NEW ZEALAND COMPANY. [From the Colonial Gazette, May 31.]

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, 29 November 1845, Page 155

NEW ZEALAND COMPANY. [From the Colonial Gazette, May 31.]

The annual general meeting of the proprietors of this Company was held on Thursday, at the offices in Broad Street Buildings. Lord Ingestre was in the chair; and among those present we observed Sir John Pirie, Bart., Mr. H. A. Aglionby, M.P., Mr. C. Buller, M.P., Mr. J. A. Smith, M.P., Mr. S. Majoribanks, M.P., Mr. R. D. Mangles, M.P., Captain Nairne, Mr. J. Pilcher, Mr. J. R. Gower, Mr. A. Currie, &c.

Letters were read from Mr. Somes (the Governor of the Company), who was unable, in consequence of important engagements, to be present; and from Lord Courtenay and Mr. Hutt, who were obliged to attend the parliamentary committees on which they had been appointed.

Mr. Harrington (the secretary) then read the minutes of the meeting of the 13th of February last, which were confirmed.

The following Report of the Directors was next read : —

" When you assembled in this place on the 13th of February last, you empowered your Directors 'to prepare at their discretion a petition to the House of Commons, representing, on the part of the Company, the wrongs it has suffered, and praying for redress ; and to take steps for procuring its presentation.' " In furtherance of the intention thus expressed, the following steps have been taken since the commencement of the session. Numerous papers have been moved for, and printed by order of Parliament, each exhibiting, more forcibly than the one preceding, the disastrous effects of the policy pursued by the Local Government. Discussions have taken place in the House of Commons, more especially on the 1 Hh and 18th of March, preparing the way for a more satisfactory consideration of the real questions at issue, by removing from them matters of a personal nnd controversial character, with which they had unfortunately, but unavoidably, become connected. Petitions have been presented from the merchants, bankers, and traders of the city of London, on behalf of this Company and the colonists ; from the colonists of Nelson, for inquiry into the matter of Wairau ; from the intending colonists of New Edinburgh ; from the New Zealand landowners residing at Halifax ; from other landowners and members of the New Zealand Society; and from the colonists of Wellington. " In the preparation of your own petition, extreme difficulty was experienced so to compress the voluminous records of the wrongs which you had suffered as to reduce the narrative within any moderate compass; and so to subdue the indignant feelings which the reperusal of those records awakened, as not to interfere with that calm and dispassionate inquiry into your case which it was the first object of your j Directors to ensure. Reduced, however, and subdued with this view, the petition itself was presented by your Governor on the 16th of April, and ordered by the house to be printed immediately afterwards. As it has been for some time in the hands of every proprietor of the Company, we do not deem it necessary to make any further allusion to its contents.

" Before the petition was presented, one of your directors, Mr. Charles Buller, gave notice, on the 31st of March, of a motion ' to call the attention of the house to the state of the colony of New Zealand, and the case of the New Zealand Company.' That notice was withdrawn on the first of the present month, under circumstances which it is now our duty to detail.

" On the day last mentioned, the Ist of May, a communication was made confidentially to your Directors by Mr. Buller, upon which they thought it right to adopt the following resolutions :—: —

" ' That this court, retaining a firm determination never to relinquish the assertion of its just claims, but sensible of the extreme delicacy and importance of the present position of the Company's affairs, deems it advisable that the practical proceedings now to be adopted should be entrusted in a spirit of unlimited confidence to a small number of its members :

" ' That the undermentioned gentlemen be therefore appointed a Secret Committee, with full authority to conduct and conclude any arrangement which they may deem most expedient, — namely,

" ' Mr. Somes, M.P. (Governor) ; Mr. Aglionby, M.P.; Mr. Buller, M.P.; Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsraid, Bart.; Lord logestre, M.P.; Mr. Lyall; Mr. Wakefield.

