The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-01 00:00:00

NEW ZEALAND COMPANY.

.The annual meeting of this company
was held on
Friday at one o'clock, at the company's offices, Broad-
street-buildings, to receive the report of the directors
upon the expediency of winding up the affairs of the
company. There was a numerous attendance of the
directors and proprietors. Viscount Ingestre, M.P.,
chairman of the Court of Directors, presided.
The CHAIRMAN said the directors felt unabated in-
terest in the magnificent colony of New Zealand ; and,
if the company were supported by the Government, it
would become one of the most important parts of the
globe.

The Secretary then read the twentieth report of the
directors,
of the refusal of the Go-
vernment upon
n the
fromaffairGs oovfertnhoer
islandG Grey
This the directors considered to be an indefinite
until dispatches were received .
postponement, by which a whole year would be
lost. " If," the report stated, " the present session
should close without the repeal of the Act 3 and 4 Vic-
toria, cap. 62, so far as concerned the present despotic
Government of New Zealand, and the passing of an Act
authorising the Crown to grant a charter of Govern-
ment on the old English model, we shall despair of
good Government for New Zealand." The subscribed
wased beenxpend xeedpendd, whichormeortgag had mortgaged. A
further
captital
sum o 300f0,300000,1.
0001 had
mb eoenne
yp aoi df
ltaontdhe s,
ncompany b
acre
by f swe,thtileehr s
h a
as d they pue
th re chaen sob-
tained.e-
For this great outlay there was no property
to show. On the faith of the promise of a loan of
100,000/. from the Government the company had ob-
tained a loan from their bankers, which maintained their
establishments here and in the settlements. The di-
rectors, therefore, recommended the abandonment of the
enterprise, and that compensation should be claimed for
the losses incurred, in :the event of the session closing
without such a legislative measure as the directors
deemed indispensable.
Mr. AGLIONIIY, M.P., moved that the report be re-
ceived and adopted. The directors had one faint hope,
session, that they a n
mightthatyet obtain
they
still clung.
ai n re d r ess dtingß
thea
tif the
session presentte
session passed over without something being done, the
directors had nothing to propose, and the proprietors
must, as honourable men, abandon their enterprise. They
would only embarrass the settlers and get further into
debt by going on. - The proprietors had no object but
that of the public good in carrying out this undertaking;
their object had been to acquire one of the best colonies
in the world for the enterprise of Englishmen, and
to carry the blessings of civilisation and Christianity
to the natives. The meeting scarcely knew the
painful scenes which the directors had to wit-
ness from settlers who returned to this country,
or the painful letters they received from settlers in the
colony, who could not obtain a title to their land. They
had reason to-expect when they parted with their hind
that they would obtain a title to it, but at this mora,nt
they had not done so, the conditional grant offered to
them being a mockery of justice.—(Hear, hear.) [The
Hon. Member then read an extract from the twelfth re-
port, describing the proceedings in the Court of La ud
Claims, and the vexatious delay in obtaining award.,
owing to the constitution of the court.] When an
award was made in favour of the company by Mr. Spain,
they only obtained a grant that was valueless; for where
the natives happened to have driven off the settlers their
" cultivations " would be excepted under the grant in
question. Mr. Spain said of the land so awarded that
the company had well paid for it, and they ought to
have it. In the only case in which the company had
got full justice from the Court of Land Claims, viz.,
in an award in their favour of sixty thousand acres
at New Plymouth, the governor had refused to
confirm the award. Since Mr. Gladstone had en-
tered upon office as Colonial Secretary, the com-
pany had been in communication with him. They
had laid before him a point which did not re-
quire to be delayed until the arrival of dispatches from
Governor Grey—namely, that of a representative system
of good government to the company's settlers, which
ought to be granted. It was for the proprietors to de-
termine whether the directors had acted wisely in ob-
taining the power to wind up the affairs of the company.
—(Cheers.) The pecuniary interests of the proprietors
were not an ingredient to be neglected, and if they failed
new the directors trusted that after years would do
justice to them. He still believed that New Zealand
would become what her warmest well-wishers desired.
Mr. C. BULLER said, that having taken an active
part in Parliament respecting the company's affairs—
(Cheers)—he had been asked by the directors to offer
a few remarks upon the important report now laid
before the meeting. He did hope that the struggle
of the New Zealand Company with an adverse Go-
vernment had come to a satisfactory end last session.
It had been admitted that the debates on the subject had
disclosed a tale of mismanagement on the part of suc-
cessive governments which was the cause of the difficul-
ties of that once thriving settlement. He had hoped
that reparation to the company would have been at once
made. Nothing could be more satisfactory than the as-
surances received from the Right Hon. Baronet at the
head of the Government during the debates, and he
trusted that Government would at once have proceeded
to act upon their promises. It was, therefore, with deep
mortification he had given his assent to the report, but
the course recommended in it was the only course that,
as men of honour and sagacity, they could pursue. It
was discouraging to have to battle with the Government,
and still more to face those whose insidious opposition was
at the bottom of the treatment they had experienced.—
(Cheers.) Bnt now, having gained every triumph, hav-
ing it admitted that the remedy they recommended was
