COMPENSATION TO RESIDENT LANDPURCHASERS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue VIII, 28 July 1849, Page 87

COMPENSATION TO RESIDENT LANDPURCHASERS.

A meeting of landpurchasers was held on Thursday last, at the Wakatu Hotel, to consider the steps necessary to be taken to get a final settlement of the claims which they have upon the New Zealand Company. Proposed by Mr. Kelling, seconded by Mr. Jenkins — 1. That Mr. Saxton be requested to take the chair. Proposed by Mr. Kelling, seconded by Mr. Otterson — 2. That a deputation be appointed to wait on the the Company's Resident Agent, and on Mr. Arnold, to request that they would attend the meeting. Mr. Bell, on his arrival, said that he thought it more desirable at the present time to withhold the opinions he might entertain as the Company's Agent, but was willing to state his views as the Chairman of the Committee which drew up the Report and Resolutions of July, 1847. Upon the meeting expressing a desire to have such an exposition of his views, Mr. Bell proceeded to say, that he thought it essential to the right understanding of the objects for which they had met, to revert to first principles, and ascertain clearly what was the spirit and intention of the scheme of July, 1847, upon which alone any claims could now be based. When the Committee, of which he had been chairman, sat down to discover a way of adjusting the land question, the difficulty that met them at the very first step, was one which, turn it which way they would, proved an insuperable one. They were obliged to admit that it was not only then, but had always been, physically impossible to fulfil the conditions of the original scheme of the settlement. The Company, whioh had entered into certain expressed or implied contracts with its purchasers, had never been able to complete them, were it ever so willing. But the Committee were unwilling to throw the whole responsibility of this upon the Company. It had itself entered largely into the same speculation as the landowners, had bought a large estate out of its own capital, and the result was that while the purchasers had suffered losses, the Company had done so too. It was clear that every one concerned had got into the wrong box. This state of things, admitted unanimously by all the Committee, led at once to the discussions being conducted in a spirit of mutual forbearance, of moderation, and of generous relinquishment of ■individual rights. Separate claims were dropped in favour of advancing a general scheme on a large and comprehensive principle, by which each land-owner would receive benefits from the bettered position of the whole settlement. From personal interests, the Committee looked to a higher object — the future prosperity and welfare of all who had embarked in the enterprise. And when they brought their plan before the general body of landpurchasers, nobody ever for a moment pretended that it was other than a compromise ; on the contrary, it was perfectly understood and accepted as such, without reservation. And as such, it received the assent of all the landpurchasers,excepting only two or three. It was this ' very knowledge of the scheme being a compromise, which had led to the insertion of a resolution reserving the right of any one who would not enter into it, or who, after entering into it, was not satisfied, to bring in a claim for something more. But it nevtr was supposed that all the landowners who entered into it, who shared in the advantages it secured, and received their land by consolidation in one block, could at any time afterwards bring forward a claim for general compensation, as if that scheme had never existed ? He (Mr. Bell) must beg them to excuse him for speaking openly and distinctly on this point. Two years had elapsed 6ince the adoption of the Resolutions of July, 1847: during nearly all that time he bad beeu engaged on important duties elsewhere: he had escaped all the discussions that occurred subsequent to his chairmanship. He was absent when the various modifications which had been introduced into the working of the scheme ■were decided upon; and looking with a - clear and distinct recollection to the principles on which the scheme was based, could not admit that any of those modifications could be brought forward as precedents, justifying further departure from it, especially departure from what was the very essence of it, namely, the preference of the general benefit to individual advantage. He hoped thty would consider it no want of respect to the meeting, if he staled that he claimed to have a more clear, and therefore more correct view of the original intention and spirit of the July Resolutions, than perhaps any one who had taken a part in the various proceedings relating to the land question that time. And in that view he was