" Of the several questions which came under the consideration of the committee thus appointed, the steps taken by them thereupon, and the motives by which they were therein influenced, we cannot better put you in possession than by repeating to you the report which they have prepared, and which is as follows : — '* ' Report of Secret Committee. " ' Immediately on our appointment we were apprised by Mr. Buller of the circumstances which had induced him to recommend that measure to the court. We found that, in consequence of Sir James Graham having, in the third week of March last, suggested to him that the disputes between the Company and the Government had better be •■ettled amicably, ht had been in personal communication with that Minister on the subject; had at his suggestion submitted his views, in writing, to Lord Stan icy ; had held an interview at which those view* >>ad been discussed, jointly, by Lord Stanlej . Sir James Graham, and himself; had, as thei agreed upon, renewed his proposal in the forn •>f a second letter to Lord Stanley, with the viev uf removing the objections which had at firv presented themselves; and had subsequent^ been informed by Sir J. Graham that Lord Stan ley had no insuperable objection to the plan, but was ready, under two conditions, to enter-

tain it as the basis of a negotiation, and to (rive it a full and fair consideration. These conditions were, that the plan should be proposed officially by the Company ; and that, as a preliminary step, the motion upon the affairs of New Zealand, of which Mr. Buller had given notice in the House of Commons, should be withdrawn or disposed of, as the Government could not enter into any negotiation under an appearance of pressure, or of a wish to shrink from discussion. " ' The plan itself was an endeavour, by a change of system, to render needless any direct decision on the precise points of previous controversy, and, by means of a large and bold policy, to reconcile satisfactorily the interests of the natives, the colonists, the missionaries, and the Company ; and to put matters on an entirely new and sound footing, without compromising the honour of the Government. The mode in which it proposed to effect this, was by erecting a new province, comprising the Middle and a portion of the Northern Island, and conferring the government of it upon a new company (in which the present Company should merge), on the model on which, down to a recent period, all the colonies of England have been founded, and maintained without expense to the parent state.

" ' Of this plan some of the details were not exactly such as we should ourselves have felt at liberty to originate ; but its general principles were in strict accordance with those of the Company: it provided largely for the Company's main objects ; and, by the confidence it implied, it was manifestly so honourable to the Company itself that, subject to two or three minor modifications, we could not hesitate as to its adoption. We at once, therefore, requested Mr. Buller to withdraw his notice of motion ; which, after arranging with Sir James Graham as to the proper mode, was accordingly done the name evening. And, on the fifth of the month, we addressed an official letter to Lord Stanley, enclosing the plan, almost in the words of Mr. Buller's second communication to his lordship, and requesting that Mr. Buller might conduct, on behalf of the Company, the further negotiation and discussion of details which would doubtless be found necessary.

"'On the 19th it was intimated through Mr. Buller, and on the 23d officially to ourselves, that her Majesty's Government, having maturely examined the project, found that the difficulties of proceeding on the basis suggested were insuperable. " * At the same time Lord Stanley added, that if the Company should have any other proposition to offer, founded upon a wholly different principle, for relieving themselves, the colony, and the Government from the embarrassment consequent upon the present state of their affairs, her Majesty's Government were ready to give their best attention to such proposition, and to enter upon a discussion with an earnest desire to find a satisfactory solution of the existing difficulties by an amicable arrangement with the Company. Through Mr. Buller, we understood that the proposition specifically contemplated by his lordship was that of treating on the basis either of attempting to settle the questions at issue, leaving the powers of the Company and the Government on their present footing, or of the Government buying up the interests of the Company, and dissolving that body. "'The former of these suggestions appeared to us at once to be so thoroughly indefinite as to hold out no hope of any satisfactory result; the latter demanded and obtained our most serious consideration.

