The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-16 00:00:00

NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

A special General Court of the proprietors of this
company, was held yesterday, at one o'clock, at the
offices of the company, Broad-street-buildings, for
the purpose of authorising the Court of Directors to
borrow and take up on loan, from the Lord High
Treasurer, or the Lords Commissioners of her
Majesty's Treasury, any sum or sums of money, not
exceeding, in the whole, the sum of 136,0001., to be
advanced to the said company from the Consolidated
Fund of the United Kingdom on the credit and security
of its property in New Zealand, in pursuance of the pro-
visions of an Act, made and passed in the last session
of Parliament, intituled "An Act to promote Colo-
nisation in New Zealand, and to authorise a loan to
the New Zealand Company ;" and of enabling the
Court of Directors to affix the common seal of the
company to any deed or deeds of assignment or
mortgage, or other instrument or instruments requi-
site or expedient for such purpose ; and to do all
other acts which may be deemed necessary or expe-
dient for procuring the said loan, and carrying the
provisions of the said Act into effect.
The attendance of proprietors was not large.
Mr. AGLIONBT' M.P., occupied the chair, in the
absence of the Deputy-Governor, Mr. Baring. He
said the meeting, as they would perceive from the
advertisement, was called for a special purpose—
namely, to ratify the resolution passed at the former
meeting, for empowering the company to borrow
money from the Government, the law advisers of the
Crown having considered such a proceeding necessary.
He then called upon the Secretary to read the
report. In doing so he said the Court of Directors
had prepared the report in order that the proprietors
might be put into possession of their views with
respect to the object for which the meeting had
been called, and to that object it was limited.
He begged leave to congratulate the proprietors
on the appointment of Mr. Cowell, as her
Majesty Commissioner for New Zealand.—(Hear.)
That gentleman was present—he had been present at
all the proceedings, whether in the committee-room
or in the courts, and his colleagues joined with him
in believing that his services would lead to the in-
terests of the company being better attended to than
they had ever been before.—(Hear, hear.)
The Secretary (Mr. Harrington) then read the
following report :
"On the 14th of May last, when you held your
annual meeting in this place, particulars were laid
before you of the arrangements which were then in
progress between your directors and her Majesty's
Government ; and, in anticipation of the necessary
sanction of Parliament, those arrangements received
your approval. The Act by which the required
sanction has been given, intituled An Act to pro-
mote Colonisation in New Zealand, and to authorise
a Loan to the New Zealand Company' (10 and 11
Victoria, chap. cxii.), is now upon the table; your
consent is requisite to empower your directors
to give effect to its provision, and resolutions
for this purpose will be proposed for your adoption.
By the arrangement with her Majesty's Govern-
ment, confirmed by Act of Parliament thus referred
to, a most important trust is confided to the New
Zealand Company. All the demesne lands of the
Crown in the whole of the Middle and of Stewart's
Island, and in the southern part of the Northern
Island of New Zealand, are absolutely vested in the
New Zealand Company, with power to administer, in
the manner stated in the Act, all the rights of her
Majesty in reference to the said demesne lands, in such
wise as shall seem to them best fitted to promote the
efficient colonisation of New Zealand. It becomes, in
consequence, the duty of your directors to lay before you
and the public the object with which they undertake this
great trust, and the advantages which, by means of
it, are offered to all ranks of society. The aim of
this company is not confined to mere emigration, but
is directed, as you have long been aware, to colonisa-
tion, in its ancient and systematic form. Its object
is, to transplant English society with its various
gradations in due proportions, carrying out our laws,
customs, associations, habits, manners, feelings—
everything of England, in short, but the soil. We
desire so now, to cast the foundations of the colony,
that in a few generations New Zealand shall offer
to the world a counterpart of our country, in all the
most cherished peculiarities of our own social system
and national character, as well as in wealth and
power. Such is our aim in consenting to undertake this
trust. The New Zealand Islands seem to afford the
only field on the globe where it is any longer pos-
sible to attempt an enterprise of this interesting and
comprehensive character ; and in them many cir-
cumstances unite in a remarkable manner to pro-
mise success, provided the proper means are prudently
and energetically combined. So much is now
generally known regarding the salubrity of the
climate of New Zealand (superior to all others in
respect of its freedom from drought ; from excessive
heat in summer ; from cold in winter ; and from
too much wet in any season)—regarding the great
fertility of its soil in many extensive districts—its
adaptation to agricultural and pastoral purposes—the
