New Zealand Gazette AND WELLINGTON SPECTATOR. Saturday, March 4, 1843.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume III, Issue 225, 4 March 1843, Page 2

New Zealand Gazette AND WELLINGTON SPECTATOR. Saturday, March 4, 1843.

We have received a copy of Mr. Chapman's third number of the New Zealand Portfolio, ond we certainly think, it is by far the best. 111 1 would far exceed the limits of a Colonial ] tfper, to attempt to give anything more than n general outline of its purport. It is addressed to the land-owners of New Zealand, resident in England, i. c. " The absentee proprietors," he begins by reminding them of the fable of " the old man and the bundle of sticks," and observes ''in your present individual state, you are necessarily under any change of circumstances affecting the wellbeing of the Colony, liable to every evil -that dan a'rrse without being able t6 help yourselves, or to take advantage of what is .good ; you are numerous, and yet can hardly b'li called a body ; you consist rather of a considerable number of isolated individuals -without the least approach to orginazation, *or union knowing each other, neither endowed With a common mind, nor actuated by a common purpose. I hjtve reviewed in my own mind the whole history of the Colonisation 6f the Company's Settlements, from the sale of the allotments forming the first settlement, in 1^39, till the present time, and although question after question has arisen deeply affecting your iriterests-as owners of land, you have never bnce to my knowledge met together offdr a united or collective opinion to the Government, the Company, or the Colony, on the prevailing question of the moment. This must be remedied ; you have dd'tie's it? perform towards the Colony, without a due oh- > sci vance of which, you can scarcely expect! .your rights to be tegarded. So long indeed ns you reraaiu individually isolated, and urinnited you ate in a false position towards th'ej Colony. .You are unknown to the Colonists! except as • absentee proprietors,' driving bar-

gains-.with tne Cofiwnists throdifeh ybur several Agents^ in your r^pective relations* of la'n'dlord»and tenaVft. $tb not commit the* egregious ' error of supposing that you are" nothing to the Colonists, or they to you, your are indeed alii and all to each other, you have every interest in shewing them that you believe their interest ; and your own to be" stmiliar. This you can • only"d<s by ,prorhiotingi arid even originating •iffeasTlres "of beneftW ftrfltem, and by shewing yourselves ever ready to step forward whenever the interests of the Colony at large are iff your opinion' threatened of assailed. The first occasion which occurs to my memory on which a mere expression of your united opinion Would have been serviceable to the Colonists, to the Company, and to yourselves, -was when the question of title was in abeyance. No doubt the principles of International law were- in your favour. The Government had been placed in the irrong by a ' memorandum ' as it was called, issued by the Colonial Office, denying the sovereignty of the Crown. Every one, except perhaps the author, saw the complete' dilemma in which the Government were placed by this ill-judged •memorandum.' I have often heard complaints of the 'negligence of Agents,' but these complaints are not less strong than those which reached this country of the restrictions which have been placed on the power of leasing, given to Agents. Many proprietors, it is equally clear, have imposed very absurd conditions as to the terms on which they will permit their Agents to let their lands'. Some for instance will only let on building leases for .seven years ! others would fain exact a high rent at once. Now, these absurdities, deprive their Agents of the power of letting at all. I will not further dwell upon past questions, in the discussion, or opposition of which your own interests should have induced you to take part, and would perhaps, had you been in a condition to do so ; but will at- once come to the present, in which you are quite in time to interfere, reminding you at the same time that your interference will be of little avail except as a united body." Here, for the present, we must close our extract, or rather say — digest of this pamphlet. We are sure our readers will agree with the author that, the absentee proprietors might have rendered us, who headed, we will not say the forlorn hope but, the spirited enterj prize of founding New England in New Zealand, most important service, had they been imbued with but a small portion of genuine philanthropy ; which one would have- thought, even self-interest would have prompted even the outward show of, if it did not produce the inward feeling of it. Whether the reasonings, as well as the just exposure of their hitherto selfish individuality contained in the pamphlet before us, will rouse them into any thing like a community of feeling with us, time will show; and we will give them the full benefit of the adage, " better late than never," and join with the poet, who says " to forgive "and forget is humanity's debt, which, when faults are acknowleged, we should always pay ; " if they will but make up for past errors, to say nothing worse of their hitherto neglectful and selfish conduct. We believe, the only thing they can boast of, up to the present moment, is their individual unanimity of a total disregard of the fate of the resident Colonists, excepting so far as they may, by their industry and confident expenditure' of their skill and capital, enhance the value of I their property ; upon which, as far our information extends, they have, in scarcely a single instance, expended one farthing. I Their conduct reminds us of a wealthy Nabob, who being on his voyage, from the scenes of his fortunate speculations to his native country, was called upon to assist, in common with his fellow passengers, in working at the pumps of the ship, on the occasion of having sprung a leak. His answer was, what ! me work, who have paid so and so for ray passage ! not I, the ship may sink and be d — d ; you wont let her sink for your own sakes :—: — and so, it would appear, say the absentee proprietors. — You resident gentry must work or be ruined ; and we have paid our money for our land, and you cannot benefit yourselves without benefiting us. We hope, however, the time is not far distant, when the legislature will take some steps that will, if not $ut a little life into these generous landholders, as least make them contribute their fair hhare of the expences necessary, to enable the scattered resident proprietors and cultivators, 4o traverse the intervening .portions of the neglected and unoccupied property 'of absentee proprietors, — by levying the mean 3of constructing roads, by the imposition -of a land tak assessment,—^taking these gentlemen's own -fralua'tjon of their property as the scale 6Y assessment.

