NEW ZEALAND HERALD, AND AUCKLAND GAZETTE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1842. LAND CLAIMS’ BILL. 10! TRIUMPHE!!!

New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 50, 9 February 1842, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND HERALD, AND AUCKLAND GAZETTE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1842. LAND CLAIMS’ BILL. 10! TRIUMPHE!!!

We congratulate the Land Claimants and every other person interested in New Zealand, on the proceedings of Monday, in Council —on the triumph of reason and justice, over ignorance, folly, and injustice. The “ thimble rigg’ is exposed—the battle has been nobly fought, and nobly won. “ For freedoms battles once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft are ever won.” The “ Land Claims’ Bill” is now a matter of history, this unhappy child was abandoned by its own parents on the seventh day of February, eighteen hundred and forty-two, notwithstanding the fostering care and solicitude of its father, the Attorney General, and its foster-father the Colonial Secretary, its vitality could not be preserved. We knew from the first, that its life was short; Anemia, or the blue sickness was the disease which carried the unfortunate conception to an untimely grave. It now sleeps within the limits of the narrow house, as our friend and countryman Ossi an would have said in his own poetical and figurative style. We shall therefore take the advice of another ancient and much esteemed friend and refrain from following this melancholy subject much further, believing always in the truth of the saying that it is proper to express “ de Mortuis nil nisi bonum''

The speeches delivered on this highly affecting and melancholy occasion, were in truth solemn and impressive, from that of the Governor, down to Mr. Cooper, who on this occasion, gave expression to his feelings in a burst of generous emotion, which does infinite credit to his heart, and shows him at once to be a man possessed of all the finer sensibilities of our nature. The Attorney General’s lamentations reminded us of the song of Anacreon to bis beloved Cytherea, in which he commences by saying Ai! ai! Kutheraia!!! We would give the whole of the song in the original Greek, but we believe the manager of our Press lias sold all the Greek types to the publisher of the Maori newspaper, the two languages being so nearly allied, that the Greek character will suit the Maori to a hair. e are also afraid that the Colonial Secretary might not be able to understand a Greek song, and as he is a party deeply interested in this matter, we should not like to publish any thing in the dead languages, knowing as we do, that he has never had much leisure or inclination to pursue these obsolete studies. The Secretary’s speech on this distressing occasion was much to the point, and well suited to inspire, in our mind at least, that jtrue, though seldom experienced feeling, which our countryman formerly quoted, so beautifully and expressively describes by the name of the “ joy of grief,” but ours was in this case, the joy, and their unhappily the grief. We were very much annoyed at Mr. Secretary Shortland’s at;ack upon ourselves, he seemed to think that we had administered the wrong medicine to this unfortunate child with an inten.tion to destroy its life. We can assure him he is quite mistaken, we freely offered him to do all we could to save its life, and had he and his other friends taken our advice at first, tne child might still be in its mother’s arms, but they lost the golden opportunity, and when at a future period we and some other experienced members of the faculty met in consultation on this subject, we told him plainly what the issue of the case should be.—We never for a moment concealed from him that we had no hopes whatever of being able to save his beloved child, and see the result!! —we have alas been two true in our prognosis.

But to address ourselves in plain terms towards the Honourable Secretary, we must say that his attack upon ourselves in Council on Monday was, to say the least of it, quite unwarrantable, and we beg distinctly to give him to understand that if in his unhappy efforts at speech-making he should at any future period (as is his custom) feel at a loss for a subject to amuse the Council with, he had much better leave ourselves, at least, alone, or he will assuredly find us rather a difficult subject for digestion. We do not for a moment deem it necessary to make any further attempts at argiieing with Mr. Shortland on this subject. We have no hopes of convincing him by any reasons that we could adduce that he could for a moment be in the wrong or ourselves in the right—his self-complacency is such as to compel him to the belief that he is invested with one of the prerogatives of royalty itself, viz.: that of never being able to do wrong. But for our own sake and that of the public, we publish the two following letters addressed to us on this subject, and leave the public to determine

