PUBLIC REJOICINGS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 193, 15 November 1845, Page 146

PUBLIC REJOICINGS.

Our settlement has been considerably enlivened during the past week by two public demonstrations of the satisfaction universally felt at the removal of Captain Fitzßoy, and the appointment of Captain Grey as his successor. It was intended in the first instance to have had a festival in Nelson, at which it was hoped the whole population of the settlement would have assembled, but at the suggestion of the labouring people in the Waimea, who could not bring their families into town, and were yet desirous that they should partake of the public enjoyments, a separate festival was got up in that district. The spot selected was the tongue of land between the two rivers, nearly opposite the village in Waimea West, and on Saturday last a good dinner and tea was provided, of which about 300 persons partook. All the gentlemen of the district were present, and the day was finished with racing, jumping, and other sports. In Nelson, the festival took place on Thursday. At the first dawn of day a salute of" twenty-one guns was fired from the hill beside the fort, and from that time all was active preparation for the day. THE DINNER. At One o'clock, the firing of a single gun announced that dinner was ready. A large piece of ground had been enclosed at one end of Mr. Harley } 8 garden, in Bridge Street, and was now decorated with shrubs and flowers. Provision had been made for 350 persons, and about that number partook of a most. excellent and substantial dinner of beef, mutton, pork, various puddings, and beer. It/is somewhat difficult to 6erve up a dinner for so large a number of persons without individual dissatisfaction, but on this occasion we beard not a single complaint, and by the exertions of the committee and the waiters we believe every one rose from the tables perfectly satisfied. On the removal of the cloth, "The Queen," was given by the Chairman, G. White, Esq.,

and before the cheering which the toast called forth had subsided, the booming of the gi ins caused it to be resumed with greater vigour. Mr. Fox said that they had met there for t wo purposes — to express an opinion on the past and their hopes for the future. 1 * Some had thought that it would have been better to ojirit the former; to let bygones be bygones, lie, however, in a great political event such as had brought them together, did not think that was the proper course. When Warren Hastings returned from India, stained by almost every crime which could blacken the character o F a Governor (except perhaps private avarice, wh ich he had considerately left to his concubine), no* thing made so great an impression in his fav< ur in Great Britain as a number of addresses wh eh his friends procured in and sent home from i he country he had misgoverned. And when it v ras stated in Parliament that some of the natives whom he was accused of oppressing had deif ed him and erected a temple for his worship, it almost turned the scale in his favour, perhaps would have turned it but for the masterly reply of Burke. " I know," said that great orat jr, " something of Hindoo mythology. I know that they sometimes worship gods whom th ey love and sometimes gods whom they fear; that they dedicate some of their temples to the D sities of Light and Plenty, and others to Small Pox and Murder. I shall not, therefore, seek to deprive the Governor-General of his divine honours." Now he (Mr. Fox) thought that it was a duty which the settlers of Nelson owed to themselves, a duty which they owed to these who had fought their battles at home, a dv ty which they owed to mankind, to distinguish beyond all doubt the class of deities in which they considered Captain Fitzßoy was entitled to rank. It might happen that some of those creeping things which in New Zealand had be^n drawn from that obscurity to which Providenlce had designed them into the full glare of official life, only to make manifest their deformities!— some of those who considered it their duty |to vote with their master whether they thought with him or not— might, as the crowning act of their sycophancy, prepare some address, in which, comparing things the most unlike, th sy might attribute to Robert Fitzßoy the virtues of Stamford Raffles. If any such address should be thought of, the proceedings of the Nelson settlers that day were its reply. The cannon which had forestalled the day, the cheers which had resounded at noon, and the bonfires which would light up the midnight sky, would answer it. The recal of a bad Governor, who had iuflicted every injury on the colony which it was his duty to cherish and foster, ought to be recorded in the broadest handwriting of the people he had oppressed. He had condemned himself; public opinion had condemned him. Let the settlers now endeavour to forgive him; at z ill events let them forget him, and look forward to those better days which he (Mr. Fox) trusted were yet in store for those who had emigrated to so great a distance from their native lan i. It was not perhaps very likely, after the bitt;r experience they had had, that they would throw themselves with violent love into the arms of any deputy from the Colonial Office. But l(ie believed that if any of its servants did deserve the respect and esteem of those among whom his talents had been displayed, it was the officer who was now appointed to the government of this colony. He was a tried man ; he had found the colony the government of which he was resigning in difficulties little if any less than those under which we laboured ; he had successfully grappled with them, and would leave it perhaps the most prosperous of the colonies in these seas. If we might entertain high expectations of any man, we might of Captain Grey ; and if he answered those expectations, long might 1 c live among us and govern over us. Mr. Fox concluded by giving the toast " Health and success to Captain Grey, the expected' Governor of New Zealand." This toast was received in the most enthusiastic manner, and the cheering was again prolonged by a round from the guns. Mr. Domett was glad that the toast which had just been handed him was one which it was necessary to say very little upon. It wa i, "Success to the New Zealand Company, and the health of Mr. Fox." He had only two remarks to make upon the former part of it, and they were, first, that whatever might be thougl it of the Company, or however diversified the opinion of people upon its proceedings, or c thing was undeniable, that many of the mdiv idualß composing it, and most of the directors in particular, had embarked in the concern as muclb. of their private property as perhaps all the settlers and other land purchasers put together. So at least they were sailing in the same boat with the colonists, and had as much even pecuniary interest in its success as we could have. Another thing was equally undeniable ; namely, that it was principally owing to the continued, able, and unrelaxing exertions at home of those members of the direction who were also members of the House of Commons, that the triumph over the evil policy which had almost ruined the colony, evinced in the recall of Captain Fitzßoy and appointment of Captain Grey, was to be attributed. It was owing to them that they were met together then to celebrate these events. He agreed perfectly with MrFox, and he believed with them all, that what they had to do respecting Captain Fitzßoy was to forget him as fast and forgive him as fully as they could. Captain Fitzßoy might go to— (a place not intended was here suggested) — he did not mean there, but to the place he cqmp from, in peace; though it was hardly to bp denied that by creating general confusion bf was, however unconsciously, doing the work of the lord of the place they had suggested. Mr. Fox, in bis eloquent speech, had spoken of tb» merits of Captain Grey, and he (Mr. Domett) believed he might assert that the new Governor

