The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-06 00:00:00

EV kNING- EDITION

NEW ZEALAND IN 1835
-11 r

New Zealand is now become as familiar to Eng-
;- lkihmen as Van Diemen's Land and New South
Wales ; vast numbers of our countrymen have
settled there, the current is still on the increase,
, and any authentic account of the present condition
and future prospects of this valuable and interesting
country must be acceptable to
,English readers.
Dr. Lang, a Presbyterian clergyman, who is already
known to the literary world by his " Historical and
Statistical Account of New South Wales," has just
published four letters, addressed to the Earl of
Durham, on the colonization of the country, with
an 'amount of the present condition and prospects
'of its native inhabitants. The author had resided
for sixteen years in the Colony of New South
Wales ; his attention had, during that time,
been much directed to the condition and pros-
pects of the native inhabitants of the nume-
-1 rout islands of the Southern Pacific, and espe-
cially to the group of islands known under
.the general name of New Zealand. From the fre-
quent intercourse between these islands and the
Australian Colonies, he had opportunities of ac-
quiring much practical knowledge of their general
resources and capabilities, and having visited them
--
onde..,, and being a man of much observation, and
not afraid to express his feelings or opinions about
land sharks, missionaries, whalers, emancipists, con-
vict-stockmen, Colonial stockholders, editors of Co-
lonial Newspapers, and of individuals in general,
" waiving the garb of gentlemeu, and utterly dis-
gracing the English name, we shall make no
apa)gy for giving copious extracts from a publi-
cation abounding in intereoting statements, which
we fear, ipr the sake of our countrymen, are entitled
to too. much credit. He describes the editors in a
very short sentence, but it is a pithy one—" In shore,
to toik of moral principle and of Colonial politi-
cians of any party in the same day would be sin-
gularly absurd " This remark is contained in a
note, and the subject to which it refers would ap-
pear to justify its severity:—
. .. Within the last twenty years," says Dr. Lang,
" there were four different nations of Aborigines, each
seasking a language of its own, in the island of Van
Diemen's Land ; but for several years past there has
sot been a single native on that island! After a long
1 period of exterminating warfare, the miserable remnant
of the aboriginal race was at length collected from all
t par* dike island, and conveyed to a small island in Bass'
liat-rents, by an individual whose heroic devotedness to
1 d - eof outraged and oppressed humanity has been
se ; if
.9t, all, inferior to that of the celebrated
..1, rd.---(Mr. G. Robinson, now chief protector of
'l he Aborigines in New South Wales.) In that island
it they have been reclaimed in a great measure from their
-sarv3c habits, and instructed in the principles and du-
ties df the Christian religion ; but as they have re-
cently been dying off very fast, either from con-
!' •streiption or from confinement, Sir John Frank-
tlie, the Governor of Van Dien en's Land, and my
Lord Glenele, strongly recommended some time ago,
that an asylum should be given them at Port Philip
on the south coast of New Holland, the expense of their
maintenance to be paid by Van Dieman's Land. But
ev42 this miserable boon, my Lord, has been refused
them—on the ground of their not being sufficiently
civilized and Christianized yet—by a cold-blooded
Committee of the Legislative Council of New South
Wales, with a Protestant Bishop for their Chair-
-1 men ! Nay, as the law in that Colony has recently
t been taking cognizance of certain murderous outrages
\lately committed on the defenceless Aborigines of New
South Wales, by the convict-stockmen of the country,
lelided and abetted by their wealthy Colonial masters, in-
I div:duals wearing the garb of gentlemen, and utterly dis.
gracing the British name, have recently been giving out in
the Colony, that they will henceforth take a quieter
! mode of getting rid of the black natives, whose grievous
i wrongs, my Lord, do sometimes, I confess, render them
1 troublesome at the distant cattle stations, viz. by giving
i them wheaten bread, of which they are exceedingly
fond, siceped in a solution of arsenic."
On this mrocious mode of getting rid of trouble-
tome neighbours, the Doctor makes the following
cod-lineman; ;......