" ' Had it contained any specific proposal on the part of the Government, providing for the due fulfilment of the engagements into which the Company has entered, and especially affording a satisfactory guarantee for the welfare of the Cook's Strait colonists and natives, we should indeed have felt reluctant, even on such terms, to relinquish the ohjtcts for which this Company has been established ; but we should not, under existing circumstances, have felt justified in dissuading the court from the acceptance of those terms. But we found, on the other hand, that the proposal for our dissolution was to be submitted as emanating from ourselves; that the interests of the colonists had not been adverted to until called to mind by Mr. Buller ; and that the natives had not been mentioned at all. That portion of the parliamentary session which is most valuable for the despatch of business was rapidly passing away ; much time had already been required for the consideration of a plan previously discussed with two Cabinet Ministers, and the questions still left open were such that the time to be consumed in their discussion would evidently render impossible (if ultimately found necessary) that appeal to Parliament which the shareholders had sanctioned and were entitled to demand. With these facts, we could not but couple the proofs afforded by successive communications of the fixed intention of the present Governor to break up the Cook's Straits settlements; and the conviction with which we were strongly and unanimously impressed, that, by appearing to grasp at a pecuniary indemnity for the shareholders, while abandoning the colonists and all the great objects which the Company has hitherto upheld, we should injure every interest that had been intrusted to us, including that of the shareholders, and cast a stain upon the honour of the Company which no pecuniary indemnity could ever compensate.

"' Under these convictions, we have downed it our duty not to reject the suggestions of Lord Stanley, but to represent to his lordship (on the 261h instant) that it does not appear to- us that my advantage could result from our originating my fresh proposals ; but that we shall be happy to give the most cordial consideration to any plan which his lordship may do ua the honour

tosliff^eß^;'with"a'view'of cirrynig Ms intien'.' tioha into effect, if accompanied by guarantees for the 'good' 1 government of the colonists and the welfare of the 1 native race.

** * W£ have also deemed it due to Lord Stanley toapp'rise his lordship that time is of such inipoWatjctt' to vs 1 ; that, unless assUrred that we renewed the negotiation with' this fundamental requisite cleatly'an* satisfactorily hefore us, we cottM noi'conseht tti any further delay of the motion which Mr. Buller has undertaken to bring ' befOVe the House of Commons. We have, therefore, requested Mr. Buller to take the earliest opportunity of bringing that motion forward. • • '

<♦ • For fuller particulars of the several matters herein alluded to, and of the steps which we have successively taken, we beg to refer the court to the documents and minutes of our proceedings; which are appended to this report. " ' Comtmttee'-room,' May 23, 1845.' "On tht's , report' we';have but few remarks to offer. You 'will doubtless have observed that the first 'suggestion of an amicable settlement df disputes 1 was made (between the 18th and 21st of March) by Lord Stanley's colleague,' Sir J. Graham ; that' the amended plan of such settlement,'which was eventually submitted by Mr. Buller (on the 26th of April), and which proposed to confer on the Company the proprietary government of a new province, was in effect the result' of a joint discussion in which both of those Ministers had taken part ; that it was by Lord Stanley's desire that this plan was afterwards transmitted to his lordship officially, as a proposal' emanating altogether from the Company ; that, when it was ultimately rejected (on the 1 9th of May), a period had elapsed of several weeks from the time of its being entertained by his' lordship, — of two entire months from ' the first communication with Sir James Graham j that, in the suggestion by which tjhat rejection was accompanied, there was a distinct recognition, on the part of the Government, that' your claims were such as would justify Ministers in ' buying up the interests of the Company,' and of course in applying to Parliament for a sum of money sufficient for that purpose. " You will doubtless have observed also that the question really involved in that suggestion is a question of profit against honour ; and when we add that, with our committee, we have resolved, in your name, to abide by the latter, — to forego rather the certain prospect of immediate pecuniary advantage than to purchase that advantage by the sacrifice of those whom you have been the means of planting in New Zealand, and by whose instrumentality your early successes were attained, — we feel confident that we shall receive your cordial approbation and support. ■ "Not less confident are we that in this step we shall have earned for you the esteem of every one to whom the particulars of the late negotiation, and of its conclusion, shall become known ; or that the result will he that, when after it you again come before the Parliament and the public, you will, in consequence, occupy a position yet higher and more honourable than you did when Mr. Buller's motion was withdrawn, or than you would have done had this negotiation never taken place.

