New Zealand Spectator AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 28, 1844.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 12, 28 December 1844, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK'S STRAITS GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 28, 1844.

By the Slar of China, which arrived here on Thursday from Sydney, we have received English news to' the' l6th August. From the Morning Herali of August 16, we have made as copious extracts as our columns would permit. The 15th Report of the Directors of the New Zealand Company, although a cautious, is a highly satisfactory document; for it announces publicly, that the Committee of the House of Commons had decided that the Company had established their claims to Crown grants for all the lands awarded to them by Mr. Pennington under Lord John Russell's agreement. It is evjdent, however, that at the period of the' Hamlet's sailing, negociations where still going on between Lord Stanley and the Company ; but backed as the Company then were by the Committee's report, and fully sensible as they must have been of the importance of an immediate adjustment, we have every reason to believe, that all those matters so long in dispute between them and the Colonial Office, would be speedily and finally arranged upon such a basis, as will effectually prevent for the future any of those misunderstandings, from which we have so long and so grievously suffered. When these arrangements are completed, we may look forward to the Company resuming their colonizing operations with renewed vigour and success-. In. the mean time, the very facts of the* Caledonia having sailed (for this place) full of cabin passengers, of many of the cabins in the Stains Castle having been already engaged, and of considerable progress having been made in the preparations for a Church of England settlement upon an extensive scale, will tend much to restore public confidence amongst the settlers of Cock's Straits, and may possibly induce Captain Fitzroy to pause in his career of folly and naadpess. We have not received the Committee's Report, but, we believe, that it will be. found to furnish not merely a complete vindication of the proceedings of the Company, but at the same time to offer as severe and explicit a condemnation of the policy pursued by Captain Fitzroy, as might have been expected, had the Committee at the time of making their report been fully cognizant of all his freaks. After having so repeatedly boasted of the " Company's failure," after having done his utmost to break up their settlements, Captah Fitzroy will be somewhat surprised at the symptoms of vitality still manifested by the Company, and will probably hesitate before he again sends . the brig to Taranaki to crimp their settlers, and steal their cranes. Moreover, when he -learns that in answer to two petitions from Sydney and Port Phillip, praying the Home Government to reduce the minimum price of waste lands, Lord Stanley replied, that he had not the power to upset the Act of Parliament, his Excellency can have little doubts as to the fate of Ids Penny Proclamations', and his friend Dr. Martin must feel, thai his grant of 12,000 acres is not yet quite secure : Nay, even the venerable Archdeacon himself must tremble for the fate of his slice of 9,000. acres. In fact the nature of the whole intelligence is such, that were it possible to predict any thing of one, in such a state mind as Captain Fitzroy is, we should at once congratulate our fellow tetters upon the certainty of his immediate return to England.

New Jseaj,and Company. -~An adjojifne*d special court of tire ptoprietorsVf this , Company was held yesterday, at the Offices,. ' Broad-slreet-buttdings. Sir Iv L. Gfoldsmid. was in the chair. 1 Among those present wer£ . — Sir John Pirie, Captain Nairne, Mr. Pil-- , cheiy'My. J. R. Gpver,' Mr. A .*" Carrie, Mr. G: F.'Yotidg, MX E. G. Waicefleld, Mr. J. C. Boulcatt; &c.~ " The Secretary (Mr;'Ha;rr4n^on) read the minutes of" the previous nijectjjig t which wereconfirmed. He then read tke following re- ' port of -thi /directors: — " We much regret that ma unavoidable delay in -the printing the evidence taken by the

