system objected to) to remove from the vicinity of settlers ; and you observe that, in your opinion, the only way^is to leave them free to sell or retain just what particular spots they choose. Still the concession to the Company is one of very great magnitude ; and whatever may be the character of New Zealand as to the large proportion of unavailable land comprised within any such block, it must not be forgotten that this fact was present to the mind of the Company's representatives, and doubtless also of the Secretary of State, when a certain low rate of payment per acre was agreed upon in consideration of taking the land in these continuous blocks. Ido not, however, on this account intend to disallow the agreement which you have entered into with the Company ; but I feel it necessary to call your attention to one (perhaps only apparent) omission. Ido not perceive in the papers sent home that any precaution has been taken to prevent this privilege of purchase granted to the New Zealand Company being exercised by them to the detriment of the colony at large. It would seem that, as there are no limits to the power of selection in th« districts in which they are permitted to purchase under this arrangement, except the necessity of buying from the natives, they may have it within their power in those districts to monopolize all portions of land having peculiar value, either in respect of their aptitude for the sites of towns, ports, or mills, or in respect of water frontages or mines, or even for military or other public works ; and they may be tempted to

Purchase a large number of detached portions of land, and thus to hazard the introduction into New Zealand of all those obstacles to improvement which have uniformly been found to attend the interspersion of great numbers of such tracts in the hands of one large absentee proprietor. These possible evils may have been provided against, and I admit them to be of less probable occurrence in reference to purchases made from the natives, with the intervention of a Government officer, than would be the case if the selection were totally free ; but still they appear to me too serious not to be noticed, and I regret that I see no means of preventing or remedying them if they should have occurred in carrying out the arrangement which you have made with the Agent of the New Zealand Company. As regards purchases which may have already been made, the imposition of any retrospective condition would create extreme inconvenience to all parties, and be the cause of inextricable confusion. But I think it right to call your attention to the subject, and to state to you, in my opinion the adoption and extension of this principle to future purchases from the natives by the New Zealand Company would interfere materially with the existing contract between them and her Majesty's Government ; and I shall expect that if in any peculiar circumstances you should feel it necessary again to offer to them a similar accommodation, you should be careful to attach such condition to the waiver of the Crown's right of preemption as shall in your opinion be sufficient to protect the interests of the Crown and the public from the evils which might possibly result from an injurious exercise of a general right of selection. It will also be absolutely necessary, in order to avoid future disputes, that the Company should adopt some means of accurately marking the boundaries of the property thus selected, as soon as the external surveys are completed, and which ought to be finished by some specified time. There is one other point connected with this subject, to which I think it right to advert. In the second condition of the purchases referred to in your letter to Colonel Wakefield, dated 27th February, 1844, are the following words : "it being clearly understood that the purchase-money in both cases referred to is to be provided by the Company." I presume that it is intended that lands which may be thus acquired from the natives are to be understood as forming part of the extent to which the Company are entitled under Mr. Pennington's award, and that any payment which may be necessary to complete the title of the Company is not to become the foundation of additional claims for land, involving a subsequent inquiry as to the amount and re-opening a question which I should hope would soon be finally settled ; but, as in your communication to the resident agent of the Company you have not alluded to the subject, I think it expedient to notice it, in order to avoid the possibility of future misunderstandings. The arrangements, however, on which I have now been commenting, were adopted under the pressure of peculiar circumstances, limited in their amount, and designed to meet a specific exigency ; but in your present despatch your further report that you have, with the concurrence of your Council, adopted a more general and extensive measure, calculated to make a far more important alteration in respect to the sale of lands. By this alteration, the right of the Crown to preemption, secured by the treaty of Waitangi, is waived on the part of the Crown in reference to all lands under certain specified conditions. I entertain no doubt but that the original intention of that provision of the treaty was to enable the Crown, as the sole purchaser, to obtain lands on any terms from the native tribes, applying a portion of the proceeds when resold to the importation of labourers, and the remainder to other public objects, but especially to the purchase of more land to be again resold at a profit, and this operation to be repeated toties quoties. You will not fail to observe that this right of preemption is a point much insisted upon by the late Committee of the House of Commons, whose report, however, had not been made at the date of your despatch. Before you left England, we had foreseen that this was a subject on which you might be involved in difficulty, and, in my despatch of the 13th August, I adverted to the personal communication which had passed between us in reference to this very point, and