" Of the claims which your colonists possess to sympathy and admiration, and of the scant measure of either which they obtain at the hands of the Local Government, we grieve to Say that additional instances are supplied by every successive arrival. Their fortitude under trials, their patient endurance of reiterated wrongs, and the tranquil courage with which they have encountered the difficulties that surround them, exceed all praise. Of their continued kindness and consideration to their aboriginal neighbours, and their 'forbearance towards the natives, under the very painful and discouraging circumstances in which they have been placed, through the non -settlement of the land question/ you will find in the Appendix the unexceptionable testimony of the Rev. S. Ironside, the person qualified perhaps above all others to estimate the strength of these feelings and the degree to which they have been tested ; for you will rememher it was this gentleman who, prompted by Christian kindness, performed the last sad office of collecting and interring the remains of those who fell at Wairau.

■■ >*' It is distressing to see colonists of such a character returning to England, day by day, compelled to abandon the country of their adoption, with their property lost and their hopes blasted. And it is mortifying beyond measure to recollect that by the exertions of such men, if 6imply unobstructed, large portions "fif that country might ere now have been reclaimed from virtual desolation ; that the capital Which has been sunk, and the energies which hatfe been wasted, through the aimless animosity of others, might have opened fresh outlets of industry to our countrymen, have afforded employment to thousands of our labouring poor, teute provided homes for those who are here perishing with want, and have diffused happitießsahid prosperity where all is now despondency and ruin.

" Nor are the effects les9 injurious which have •neen produced by the measures of the Local f:J>overnm,ent upon the minds of the aborigines. Not to multiply instances, or speak exclusively of Cook's Straits, it may suffice to revert to a c'a«?a which is alluded to in your petition. It is there stated that, ' in the Bay of Islands, in the very centre of missionary influence, the natives have been encouraged to an insolent bearing by the unworthy concessions of the Government, \jnli), from denying rh» validity of land-sales, AheylwVs 'advanced to impugning the treaty, atkdffom 'aggressions upon .our settlers to a deKfcerafo insult of her. Majesty's flajj.' Within Mteaft iwo ' days jnteliigenee his been received

that in January' last this insult was deliberately repeated by the same party as before, and the flagstaff cut down which had been erected by the Governor* after that concession and compromise, which are matters of humiliating notoriety.

" We purposely forbear from entering further into the particular acts by which these fatal resuits have been brought about. You are aware that 'the author of thi'm was recalled by her Majesty's Government on the 30th of last month. Of the cause of that recall the name of his intended successor (if yet selected), the probable time of his appointment and departure, the nature of the instructions under which he is to act, or of the principles and policy which he is to uphold, we are altogether uninformed. We are apprised only that, in announcing the fact of the recal of the present Governor, the Undersecretary of State took pains to declare, in a marked manner, that this had net been occasioned by any complaint or any representation of -this Company. We know not, therefore, what to anticipate. It is impossible entirely to exclude apprehension. But as our reliance has not been heretofore on the Government, so neither by the Government can that reliance now be destroyed. It rests upon the goodness of our cause, the magnitude of the interests; which are at Rtake, and the sense of justice of the Parliament and of the country. In these our trust is still unshaken.

" Before concluding this Report, it is necessary to ad vert to the matters which recur statedly with the close of your financial year. The usual annual accounts will now be read ; and in continuation of the particulars which are there detailed, it is proper to mention that, since the date to which they extend, we have effected a further arrangement with the Union Bank of Australia, by means of which the whole of the bills drawn by your principal agent, and remaining in the possession of that institution, have been met by debentures, issued to the additional extent of £23,000, under the sanction of your resolution of August, 1843.

" The following directors retire by rotation at the present meeting, namely: — Sir John Pirie, Bart., alderman ; Alexander Currie, Esq. ; Alexander Nairne, Esq. ; Ross Donnelly Mangles, Esq., M.P. ; George Frederick Young, Esq. ; William Thompson, Esq., M. P., alderman, and are recommended by us for re-elec-tion.

" We recommend also that the present auditors, namely, Thomas Frederick Everingham, Esq. ; William Curling, Esq. ; Richard Edward Arden, Esq., be re-elected for the ensuing year.

" New Zealand House, Broad Street Buildings, May 29, 1845."

