DOCUMENTS RESPECTING THE NELSON TRUST FUNDS, AND THE PROPOSAL TO MAKE THE COMPANY'S DEBT A CHARGE ON THE COLONIAL REVENUE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 513, 3 January 1852, Page 179

DOCUMENTS RESPECTING THE NELSON TRUST FUNDS, AND THE PROPOSAL TO MAKE THE COMPANY'S DEBT A CHARGE ON THE COLONIAL REVENUE.

H. Mcrivalk, Esq., to J. S. Tttxkr, Esq. Sir, — In reference to the correspondence which has taken place between yourself and this office on the subject of the Nelson Trust Funds, I am directed by Earl Grey to transmit to you certain proposed clauses for the purpose of adjusting the questions connet ted with it. They will form part of a bill for determining certain other questions arising out of the affairs of the New Zealand Company. Some verbal corrections may be necessary, but they are substantially complete as intended, subject to the approval of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Your attention is particularly directed to the clause which leaves it to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to determine the amount of the fund. No other mode has occurred to his Lordship by which the rights of the parties can be satisfactorily ascertained. His Lordship trusts that this provision will meet with your concurrence ; but its adoption appears indispensable towards legislating on the subject this session. You will notice also that this bill contains no provision respecting the management of the accruing land revenue of the settlement, as was at one time proposed. It was found difficult to frame such provisions with necessary minuteness in this country : and it also appeared very doubtful, from the accounts lately received of the extensive compensations granted in the settlement, whether the system of land sale established by the existing terms of purchase can be laager maintained.

But^sufficient power will be, on the other hand, reserved to the local Legislature and Government to make such regulations for this purpose as they, with better means of ascertaining the wants of the settlement than exist in this country, shal think expedient.

Lord Grey regrets that the delays of effecting the arrangement with the New Zealand Company, of which these clauses will now form a part, have compelled him to abstain so long from further communication with you on the subject, and must now oblige him to urge it on your immediate attention, as there is no time to be lost if the bill is to pass this session.

I have, &c, (Signed) H. Mbrivalb. Colonial Office, July 16, 1851.

J. S. Tytler, Esq., to H. Mbrivalb, Esq.) Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge your letter of the 16th instant, transmitting, by desire of Earl Grey, a draft of certain clatftes for the purpose of adjusting the questions connected with the Nelson Trust Funds, proposed to be embodied in a bill for determining other questions arising out of the affairs of the New Zealand Company, to be submitted to Parliament during the present session.

After having given the whole subject the fullest consideration, there appears to be only two points to which it is necessary that I should direct the attention of his Lordship, as being of a nature to which I feel it to be my duty to object, on the part of my clients, the resident landowners of Nelson.

The first of these is that to which my attention is particularly called in your letter, being the clause directing the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury to " ascertain," or, as it is explained in your letter, to " determine" the amount of the Trust Funds. Notwithstanding my most anxious desire that the matter should be disposed of this session, and while I gratefully acknowledge the exertions of bis Lordship in endeavouring that it should be so, I should be wanting in my duty to my clients did I take upon myself the responsibility of consenting, on their behalf, to any measure which would leave the amount of the fund, the principal point at issue, to'the sole determination of one of the parties directly interested, unless a distiuct pledge was given that the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury will be guided in their decision by the report of a neutral person, appointed by the parties. To Mr. John Shaw Lefevre, who has already, by desire of her Majesty's Government, given this and other matters connected with New Zealand the fullest investigation, I have, by permission of his Lordship, bad an opportunity of submitting the views of the settlers upon this point, and to hit arbitration or report I am perfectly willing on behalf of my clients, to refer the matter.

With this modification I should feel it my duty to be satisfied, and should at once give my concurrence on the part of the Nelson settlers to this portion of the Bill. Should however, his Lordship feel it impossible to agree to this, I regret being obliged most respectfully, but firmly, on behalf of my clients, to protest against a measure which frees her Majesty or the New Zealand Company of all further liability in respect of these funds so soon as the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury shall have paid over any sum which they may have determined to be proper, without necessarily having fully gone into the accounts between the New Zealand Company and the Nelson settlers, or heard the latter for their interest.

