NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 21, 25 October 1845, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

By the latest English newspapers we are enabled to lay before our readers most important intelligence respecting the New Zealand Company and the Colonial Office. In our columns this day will be found the Report of the Directors at the annual general meeting of the Company, on the 29th May last. - In our two preceding numbers we inserted the Petition of the Company, which was presented to the House of Commons on the 16th April. It appeared by the explanation of Mr. C. Buller, at this general meeting, that he and Sir J. Graham had some conversation, in consequence of which, Mr. Buller communicated to the Directors, and they appointed from among themselves a secret committee, to assist Mr. Buller in his confidential communications with the Colonial office. The proposition of the Company to the Government was this : — to form a Province, comprising the wholeofthe Middle and bouthern Islands, and part of the Northern Island ; and, then, for the Government to bestow on the Company, full proprietary rights and government, similar to those formerly possessed by the East India Company in India. To this proposal Lord Stanley decidedly objected ; but was willing to any other proposition, founded on the basis of either endea vouring to settle, amicably, the question at issue, — leaving the Government and the Company on their present footing ; — or, for the Government to buy up the interests of the Company, and then to dissolve that body. The negotiations lasted from the 26th April until the 26th May, when the secret committee intimated to his Lordship, that it was useless to continue them ; but unless they were shortly renewed, on their own original proposal, they should not consent to any further delay of the motion of Mr. Buller — " to call the attention of the House of Commons to the state of the Colony of New Zealand, and the case of the New Zealand Company." It is not, in our opinion, at all probable, that tne Colonial office and the New Zealand Company would agree before the appointmen t of the new Governor ; and our reason is, that at this general meeting, Dr. Evans appeared. He arrived in England at the beginning of May, in charge of a counterpart memorial to Lord Stanley, from land-owners at Wellington, the original of which had been forwarded, according to the rule of the Colonial office, through the Governor of the Colony. The Doctor wrote to Lord Stanley to waive the rule, and to allow him to present it to his Lordship in person ; but the Under Secretary, Mr. Hope, merely requested the Doctor' lo caTl on him, when, in a veiy long conversation, in which Dr. Evans declared it to be quite impossible to draw the attention of Mr. Hope to the memorial : for, whenever the former attempted to press that subject on the notice of the latter, he directed the conversation to other topics ; and the Doctor, after an hour's sifting and examination, on all subjects but that for which he had sought the interview, was politely bowed out. Some days subsequently, having, we presume, recovered his surprise, Dr Evans wrote again to Lord Stanley, complaining of this treatment, and wishing to know his Lordship's intentions on the subjects of the memorial, to which he received the following reply, which, taking into consideration its date, is rather convincing that the relations between the Government and the Company would not very soon amicably be settled. (Copy.) "Doivning-street, May 28, 184-5. " Sir, — I am directed by Lord Stanley to acknowledge the receipt of your letters to him of the 6th and 22ml

instant, and of the printed copy of the memorial enclosed in the fiist of those letters. " Lord Stanley having, as your are aware, determined to appoint a successor to Captain Fitzroy, mthegov-m- [ nientof New Zealand, it is his intention to reserve for him whatever instructions he may think it right to give, as well upon the question brought under his notice by the memorial you refer to, a.s on others. " I take this opportunity of adding that the construction which, from your letter of the 22nd, you appear to have placed upon my language and demeanour during our inteiview on the 16th, is a construction which they weie not intended, and which I conceive they were not calculated to convey. "I have the honour to he, Sir, " Your most obedient servant, (Signed) •• G. W. HOPE. "Ir. Evans."