A letter from Lord Inge9tre to Lord Stanley, in substance nearly similar to the Report of the Secret Committee, as well as Lord Stanley's answer, were read along with the Directors' Report. Before such letters were read,

Mr. Duller, M. P., said it would perhaps be necessary for him to explain to the shareholders the circumstances under which the official letter alluded to in the Report was written. In consequence of some conversation with Sir James Graham, lie (Mr. Buller) wrote to Lord Stanley, he believed about the 14th or 15th of April, stating the outline of the proposal for the government of New Zealand by a proprietary Company, in which the New Zealand Company was to be merged, such Company to have power to govern New Zealand upon a basis similar to that of the East India Company. In reply he received a note from Lord Stanley, appointing an interview at his house. That interview took place on the 24th of April, and Sir James Graham was present. After that interview he considered the subject, and having talked it over with two or three of the Directors, he wrote a letter to Lord Stanley dated the 26th of April. It was after this that he postponed his notice of motion in the House of Commons. The Government requesting that negotiations should go through him, as a private individual, to the Directors, the latter appointed a secret committee, and the letter signed by Lord Ingestre was then written. He had given the shareholders this explanation, to show them that the letter which he wrote early in April and the one on the 26th of that month, were substantially the same as that written by Lord Ingestre. A letter from Lord Stanley to Mr. Buller was then read, and

Mr. Buller again rose and said, that on the 19th of May he received a letter from Lord Stanley, Tegretting to find that upon deliberation her Majesty's Government could not adopt the plan proposed, and that Lord Stanley would, if he (Mr. Buller) called at his house, state to him the reasons why the Government had come to that conclusion, and that they would see if some other plan could not be adopted for settling affairs. He communicated the contents of the letter to the committee, and wrote back to Lord Stanley to say that he had done so, and that he would wait upon his lordship. He accordingly did so, and Lord Stanley then stated to him the reasons why the Government had not adopted the plan proposed. Those reasons he (Mr. Buller) had not thought it proper to communicate, because he had no right to state another man's arguments — they must be stated by himself. His lordship on that occasion mentioned two bases, on either of which he stated the Company might hereafter treat with him. He told his lordship he would communicate them to the committee ; he did so, and they would find that Lord Ingestre's answer adverted to his (Mr. Buller's) communication.

The Chairman said it was necessary for him to state that the documents and minutes of the proceedings of the committee were in course of preparation for the shareholders, and would shortly be placed in their hands. The committee had felt that a heavy responsibility rested with them : on the one hand the responsibility of carrying on with the Government a negoti-