The other point to which I am desirous of directing his Lordship's attention, is that fixing the limit of the term of office of the first trustees named by the bill at Ist January, 1853, and that of the subsequent trustees at every three years thereafter. I have on a former occasion had the honour of stating my views to his Lordship as to the great inexpediency of the too frequent change tjf an administrative body, such as that constituted by the present bill : it is therefore unnecessary for me here to enter into the objections against it. I may, however, be allowed to express my opinion, that if the term of office of the trustees were extended to five or seven years, it would be found that the arrangement would both work better and be infinitely more satisfactory to the parties most interested, the settlers themselves. But, at all events, the duration of office of the first trustees appointed by the bill should be as long, if not longer, than that of their successors, for to them belongs the onerous duty of laying down the systems on which the funds are to be administrated, which manifestly could not be done by the Ist of January, 1853. It only remains for me to add, that in thus

frankly stating* my* view swith regard to the 'proposed measure, I have done so at repreaenting the resident landowners of Nelson. I have no power, however, to represent the opiniom of the far larger body of Nelson proprietors reiident in this country ; and I would respectfully luggeit that his Lordship should communicate with Mr. Henry Seymour, of Nelson, who is at present in London, and who is the recognised agent of th« great majority of their number. I have, &c, (Signed) Jambs Stuakt Tmn. Edinburgh, July 19, 1851.

Ma. H. Seymour to Benjamin Hawks, Esq., M.P., Under- Secretary of State for the Colonies, &c, Ac.

Sir — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23d instant, with a copy of the Directors' Bill for the arrangement of Claims of the New Zealand Company on the Crown, and for regulating the affairs of certain settlements established by the Company in New Zealand.

I gladly avail myself of the privilege afforded me by Earl Grey to remark upon the provisions of the Bill, on behalf of the Absentee Purchasers of Land at Nelson.

In the first place, I beg to acknowledge, with sincere thank*, the kind manner with which my suggestions have uniformly been received, and the several alterations his lordship has been pleased to make in some of the clauses of the Bill, as first drawn.

The feeling of obligation I owe to his lordship on this account renders it the more painful to me to express any further dissent from the measure, but I am under the necessity of naming two objections to the Bill, as it is now proposed. The first has reference to the arrangements between the Company and its purchasers.

Lamenting, as I must do, the omission of all notice in the Bill of the Resolutions of July, 1847 — yet gratefully accepting the alterations effected in accordance with what appeared very desirable, and acquiescing in the plan now proposed to provide for the future election of Trustees — there still remains one provision to which, in its present unqualified form, I beg most respectfully to object. I should be wanting in candour if I did not acquaint you with the fact of"my being informed of the sentiments of Mr. Tytler with reference to the Bill, and especially upon that clause which empowers the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury to ascertain the amount of Trust Funds now due from the Company to its purchasers, and fully concur with him in considering that to consent to such an unconditional mode of ascertaining the amount due, would be to overlook the interests of the purchasers, for it must not be forgotten that in this case the Commissioners could not be considered disinterested, although perfectly unimpeachable judges. There is an expression in your letter, however, which induces me to hope that the objections which Mr. Tytler and myself feel compelled to make on this point may be met by some qualification of that part of Clause XVII. which relates to this subject (p. 9, line 38) ; aud that is, the reference made to Mr. Lefevre's investigation of the amount of Trust Funds due. If we could be assured that Mr. Lefevre's Report would be adopted by the Commissioners, or that the " dispute between the said Company and the pur chasers of land at Nelson," as to the amount, would be referred to arbitration by them — for we can scarcely expect the Commissioners can themselves afford time to investigate such complicated and lengthened accounts — we should at ouce not only withdraw our objections to the measure, but give it our .united cordial assent. What we apprehend most, is that which appears evident will follow the passing of this clause— the ascertaining the amount from ex parte statements and accounts based upon principles which we resist ; such, for instance, as the denial by the Company of our claim to interest, and its right to charge for surveys, local and home establishments, &c, &c. I scarcely need assure his lordship that I should be glad to have my appre. hensions removed.