In acknowledging a letter 3rom the -Postmaster at Nelson, we take this public means of announcing, that he 'has

rily amoved that rtb blame* attaches 4* him, as' regatioVthe forwftding off the EriglHSi letters. (fo£ thia settlement) brought \ouglbl by the Indus. Men who accept of public appoint- , ments, must make their minds to meet with more or less of (in many instances) unmerited complaint of their supposed neglect in the discharge of their official duties'';; and, peiv haps, their is no' situation under a 1 Cofo'nial Government morV exposed ttf Such", than" that* of Post-master. At the same time, we believe, when explanation" is asked,* and promptly given, neither the public generally, or individuals are alow- in- accepting it. In- ( the present instance, it appears that our ira- ' patie J nc'e i wW caused by thte"- inability of the-Post-master to command the requisite means of shipping the bags on board the Vanguard ; at the same time,, it proves that we had justifiable grounds of complaint, although we' were wrong as to the source from which our cause of complaint arose.

We observe our contemporary differs with us as to the policy of mooting questions of serious practical grievance, for feat of creating alarm, and that unless it could be shewn that we were worse off as regards the matter in question — namely, preventing the desertion of sailors from vessels, in our harbour, we ought not to complain. Our only answer is, we never knew it a reason why one man should not get a broken leg set,, because another who had fractured his skull, choose to die from the consequences. Nor does our contemporary really think so, for he concludes by saying, the remedy is easy, and has been found efficacious elsewhere. He is only angry with us for having done that, which he admits ought to carry weight with it, if done by others.

We have received some numbers of the Auckland Times 1 , together with the letter of the Editor. It does us no more than justice, in supposing that we yield to none in opinion of the high & important consequenceswhichmust attach to the preservation of the independence of the press. Jefferson, in speaking of public opinion, observes, — the basis of our (I wish we could say so too) Government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right, and if the question was, whether we should have a Government without newspapers, or newspapers without a Government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter. But while these ephemeral teachers of truth, and vehicles of information are, in common with every thing belonging to man, imper/et, and liable to abuse ; it is not seen, how large a community conld continue free and intelligent without them. As the air, which, though it sometimes conveys offensive colours — sometimes noxious vapours — and, in its greatest agitation, becomes the destructive hurricance, it is nevertheless, the indespensible aliment of life. Our contemporary may rely upon it, we shall at all times be most ready to notice the columns of the Auckland Times, and be equally ready to express our concurrence with its opinions, when we feel they coincide with our own, as we shall to record our dissent, when we may differ from them upon the important question touched "upon respecting the question of Native subjection to British controul.