ation which might tend to the benefit of the colony' and the shareholders at large, and on the other hand the danger of compromising the interests of ' the Company, by losing the opportunity of bringing the case before the house. He trusted that the shareholders were satisfied that the committee had done all in their power both for the advantage of the Company and the colony [cheers]. In fact, they had lost no time by the postponement of Mr. Buller's motion in the House of Commons [hear, hearj ; for it was clear that, during the protracted discussions upon the Maynooth grant, the question could not have had due consideration. They had had able and comprehensive plans under discussion with the Government from time to time, and had had an admission to a considernble extent of the justice of their claims [hear]. A statement of accounts was next read. I* appeared that the total receipts for the last year were £60.490 9s. lid., and the payments £50,719 19s. 7d. The reception and adoption of the Report having been formally moved, the following letter was read by the Secretary : — "Dr. Evans to the Secretary or thb Nbw Zealand Company. " 44,. Hans-place, May 23, 1845. " Sir— l have been requested to make to you in writing, for the information of the Court of Directors of the New Zealand Company, a statement which I have already made verbally to several members of that Court, respecting the manner in which their interests and those of the settlers have been spoken of lately in my hearing by the Governor of the colony. " During the last visit of Captain Fitzßoy to Wellington, which took place in the month of October, 1844, I entered a room at Barrett's Hotel, where I found his Excellency surrounded by a deputation of settlers, to whom he was explaining the contents of a large map lying on the table. It purported to contain all the lands of the absentee proprietors coloured black, and he was proposing some scheme which he had come provided with for taking possession of the whole of those lands, and dividing them among the resident claimants. As this excited a good deal of surprise and indignation amongst several of that class of gentlemen present, as well as among the agents for absentees, he seemed much disappointed, and afterwards, when strongly expostulated with as to the ruin which would soon overtake us if the land question was not settled, he recommended i:s 'to obtain redress by bringing actions against the Company.' This also called forth some remonstrances from the deputation, and he finished by saying, 'We know that the New Zealand Company has stopped payment, and I am in daily expectation of receiving despatches from Lord Stanley, informing me that the affairs of the Company have all fallen into the hands of the Government. As soon as I receive this information, I shall be enabled to carry out my great object of concentration.' We inquired what this meant, and he said that he • would give land in the neighbourhood of Auckland to the Company's settlers,' and dilated at some length on the advantages of this scheme, which be proposed as the Government remedy for the difficulties of the colony. We pointed out to him the absurdity, and even the cruelty, of proposing to transfer to another place a whole community, after they had sunk their capital in improvements at Wellington ; and asked him how he could give an equivalent in land, when he had by his own measures reduced the value of land at Auckland to Is Gd. per acre. He said, ' This might be settled by arbitration, awardng in each case a quantity of land at Auckland equivalent n value to the land abandoned in the Company's settlements.' Some of us then pointed out to him the imposs bility of uprooting in that manner a population of 10,000 people, who would resist to the last extremity : and showed him that, if they were willing to remove, the Government could not not find one-tenth part of the land requisite in the north. The meeting then broke up, with a declaration on the part of the settlers that they would hold fast by the selections of land they had made, and confide in the honour of the Company to maintain their cause with the Home Government. " I am, sir, &r., " George Samuel Evans." Major-General Briggs said he had great pleasure in seconding the proposition. He was satisfied the proprietors had never heard a Report from the Directors so satisfactory as the one that had just been laid before them, nor one more honourable to the Directors. The resolution of the board not to flinch from the assertion of their rights, was what might have been expected from a body of gentlemen who had so zealously exerted themselves for the interests of the proprietors and the welfare of the colony [cheers]. He was in the highest degree satisfied with the course the committee had pursued in their negotiations with the Government, for he was convinced from a very long servitude in the East India service, having during sixteen or eighteen years filled high and important stations, that this Company would never thrive, considering its present condition and its position with the Government, till some plan similar to that which existed for the government of India through the East India Company was adopted. At an early period, and when the committee of the House was about to sit, he came down to this office and stated such to be his opinion. He was also much gratified at the refusal of the committee to compromise the Company by the sale of its interests. It was true that a money consideration might have been had ; but would such a course have been just to the individuals who had been induced to go out to the colony [hear, hear]? Would it have been just to those who were connected with the Company [hear]? Would it not have been deserting them [hear] ? "Would it not have been abandoning the natives themselves, and handing them over to a Government which, from the early period of Captain Hobson up to this moment, had so mismanaged the affairs of the colony as to bring the European and native population into constant collision ? But

it was hot to be believed that • 10.000 Europeans would, notwithstanding their reverence for the laws and their desire of a state of peace, continue to submit to such injuries as had been inflicted upon them [hear]. There was noother nation in the world that would to long have acted with the patience and forbearance that had been shown by the colonists of New Zealand. But it was too much to suppose that this forbearance would last for ever. We had before us the example of the separation from utof an immense colony — America, in consequence of the unjust exactions of this country upon the colonists ; and although New Zealand was njofc in a position to withstand a military force fr.qm England, or to avoid submission to any law we might think fit to impose on them, yet he believed there was in this country a sense of justice and good feeling which would prevent a military interference calculated to place tie colonists in such a state of subjection [cheerj ]. He did say that, if they should not succeed n their endeavours to uphold the New Zealand Company and the rights of the colony (and ile was certain no exertion to effect this would )e wanting), he was afraid that much, misery and misfortune to the colony would result; that a rising of the natives might take place, and some hundreds be sacrificed, as was the case on & former occasion ; but he was satisfied that in tie end the white population would prevail [heai j, and that the injuries inflicted by both parties would bring on a collision that would result in the destruction of those natives whose preservation they were all so anxious to secure [hear] . The motion was then put and carried unar imously. [To be continued.]