Had the Bill been strictly confined to the tran. sactions of the Company and its purchasers, th« difficulties connected with it might, I sincerely think, have been overcome ; but unhappily such is not the case ; and I must therefore now refer to that portion of the Bill having relation to the arrangements between her Majesty's Government and the Company, with extreme reluctance, as it forms my second and principal objection to the Bill.

His lordship, I make no doubt, has reason to be satisfied with my attachment to the Home and Local Governments ; and if the Company have ever entertained opinions of my being hostile to its interests, it must be now assured, by the course I have pursued since my arrival in England, that such is not really the case. I trouble you with these remarks because I have hitherto carefully avoided any observations upon the very important subject of the arrangement sought to be perfected by the early clauses of the present Bill.

It is sufficiently known that I have ever taken a deep interest in the true welfare of my adopted country ; have watched with intense anxiety the result of the various struggles successfully made from time to time by the little settlement with which lam connected, against those repeated difficulties which you are to well acquainted with, and which to us, in the wilderness, have sometimes appeared almost insurmount. able, like the mountains by which we were surrounded ; and that, when opportunity has permitted, I have endeavoured to serve in my humble way the country of my future home, and the homes of the children that follow me. Can I conceal from myself that I should prove a traitor to that country, and a most unworthy member of its energetic society, did I not use the opportunity I now poisess of imploring Earl Grey to abandon that portion of this measure by which any amount due to the Company should become at all chargeable upon the Gcnebal Revenues of the colony ? I wish to acknowledge that I note especially the last paragraph of your letter now under notice, and feel, first, that his lordship's kindness to receivt a further representation from me is mentioned as being on the part of the absentees ; and next, that any attempt to substantially change tha arrangements now proposed must involve tha

postponement of the Bill, and the appropriation of the Trust Fund for another year. _ If am trespassing upon his lordship by express, ing sentiments which may be considered merely my own, and not those of my clients, I solicit his lordship's indulgence, and cannot hesitate to believe but that I shall willingly receive it. With respect to the important responsibility of being at all instrumental in producing the postponement of the Bill, I may answer you, I am fully aware of it. Yet I cannot doubt; for after very long and thoughtful examination of consequences, as far as I could trace them, I could find nothing to compare to the evils resulting from this clause, if passed into a law : and therefore, had I the power, I confess I have the will, to expunge the clause, and, were it possible, incur all the responsibility. In the Company's Report (p. 4), it states the debentures are to be " a first charge after the Civil List, upon the General as well as the Land Revenue," &c. In the Bill, the word " first " does not appear. I, nevertheless, apprehend it is so meant. Does not the local Education Ordinance provide for £800 per annum as a first charge after the Civil List ? — if so, will Parliament overthrow that Ordinance ? But suppose not ; suppose I am in error — for I have not the Ordi nance to refer to — still, were this principle now contemplated once commenced, who shall say where it will stop ? Where will be the practicable utility of our New Constitution, if the power of the Councils elected under it to pass Appropriation Ordinances is first to be limited by Acts of Parliament creating prior charges upon the General Revenue ? I would not only advocate the postponement of the appropriation of the Trust Fund (the value of which no one has more prized, or endeavoured to obtain than I have), but I would cheerfully abandon it, rather than receive it, joined to the commencement of a " National Debt " of the colony— better far, that it should sink into the sea.

That the claims of the Company being charged upon the Land Revenue of the colony has already produced very strong dissatisfaction in the settle, ments, although but partially expressed, is evident : knowing this, ran I refrain from great anxiety, lest the expression of a strong political feeling throughout the colony, when this measure becomes known, may prove injurious to our steady progress and anticipated enjoyment of free institutions. The true friends of the Company must equally lament this arrangement with myself : its acts and merits will be ever the cankering sore : the very few resident purchasers will never, can never, consider themselves under obligation to the Company — it is impossible : the debt must ever be on the contra side ; they will too surely view the measure as only an additional aggravation. If so of the purchasers, what will the large majority, every month becoming greater, of nonpurchasers from the Company conclude ? Can they remain content ? Why should their taxes be required to pay the claims of a Company unknown to them ? And here my clients may join and inquire, Will intending emigrants seek a home already taxed with a national debt, which may possibly be augmented — doubled — during the next session of Parliament ?