sleet committee of the House of Coramon s cecludes us from drawing your attentiou to several matters of great importance to the colonists and yourselves, which we should not be justified in noticing until after the publication of the documents in question. " In pursuance of tbe^.determination announced to you in our last report, with respect to resuming the colonizing' operations of** the company, we are prepared to issue orders for land in any of the settlements ; not doubting ourselves, alter the award of the tribunal to which the questions between the Company and tl-e Colonial Office were referred, that you may safely rely on the justice of her Majesty' s government and parliament, for obtaining sooner or later, the grants from the Crown to which the committee of the House of Commons has declared you to be entitled. But at the same time, the extreme injustice which you have suffered in being encouraged to subscribe a large capital and lay out more than half a million of money in colonisation without having yet obtained a secure title to one acre of the land which the Crown engaged to grant to you in consideration of your outlay for public purposes, teaches us a caution which we are desirous of impressing upon all who may apply to us for land orders. And this, we believe, will be done most effectually by our refusing to guarautee any other title than such as the company may obtain horn the Crown. We propose, therefore, to attach to every land order a condition to the above effect. In this way every applicant will be made fully to understand, that on the question of the probable or certain justice of the Crown in its dealings with the company, he judges for himself, and must rely on his own judgment without regard to our opinion. By this provision, moreover, we shall furnish to every applicant the strongest motive for availing himself of the publicity recently given to the whole state of your affairs, for the purpose of acquiring for himself the full information respecting matters affecting the title t.> land in New Zealand, and especially the company's title, which is now open to the public. We now -possess no knowledge of the subject which any one may not easily obtain. To those who, after this explanation, shall be desirous of proceeding to the colony, in the belief that the solemn engagement of the Crown, deliberately confirmed l»y a committee of the House of Commons, will not be forfeited, we shall have no hesitation in pledging ourselves that no effort on our part shall be wanting to secure them in legal possession of the property, to which the company's land order will give them a legal claim on the company, so far as respects its own title, and a claim on the British government, which cannot be denied without the giossest injustice and oppression. " We have much sattisfaction in acquainting you that a private letter from your principal agent, dated the 19th of February which has reached us by way of Valparaiso and France, assures us that he expected a speedy settlement of the questions as to land title, by means of his having consented to pay considerable sums to the natives at the instance of Governor Fitzroy ; that he was ' about to send off almost immediately to purchase Port Cooper' from the natives with Governor Fitzroy's entire sanction ; and that he ' hoped to have the town and suburban land surveyed ready for the first New Edinburgh ships,' which he must have expected to arrive about the present time. "You will be pleased to learn that the Caledonia has sailed from the Thames with as many cabin passengers as could find room in her, notwithstanding the short notice of her intended departure ; and that the number of cab ; n passages already engaged in the Slams Castle is such as to render it probable that another large ship may sooa-be chartered; for the company's settlements fetf Mr. Earp's new ■•system of conveyance feY cabin passengers. • ' "It is our intentiotFfo call you here again as *oqn as possible after we' shall receive any information of sufficient importance to render a general meeting of the proprietors desirable ; and we are in hopes of being able to announce to ytu, before many weeks shall have elapsed, the plan of a special settlement for members of the Church of England, which was in con- : templat'oa before the Scottish settlement was proposed last year, , has assumed a practical form uuder the auspices aud patronage of a

body of distinguished members of the legisla* ture friendly to systematic colonisation, and to the principle of making more ample endowments for religion and education in new settlements than have been hitherto attempted even by this company." The Chairman said, that in asking the proprietois to adopt the report just read to them, he should beg leave to say only a few words. He had had the pleasure of attending upon Lord Stanley on several occasions, and he had himself, speaking individually, the fullest confidence tfiat a satisfactory arrangement would be come to (hear, hear, and cheers.) He firmly believed that his lordship", who seemed, when he (the chairman) had the pleasure of seeing him in conjunction with other members of the committee, to be most desirous of promoting the welfare of the colonies, would, as an enlightened statesman, conscious of the advantages that must resulf to this country from colonisation generally, and more especially of j the facilities affor.ded.for colonisation in New Zealand, do the utmost in his power to promote the welfare of those committed to the charge of this company {hear, hear.) Mr. V. Eyre moved the adoption of the report. Mr. George Robins seconded the motion. The adoption of the report was put, and carried unanimously, and the meeting broke ■up.

