DINNER TO ALFRED DOMETT, ESQ.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 197, 13 December 1845, Page 1

DINNER TO ALFRED DOMETT, ESQ.

A dinner was given on Thursday evening to Alfred Domett, Esq., by the settlers of Nelson, to thank that gentleman for bis very able exposition of the wrongs sustained by the southern settlers of this colony at the hands of the Government, as embodied in the petition to Parliament just published. About forty gentlemen ■eat down to a most excellent dinner in the Literary Institution, prepared by Mrs. Taylor ; the Hon. C. A. Dillon in the chair. On the removal of the cloth, the Chairman gave the toast of "The Queen." The Chairman said that the next toast was one which was never overlooked in Nelson on occasions like the present — it was the " Memory of t,hose who fell at the Wairau." Drunk in silence. The Chairman, in proposing the health of Mr. Domett, enumerated the many claims that gentleman had to the regard, not of the settlers of Nelson alone, but of the whole of the inhabitants of Cook's Straits. The evils resulting from bad government under which the colony had laboured was universally admitted, and no one' had worked more zealously than the gentleman the company had met to honour to get those evils removed. It was to him we looked in all times of difficulty. After the Wairau massacre, Mr. Domett nobly stood forward to vindicate the memory of those who fell from the aspersions cast upon them by the miserable creatures of Government — he had most ably, in company with another gentleman present, Dr. Morro, represented our views on that lamentable business to the Government at Auckland — and afterwards prepared that admirable history of the whole transaction which appeared in a supplement to the newspaper. When Captain Fitzjlioy offered, ten months ago, to place in the Legislative Council any gentleman whom the people of this settlement might select, Mr. Doxjnstt was unanimously elected ; and if he at tht> time declined the honour of being stuck up like! a pin in a skittle ground only to be bowled donfn by the Governor, it was because lie thought by go doing be should best serve our interests. What he had spoken was not flattery; Mr. Doilnett needed none— he was himself his own praiee. The Chairman then proceeded to thaijk Mr; Domett, in the name of the whole body of •ettSers in Cook's Straits; for the last masterly production of hi* pep, the exposition of our grievances in the petition to Parliament. The health of Mr. Domett was then drank in the most enthusiastic manner. Mr. Domett briefly returned thanks: deprecated the exaggerated views o&kis services in the common caute taken by the settlers present.

and referred to those who had distinguished themselves in defence of the colonists in the House of Commons ; to " the great sound intellect of Charles Buller — to the masculine style of his oratory — its nervous simplicity — its persuasive sincerity; to Lord Howick's comprehensive views and mastery of all the details of the case ; to Sheil, with his brilliant, vehement rhetoric — his lively faney — the happy audacities of his fluent phraseology; to the member for Leominster, who characterized the different parties concerned in New Zealand affairs with a sound sagacity, an acute discrimination, a perfect appreciation of the merits and demerits of each — which made impartiality genius." Mr. Domett then proposed the toast which had been put into his hands— "The Health of Mr. C. Buller and the minority on the late division in the debate on New Zealand affairs." Mr. Fox said that he did not rise to return thanks on behalf of those gallant individuals whose healths had been so cordially drunk, for neither he, nor he was afraid any one else in the room, was so connected with them as to be entitled to that honour; an honour indeed he should have esteemed it, for by their able conduct of the New Zealand case in Parliament, he considered that Mr. Charles Buller and his colleagues had distinguished themselves much more than the leaders of naval or military campaigns, to whom public honours were usually awarded. They were fortunate in having their efforts chronicled by the best conducted press in the world. But others too had been engaged in the great contest against misrule, who had not had that good fortune. Brave men lived before Agamemnon, but no poet to record their history ; and so it was with many an honest colonist of New Zealand, who in some obscure nook had borne the same calamities as we had done, and with the same determined heart against the oppressor. But there was one large community in New Zealand in this position, and he regretted that it was so, for he knew that it was with us both heart and hand in the good cause ; he meant Taranaki. He was proud to see at the table one from that settlement, who had proved himself of the right sort; one who, when Captain Fitzßoy made his nefarious and partially successful attempt to dislodge the settlers from their position and to wedge them into a narrow block, had stood alone, or almost alone, neither charmed by the seducer nor afraid of the destroyer. He begged to give " Prosperity to Taranaki, and the health of Mr. Cooke." Mr. Cooke, J.P., in returning thanks, said that the present was not his first visit to Nelson. On a former occasion he had visited this settlement, and many of the gentlemen with whom he then became acquainted were now no more, most of them having fallen at the Wairau. When the news of that sad disaster and the manner in which it was treated by the Local Government reached Taranaki, the settlers there were impressed with the necessity of making common cause with the other settlements against a Government that had so shamefully neglected its first duty. Since that period the people of Taranaki had often admired the independent conduct of tbe Nelson settlers, and their able organ, the Examiner. When Captain Fitzßoy- visited Taranaki and attempted to break up that settlement, it was true that he (Mr. Cooke) and another settler refused to remove within the prescribed block of land the Governor allotted to the settlement, because he could not believe the statements he made on that occasion ; and the event had justified the course he had pursued. When a copy of the petition for Captain Fitzßoy'srecal was received at New Plymouth, it was signed by all men of independent feeling in the settlement, though some of the persons who always favour Government endeavoured to prevent their servants signing, and threatened them with dismissal if they did so. Notwithstanding this, their signatures were obtained. Mr. Stafford gave "The Press," and remarked on the many advantages the press conferred on mankind, both as the upholder of liberty and the vehicle of public information. Without it we, who are living at the antipodes of civilization, would be ignorant of all which was passing abroad in the world. When an arrival takes place the newspapers were always first sought after, as well by the politician as the man of business. It was from the newspaper that the wool-grower learnt the state of the latest markets, and he was happy to say these were very encouraging ; and, to make a short digression, he believed he might say that the clip which would be sent home from this settlement the present season would add greatly to the reputation of New Zealand as a woolgrowing country. Mr. Stafford, in conclusion, •aid that the toast was one which could need no further remarks from him to recommend it to the company, as the great value of tbe press was now univesrally admitted. Mr. C. Elliott said that he had some doubts whether he was the proper person to

