LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Issue 63, 26 June 1841, Page 3

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

We learn with great pleasure that the New-Zea-land Company, composed as it is of men of every shade of "political opinion, is about to give a public dinner to Lord John Russell, in token of the sense which it entertains of his eminent services as Colonial Minister, and of the generous, as well as truly liberal spirit in which he has reconsidered the causes of his differences with the New Zealand Association, and consented to place himself at the head of a movement, the objects and character of which he had, at first misunderstood.

We say mwcnderstood, because we know that, from the very first moment of its orginazation, the desire of the New Zealand Company was to seek the co-operation and sanction of the Govern . ment, and to purchase them by a compliance with every reasonable demand. The only thing that it could not do, was to abandon its duties towards those who, upon the faith of the encouragement originally given to the project by certain Members of the present Cabinet, had made all their preparations for abandoning their native land, — actually disposing of property here to a considerable extent, — or giving up professions, by which their bread was to be earned, — and whom it was impossible for any body of gentlemen to desert, when their own hopes of a Charter, or an Act of Parliament, -were (as we think) unfairly deceived.

How the New Zealand Company redeemed its pledge we know, for few things have excited more interest both in England and upon the Continent, than its proceedings, ending as they have done in in the creation of one of the most flourishing settlements that modern times have seen. But it is not the less certain that there must always have been somthing precarious in this success, so long as the pledge of permanency was wanting, which the Crown alone can impart by its peculiar powers ; without this, there would always have been room for litigation and disputes. The whole structure would have been built upon sand; for the legality of every act done by those in authority might have been disputed ; and a feeling of uncertainty would have been cast upon the tenure of property itself, without security for which industry can never thrive. All this Lord John Russell has seen and put an end to, by taking the question of sovereingty into his own hands, and consenting to give New Zealand a Charter, upon conditions, in which the Company has gladly acquiesced. He has done this spontaneously. The liberal press has attached little importance to the question, with the excepton of the Colonial Gazette, and ourselves, while the Times and some other Tory journals have been most tenacious, and unreasoning in in their opposition to a plan, which the missionary influences, formerly so powerful at the Colonial Office, have also done their utmost to thwart. It is only the more meritorious, therefore, in. Lord John Eussell to have inquired and judged for himself, and to have forgotten, with true statesmanlike nobility of mind, in the strength of his present convictions of that, which the interests of the empire require, his own first impressions, formed upon a partial view of the case, and the angry correspondence in which he became involved (principally by the faults of his predecessors) on his first taking the Colonial Department . Thus it is, that things in England work themselves right. Time and Truth are the two things needful in every change. The soundest principles often excite the fiercest opposition at first ; but discussion exposes error, and prepares the way for reform. Then comes the moment, and the man ; — the nan, we mean, who is not ashamed of confessing that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to whom circumstances have given the power of carrying great measures practically out. We envy not Lord John Rnssell that power, but we respect and thank him for using it well. We, in our humbler sphere, have done something towards preparing the way for that most beneficial change, which is about to take place ito Colonia] Affairs, and we hope to see proofs at the New Zealand dinner, by the presence of men of all parties, laying aside their differences upon thi^ neutral ground, — that, let what will be the issue of our struggles here, Colonial Lands, and the system of colonization connected with them, will never be tampered upon mistaken principle! again. — Wetkly Chronicle. I