We were unable to reply to the letter of " a Reader," on the subject of the implied partiality, as regards the depredations committed on the Public Reserves. It is very true, that several parties have been recently brought before the Police Court for cutting timber on the Public Reserves, and the only fines that have hitherto been imposed have been upon two individuals, a master and his man, named Phelps and Sturt, the former a brick burner, and the latter his servant, who has cut about an acre of the timber, and persisted in so doing, notwithstanding he had been warned of the consequences if he did so. It is rather too bad that respectable tradespeople, who have to purchase their labour and fuel for their business of brick-making, are to be driven out of the market by dishonest individuals, such as our correspondent is pleased to commiserate ; and as regards the Maories, the only party which have as yet been detected, have been employed by a most respectable baker, as we have no doubt he considers himself, who, like many other parties claiming "the title of respectability, do not scruple "to purchase firewood of anybody who may offer -it for sale, whether pakeha or Native, and ask no questions as to their right to the article itself. But the Natives, we can tell him, 3iave had the property taken from them and threatened with punishment, if they persit in cutting, — Ed. N.Z.G.

In the following remarks, we fully agree with the Auckland Times, 'namely—*' That the most important subject *is to establish some effectual system for the just, but secure, management of the aborigines. We want Government to fegieak out ! are thty, ot -they

not, British' 1 subjects $ If thejgare, wby> are they not subjedfed atfonce tor BWtishL law? " jlt is to preveritf the mischief which is? breeding, the offspring of a foolish imbecility, ever coming to maturity, that we speak out. We repeat, it is the first and most serious duty of the Government, to regulate the legal disci- . Uline-oCthe aboMgjrtai 5 population. The latter ' jossefcsMn- our courts of law* the most severely 'jeaibusf protection" for their' personal liberty and for their rights of property. Is it not i proper that they should in turn be amenable to the same tribunal." Of the justness of ■the- foregoing* observation*,- there- can- bafc be one opinion, — and how justly do the premises 'upon which they are founded bear out the observations of Mr. Chapman, in his address ,to the absentee land-holder,. of the false pos- ! sition the Government has been placed in, by a memorandum in the Colonial office, as well as the equally futile, and worse than childless j treaty of Waitanga, which guaranteed to the aborigines all their own laws, customs, and modes of self-government, save and except only infanticide, canibalism, and human sacrifice. , These, and many other temporizing expediencies, must be abandoned, and a more direct, honest, and straight- forward policy embraced, before matters in the Colonies can be said to be in a train for sound progressive improvement.

As regards the question of the Land Claims and the occurrence at the Court of the Commissioner Colonel Godfrey, we have long forseen the difficulties which the representatives of the Home Government have been carving out for themselves, in losing sight of the principles of the law of property as generally maintained by all civilized countries, that possession carried with it prima faciae evidence of tttle, and that, excepting in the cases of the claims of the Crown, in our own country, undisturbed possession for a limited period is a bar to adverse claims. And, in cases of conquered territories, the conquerors were always recognized as the lawful possessors, in all civilized warfare and by the law of nations ; consequently, if the Government here begins its career by admitting the claims of conquered tribes to be reinstated in the former possessions under the influence and protection of British interference, we see no end to the claims of utu on the part of the Natives, or the remotest shadow of a chance of the termination "of the labours of the Commission to settle the Land Claims ; or the extent of calls to which the Company may not be exposed and subjected.

Supreme Court. — We understand that his Honor the Chief Justice, has at length forwarded his decisions in the civil cases tried before him last October. We recollect hi 3 stating as his grounds of delay, the absence of any authorities to which he could refer to assist him in his deliberation. It is no doubt very desirable that where the interests of a third party are at stake, and from the decisions of which there is no appeal, too much caution or consideration cannot very well be excercised before the final judgment is pronounced ; at the same time it must be recollected, that where a period may elapse of, as in the present instance, of upwards, of six months between the time of trying cases and the time of issuing out execution ; and where from the present state of the law of debtor and creditor (we speak under correction.) there is no law or process by which a defendant can be prevented from making away with property, or leaving the Colony, which the law has, if not declared to be the property of the creditor, at least declares that until that creditor's claim is satisfied, not only his goods and chattels are liable to be seized in satisfaction of such debt as may have been proved against him, but his personal liberty held accountable for the balance, if any should still remain after the disposal of such goods. We say under such a state of things a division in favour of a creditor unless some security can be demanded, that until judgment is delivered, for the appearance of the defendant, where the the proceedings have been by writ of summons only, a plaintiff may in nine cases out of ten, make up his mind to an addition of some ten or twenty or it may be * cent per cent, to his first loss in the shape of costs.