return thanks for the toast just drunk, seeing that the gentleman who had proposed it had introduced so much wool into his speech. That gentleman, therefore, might have been thinking more of a press for packing than for printing, particularly, as he (Mr. Elliott) understood the gentleman had just commenced shearing his very choice flock. Now as there was an excellent hydraulic press in charge of another gentleman in the company, it might be to him (Dr. Greenwood) that we should look for a reply to the toast. But rather than there should be any misunderstanding on the subject, he (Mr. Elliott) would undertake the duty. There could be no doubt of the service generally which the press had conferred on mankind, nor did he think that in any part of the world at any time had more signal services been rendered a community by the press, than in New Zeai land. He did not speak of the local press, though that had doubtless done its part, but it was those daily Goliaths at horne — the Times, the Morning Chronicle, ably seconded by the Colonial Gazette, the Examiier, the Spectator, the New Zealand Journal, and a host of others — that had arrested our rapid race to ruin, and by exhibiting our wrongs and the mischievous course of Government pursued here, had wrought such a change as gave us at least a chance of retrieving our fortunes. Though the battle had been so far successfully fought, there was yet much to be done. It was true we had a new Governor, and a man, too, of whom much might be expected. But it was our duty as Englishmen to rely on no man and trust to no man. We as British subjects were entitled to the privileges of self-government, and let them be claimed. Granted that Captain Grey should prove the best Governor that ever ruled a colony, still his stay with us could be only a few years, and we should be then again at the mercy of any Stork or Log the Colonial Minister of the day might place over us. Let us, then, in the words so often used by the Chairman, agitate, agitate ! Let us agitate for municipal institutions of the most comprehensive and liberal kind. Let us agitate for representative government — the only safeguard of liberty. Time and opportunity favours now our cause, and if the new Governor is the man he is represented to be, our legitimate demands will have his hearty concurrence. Before sitting down he (Mr. Elliott) must advert to the services rendered to this colony through the press by a gentleman whose name was familiar to all present — he meant Mr. Edward Wakefield, senior. It was not too much to say that to his exertions was to be attributed in no small degree the attention which the English press had lately bestowed on New Zealand affairs, and the change in the tone of some which was perceivable. Mr. Wakefield had for the last two years laboured incessantly in making known in England the real position of the colony. Mr. Elliott concluded by giving "The Health of Edward Wakefield, Esq., and may he long be spared to labour in our cause." Mr. Bell having been called upon to reply to the toast, said he was sure Mr. Wakefield would feel a pride in the manner in which it had been received. It was impossible to say too much of his untiring industry in the cause of the Cook's Straits settlements, and Nelson in particular, and the settlers of Nelson justly felt an attachment to him in return. That the sentiment was reciprocal he could assure them in Mr. Wakefield's name : it commenced when a son whom he loved as much as he was proud of left England to found this place ; and ever since the Wairau massacre all his letters expressed his gratitude to the " noble Nelson settlers" (as he called them), and especially Mr. Domett, for defending the memory of his lost son. Mr. Wakefield had strong ties to attach him to New Zealand ; his eldest son had for many years worked incessantly in England for its colonisation; another, whose memory would ever be dear to Nelson, had been, with many other brave and generous men, sacrificed to the vagaries of a misguided if not unprincipled Government; a third had conducted, with rare ability and prudence, the difficult experiment of colonising a sister settlement, in the teeth of difficulties and obloquy that would have made many other men quail. And while others who had suffered as bitterly as Mr. Wakefield could not shake off a feeling of disgust at even the mention of New Zealand, he had aroused himself from his misery to aid in the battle for justice. They had now returned thanks to him, and to the glorious minority of the 19th June. Was there no one else they owed thanks to ? There were a few men in England, besides, who had fought long and hard for them ; first through the dark and dismal " sighing rooms " of the Colonial Office; then through the dense masses of public lethargy, which they had penetrated and aroused, till they gained the victory in the Committee; and being then lighted on their way by the unanimous English press, and supported by God and the right — rejecting with quiet scorn the dishonourable offers of pecuniary advantage with which Lord Stanley