the right one, they had still produced no vivid and
vital effect in action. The disasters of New Zealand
were not to be repaired by adMissions, but by acts—
acts which it was in the power of the Government to
do. The directors were told that her Majesty's go-
vernment would do nothing to relieve them until
they received reperts from Governor Grey.' He wished
that those who made them that answer could be aware
of the state in which the colonies were, and would re-
main, until a satisfactory decision was given. Every
moment was fraught with mischief, evil, and despair
to thousands of their countrymen. The debate of last
session had produced a revival of hope in the breasts
of the colonists, but now some of the best and most
valuable settlers were deserting the colony. Every ves-
sel that arrived from the colony contained some of the
best of its settlers, who wisely tried to save what little
property they had left, by quitting the scence in whi,ll
they had lost so much.—(Cheers.) The condition
of the labourers in the colony was deplorable ;
some had obtained temporary employment, others
had gone to the neighbouring colonies. But, if such
were the state of the labourers, what must be the condi-
tion of those who had paid for the lands which
they now saw in the possession of the savages ? The
weight of colonial misgovernment had fallen upon those
who had purchased land. They had seen the titles to
their lands withheld; they had been compelled to dance
attendance at the office of some official in the colony ;
and after all they were still doomed to disappointment.
He regretted to see his learned friend Mr. Halswell pre-
sent, who had been one of the first settlers in Wellington.
His main object in going to New Zealand had been to do
good to the natives, and it was deplorable to see a gentle-
man obliged, through the mismanagement of the British
Government, to abandon the country in which he had
hoped to pass his life. He had spoken of the colonists
out in New Zealand ; but what should he say of the
intended colonists who remained at home ? He observed a
gentleman there (Captain Cargill), who was one of a
colony started three years ago, under the auspices of the
Free Church of Scotland, which consisted of labourers,
shopkeepers,
,and farmers, who were prepared to quit
the country. They had abandoned their occupations,
and transferred the investment of their capital ; and,
after all, they were not able to go out of the country.
They had, first, no guarantee of their land when they
got there ; and, secondly, no guarantee could be given
them that they would enjoy free institutions. What
was it the company wanted ? A title to the land which
they had purchased, and fairly purchased, and institu-
tions under which Englishmen could live. The caprices,
vagaries, and follies of its governors justified him in as-
serting that the despotic Government of New Zealand
had been as stupid as it was mischievous. The ques-
tion between the company and the Government was a
great question, which concerned every colony in the
empire. Why should Englishmen when they went to
a colony be subjected to a despotic Government, and be
considered enemies and not friends to the State ?
They ought to lose no rights by extending our empire
over the ocean, and the notion to the contrary was a
askedhad
that
satrise convictshould
11Tohteiodnirecwthoricsh
do for the free and intelligent settlers of New Zealand
colonies. revolting
Governmentinour
what James I. and 11. and Charles I. and 11. did for the
Englishmen of their day, viz., that they should carry
with them the rights of self-taxation and
aself-govern-
ment.—(Cheers.) He claimed for every colony as wells
for New Zealand, that they sh mild revert to the
sound practice of their ancestors, and enable every free
and intelligent man to vote on all matters affecting
the good of the community. Who were the persons
usually sent out as governors of our colonies, and in-
trusted with almost arbitrary power ?—captains of
men-of-war, colonels of regiments, old generals who had
passed the period of service, gentlemen who had tried to
make their way, in Parliament, and had not been able.
The bowing and scraping which such persons were the
object of in their new title of "your Excellency" was
enough:to turn the heads of the wisest and best men
that ever lived. The Legislative Councils had as little
claim to public confidence as the Governors. The com-
pany required a total alteration in our relations with tie
natives, and a total abandonment of the foolish way in
which the Government had acted. He admitted that
the opinion of the directors had changed as to the policy
to be pursued towards the natives. They had recom-
mended at first the colonisation of all the natives, be-
lieving that it would be practieable. The company's
settlers lived in happy relations with the natives, until
the Government came among them and disturbed those
relations. He asserted that the impolitic course of
the Government had alone produced that sanguinary
war in the north of New Zealand, which had ar-
rested the improvement of the colony. The scene of
those disasters was where the missionary system had
had full scope, where the treaty of Waitangi was
made, and where Governor Fitzroy had established
what relations he pleased with the natives. And there
had grown up a war, which, unless it were put a stop
to, would put an end to the colonisation of the island.
He thought they ought to abandon the hope of colonising
the north of New Zealand. The natives should be left
in possession of those districts, and the company and the
Government should confine their attention to the settle-
ments of Europeans, and to prevent contact between
the natives and the Europeans. If the Government per-
sisted in conquering the native tribes by military force,
it must be followed by the utter extirmination of the
weaker race. Government were now employing one
' our colony where thickest,
and ought not to attempt to impose their laws
pzet)r o f
ought
eht natives
t,)
giveto cut
up the
the throats
attempt
to plant of the others.
the natives were