Among the many promises which Captain j Fitzroy gave the inhabitants of this se'tlement, on assuming the Government of the colony, was one expressing his t easiness "to promote the formation and maintenance of roads and improvements," and which, like other promises made at that time, he appears never since to have thought of. Nor can we be surprised, if the land question, on which our very existence as an organized settlement depends, still drags its slow length along, but little advanced towards a final adjustment through his Excellency's mediation ; that other questions affecting our interests in a degree only inferior to it should be neglected and forgatten. We recur to these promisenot for the sake of indulging in mere complaint, for that were idle ani unprofitable ; j but to shew our sense of the injustice and indifference with which we are treated ; and by their iteration to remind his Excellency, I that we at least supposed he intended to fulfil i hem : we recur to them in the hope that we may haply gain by importunity, that which should he conceded from principle and a desire to promote our welfare. The last Legislative Session passed away without any effort or atteis.pt to provide for making and maintaining roads in this settlement; to prevent further loss of time, it would be expedient, before the next sitting of the Council, to place in the hands of the Member for Wellington the draft of an Ordinance containing the necessary powers and provisions; ani for this purpose, we proceed to offer a iew suggestions, to which we invite the attention of our readers, as our end will be best attained by a careful consideration of the subject. It is plain that, without some Legislative enactment, the progress of roadmaking in this settlement will be very slow and unsatisfactory, and will press with great severity 0.1 the cultivators of land, as they are compelled to use every effort to obtain access, however imperfect, to the land in their occupation, from the increased expense to them of provisions and other necessaries requiring transport ; and in this unequal struggle they receive little or no assistance from absentees and non-resi-dents, the owners of adjoining sections. The first step would be to divide the settlement into districts or counties, as the district of the Hutt, Wainui-omata, Porirua, Karori, and the lrke, and to provide that the money raised in each district should be applied to making the necessary roads in that district. We think this would be more desirable than a general rate for the purposes of roadmaking in this settlement, as less liable to abuse, and more equitable in principle. In some districts the expense of making roads would be much greater than in others, but as the owner or occupier of land in the more expensive district would be the party most benefited by the road to be made, it would be but fair he' should bear the additional ~feipenoe. The power of making rates and deciding their amount should be vested in the rate-payers, in the same way that parish rates are made in England ; the power of expending the money raised, 'should be vested in Trustees, or other officers, to be elected annually by the owners and occupiers of land in each district, and the Trustees should also be owners or occupiers of land in the District for which they were elected, and should be obliged to pass their accounts at an annual meeting of the rate-payers, and publish them annually. By placing the control of the roads in the hands of the ratepayers we should have the bast; security that the money would be spent to the greatest

advantage, and by an annual election of ! trustees there would be-a check on any tenI dency to jobbing or unfair management, and I the opportunity of removing an inefficient i officer by electing in his place one who might be more acceptable, or be possessed v of greater experience. Every year as it adds to the stability of the settlement so it increases the number our inhabitants, and the amount of laud -brought under cultivation ; and this in a greater or less degree as facilities are afforded for developing the natural resources of the country. By the annual publication of accounts a great deal of valuable information on the statistics of the settlement would be gained, and a knowledge of the comparative expence of the different lines of roads which would furnish useful data for future calculations. . The Trustees should be provided with sufficient powers to borrow money on the security of the rates, and to enforce payment of them from absentees and the owners of unoccupied sections. The power of anticipating the yearly rate by a loan for the formation of roads in any district, when the expences are greatest, would be necessary in most cases to enable the landowners to obtain access to their sections, and as the occupation of the land would speedily follow the formation of the road, the number of rate payers would be increased and additional security given to the lender for the repayment of his money. The native reserves in the occupation of the natives should also be liable to the payment of the tax on roads. If it should be deemed advisable not to tax the natives themselves; the rates should be paid out of the rents received for those sections let to the settlers ; to pay them from any other fund derived from taxes raised in the colony would be a fallacy, as they would in that case eventually be defrayed by the settlers. If the property given to the natives be greatly increased in value by improvements for which the property of the settler is taxed, in justice this property should be taxed also ; it should be made to contribute towards these improvements at least in some degree, if not to the same extent as the property of the settler. We also think that an absentee tax for the purpose of forming loads and making improvements, could not be objected to on principle. The number of roads in the country districts and the expence of making them hasbeen greatly increased by the extent of land owned by absentees, who should in justice contribute their proportion to these improvements by which their property would be so much benefited. The merchants and shipowners having lands in this settlement would also be gainers by such a tax, as the greater the means at our disposal for making internal improvements, the sooner we should be in a condition to maintain ourselves, aud by our exports pay for the goods with which "they supplied our markets, and furnish return freights for the ships which bring out emigrants instead of their being compelled to seek them at other ports. We have besides a precedent in Sir Robert Peel's absentee tax on Irish Lan '- lords, whose position is somewhat analogous to the absentee owners of land in this settlement. But the trustees should also have the power of maintaining the roads in a proper and efficient state alter they are made. Any one who remembers the state of the Kaiori road during last winter will be fully sensible of this. A frequent cause of injury arises from the carelessness of persons choking up with loose pieces of timber the waterways and drains, so that in hilly districts during the winter the water-collects and forces for itself anew channel, tearing up the road, and in some instances destroying the wooden bridges over the uarrow ravines intersecting the line of road." At present, "we "believe" the" "magistrate has "not" sufficient authority to prevent or punish injuries done to the roads through carelesness or wilfulness. The trustees should also act as conservators of the -rivers ill their districts, as in that of the Hutt and the Wainui-omata, and compel the owners of land to keep the bed of the river clear from snags and fallen trees opposite- their respective sections by an appeal to the Police Magistrate who should be authorized lo dispose of such gases in a summary manner by the infliction of a fine. We have hitherto considered the subject chiefly as it affects the individual settler and landowner, but there are two other parties who should Heartily co-operate in this work ; the NewZealand Company, as the owners of so many thousand acres of waste land which, would receive an increased value from these undertakings, and the Government as the owners of the waste and unoccupied lands in' New -Zealand. It* is 'true the New Zealand Company, have formed lines of roads through some, of the principal districts,, but a considerable outlay must be made or all these roads ' before a regular and uninterrupted traffick .can .be maintained on them, particularly if, as we hope, an extensive demand may arise for bark and our useful and ornamental woods. If the

