The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 6, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 46, 6 January 1864, Page 2

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 6, 1864.

SPECTEMUR AOF.NDO. Give every man thiue ear, but few tliy voice: Take Dacli man's censure, but rcsurve Oiy judgment. Tills above all,—To thine ownself be true; And it must fillow, as the uigUt tlio day, Thou canst nut then bo false to any man.

Aucklakb,—aud the province of which she fs the capital—is passing through another of those exhausting transitions that are likely to render her one of the most remarkable in point of endurance of any colony of the British Crown. Her history has been a strange one. And when > Southern "•rowers of sheep aud wool vaunt of their unopposed success, of their rapid population, of their large exports of fleece and fell, they ought, in common justice; to admit the peculiar natural characteristics of the Auckland territory —the native and other almost omnipotent obstacles to European colonisation —the Imperial objections urged against New Zealand as a British acquisition—and tlve fact that its sovereignty was fortunately forced upon England only at the eleventh hour in order to prevent its foiling into the insatiable maw of that " artful dodger" Louis Phillipe. "We cannot recall the year in which William the Fourth was solicited by certain Northern chiefs to assume the protectorate of New Zealand;' but we well remember that our sailor monarch then sent those chiefs a Hag ; and that the notion of Protection so wrought upon the excitable imaginations of a body of English speculators that, in 1837, tho dawnings of a New Zealand Company came to be foreshadowed in the metropolis aud large commercial cities of Great Britain ; and that in 1539 the movement was trumpeted to the echo by the late Archbishop of Dublin, Edward Gibbon AVakefield, and a mighty host of smaller touters, who dealt out their filth broadcast upon New South "Wales and Van Dieincn's Land, predicating tho future destitution and depopulation of those thriving and unoffending possessions. I The excitement throughout Great Britain, i and in the " Penal Colonies," as they were theu most insultingly and wantonly designated, was intense, "it gave rise to a controversy, in which the champions of these Parent States, satisfactorily disposed of tho foul and fallacious allegations laid to their ! charge; but tho New Zealand Company's I movement met with no check. Their staff; in command of Colonel "William "Wakeficld, made sail for the Southern Seas; and, in due time, laid their foundation of evanescent "Empire" in the genial latitude of Cook's Strait, with—as the Imperial Government of tho day had thrown them upon their own resources —a code of laws, offensive and defensive, of their own concerting, and with the happy conceit in their heads that they were to bo sole and supreme in New Zealand's riile. A change, however, came o'er the spirit of tho British Ministry. Some half dozen frigates, with sealed orders, sailed from France. Their possible destination afforded food for much and varied conjecture. And, much about that time, Captain llobson took his departure for the Bay of Islands, via Sydney, in 11.M.5. ' Druid',' —not as Governor, but as a sort of Consul for New Zealand; the former commission having only followed after his priority of settlement in which he beat the French projector by a few days in the race of occupation. ■Wellington created by the Company and Aucklandfoundedby the Crown, became'rivals from their respective egg shells. Having hoisted the flag, nominated a Governor, proclaimed the capital, and solemnized the treaty of Waitangi, the Crowu left its colony to do its own work. Not so the Company, who viewed the royal bantling with jealousy and mistrust. Painters, puffers, toadies, touters, el hoc omne genus, were taken into pay to hymn the excellencies of the South and to harp the unworthiness of the North. Newspapers aud newspaper editors were instituted aud feed to belaud the glories of the one, and befoul the pretensions of the other :— the struggle was for " Empire," and in tho hope of compassing that object the City of Earthquakes still struggles on. We revert to those early features of New Zealand's history to show the influences against which Auckland and the North have had to contend. Close upon the Company's Wellington scheme, came those of Nelson aud Taranaki, followed by the distinctive Church Settlements of Otago and Cantorbury. Aβ long as the New Zealand Company could stave off a fiat of bankruptcy,— as long as an acre of its territory could, be disposed of,—Auckland was a thorn in its side to be plucked out aud destroyed. And when, at last, the Company's mortgages were foreclosed by the Crown tho Company's legacy of jealousy and envy was transferred to the Company's land purchasers, who with no claim to further possession than that which their purchase- money entitled them to, have never ceased to co-operate and conspire together in the hope, by their combined clamour of defrauding Auckland,—the only colony created by the Crown,—the city solemnly proclaimed by Queen, Parliament, and successive Secretaries of State as the capital of these islands,—of the seat of Government, guaranteed to her by her Sovereign—selected as such by the Sovereign's representative, and demonstrated, whether iu a naval or military, maritime or commercial geographical or strategical point of view.- to be incomparably the most important position of any port not merely of Now Zealand, but in the immediate Southern Ocean. It is alleged in depreciation of Auckland's pretensions, that Otago and Canterbury, provinces of later date, surpass her in point of population and prosperity. Golden discoveries have given au augmented but movable population to Otago. But Canterbury does not yet, and iu all probability never will equal Auckland iu the population scale; whilst in commercial enterprise, and in permnuent value of her structures she can adduce no possible degree of comparison. Canterbury enjoya large and extensive plains of natural grasses. Of these the utmost advantage have been taken. Sheep and

