The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-01 00:00:00

NEW ZEALAND

The following is an extract from a private letter:—
"NELSON, APRIL 2C,, 1846.
" I have not written to you very lately because the
subjects of most interest to us here have been principally
furnished by your Parliamentary debates, which showed
a much better acquaintance with our circumstances and a
warmer interest in our affairs than we had ever looked
for. Neither did I think it worth while to send you any
account of the doings in the north, at Auckland, or the
Bay of Islands, for our acquaintance with them was
gained through the newspapers only, and very often
more than two months after the event, when, from the
frequent communications with Sydney, it was probable
the news was already half way home. But within the
last few weeks we hava had a visit from our new Governor
Captain Grey, and a communication from the directors of
the New Zealand Company; and we have been as much
pleased with the Governor as dissatisfied with the
manner in which the company seems disposed to treat us
and our claims upon it. Beginning, as in duty bound,
with the higher powers, I, for one, and I believe the feel-
ing is pretty general, am heartily glad that Government
did not entertain the idea of making up a little kingdom
for the New Zealand Company. When the British
empire becomes too great for its rulers to manage, let
them acknowledge it, and, as Cromwell said," give place
to better men ;" and such an arrangement would have
looked very much like a confession of incapacity. I
must own too that I do not see why, because I am a few
thousand miles off, I should give up my privileges as an
Englishman, or be turned over to any such delegated
authorities. Not, however, that lam at all enamoured
of our Colonial-office ; but then I see that they can be
and are called to account when they go wrong, and how-
ever strongly they may be defended in public, we reap
the benefit of the discussion in various ways, even up to a
complete change of men, measures, and general policy.
In this case, not before it was wanted, though I believe
nothing short of the thorough-going way in which Capt.
Fitzroy attempted to carry out the theory of ruling the
New Zealanders by moral influence, without physical
force, would have convinced the good people at home of
its impracticability. According to the old routine, we
ought now to have a trial of the opposite method, viz.,
physical force without moral influence; but I hope better
things from our present Governor. We have no in-
dications as yet of the policy he intends pursuing ; but
I think he will have to modify his Australian plans very
considerably before they will be adapted to New Zea-
land. He has for the present put an end to the war in
the north by granting the insurgent chiefs easy condi-
tions, which they will very likely not observe. He has
also, by bringing an imposing force down to Wellington,
expelled the intruders from the Hutt Valley ; but
between these or any such acts, by which he puts a stop
to or punishes positive aggressions, and a systematic
determination to subject the Maoris to British law, there
is a very wide and serious difference. I expect they will
require one or two much severer lessons than any they
have yet had before they will be impressed with such a
respect for our power as will be sufficient to keep them
quiet, even supposing no interference to be attempted
with them generally ; but if it is determined to treat
them at once as British subjects, under British laws, to do
this with any success would, in the opinion of many of
the Auckland people required the force now here to be
trebled at least ; and then the question would naturally
arise whether the object in view were worth attaining at
such an expense, or even whether the employment of
such means for such an end were advisable or justifiable
at all ; especially, when, as it seems to me, you might
attain the same end by a very different conduct. The
fact is, the Government of this country was begun under
false impressions. From looking at a New Zealander,
as another term for an irreclaimable cannibal, we went
at once to the opposite extreme ; and from the accounts
which came home of them, thought, as our subjects were
ready made, all that we had to do was to find a gover •
nor. We have now learnt that truth, as usual, lies some-
where between these two opinions. The natives are, no
doubt an improving and improvable race, with much to
like and even admire in their character ; teachable
and intelligent ; but then I must be allowed to doubt, or
even to deny, that Christianity has done more for them
in twenty years than it has for ourselves in many centu-
ries ; without, on that account, being set down as an
enemy either to the natives or their missionary teachers.
We have been in too great a hurry for results, and for-
gotten that men were not things, to be moulded and
fashioned at our will into the form we might think best
ler them ; and that not by degrees, by little and little,
lbeuntv
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found out, had no ideas of being governed by him, and
who have since proved it by actions more and more une-
quivocal. Their idea of what you have talked so much
about, and we hear so little now, the treaty of Waitangi,
was, that they gave us permission to settle among them,
which, to do them justice, they are as anxious for as
ever, and that the Queen's sovereignty was a shadow,
whilst they kept the reality, a definition which, at the
time, was thought a good one. Are we then now to con-
vince them that our's is the correct interpretation by
bullets and bayonets ? I suppose it would be done if
there were anything to be gained by it ; but here I see
no other result than an expenditure of some 200,0001. or
300,0001. per annum ; and that would be rather an odd
conclusion after deciding a few years ago that New Zea-
land was not worth colonising at all. If not, and the old
policy is given up, there remains but one plan, viz.:—To
govern the settlers well first, leaving the subjection and
civilisation of the natives to follow as a natural and ine-
vitable consequence. With a compact and inexpensive
government in Cook's Straits, the natives might be safely
left to the care of the missionaries, with a threat of put-
ting a stop to all intercourse with them if they misbe-
haved themselves. This, with the offer of support and
protection to those tribes that were peaceably disposed,
and willing to conform to such regulations as the Gover-
nor might dictate, would, I believe, offer the fairest
chance of bringing them all under our authority in the
only way they are worth having at all, that is with their
own free consent, given from a conviction of the advan-
tages they would themselves derive from it. There
would be a clamour among the Auckland people, and
some few cases requiring compensation ; but the mer-
chants there are branches of Sydney houses, attracted by
the expenditure of Government and the troops, as well
as the native trade, which is considerable. They have
all along considered themselves dependent on the good
will of the Maoris, and the old settlers declared they were
much better off before the Governor came among them.
The good land in the north is also fully occupied already
by the natives, whilst here we have an extensive and va-
luable field for colonisation without an inhabitant.
Many other reasons for such tt change occur to me ; but
what I have said will be sufficient to show you how com-
pletely I look on the value of your investment here,
or those of any New Zealand land proprietors, as de-
pendant on the line of policy adopted by Government ;
or whether our rule is to be forced upon the natives, or
be gradually introduced among them. In the one case,
with our beautiful climate, fertile soil, and great natural
advantages, I see nothing to prevent our becoming a very
flourishing community ; in the other, your investments
must lie dormant to the next generation. You may,
perhaps, think my own position here has given me *lilts
on this question ; but, it s?, it is a bias without a cause ;
since all the effect I can discern from such a change on
my own interests would be to raise the price of my tea
and sugar ; and as to personal security, we Nelsonians
consider the doings in the Northern Island much as the
residents at Boulogne would an outbreak at Edinburgh
or Glasgow. Our settlement is going on quietly, stea-
dily, and well, although terribly out of humour with the
Company for attempting to evade its obligations towards
us ; a line of conduct, which, if persevered in, will pro-
dnce an appeal from the colonists to Parliament or the
Court of Chancery. Ido not go into the particulars, as
I send you two or three numbers of our last local news-
paper, which will give you the whole quarrel, and per-
haps amuse you besides.
A RESIDENT AT NELSON.

