New Zealand Colonist TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1843.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 87, 30 May 1843, Page 2

New Zealand Colonist TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1843.

We have received from Auckland some numbers of the , Chronicle , and of a new paper started under the title of the Southern Cross. The only matter .of ..general interest is the war which. has been excited at Manganpi, in consequence, as it would seem, of an error on the .part ,of the government in purchasing land from parties who were not in possession. This has incited the actual occupants to resist by force any interference with their possession,: and

some lives have been lost in coilsequenec. From wlmt is stated, the mistake on the part ,o.f the government appears to have been of the same character as though the Company were

to attempt to claim Kawhia under a purchase from Rauparaha, or if the government were to claim Port Nicholson under a purchase from the Ngati Kakuhuni. We have not space for the account of the transaction contained in the Southern Cross, but we shall probably be able to publish it in our next number.

The present condition of the Colony gives to the land question an immediate importance which it did not previously possess, and creates a growing feeling of impatience at the apparently unaccountable delay in bringing the matteivto ,a termination. There is just that degree of pressure upon the Settlement which is needed to force people into the country, and but for the difficulty of acquiring and maintaining possession, hundreds of acres would have been 1 occupied and improved, which are now lying waste and unproductive. At the same time a large proportion of the population, for whom there are no adequate means qf employment in the town, would have been advantageously engaged in a labor alike profitable to the individual and the community. All of these prospective benefits are, however, intercepted by the unsettled condition of the title of the settlers, and the assertion .on the part of the natives of rights which the Government has recognised, and which the Company has failed .to extinguish. In almost every place in. which land has been given out—we should rather say, has been surveyed and offered for selection —by the Company, the natives deny the sale, and maintain possession of the whole, or at least the most valuable portion of the district. Rut in almost every instance this is done not with a view to prevent the occupation of the district by .the colonists, but to secure to the natives the payment to which they imagine themselves to be entitled. The natives assert either that they did not consent to the sale of the particular district, or that they have not received, the stipulated price. Upon payment of what they conceive to be a fair equivalent, however, they are willing to allow the colonists to occupy the lands given out; and as any payment now to be made would be given under the award of the Commissioner, and with the sanction of the Protector of Aborigines, we should, be. entitled to demand, and might rely upon receiving, the protection of the Government, in the event of any subsequent dispute. It is therefore reduced to a mere question of money. A sum certainly not exceeding 5,000/. in the, whole, would enable the settlers to obtain possession of their lands, and would entitle them to a grant from the Crown. This sum, however, it is understood, the Company refuses to advance.

.We. have no wish to argue the present question upon legal grounds. If it should ever become necessary to resort to such arguments, a court of justice, and not the columns of a newspaper, would be the fit arena for the discussion. We have a lingering hope that the Directors of the New Zealand Company will not be so far forgetful of the motives which they originally professed, as to place a sum of less than one twentieth part of what they have received from the settlers, in the scale against the very existence of the settlement they have induced us to found, ,We .lyiow, ton well the natural tendency of a company established with a view to profit, to merge every consideration in that of declaring the largest possible dividend, not;to have many doubts., . .Still, the character of many of -the Directors—the position they have assumed, and the motives they have avowed in the face of, the public—the extent to which their reputatation is involved in the prosperity of their settlement—the indelible that would attach to them, if in defiance of principle, and in open, and contemptuous violation of their promises, theyvwere to allow this settlement to sink into ruin .rather than make the paltry advance now required,and the lurking consciousness that there is a legal as well as a moral responsibility .attaching to them, and that it wo.uld. not be -quite wise - to drive the settlers at Port Nicholson to despair-—induce ris. to hope and evep to believe that they \yill eventually do

what. is required to free us from the galling obstacles by which our progress is impeded. We look in vain, however, for that prompt and unsolicited succour which we were entitled to

anticipate. If the- Directors should at length be roused to a consciousness of their duty, and’ inspired with a resolution to perform it, we fear hat this tardy resolve will be the result of shame rather than, of honor, and will beprompted more by a fear of consequences than, a determination to do right at all hazards.. It may, however, be asked,upon what groundswe ask from the Company a further advance in order to extinguish the native title where they have already expended so much for this purpose, and where, as is asserted, the matter has been taken out of their hands by the government Waiving for the present any enquiry into the validity of latter assertion, we shall state the reasons which induce us, in the name of the settlement, to make this demand. They aretwo. In the first place, the Company professed to sell to us the possession of the land we purchased. There was nothing else in their power to sell, and unless they wish to exhibit themselves to the world in a character which we shall not now designate, they cannot deny that they sold and that we purchased possession under a native title. Upon the commonest principles of justice therefore, they are bound to give us that which they assumed to sell, if at any pecuniary sacrifice this is possible. Were the amount tenfold greater than it is likely to be, as men of honor, nay, as men of business having a merely mercantile regard for their character, they are bound, having taken our money,to perform their part of the contract. They have no right to look now at the profit or loss by which the transaction may be attended. The terms of th,e bargain were fixed by themselves. If these terms were not as profitable as they might have been, the error was theirs, and they, not we ought to-be the sufferers. It would, indeed, be a new feature in the history of bargains, if a miscalculation of profit on the part of the vender were to excuse .him from a fulfilment of his contract.

And, imtbe second place, the Company are guaranteed by the government ,in advance, an abundant compensation for any further outlay which they may be called upon;tp?jnake. They have received in return for having taken the trouble of spending our money, a right to some four hundred thousand acres of land. Of this one-fourth is required to fulfil their contract with us, and the remainder, which taken at ss. per acre, As worth 7'5-,000 1. is an ample-fund out of which to provide for.any unexpected demands such as this to which we refer. The which might otherwise have been made for-them, —we ha-ye shewn they could not in honor make it for themselves, —is consequently deprived of validity, and their conduct appears nakedly ,in the light of a dishonourable parsimony.

In the mean time, however, we the settlers are deprived of our chief, and.# may soon be our sole resource. We .cannot .avail ourselves of the land nominally our own. We are compelldd to-purchase .from foreign countries the means of subsistence which our own would abundantly produce. We are constrained to idleness though with the means, the inducements, and the desire, to be industrious. We. waste our capital and our energies in the town, though impatient to occupy and improve the country. We see a daily diminution of our resources, and are shut out from the means of renewing them. Andall this because the Company does. not think fit to fulfil the promises they have made]

We understand that the Wellington Saloon will close after this week until the new premises are completed, which will he in a month or six weeks, when the performances will Recommence under more favourable circumstances, and the public will have better accommodation. It is surprising how well the arrangements have been conducted, considering how confined they have been for room.

By the Elizabeth we have received,Vaq Dieman’s Land papers to the 7th of April, and Nelson papers to the 20th May ; add by the Government Brig Victoria, Auckland paperfc to the 20th. inst.•

A party of German emigrants, qf land in the Nelson settlement, had qhaftered the St. Pauli, and were to sail from Hamburg on the 20th December.

, A pitched battle .had been fought between the Manganui arid Ngapera tribes, who with

their allies mustered between five ftnd six thousand strong. We are glad to announce in this day s paper the arrival of the brig Nelson, belonging to Messrs. Waitt and Tyser of this port, from Valparaiso. She has been seventy days running down,.. and has brought a male and. female donkey, which will prove very useful animals in this country. We are requested to state that Dr. Hansard will deliver a lecture on Friday evening next, at the Mechanics’ Institute, on “ Alcohol, and its effects on society.”