New Zealand Company renew their operations, with vigour, we may hope for the completion' of the road to Wai rarapa before the winter, but we intend on a future occasion to revert to this subject, anil to state the claims which we conc/ive the settlers of Port Nicholson have on the New Zealand Company tc contribute to works of this nature, from the number of acres awarded to them by the Government in respect of the funds contributed by the purchasers of land in the first and principal settlement. We also think we are entitled to expect that a road should be made at the expence of the Local, Govsrnment through the interior between Port Nicholson and Auckland. Such ft plan would offer many advantages. The cast of the road if made by the natives of the districts through which it would pass, would be comparatively trifling; it would be the means ot keeping them usefully employed and rendering their districts accessible if thpy were inclined to be troublesome. It would offer increased facilities of communication beJ.veen the seat of Government and the settlements of Cook's Straits, and by opening the intervening country prepare the way for systematic colonization, concentrating the existing settlements in this part of the island and gradually extending the population northward. The opportunity of employing the natives usefully, and of rendering their labour subservient to systematic colonisation, should, we think, secure to such a plan the favour of his Excellency, as it has the additional recommendation of requiring a considerable sura of money to be spent among them. Such a plan ought also to commend itself to his Excellency's impartiality and sense of self lespect, as this would be the first public work undertaken with a view to the general good, instead of the good of any particular district. ■In commencing such a work he would feel the conscious dignity of acting for the first time as Governor of New Zealand ; hitherto all his efforts in the way of improvement have been on a petty scale, and confined to Auckland. We also think wp couM sliew that this plan would be the means of effecting a considerable saving in the public estimates. If a good road fit for travelling on horseback throughout the year were made between this and Auckland, there would be no further occasion for the Goverment brig, the expence of which is £1,500 per annum. The communication between Auckland and Cook's Straits would then be constant, certain, ansl regular, which is not the case at present, as except the visits of the Victoria, jhere are not perhaps three arrivals here in the course of the year from Auckland. The hdd quarters of the post-office department would naturally be fixed here, as the communication with Nelson and the other settlements to the north and south of this port, is uninterrupted, small coasting vessels arriving or departing every week. To be sure, his Excellency's quietly riding into Port Nicholson might not be considered so imposing as his arrival in the Government brig ; but we submit that it would be very much more useful, and would offer much greater facilities to an active Governor, who had the interests of the. colony at heart, for acquiring info.Triation, and seeing and judging, for himself. We think what we propose might be accomplished for one thonsand pounds. The estimate this year for public works, by which we may understand public works and improvements at Auckland, was £2,710, and we believe the former estimates to be on the same scale. We conceive, therefore, we are not unreasonable in askling that a third of this sum should be spent for the public good ; instead of being devoted to the exclusive benefit of an inconsiderable section of the colony. We have made these suggestions as we have said before to provoke discussion and shall be glad to receive from any of our readers who have devoted their attention to the subject, such additional hints as may promote the object we have in view.