to a suggestion then made, " that a mode might be devised by which parties might be allowed to purchase directly from the natives, the purchaser paying to the Government on each sale such an amount as would be fully equivalent to the ordinary difference between the price paid to the natives and that at which land is sold by Government." It now appears that shortly after your arrival you found that the natives had become clamorous to be permitted to sell lands, acknowledging their obligations under the treaty of Waitangi, but urging bitterly the injustice of the Government in refusing either to buy of them or to permit them to sell to others ; and that they had offered land to the Government, although at an exorbitant rate, but the Government, having neither money nor credit, wasunable to purchase. Under these circumstances you have thought it necessary, waiving the Crown's right of preemption, to pass some regulations in Council, establishing under certain restrictions a regular system of purchase from the natives. You state that you fully considered all that had been previously written on the subject, before coming to such a decision without my sanction, and you add your conviction that unless you had taken this step the character of the Government with the natives would have been irretrievably injured, and all moral influence lost. You Have appended the minutes of a meeting of the native chiefs at Government House, at which you explained to them the meaning of the new regulations, which the chiefs appeared to comprehend, and with which, as then explained to them, they expressed themselves to be well satisfied ; according to these regulations, applications are to be sent in to the Government by parties desirous of purchasing, in which the particulars of the proposed purchase must be accurately stated. On these the Governor will be guided in his decisions, rather by the public welfare, and that of the natives, than by any private interest of the applicants; and he will not grant his permission in respect of any pas, burial grounds, cultivated lands, or lands in present use, however willing the owners may be to part with them, nor in respect

of a particular district north of the Tamaki road, reserved exclusively for the natives. One-tenth also of all lands purchased will be reserved for the benefit of the natives. It » declared that the Crown, having no right of preemption over land already alienated by the natives, grants will only be issued to original claimants. The parties will have to pay to the Crown 4s. per acre, or ninetenths of the land, on receiving the consent of the Governor to waive the Crown's right, and on the issuing of the grant (not leas than twelve months afterwards) a further payment will be required of 6s. per acre in ready money ; being in all 10s. per acre, as a contribution to the land fund. The survey of the lands will be made at the expense of the applicants, but to the full satisfaction of the Local Government, and the right will be reserved by the Crown of constructing public roads, proper compensation being allowed. You report the consequences of this measure, so far as they had then been developed, to have been most satisfactory ; about 600 acres of land had been sold in lots varying from three to fifty acres each, at about £1 per acre in addition to the amounts paid to Government, and that the total cost of the land to the purchasers was about £1 15s. per acre. The fee to the Crown being 10s. per acre, I presume that the remaining ss. were for surveys and other incidental expenses. You appear to to consider that speculators are excluded from profiting by these regulations, since only bond fide settlers are allowed the indulgence. Amongst the latter you enumerate some who have discovered mines, and you observe that if these mines had been bought by Government, and put up for sale, the original discoverers would have been outbid by speculators. Gambling would have ensued, and the money which would be most profitably spent in working the mines, would have been expended in their purchase. You observe, in conclusion, that no infringement of the Land Sales Act will take place by the present measure, as that act applies only to lands vested in the Crown, whereas the lands affected by these regulations are native property. Although there are some general reasons which would recommend this measure to my own judgment, I might yet have hesitated to instruct you to adopt it in direct opposition to a resolution of a Committee of the House of Commons. That resolution, however, was not before you ; and I observe, that although that Committee passed a resolution unfavourable to this measure, their Report is silent on the subject, and I am therefore ignorant of the precise grounds upon which the resolution was adopted. I must therefore deal with this subject as you present it to me. We have the fact of the native population of New Zealand amounting to above 1 00,000 souls, whilst the Europeans scarcely amount to one-tenth of that number. The New Zealanders cannot be compared to other native inhabitants of some countries over which a small number of British settlers have been able to exercise unlimited power. On referring to the instructions of my predecessor to the Governor, issued shortly after the foundation of the colony, I find these people described to be " not mere wanderers over an extensive surface in search of a precarious subsistence ; nor tribes of hunters or of herdsmen, but a people among whom the arts of government have made some progress, who have established by their own customs a division and appropriation of the soil, who are not without some measure of agricultural skill and a certain subordination of ranks, with usages having the character and authority of law." Information since received appears to justify this description. It is impossible not to feel that to a people in this condition what is passing around them must be familiar ; indeed, if there were any room to doubt their means of information, those doubts would now be removed by the evidence now before me.