between ourselves and Mr. -Secretary Shortland and Mr. Attorney-General Swainson. Mr. Shortland is very much mistaken if he imagines that we have any pleasure in opposing himself or his measures. Our aim, like his own, is or should be the promotion of public good, and we will not yield to him or to any man in a conscientious desire to accomplish this object.—We came down to Auckland with the full determination of supporting the Government, because we expected it would be administered with the same view. We condemned a measure which we at once saw to be fraught with ruin and mischief, not only to the old settlers but to the whole Colony. We saw some members of the Executive pertinaciously determined to adhere to it right or wrong. We did not spare them. But if the Colonial Secretary should happen to fall upon a measure that has a good tendency, we shall lend him every assistance in carrying it through. We do feel for him in his present situation, which he so painfully fills. Auckland, Monday Afternoon, 7th February, 1842. My dear Sir, 1 was present in the Council Chamber, on Wednesday the 2nd February, instant, and heard the Attorney-General, responding to Mr. Porter’s objection to the substitution of Leases for Grants to land, acknowledge, that the object of the Government was to prevent the original claimants from forming settlements upon their lands: the Attorney-General made further remarks, distinctly to the effect, upon my mind, and upon the minds of every person whom I heard speak on the subject afterwards, who was present, and 1 heard most of them who were present express their sentiments—which were surprise and indignation, at what transpired, that the object of the Government was to render the lands—or claims of the original claimants, valueless. This declaration of mine was this day proved to be correct by the admission of the Attorney-General himself, when questioned upon the subject in Council. I remain, My dear Sir, Your’s very faithfully, W. E. COR MACK. To Doctor Martin. Glenmore Cottage, 7th February, 1842. My Dear Sir, 1 must express to you my great surprise and astonishment at the extraordinary assumptions that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Shortland, came to in his explanations this day to the Legislative Council, relative to the proceedings which took place in that assembly on Wednesday last. Mr. Shortland endeavoured to make it appear that the gist of your editorial article in Saturday's paper, was not only at variance with the truth, but he tried to make it appear that your remarks must have been made, or rattier appeared to have been made from some supposed communications which the independent Members of the Legislative Council had made to you privately. 1 beg to assure you that not one word of your leading article alludes to, or treats of any circumstance whatever, except with reference to the explanations and statements brought forward by the Honorable the Colonial Secretary, and the Honorable the Attorney-General. The latter gentleman, in replying to Mr. Earp, who stated “ that he considered the Leasing system a mere subterfuge, and only intended to give more power than the Bill at present does to the Government,” in explaining the system of Leasing proposed by the Government, distinctly stated, that supposing the Lease to extend to 21 years, it was the intention of Government to prevent building or laying out towns, &c., and in fact to prevent the land being available to the Lessee, until it suited the purposes of Government to lay out the district in which such lands were situated; and the Governor, in reply to .Mr. Clendon, stated that it would be for his successors to lay out many of these lands, and he could not pretend to say when thev would be surveyed by Government. Upon these explanations being given, the whole of us strangers who were attending the Council that day, came to the immediate determination (when we met outside of Government House) of calling a public meeting ; and upon asking the three independent members if we had understood the Attorney-General’s explanation correctly,these gentlemen at once acknowledged we were right. With the after proceedings of the public meeting, they had nothing to do; and the Resolutions passed thereat, they were ignorant of until they were shewn to them in print. If it can be of any service to you, you are at liberty to make use of this communication, and I am sure there is not one gentleman, who attended the Legislative Council, that did not understand the explanations given there by the Government members, to be in unison with the views taken by the public meeting and your leading article. I am, my dear Sir, Your’s faithfully, CHAS. ABERCROMBIE. To S. M, D. Martin, Esq., M, D. ‘

P. S. —Do not forget that the Attorney-Gene-ral, in acknowledging, yesterday, that the miserable abortion of the Land Claims’ Bill ” was more his bantling than that of any other Executive Member, held out a threat, that the next Bill which would be brought in would, he was sure, convince us all of our error in our opinions in less than three months thereby hinting that the next Bill is to be worse. But the Blue Book has told a secret. We were exceedingly amused with the threat of the Attorney General to fall back upon the bill of Sir Geo. Gipps, and to administer justice by threatening to give a worse bill than that which we had thrown out. We shall narrowly watch Mr. Swainson’s measures in future. We are not quite so green as the learned gentleman imagines us to be. We know full well that Sir Geo. Gipps’ bill has been disallowed at home, and is consequently no longer the law of the land. We are not asleep to passing events, and can tell him, we sometimes contrive to see something even of coming events, by the shadows which many of them frequently cast before them. We are quite aware, that several members of the Executive would be right glad to return to the “ flesh pots of Egypt”—they feel the want of New South Wales when they have any scheme to carry out for the public good. Alas! they have lost their wisdom in losing their head. We were extremely happy to see the good spirit in which His Excellency the Governor yielded to public opinion, in abandoning this Bill. We were persuaded all along that he was right at heart, and only anxious to promote the public good, and he has not deceived us. He was merely permitting an experiment to be tried, something like Piicebus, when lie gave his son the management of the chariot of the sun for one day. He is now, we doubt not, quite satisfied that his officers are utterly incompetent to guide the state ship of New Zealand, and will henceforth keep the management of the helm in his own experienced hand. We know that he has no lingering after New South Wales, and that he will not withhold from the New Zealand claimants any part or portion of the lands which their Sovereign has ordered to be given. Let him follow out the wise and simple plan of Lord John Russel, and he will erect to himself a monument more enduring than brass. He will immediately create a very large revenue, be the means of introducing capital and emigrants into the Colony, and make New Zealand advance and become a happy and prosperous country. We shall follow up the consideration of Lord John Russell’s plan of giving the claimants the whole of their lands, and imposing a small tax on all unoccupied lands, in our next publication. We cannot conclude this article, without offering our own, and the thanks of the Land claimants and the public in general, to the two independent members—Mr. Porter and Mr. Earp, for their conduct on this occasion. We know that there is a secret feeling in the bosom of every honest man, in knowing that he has done his duty, which is a greater reward to him than any other ; but that feeling is still more enhanced by the consideration of the happiness it has conferred upon others, and the approbation with which it is received by a grateful and generous public. We are indebted much to Mr. Earp, for the discoveri hees has made in the “ Blue Book.” The “ Blue Book” is no longer black in our eyes, whatever it may have appeared to us before, and may now appear to others. It is a book of light and revelation, and shall henceforth be esteemed by us as such. We were not slightly amused with the avowal of the Attorney General, that the Colonists would regret not having accepted this Bill—that nothing better would be aone for them, but that before the end of the Session something satisfactory would be devised !!! This is about the richest bit we ever remember to have heard from a lawyer, and cannot help thinking it a pity that, at this time of dearth of clever men in England, he should not have offered his services to the Home Government as Lord Chancellor. We have scarcely ever before had the felicity of hearing a speech made in Council bv our facetious friend, the Colonial Treasurer; but we are convinced from his speech on Monday, that he must be rather a funny gentleman. His speech was this:—“That, if Mr. Earp’s measure were adopted, there would be nothing but grumbling and growling until a fresh ! and more wholesome one was substituted first/!!” This was the whole speech, and nothing but the speech, and our only comment on it is this : “ When Gilpin next doth ride abroad, May we be there to see.”