had given sufficient proofs of his possession of the] qualities most necessary for the performance of ithe difficult and arduous duties before him. OAe thing was certain; he would do his best to relieve us from the disgraceful and dangerous position of prostration at the feet of the Maories, of . yinpf at the mercy of savages, to which Captain Fitzßoy and his precious advisers had brought us. Our skulls, thickest as well as thinnest of them, would no longer, if he could he! i it, be rendered blocks for Maori tomahawks to practise upon. But he would beg to remind the ro, with respect to their hopes for the future, that they should be sobered by judgment, limited by reason. They were not to expect the* appointment of a new Governor would all at >nee "put money in their purses," or meat in their pots. A hundred Captain Greys— a whole regiment of Greys— could not do that. T'my must still depend as much as ever upon the if own energy and industry. However admirable a Government or Governor, these qualiti ;s alone could ensure to the labourers comfor -or competence. But when good and wise government restored security to life and pro* pei ty, they might naturally enough expect emigrationation to recommence, capital to flow in, the res lurces of the country to be developed, and then eventually in the course of time their comfor ;s might be increased,- even money might be got . The health of Mr. Fox was, luckily too, a theme it did not require him to comment much upon. They knew him well, and that he hac i the welfare of the colony at heart. He had cone in a difficult time, and managed well. He (Mr. Domett) did not know whether or not Mi . Fox had ever done things disagreeable to the mor not [cries of no !] ; he might or might not have; but if he had, they should always ren jember that Mr. Fox was the agent of others • — 1 ad to attend to the interests, manage the pro jierty of others — to neglect which, not to do his utmost for the benefit of which, would be a dereliction of his bounden and positive duty. He most cordially wished him success, and kntiw they would join in the wish. He thought be had better now give way to Mr. Fox and sit dov .n, in the expectation, since he had made so -eloquent a speech upon so bad a subject as Captain Fitzßoy, of hearing a much more eloquent and excellent one from him when he had ao ijnuch better a subject for it as himself.J The toast was drunk with the greatest applatase amid the roar of the guns, after which Mr). Fox briefly returned thanks. The Chairman, on proposing "The health of the Committee who had managed the festival," said that although the present meeting <Ji'l not exceed in number the population of an ord nary parish in England, he would venture to j~!ay that if such a meeting had been proposed thejfe to express an opinion of the conduct of *' thje powers that be," that not one hundredth pnrf of them would have dared to attend without! first obtaining the permission of their employers. At home, the name of labourer was synonymous with that of pauper, but here every miri was a labourer, and living under no apprehension of losing bis work for the free expression of his opinions. He observed that the circumstances which had brought the present meejting together would convince every inde-peniient-minded man of the folly of attempting to uphold a Government which was so utterly destructive to the interests and prosperity of the gre-.it body of the people. The gentlemen who had consented to fill the vacancies caused by the *esignation of the former magistrates could scar :ely be expected to have given this meeting their countenance, but they must still feel they cannot venture to defend the conduct of that Gov srnment of which they have consented to become the instruments. Tie company shortly after adjourned to the Green, where races of various kinds, jingling, and other amusements instantly commenced. THE TEA. As soon as the dinner party had left the table 3, preparations were made for tea. About 600 women and children were then served with abur dance of excellent cake, bread and butter, and tea, which was soon despatched, as the company were evidently impatient to join their huß^ands, fathers, brothers, and sweethearts, to witness the sports. In the course of the day three figures, intended to represent Captain Fitzßoy, his prime mir.iker the Chief Protector, and the great legal authority of the colony the Attorney-Gene-ral, Tjrere paraded through the town, and in the evening were consigned to the flames in the middle of the town. The head of the first figure was carved in wood, and its dress closely resembled that worn by Captain Fitzßoy when he visited Nelson. The other figures more approached caricature, the heads being painted ma6icK, but the dresses were in keeping with their respective callings.