mineral productions, comprising coal, iron, sulphur,
copper, and several other useful kinds—the timber—
the excellence and number of the ports—and the ad-
vantageous position of the islands, which assures to
them ultimately the naval and commercial command
of the Pacific—that it i 3 unnecessary at present to do
more than to allude to these p,ints ; but connected
with them, the moderate extent of the Islands is an
element of great consequence. For a limitation of
the area in any field for colonising operations, where
neither slaves nor convicts can be employed,
is indispensably requisite for the retention of
colonial society in the onward path of civili-
sation, and the prevention of the dispersion and
isolation of families so fatal to colonial prosperity.
Such is the country which Government now opens to
the enterprise and sagacity of the merchants, agricul-
turists, and gentlemen of England, and to the industry
of its labourers and artisans, and on which her Ma-
jesty has graciously been pleased to confer rights and
institutions which offer the benefits of local and muni-
cipal self-government. But while the assemblage of
circumstances thus combining to promise that life in
New Zealand shall be agreeable, and property valuable,
displays itself in colours so attractive, care must be
taken that the attention is not for one moment
diverted from the great certainty, that social happi-
ness, and the growth of wealth in a new colony,
are results which may be entirely missed, unless the
- methods which shall be employed respectively to
achieve them embrace those elements which experi-
ence of the moral and material requirements of man-
kind demonstrates to be essential to their attainment.
No procedure—no organization—will prove of any
avail unless animated by such principles. Thus
religion and education are essential to the existence
and growth of social :happiness ; and although the
extent to which the colonists shall enjoy the
benefits of these blessings will ultimately depend
on themselves, yet the company will endeavour
to initiate the provisions for them in every one
of the settlements that shall be formed. In like
manner the growth of wealth (and with it all the
fruits of civilisation) depends entirely upon such a
combination between the capitalist and the labourer,
that each shall be reciprocally dependent on the
other. Capitalists without labourers would find
their capital paralysed ; and labourers without capi-
talists, or independent of them, would uniformly pass
off into semi-barbarous cottiers, with no example of
any class of society better and higher than themselves,
and without any possible means of improvement.
Unless, therefore, the New Zealand Company can
secure combination between capital and labour, it
will fail of its great object. This combination is the
indispensable condition of colonial prosperity ; and all
the plans for new settlements, which your directors
will soon have to submit to the public, will be founded
on it. Their great desire is, and to the accomplish-
ment of it they will direct all their energies, that the
opportunity of gradually acquiring a good landed
estate shall be afforded to the gentleman and practi-
cal farmer, and the certainty of good wages, good
living, and an ultimate independence to the industri-
ous labourer. In devising, and in steadily applying
the means for attaining these objects, consists the
main utility of the company; and now that all
differences between it and the Government, both at
home and inthe colony, have entirely ceased—that
it is receivinglands, has lse possession of its long-withheld
invested with the great trustee•
ship which is nowa
irncunced, and that the natives,
reduced to order by
policy of GoveryeeteheG energetic and concilia-
toryliferey;3 are generally adopt-
ing the habits of civilised
the culture of the soil, both o,n
theiretaking themselves to
as labourers to the settlers —.your own account and
their colonising operations undeYr°uar directors resume
they shall be enabled to carry to caonhfident hope that
result those principles which the experienceap" practical
co-
lonies, in all ages, has shown to be sound of all
to suc modifications as altered circumstances rend
necessary, they are prepared to go on with lanisa
lere
and to resume their colonising operations in tlis,:
existing settlements of Wellington, Nelson, New-
Plymouth, and Otago ; and they will, ere long, make
known what new districts they offer for colonisation.
It only remains to state that John Welsford Cowell,
Esq., her Majesty's Commissioner, has entered upon
the execution of his duties. The directors anticipate
much advantage to the company, and to New Zea-
land, from the great experience and sound judgment
of this gentleman ; and they regard his appointment
with sincere satisfaction, for the evidence it practi-
cally affords of the disposition of her Majesty's Go-
vernment effectually to co-operate in carrying out
the great public objects to which the efforts of the
company are directed, and for the confidence which a
knowledge of that co-operation will impart to the
public."

_
The CHAIRMAN said the proprietors were no doubt
aware that the Act referred to in the report rendered
it necessary that the proprietors should be called to-
gether, to say whether they would confirm or not the
arrangement with the Government, adopted by them