We must assume, therefore, that the natives are well aware of the large prices which have been given for lands, which a short time previously they had bartered away for trifling objects ; and I can well understand the bitter disappointment and angry feelings which have been thus engendered towards those who have profited largely by resales of land for which they had given the most trifling consideration. If, under such circumstances, the rights of preemption were to be rigidly enforced by the Crown, the Government, instead of being looked up to by the natives as their natural protector, will be brought into constant collision with them in dealings for land. The Government must sell to Europeans at an increased price upon the purchase made from the natives, and this advantage, small as it may frequently be, would always be sufficient to keep up a source of irritation ; the natives, as you represent, believing that their rights to the soil are guaranteed to them by treaty, and considering themselves to be entitled to the full value which their land will sell for in the market. On the other hand, if the Government cannot or do not buy from the natives, nor permit them to sell to other Europeans, the natives will be tantalized at seeing the profit made by the sales of similar lands aiound them, without being able to participate in it, and will regard the Government as withholding their just rights, and opposing, instead of promoting, their advantage. Such are, as I apprehend, the considerations which have induced you to incur the serious responsibility of waiving on the part of the Crown an important stipulation of the treaty, and of permitting the direct sale by natives of portions of their land. While I admit the cogency of the motives by which you have been influenced, and am not prepared at this distance to condemn or disclaim the arrangement which you have made, I think it necessary to point out to you some objections to which your plan is obviously liable, and which will require your attention. I understand the measure at present to be limited to the district adjoining Auckland, and that an absolute discretion is reserved by yourself of allowing or prohibiting any particular sale. It is possible and even probable that there existed an absolute necessity for reserving this discretion; but you must remember that it is in one way open to abuse. Charges of favouritism and capricious decisions will frequently be urged, to which, however unjust, it is not desirable that a Governor should be exposed. I conclude, though I do not see any provision to that effect, that it is intended that all sales thus effected should be registered; and I think it would

be very desirable that the amount of purchas emoney paid should be simultaneously recorded. I concur with you that these purchases do x ot come under the provisions of the Land Sale A ct, which applies only to waste lands of the Crow i ; still, one of the main objects of that act was, out of the sale of lands to realize funds for carry! lg on the general service of the Government, and a] so for promoting emigration. These objects you ha ye not lost sight of, in imposing a fee amounting in all to 10s. per acre ; but I should wish you to co nsider whether, if large sums should be realized i>y the sale of land, this fee may not be yet further i ncreased. In proportion as the fee is increased, tle amount realized by the natives will of course tie diminished, and the market price which settlors will be willing to pay them (which is exclusive of the fee) will fall. I should be very unwilling to inflict any hardships upon them, but I very much doubt how far it will be to their real advantage to receive large money payments for the mere sale of land, and I see no injustice in making such sal es contribute largely to the support of the Government and the influx of settlers, by whic^ataae value is given to the land. 4'4v With these observations I am prepared tostn c* tion and approve the step you have taken in admitting the natives, under restrictions, to the privilege of selling their lands directly to settlers. I ought not to close this despatch without edverting to the observation which you have ma de on the facilities which will be afforded by tht se sales to persons who may have discovered mm », to obtain them altogether with the soil, free fix m the competition of speculators, who might deprive them of the fruits of their discovery. Admitting the equity of this plea, and desiring to encourage operations which may tend so much to the prosperity of the colony, I yet hope that you have not overlooked the propriety of securing to the Crown a moderate seigneurage upon all pi ecious metals. If your anticipations dS the mine: al worth of New Zealand be correct, sueh 'a seignc urage may in process of time not be unimportant as a source of revenue, while it should obviously i ot be of such an amount as to discourage enterpri se and the application of capital. The great deficiency of New Zealand is the want of articles of export, without which no colony c m long or greatly prosper ; but if, in addition to tie few articles which the colony now exports, ler mineral resources should be such as to invite t le application of capital, no circumstance could tei id more to increase her value as a colonial possession,o n, and place her upon a basis of solid commerciali al prosperity. I have the honour, &c, (Signed) Stanley.