at a loss to see on what ground a general claim to compensation was once more to be advanced, after the most liberal awards which had been made in nearly every case in October, 1847. He was the last man to deny the right of any landowner, whose case had not been fully and fairly met by those awards, to require compensation ; any such was specially provided for: but he must repeat again and again, that that was utteily different from their all coming forward now in a body to get something quite new, as if all that bad gone before was worth nothing. Why, he had received claims for hundreds of acres from some parties, and in one case for nearly 2,500 acres! And though, as Company's Agent, he desired not to refer to them at all, he felt bound to protest, as chairman of the old Committee, altogether against such claims being con* sidered part of the arrangement in July, 1847, which that Committee bad devised. The redistribution of the land, the consolidation of the rural choices to resident owners, in short, the various provisions of th« scheme, were never meant, nor, as far as he knew, taken as so many separate instalments towards liquidating the entire claim the landowners bad ; they were expressly devised as a whole, and purposely adopted as a compromise and composition necessary under the circumstances of the case. It was not then, in accordance with that scheme, to treat the advantages hitherto obtained as mere instalments, and now to come and ask for the whole balance. At least, he must be allowed most distinctly to guard himself, and those other members of the Committee who were absent in other places, from being supposed to join in the proceeding. Let them contrast it with the j arrangement entered into for the adjustment of the landowners' claims in the other set' tlements — at Wellington and Taianaki. The gentlemen there concerned, adopted what ihey took to be the example of the Nelson purchasers. They refrained from ; urging again the strict claim of right they had once set up. Seeing on the part of the Company a. sincere desire to meet their claims in a spirit of justice and liberality, they came forward in the same mind, and agreed to — what ? to a com- j promise also. Their case was far harder than ever the Nelson case was ; for they literally, with the exception of the Hutt district, and a small block round New Plymouth town, had not received possession of an acre of the land they bought, the purchase of Wanganui from the natives having only been completed just before : on the contrary, in many cases they had been actually expelled from their cultivations, and the hardly-earned fruit of many years' labour wrested from them. And while their original land was thus undelivered, there was absolutely co other available for them. Here at Nelson we had bad unsold sections to deal with, and God knew they had been given away with an unsparing hand; but at Wellington and Taranaki there was not only the original land to give, but nothing instead ! Now what did the landowners of those settlements propose at an adjustment of their claims — as a compensation for their hard case ? They offered to take 150 acres each — not of land, which was not then to be got, but of scrip. To say that was to say all ; they bad sunk their private losses, their individual animosity, and their personal interest, in the larger and more generous plan for general good, which was adopted without a dissentient voice, and even without a murmur ; and their moderation and unselfish behaviour was as honourable to them as the same had been in the case of the Nelson arrangement of July. But let them compare the advantages of the two arrangements. Here, the resident landpurchaser consolidated his land in a block of excellent quality, and could occupy it in comfort and peace among neighbours in the same position. At Wellington, the compensation land was eighty miles off, and until the other day the purchasers could not have occupied it at all. And yet the Wellington and Taranaki landowners were content to take very inferior arrangement to the Nelson one, because they saw the Company had throughout been in a fix as well as themselves, and ought not to bear the brunt of the whole loss. He said they where content ; for who had ever heard of new and large claims being advanced from Welling, ton or Taranaki, after the settlement with them ? Returning therefore to these demands now made, he did most earnestly hope for the credit of the arrangement which had been so fully disscused, so deliberately adopted, and so fully carried out in 1847, the Nelson landowners in preferring them would be guided by large views, and follow the rule of moderation and generosity which they found on the other side of the Straits. He begged

them to look as much to the future welfare of the settlement as to their own immediate interests. If the large claims he had already referred to were to he the basis on which they proceeded, the remaining ! unappropriated land — at least what of it possessed any value — would be quite insufficient for the purpose. Where would he the least encouragement to further immigration — where could there accrue the least sum to the public funds of the settlement ? The present purchasers, being large landed proprietors, it would give them no advantage except in the name, and the settlement deprived of any means of extension in any way, must inevitably sink into the insignificance from which the July scheme was to have raised it. For his own part, he could only say he would look upon such a state of things as destructive to any future prosperity to Nelson. Thus far he (Mr Bell) had spoken to them as the chairman of the July committee, and he sincerely hoped that warmly and openly as he had spoken, he had not given offence, since he was sure that everyone of that committee would, if asked, declare that he had said nothing of them that was incorrect. But having said his say in that capacity, he would now beg to respond to the call they had made upon him as the Company's Agent, and add a few words in that position. The New Zealand Company, by agreeing to the resolutions of July, evinced the sincerity of their declaration, that whenever the landowners should come to anything like an unanimous decision on the way to settle their claims, the Company would if possible adopt that way. Subsequently, from a desire to do the fullest justice to all concerned, the Company, with the sanction of the Colonial Minister, placed the whole of its private estate, as well as its demesne land, at the disposal of the Grovernor-in-Chief, for the adjudication and settlement of any claim upon it from its purchasers. Sir George Grey had however been obliged to decline entering into these claims himself, and other persons bad accordingly been appointed. In this settlement he (Mr. Bell) had requested Mr. Arnold to act as arbitrator for the Company, and he felt confident that the landowners would place the same perfect reliance on that gentleman's decisions as he did beforehand himself. He had not limited or restricted Mr. Arnold in the least degree, nor would the Principal Agent or the Directors desire to do so : what ~was fair and right to be done he should put no obstacle in the way of, and although he had felt it to be imperatively his duty, as chairman of the old Committee, to say what he had with regard to the anticipated claims, he would not a 9 Company's Agent make objections to the advancement of any which the landowners might choose to bring forward. But under these circumstances he thought the fairest course, the one most certain to ensure justice to all, and therefore the satisfaction of all, would be for them to appoint a sole arbitrator to meet Mr. Arnold, instead of allowing each claimant to name a separate arbitrator. He was persuaded that no other course would be free from objections and difficulties that must be obvious from the one fact (besides a host of others of equal importance), that in a number of cases the same land bad been claimed by two or more landowners. It only remained for him now to assure them that as soon as they should have settled the preliminaries among themselves, he would be ready to go at once into the various cases, and would in any way that was consistent with its duty, meet their wishes in a friendly and liberal spirit. Proposed by Mr. Marsden, seconded by Mr. Jenkins — 3. That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the Resident Land-purchasers are entitled to compensation from the New Zealand Company. Proposed by Mr. Stephens, seconded by Mr. Stafford — 4. That this meeting is of opinion, that the best mode of proceeding to the final adjustment of the question of compensation, would be by the election of a general Arbitrator on the part of the purchasers. Proposed by Mr. Stephens, seconded by Mr. Stafford — 5. That Mr. Barnicoat be appointed general Arbitrator, on behalf of the landpurchasers. Proposed by Mr. Rowe, seconded by Mr. Marsden — 6. That the Arbitrator should give the awards in money value, for which the New Zealand Company should give scrip, to be taken in payment of any land desired by the holders at the assessed value. Proposed by Mr. Seymour, seconded by Mr. Otterson — '• 7. That Mr. Barnicoat be the Assessor on behalf of the landpurchasers. Proposed by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Mr. Fisher — 8. That the Chairman be requested to forward A copy of the resolutions to the Resident Agent.