In speaking of the want of legal books to refer to, we may here be allowed to suggest the necessity, as well as propriety, of a few practical works on Criminal Judicature being furnished by the Government* to the several Police Courts. We believe our establishment is feeling the want off such assistance, and although perhaps gentlemen \vho may be permanently appointed to these situations may in time accumulate for their use a Moderate 'collection of law books, still, as they are liable to be removed to other settlements, it is not only desirable, but proper that there should be some few books to which the unpaid Magistrates wray have reference, =wh«i called upon, as they frequently are, to' assist in the judicial proceedings of the 'courts of l*etty

Sessions 1 aa well- as/ the daily- routines of the Police Offices in the various- settlements. The expense; if laid out judiciously at home, would be literally not -worth a moments consideration. We hope these observations will meet the eye of those whose' province it.is to consider these* matters, and that the latter gart of the subject will 1 meet with their attention.

Messrs. Simmons and Hoggard, have been for some time past erecting a Windmill, on Te Aro Flat, and we trust we shall soon be enabled to rep,ort its being ready for use. This Mill, will be the, first of. the/ kind in the- Colony, and therefore, a curiosity ; and we doubt not will thoroughly astonish the Natives.

A Tannery,, established by Messrs. Simmons and Hoggard, has been for some time past in* active operation, and we believe with every prospect of success. Another gentleman of the name of Mayj is- also about commencing one, so that we trust leather will soon be produced sufficient for our consumption.

By the Catherine, we have received an extensile mail of Sydney, Port Phillip, Adelaide; and Van Dieman's Land 1 papers, of dates varying" from the Ist of August to the 15th of. November ; besides a few numbers of the defunct Auckland Herald, of the latter 1 date. In what part of the globe they have been kicking about for such a length of time, we are at a loss to determine, but it shows gross- neglect in some quarter* Papers from England, a distance six times as great, have come to hand up to the Ist of October ; and yet we have now to announce the arrival of colonial papers; only seven months old.

We have just received copies of his Honor the Chief Justice's decisions, and shall give them in our next. We have likewise Dr. Nugent's confession of his destruction of the letters in. one of the bags on board the Netr York Packet, which we shall publish in our next. We have likewise received a copy of the Nelson Examiner of the 25th inst., by which we hear that his Excellency sailed from thence to Taranaki-, on the Thursday previous to that, we may conclude his Excellency and suit will be very, shortly be" at the seat of Government, from whence we hope to hear as'speedily as may be upon many very important matters which await his conference with his legislators.

Wellington, February 28, 1843. At a special meeting of the Justices of tbe Peace for this district, held at the Police-office, this Any, convened by the Sheriff: — George White, "C.P.M., Colonel Wakefield, George Hunter, Esq., Edward Chetham, Esq., Henry St. Hill, Esq., Sheriff. The Sheriff' having represented that, from the number of desperate characters now confined in the gaol at Wellington, and the insecure state of the prison, and having; received information that a combined, attempt at escape was meditated by the prisoners, ha had applied to the Harbour-master and Sub-collector of Customs for the aid of one man from thfe boat's crew of each department, to watch the gaol from, the hour of eight im the evening till six the following morning, till the next sittings of the Supreme Court ; from the former of whom he had received no answer, and from the latter a refusal. It was resolved, that the present state and security of the gaol being insufficient for the wants of this set Jement,, as much regarding tbe degree of comfort, consistent with the safe keeping of the untried prisoners, as those convicted; the Magistrates, unanimously agree that, instant measures be adopted by the Sheriff, according to the best of his judgment, to remedy the evil complained of;, and they hereby undertake that a proper representation shall be made to the Government as a.guarantee against all consequences, pecuniary or- otherwise, which may arise from hi* carrying this resolution into effect.