Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 49, 5 February 1842, Page 4

AT a public meeting held at Wood’s Royal Hotel, on Thursday the 3rd day of February, 1842. On the motion of Dr. Martin, seconded by W. E, Cormack, Esq., Charles Abercrombie, Esq., was unanimously called to the chair, when the following resolutions were unanimously adopted and agreed to by the meeting, viz.:— RESOLUTION I. Moved by W. E. Cormack, Esq., and seconded by Jeremiah Nagle , Esq., J. P. That, in the opinion of this meeting, the Land Claims’ Bill, as originally proposed to the Honorable the Legislative Council, is unjust to the claimants generally; and that the amendments proposed by the Government, instead of diminishing the injurious tendency of the said Bill, are only calculated to increase it. That when His Excellency the Governor arrived in New Zealand, he found an important colony already formed to his hands, consisting of a large settlement under the auspices of the New Zealand Company—a very large body of persons, who were in some instances concentrated, as at the Bay of Islands, Hokianga, Kiapara, Manganui,and the numerous harbours of Cook’s Straits, &c. &c., and in other instances scattered on different trading and whaling stations along the immense line of coast which forms the seaboard of the Colony, as well as in all parts of the interior. That these persons were transacting business with the natives, in the import ot European manufactures, and the export of New Zealand produce, to the amount of some hundreds of thousand pounds annually—thus constituting a highly important Colony in every sense of the expression. That the natives of this Colony are persons, who though generally supposed by Europeans to be a race of savages, addicted to the most horrible attrocities, are, in fact, a highly intelligent race of men, as keenly alive to the advantages of commerce with Europeans, and as anxious to exchange their extensive produce for European manufactures as the Europeans themselves are anxious to trade with them—preserving in all their transactions a good faith, which might well serve as an example to the most civilized nations. That in consequence of this shrewdness and good faith exemplified on the part of the natives for a long series of years, before the colonization of these islands by the British Government was thought of, many Europeans have been induced to come to New Zealand and reside upon land purchased from the natives, for the purpose of cultivating such trade with them, and also of improving the lands so purchased, at a price in those days above their value, since the labor of the Europeans aforesaid could alone give value to the land so acquired. That on the arrival of His Excellency the Governor in these Islands, the said Europeans were assured by His Excellency that their possessions, derived by purchase from the natives, should be secured to them, and that it was the anxious wish of the British Government that the utmost care should be taken to dispel the idea, on the part of the Colonists, that any possessions by them validly acquired would be taken from them. That in consequence of this assurance on the part of His Excellency, the Colonists had proceeded with redoubled energy, to improve and cultivate their lands, to extend their trading posts, to establish whaling stations, and by every means in their power, to consolidate the commerce which had so long and so successfully been carried on, both to the advantage of Europeans and Natives; in the latter of whom a spirit of commerce had thus been engendered superior to that of all known uncivilized people, and not surpassed by the lower orders of any civilized country in Europe, That notwithstanding these assurances on the part of His Excellency the Governor, which had thus led the colonists to employ additional capital, and to extend their commerce to every available spot on the immense coast of this beautiful country, the colonists were filled with consternation and alarm on finding that His Excellency had introduced a measure into the Legislative Council of the colony, to compel them to vacate the lands on which they had so lpng resided, and to drive them, en masse, to districts where there was little available land, and whefe success was, at best, the result of a doubtful experiment, to the utter des truction not only of their property, but of the commerce which had for so many years been the reward of their industry and enterprise. That, independent of the injury thus inflicted upon men who had been the sole cause of adding this truly important Colony to the British Crown, the injury inflicted upon the native population would be still greater, inasmuch, as deprived of the European population, who would thus be driven from all parts to the Government settlements, they would infallibly retrograde into the barbarous habits which their intercourse with Europeans had ameliorated, so far as to render them a truly commercial people. That upon remonstrance by the Colonists, generally, by petition and otherwise, with the