You will no doubt observe that with the arrangement, irrespective of this portion of Clause 111., I make no comment ; I would not on any account express an opinion : and nothing but a strong feeling of the duty, which it would be criminal to neglect, has prompted me to record my objection to the sum due to the Company being charged on the General Revenue of the colony. Without entering more fully upon the question, I hope I have stated enough to justify me in most respectfully begging his lordship to allow me to make this Protest against Clause 111., as it now stands. I have the honour, &c,

H. Seymour.

Hall of Commerce, London, July 25, 1851.

To the Honourable the Commons of the United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, The Humble Petition of Henry Seymour, of Nelson, in her Majesty's Colony of New Zea-

land, Merchant,

Sheweth — That a Bill is now pending in your honourable House, intituled " A Bill for the arrangement of Claims of the New Zealand Company on the Crown, and for regulating the affairs of certain Settlements established by the said Company in New Zealand." That the said Bill has for its object (among other things) the completion of an arrangement between her Majesty's Government and the New Zealand Company, whereby the said Company surrendered its charters to her Majesty, and all claim and title to the lands granted or awarded to them in the said colony, and all the powers and privileges of the said Company, and by which all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments of the said Company in the said colony reverted to and became vested in her Majesty as part of the demesne lands of the Crown in New Zealand.

That it is proposed by the said Bill, that the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners shall make out and deliver to the said Company, debentures or bills for the payment of the sum of two hundred thousand pounds, in consideration of such surrender of charter and transfer of land as aforesaid ; and that the principal and interest of such debentures and other securities are made chargeable and charged upon the General Revenues of the said colony of New Zealand, and also upon the Revenue, for the time being, arising from the demesne lands of the Crown in New Zealand. That your petitioner emigrated to New Zealand as a permanent colonist, at the earliest formation of t; c Nelson Settlement, in 1841 ; that he and his family have since constantly resided in Nelson ; that he intends returning thither forthwith ; and that his present property and future prospects, in common with all other settlers, will be seriously affected if the said Bill be allowed to pass.

That your petitioner strongly objects to, and protests against that part of the said Bill by which it ii proposed to charge the payment of the said sum of two hundred thousand pounds, and interest as therein mentioned, or any portion of the liabilities which her Majesty's Government is under to the New Zealand Company, upon the General Revenue of the »aid colony.

1. Because the Company has no claim, direct or otherwise, upon the colonists, a very large majority of whom have had no transactions or connection with it. Its claim is on the Government of this country alone, which has no right to transfer its obligations to other parties, without some corresponding advantage, which in this case can never accrue.

2. Because all the evils which the settlers have had to encounter, and they have been severe ones, have resulted either from the unwise proceedings of the Company, or through the dissentions between it and the Colonial Office ; none of which evils, however, have had so fatal an influence upon the welfare of the colony as may be apprehended from the effects of the said Bill, if passed into a law.

3. Because the settlers, being already justly dissatisfied with the Company's lien on the revenue to be derived from the land nales of the colony, must be rendered infinitely more so by the passing of this most objectionable Bill, which will destroy all confidence entertained by those colonists who have hitherto been attached to the Government, and must prove an increased incentive to distrust and disaffection in those who have already shown hostility to their rulers.

4. Because the discontent arising from a grievance of the magnitude which this baneful measure will produce, must interrupt the harmony it has been anticipated would now speedily exist in the colony, as well as arrest the progress of all beneficial efforts to promote its permanent welfare, by unjustly absorbing, in liquidation of liabilities wholly unconnected with their interests, whatever amount of revenue they may have reasonably hoped to have seen employed in necessary and useful public works.

5. Because the charge upon the general revenue of the colony of the liabilities of the Crown is not only unjust in principle, and consequently indefensible, but it is unsound in policy, wholly unconstitutional, and, as your petitioner believes, without precedent ; and will nave the effect of destroying all hope of usefulness to follow the introduction into the colony of the so-long-pro-mised, free institutions.