NELSON PRODUCE, FOR EXPORTATION. £ S. d. £ t. Ale— Perhhd 4 10 0 Per doz 0 7 0 Flax— Per ton ... .12 0 0 . 15 0 Furniture Wood .... 2 0 0 . 2 10 Spars— Per run. ft. assorted 0 10.02 Planks— Per 100 feet ..036.04 Wool— Choice flocks, per lb. 0 10.01 Good ordinary . .0 0 11 . 0 1 In grease ....008.00 „ (Lambs') . 0 010 . 0 0 d. 0 0 0 6 2 0 [0 il LATEST IMPORTED PRICES. Barley — Per bushel ... 0 4 6 Coffee— Per lb 0 0 9 Flour— First quality, p' ton 11 10 0 Second, do. . . - 0 0 0 Hams— New Zealand, p' lb. 0 0 0 Leather— Kip (Col.), p' lb. 0 1 6 Sole .... 0 0 7 Maize— Vex bushel ... 0 3 0 Oats— Per bushel ... 0 3 0 Oil— Black, per tun . . .21 0 0 Pigs — Carcase, per lb. . .0 0 2 Rice — Good, per'cwt. ..100 Common .... 0 0 0 Sheep— Each .... 0 0 O Svgar — Mauritius, p' ton .000 Refined loaf . .56 0 0 Manilla . . .36 0 0 Tobacco— Negrohead, p' lb. 0 0 4.01 RETAIL PRICES. Beef— Fresh, per lb. ..006.00 Bread— Per 41b. loaf ..008 Butter— Fresh .... 0 1 4 Cheese— Nelson ....007.00 Eggs — Per dozen .... 0 1 0 Iron— Per lb 0 0 2j Lime — Per ton, delivered .2 0 0, Milk— Per pint ....001.00 Mutton— Per lb 0 0 6.00 2 7 Oil— Linseed, per gallon .070.08 Pork— Fresh, per lb. . . 0 0 5 Poultry — Fowls, per pair .0 2 6,. Ducks ... 0 4 0. Geese . ... 0 15 0 Turkeys ... 1 0 0 Pigeons, wild, per pair .... 0 0 8 Ducks, do. do. . 0 0 0 Turpentine — Per gallon .080 Wine— Sherry, per gal. .060.0 10 Ditto in bot. p' doz. 1 0 0 . 1 10 Port, per gal. . .0 6 0 . 0 10 Ditto in bot. p' doz. 1 7 0 . 1 10 0 0 0 0 0 Cows— Milch, each . . .10 0 0 . 13 0 Mares— Each ... .20 0 0 . 30 0 Sheep— Wethers, each . . 0 17 0 . 1 0 Working Bullocks— Perpair2o 0 0 . 30 0 0 0 0 0 Wages— Mechanics, p' day 0 3 6 . 0 4 Labourers ...016.02 0 0