cattle have bocu imported. Tlicy have been stocked almost to their fullest extent; and with that their talc is told. Auckland, on the contrary has no natural grasses. Her wastes have u> cleared, her pastures created. Rut. that done, where in the world is richer meadow land to be found? One acre so converted will sustain as many sheep as from sixteen to twenty- acres ot the Cantcrbury plains will be required to feed. The first purchase money paid, the Canterbury mau has an immediate- return—the Auckiander, on the contrary, has to eradicate the fern, the ti-rree, the scrub, and the forest; and hitherto there have been other and much more stringent barriers opposed to his onward progress. There is one fact which, adverse as it has been to the early prosperity of Auckland, is, nevertheless, ineontestably' demonstrative of its vast inherent superiority in climate, fertility, rivers, wafer courses, ports, buy.-*, commercial and agricultural advantage's :--and that is that in the Province of Auckland the uathe population has all along been massed; whilst in the Middle Island'their numbers i have been so seamy and their desire for retention of the soil so faint, "that the Aboriginal title was easily extinguished, and absolute European possession became a matter of the | utmost facility. i In the Northern Island, land has been j with difficulty procured. The natives the-.n-selves were never eager to sell ; and certain European incendiaries, to whom the Land League and King movement may primarily be traced, enhanced the dilliculties which the treaty of Waitangi had rendered more than sutliciently obstructive. Auckland has been enmeshed with difliculnes. A well meaning, but feeble minded and vacillating Governor, embroiled her in the war of Ivororarika—the exodus—ar.d the sacrifices it entailed. Scarcely had she recovered from that dis- j aster, and hope began to brighten, when the j Calii'oriiian gold fever broke out with un- | mitigated fury; stripping her of her popu- i latiou ; beggaring her by promising specula- i tions : and. but for the then 'pensioner ■ colonists.—the Cincinnati ot' that day.— ! leaving her with scarce Ja husbandman or labourer to till the soil. ; The Australian gold fever, followed j quickly after that of California, and the i waits and strays recovered from the irruption '■ of the one flood were, if possible, more than ! swallowed up by the back wash of the other. They who lived' in Auckland in those days, i and beheld her throes for existence can bear faithful record that nothiug but in- j donutable pluck—an unshaken assurance of j her great eventual future—could have up- ! held her struggling colonists. . And when those storms had been success- l fully weathered. When there was a reason- : able prospect of achieving a satisfactory \ position—then came a second and result less ! war. followed by a disgraceful and disastrous j truce, fraught with nothing but injury to the ' colonists, but affording the natives ample i leisure to mature their plans for expulsion, 1 if not for extermination. i Those were obstacles of which the Middle ! Island has all aforig been unconscious. And [ because of those obstacles, which have so re- j tarded our progress and so ruinously im- I paired our prosperity, the Middle Island j most iniquitously seeks to take advantage, ; clamouring to have the seat of Government ; transferred to " somewhere in Cook's Strait," ! as it' peace were to be restored and pros- j perity promoted by removal of the .supreme 1 authority from the place at which its pro- i eenee is most urgently required. i We have adverted thus casually to the ; past and present, in order that we may re a- ! son more intelligibly of our early future— j the great transition state upon whose j threshold we now stand, and for whoso con- j duct our rulers have made such careful pre- j paration. ; Tiiat which no pacific overtures of the j Governor or his Ministers was able ro etl'ect, ! the Native Rebellion is fast hastening to ; accomplish. Iu striving to despoil the eblo- j nists, the Maoris have sacrificed themselves, i They preferred the sword to the plough- ] •share, and they that employ the sword are j liable to perish by the sword. They devas- j tated the farms of the peaceful, sacking the i homesteads, and .slaughtering the iudweller.-j. i The wastes which the rebels refused to sell j or let—which they themselves did not and ■ could ::ot employ—are about to be thrown • open to beneficial occupation. The Govern- i ment of the colony—the Press and People of! Croat Britain,—are all agreed that confisca- , tion is no aci cl' vengeance, but one of purely ; retributive and productive justice. In tak- : jjil; possession of the Maori wastes, v> - e do I not as in Australia, deprive the aboriginal < owner of his hunting grounds, for in New '•■ Zealand there arc none such ; nor do we ; cast the rebel destitute upon the world. I'ar j from it. \\*e reserve a portion of the con- j fiscated territory fo: , his use. And by < colonising and reclaiming the, remainder we i shall not only put it beyond his power to injuro himself or us, but, with our rise, we ' fhall elevate him to a position of wealth, in- : fluence. and independence in the social scale ; which he himself will quickly learn to appre- ■ ciate. i The existence, of Auckland, encompassed by clouds of Maori warriors has, from the hour of its foundation until the present, i been one of sufferance. The conduct of tho.se ' barbarian warriors has brought that condi- ! tiou to a close. Hitherto, in a country j containing some 18,000,000 acres of j the finest and moat fertile land, with a vast seaboard studded with the grandest buva and harbours, possessed of magnificent rivers, j and penetrated by innumerable navigable i estuaries and water courses, we have been : confined within a belt of some 2,000,000 j acres of by no means the choicest of the soil. | Of this territory we have made the most ; ! but we could not adequately extend our j agricultural and pastoral pursuits; we could ; not sufficiently enlarge our Hocks and herds; j nor grow sheep or wool, or produce cheese, ' butter, bacon, and all the other necessaries of ! life. The conquests that General Cameron : and his noble soldiery have been compelled ' to make, and arc still continuing to make, will reverse all this. The Waikato has been already opened. Its mines oi" coal have coino into immediate use. Iron is known to j abound; and copper and cold are said to j exist. The land is of the richest, and that on the "Waipa, the Piako, and other impor- I taut rivers, is not lets fertile. The Thames, and the East Coast, with the magnificent harbour of Tauranga, have all passed the ordeal of forfeiture, eo that rebellion has not merely knocked away our fetters, but has-