had as a last resource attempted to bribe them — had strode to the bar of Parliament, and there appealed for justice to the settlers and a vindication of their own character. Those few men were the Directors of the New Zealand Company; and at the head of them a gentleman who, after giving from the first his time and the weight of his name and great wealth as Governor of the Company, had, there was too great reason to deplore, fallen a victim in the prime of his years to the accumulated and incessant exertion which the battle had required from him. They had been carried through the contest by their own shareholders first, then by the public voice in and out of Parliament, but mainly by the right on their side : let them now have their reward in the praises of the men whose battle it was they had fought. If the chairman would allow him to conclude with a toast, he would propose to them " The New Zealand Company, and the health of Mr. Fox." It would be presumptuous in him to say anything more, where all around him had so long been attached to Mr. Fox for his personal kindness and courtesy not less than they had respected his great abilities : he trusted that what he could not say they would express in their way of drinking the toast. Drunk with three times three, " cheers more" for Lord Ingestre, Mr. Aglionby, &c, &c. Mr. Fox, on behalf of the New Zealand Company, returned thanks. He was aware that that body 6tood in the position of not yet having fulfilled its obligations to those with whom it had contracted in this settlement. But it had in a straightforward and manly way explained the reasons of its default, and he thought that whoever read the report of the great parliamentary debate would come to the conclusion that it was not to blame, but that the fault lay with an unnatural Government, which had opposed its progress at every step and tied its hands behind its back. The time, however, was arrived when he trusted that justice would be done to the Company, and whenever it was so he felt that there was no impropriety in recommending the settlers to lay their case before it, for so far from the Company wishing to shirk any obligation it was under, he had not the least doubt that its anxious wish was to promote and encourage to the utmost the prosperity of all the settlements it had founded. After some remarks on the absurdity of expecting a colony 15,000 miles from home to be well governed by one individual residing in Downing-street, and some observations on the imperative necessity of colonies being allowed to govern themselves, Mr. Fox proposed as a toast, " Representative Legislatures, and may New Zealand soon have one." Mr. Kerb gave the toast of " The Mercantile Interest, and the Health of Mr. Sclanders." Mr. Scl andebs, J. P., thought he might say for the body he was called upon to represent, that they felt great pleasure in meeting so many of their fellow colonists to testify to Mr. Domett the high estimation in which he was held, both as regarded his character and talents, and in particular to mark their sense of admiration of the manner in which he had executed a most able exposition of the pernicious results of the mistaken policy which has hitherto been pursued in the government of this country. The difficulties which had obstructed the progress of the colony had not been of a natural kind, but had' been created by the anomalous position in which the settlers had been placed with regard to the aborigines. All instructions from home had been grounded on a false estimate of the state of civilization to which the natives had attained. The British Government roust have been grossly deceived by those on whom they relied for information on this point, or it could never entertain the absurd notion that the natives were capable of taking part in the government of the country. The natives of New Zealand were doubtless a fine race of people, and he would be most happy to see them attain that state of civilization which had been claimed for them. It was however a fact, that hundreds of young men had grown up under the eye and supposed instruction of the Protectorate establishment, who have acquired nothing beyond an imperfect knowledge of the New Testament through the medium of a barbarous jargon invented for them, nor did he believe one could be found capable of reading a single page of the history of a civilized country. Mr. Stafford proposed the " Health of the Chairman." The Chairman briefly returned thanks. Several other toasts were drunk, and the company did not seperate, until a late hour.