6. Because the precedent now proposed to be established, of placing the general revenue of the colony at the disposal of the Imperial Parliament, must render abortive the attempt to confer upon the colonists the right (amongst other privileges) of the appropriation of the revenue produced hy themselves, and which was to be secured by the contemplated new Constitution ; for no guarantee can be offered or accepted, that other charges, equally repugnant to the sentiments of the colonists, opposed to their true interests, and alike indefensible* may not, from time to time, be made upon the general revenue of the colony, at the will or the requirement of her Majesty's Govern, raent.

7. Because the general revenue of the colony is already insufficient to provide for its present charges — which are met through the assistance of an annual grant from the Imperial Parliament and consequently not in a position to discharge the debt or pay the interest proposed to be charged upon it by the said Bill, even were its principle at all justifiable.

Your petitioner, therefore, humbly prays that the said Bill may not pass into a law as it now stands, and your petitioner will ever pray, &c.

Henry Seymour, Member of the Legislative Council of the Province

of New Munster, New Zealand.

The humble petition of the undersigned colonists of New Zealand showeth,

That your petitioners are colonists of New Zealand, and purchasers of land in the settlements of Wellington and Nelson.

That your petitioners purchased such lands in reliance upon certain contracts and terms of purchase entered into and issued by the New Zealand Company, in respect of the lands of the said settlements, and other lands in the southern province of the colony.

That your petitioners have been informed that a Bill has been laid before your honourable House, for the purpose of enabling her Majesty, by instructions under her signet or sign manual, or through one of her principal Secretaries of State, to alter and amend the contracts and terms of purchase so issued by the New Zealand Company in the said settlements, and to authorise the Governor of the colony or Lieutenant- Governor of the province to make terms and regulations for the sale and disposal of the said lands, and to give and ascertain the boundaries of the said settlements.

That a main consideration on which purchasers of land from the New Zealand Company, to the amount of many hundred thousand pounds, were induced to invest their property in the purchase of such lands, was the undertaking of the Company to maintain a certain scheme of terms of purchase, and a certain minimum price for such lands in all their future sales ; and that by the Bill now before your honourable House, the contract to that effect, into which the Company entered with all its purchasers, is abrogated and set aside, without the consent or knowledge of the parties interested therein.

That your petitioners conceive that the power proposed to be given by the said bill, of altering and amending the said contracts and terms of purchase, amount to a departure from, and an entire breach and abrogation of, the contract under which your petitioners and their fellow colonists purchased their lands, and they conceive that such power is one which ought only to be exercised directly by the two Houses of Parliament, and not by her Majesty's Secretary of Sate for the Colonies, under derivative powers, the extent and aim of which are left unlimited and undefined, and the regulations framed by virtue of which will be brought into operation without being first sub. mitted to Parliament, or in any way receiving the sanction or consideration thereof.

That certain funds contributed by the land purchasers of Nelson for public purposes, in which your petitioners are interested as colonists of New Zealand — such as Steam Navigation, Educational and Ecclesiastical and other objects — were formerly vested in the New Zealand Company as trustees thereof, but have since devolved as a liability upon her Majesty's Government, under the provisions of a certain Act of Parliament, passed

in the session held in the tenth and eleventh years of her Majesty's reign.

That a dispute has arisen between the Company and the Nelson Land purchasers respecting the amount of such funds due from the Company. That, by the said Bill now before your honourable House, it is proposed to leave it to the Com. missioners of her Majesty's Treasury to ascertain the amount actually due to the land purchasers in respect of such funds ; but no provision is made for the said Nelson land purchasers being heard before such Commissioners, or their interests, or those of your petitioners, being in any way represented ; and that it appears to your petitioners that the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury can in no way be regarded as an indifferent or impartial tribunal to adjudicate upon a *claim which has to be satisfied by her Majesty's Government.

That your petitioners have only received information of the contents of the said Bill a few hours ago, the provisions of which are wholly unknown and unexpected in the colony, and they are satisfied that, if time permitted, many colonists, now in this country, and a large majority of those in the colony, would avail themselves of their right of petitioning your honourable House against the said Bill.

Your petitioners therefore pray that your' honourable House will be pleased not to pass the said Bill. And your petitioners will ever pray, Fred. A. Weld, William Fox, Honorary Agent for the Colonists of Wellington.