COLD SHOULDERED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19697, 26 January 1926, Page 7

COLD SHOULDERED.

SETTLEMENT IN THE THIRTIES. COLONIES NOT WANTED. {From Our Own Cnpp rsrONnsKi.) WELLINGTON, 23. In these days when there is so much talk about the outer Empire, and unloading the surplus population of the Motherland into the dominions, it is interesting to hark back some 86 years and note the very different ideas that prevailed then. Speaking at a meeting of the Early Settlers Association here Mr R. R. D. MLean, of Napier, son of the Hon Sir Donald M’Leau, one of the early settlers, and a Minister of the Crown, quotes some interesting facts in his possession relating to British law and land tenure in New’ Zealand. The first is a letter written bv H. La Fonchere on August 12, 1839, from Downing street to Mr M'Lean s grandfather, Mr Robert R. Strang, a barrister who arrived here in the ship Bengal Merchant, and who was the first registrar of the Supreme Court and registrar of Deeds in Wellington. Mr La Fonchere (possibly a relative of the more famous Mr La Fonchere who was later a member of Parliament) was then Undersecretarv for the Colonies, and the Mai - quis of "Normanby was Secretary of State for the Colonies." This letter is as follows : “Downing street, August 12, 1839 Sir, 1 am directed by the (Marquis of Normanby to acknowledge the receipt of vour letter of the 3rd inst enclosing a resolution passed at a meeting of purchasers of land in the New Zealand Land Company’s first or principle settlement to be founded in Nq’w Zealand, and requesting to be informed whether her Majesty’s Government intends to establish British law and authority in New Zealand, and (whether the transactions of the present company will be recognised by the Government. I am to acquaint you in reply that her Majesty’s Government has adopted such measures as will probably tend to the establishment of British law in parts of the New Zealand islands, but the success of those measures will partly depend upon the contingencies of which it is not possible at present to form a correct estimate. Her Majesty’s Government has no connection with the society described as the New Zealand Company nor any knowledge of its proceedings, and Lord Normanby can hold out no explanation that her Majesty will be advised to recognise or sanction these. I am, etc., H. La Bouchere.” This letter was apparently written to Mr Strang before he left London. Another letter to Mr Strang from Mr H. La Bouchere dated, Colonial Office, August 20, 1839, is as follows: “I have received and laid before the Marquis of Normanby your letter of the 15th instant, and I am directed by his Lordship to acquaint you in reply that he is unable to return any answer to your inquiry respecting the purchases of land in New Zealand as his Lordship has no knowledge whatever of the nature of the title under which the society acting under the name of the New Zealand Company claims to ho the proprietors of the land in those islands.*’ Finally there is a letter from Downing street dated September 7, 1839, to Mr W. Sharpe. This is written by an official J. Steven who says:— T am directed by Lord John Russell to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th ulto and to acquaint vou in reply that New Zealand is not a British colony, and that no company or body of persons in this country has received from her Majesty’s Government any sanction for establishing settlements there. The enclosed minute of the Lords of the Treasury, communicated to the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament, will best explain the state of this question.” The minute referred to is not with the letter.