CURIOUS DISCOVERY AT MELTON.—It had always
been remarked that the crops upon a particular spot in
a fit ld situate in Melton, upon the confines of Ufford, a
part of the estate of Mrs. Barker, of Ipswich, were more
ein INlla
Juxuriaritthan
havingelsewhere
beeu rg
;
and c
t Mrecthe a htewchica
Wickham-
market, upon the great result, double crops, &c., to be
derived from the use of his favourite remedy for unfruitful
soils, attention was more particularly directed to this little
tkmhpaion
m
of deepdraining,.
oasis, and a few weeks back the labourers, after pulling
some fine carrots, commence(' digging, with a view of
examining the subsoil. They had not dug far before they
found a considerable quantity of broken tiles, of an un-
usual size and thickness. One of them was submitted to
the inspection of Mr. D. E. Davy, and afterwards
of Mr. W. Whincopp, who immediately pronounced it
to be of Roman manufacture ; and it was therefore re-
solved that the spot should be more fully examined, which
was done on Friday week. A cutting was made about
twenty feet wide and ten broad, and at the depth of
about six feet a large quantity of plain tiles, twelve
inches by nine inches in size, and three-quarters of an
inch in thickness, regularly laid over each other, were
discovered, and some fragments with the edges inverted.
At one corner of the cutting was found a large quantity
of brick earth, moulded into the form of tiles, ready for
burning, with layers of sand between each, sufficiently
indicating the character of the place—a tegularium, or
place for making tiles. A streng pavement of carburetted
earth formed a bottom, on which it is probable, as ashes
were lying near, the tiles were burned. Some of them
are in the possession of Mr. Whincopp, Woodbridge, and
it is, we believe, intended to enlarge the cutting, when,
possibly, something more valuable may be discovered.—
Ipswich Journal.
TILE NEW OFFICIAL RtSIDENCE OF THE HON
COLONEL PHIPPS, PRIVAT% SECRETARY TO PRINCE
ALBERT.—The Store Tower, or Wardrobe Tower (and
sometimes called the " Bible Tower"), but, in reality,
Henry the Third's Tower, which is in the lower ward of
Windsor Castle, and nearly opposite the Deanery, the
residence for many years, until lately, of Lady Barring-
ton, will be the new official residence of the 'Hon. Col.
Phipps, the recently-appointed Private Secretary to his
Royal Highness the Prince Consort. This Tower will
continue to be occupied by hir. Turnbull, Clerk of the
Works at Windsor Castle (in the department of the
Woods and Forests), until the Architect's Tower, which
is now undergoing considerable alterations, by the addi-
tion of an extra story, is put into a habitable state for
the occupancy of that official, when he will remove from
his present residence, which will then be taken posses-
sion of by Colonel Phipps. Lady Barrington, who left
Windsor Castle last summer, is now residing at Hamp-
ton Court Palace, where apartments were assigned to
her ladyship by command of her Majesty. Mr. Anson,
who will retain his appointment in Prince Albert's house-
hold, as Treasurer to his Royal Highness, will reside in
the Norman Tower, formerly the official residence of
Lady Mary Fox, the late Housekeeper of the State apart-
ments at the Castle.
Dispatches were sent off last evening from the Colonial-
office, for the Governors of New South Wales and New
Zealand.