;^•l'•v««c^lAl l c!d«nα^,a lul s;u on ■ h " ( '.;" (lml ■ | ; t ;.; . ; most sanguine expectations. i; It would almost si-w,, iW if tllcl . c wen , • ; t.iose ai.,on s us who questioned tin, .-olcmial I eapauUy to prolit liy ihis change o f t . im , m . •j stances. Certani new eomer.s, without the I sh-i.iest; experience ~( our early >=fru—k-s | who boro no part in the \ v , lt , :uul bu| .^ u |ot Ik: day, have taken up,,,, thorn to hector ' »»d lecture the "OKI Identity" or. their j duties, warntu- them of a rush of a now , Nood wliu-h is h> rtwjunp tin..,,, i,, tlieir old i tashumed joi; trot. I iS'ow. wck-onU! an we skill make, any j quantity of , le w : ,,,,1 wholesome Mood wi- | indi-naiuly ,!isc! ,iiu (hat Auckland is wiili anv '• OU'• or eitbte " Iduiij tlt .v-" I Uk.lc. in the first pliH'i., at. the 31an now at the whool. and i;is brulhrr ollnws an», lH d ; l»mi. .riioy iiiv :,H of tho stock. , .1 l!i\)ii!,'h them wv h?ve hrm movcil into J our pivscni. This d,)os ] not look likoa pa'syin-cCtho hand, sol'u-niim J thi' l)rain. ( .r diimmni; d!" 1 lu> - perceptive I organs, silc'ii ;is to demand reparation l.y infusion of now hloodr 'I'h.cse' men stood Inns when the California)! and Australian rackets left oi:r .streets and dwellin-s almost j <enantless. They in.re their part in all our j wars and strubles. 'I'hey never despaired j of Auek'aml. "And they'are honestly and honourably b.ipoftil now. 'I'liey are "snllieieniiy prescient to make lieuMiiinn pre|iar:itions for the opening of the Wailiato. the Waipa. the Th'aines. the l'iako. and their tributaries. They know that Coromar.de! will now be prospered and peopled as it never yet has been. They know that <'om- i j ir.ercial and marhime enterprise wi'l be j pushed forward ps vigorously from Tan- j to the Thames on liie East a'.< j'roin ! \\ aikatd to luiLjlaii and Kaipara mi liie! lA\ est (.'oast. Tnev reijuire no infusion ot'j j new blood to teach'or to incite them to this, j J Nor do tlie colonists of Aiickhmd—we have | I no " Old ideuiity," for we are no sectarian i I settlement —Maud in need of beiv>- blood j than their own. ■ _ Taking the past as ihe of the j ! future, we repose with perfect cottlideiiee on | the energy. euter[)]-i.se. and industry of our j I Ioiil; aiul sore tried fellow eiti/.etis. V.'ith | J th'- menus at their disposal. Ihey ir;vy pay, i I like Laertes, they have husbanded them so i ' well that they have. >,<one far witli lihle. ' Consider our port, our e'.iy, our lleet of! and coasting shippiii;,'. and ivir jjrotid ! and beautiful array of harbour craft. Look/ ; at our Hank, our Savings" Ixuik, our lnsu-( ; . ranee Company, and icil us wliat- new blood I could have built 1:11 .<,;/,V instil i;l ions r If \ we have (through force oi'ilu , trammels i;;iposed) been slow we have been sure in our ' progress. The l..un.!ai;on has been so solid ' thar il has withstood the mauv violent shocks ,to which il has i.ivu exposed, it was laid i liy staid and sicaify hand*. -,«i.t by rash ami i hair-brained specni:ilors. li has I established, the con-.ir.ercia! arid colonial rej putationot" Am-khiMd : and it i.- ilinuiirh lllis I that the |)rospen;v :;; heLriniiinif to : : dawn v, ill be t:iri;ei! T.i the most secure and ! j beiielicirJ account. The wav is clear lu-t'ore ' j us, and we will neiilier be jostled nor jockyed j I out. of it. ;