The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-30 00:00:00

NV UIAT IS TO BE THE FUTURE
MODE OF GOVERNING NE CV ZEALAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sia.—ln the .year 1813 two ships were despatched
from Greene ich Dockyards to Quebec, faded with
staves to supply water-casks to the British flotilla on
the lakes. On ...he arrisal of the vessels in Canada
the staves were pronounced to be useless, because the
nayy floated on water of the purest quality.
To an eye-witness and attentive observer of pass-
leg occurrences in New Zealand, during the last
three years, the intelligence of Downing-street and
tee knowledge of Parliament (as displayed- in the
late debate) appears little better, if any, than the
wisdom which prompted Lord Liverpool's Admars-
tration to send out water-casks across the Atlantic
for the use of cur tars or. Lake Superior.
The knowledge of a disease is said to be half its
remedy. But no hope is there of this country's ar-
riving at a knowledge of the disease of New Zealand,
because nineteen out of twenty of all those who have
hitherto spoken out on the subject have either sup-
pressed the truth or perverted the facts. He that has
had mcral courage to expose the truth has not been
believed, and, therefore, has been silenced, because
there has been full nineteen voices to one against him.
In deceiving the public the New Zealand Com-
pany took the lead, and has kept a-head of all com•
petitors. Through the means of an all-powerful
press the praises of New Zealand were sounded
throughout the length and breadth of the land, induc-
ing a belief, amongst all classes, that the soil and climate
of that territory were such as to render it every thing
that could be desired by an English emigrant.
The climate, I grant, is most favourable to vegeta-
tion, in sheltered spots, rain falling on at least half the
number of days in the year. But the soil is in ge-
neral much—very much—inferior to the soil of Eng-
land. I have seen potatoes planted in fresh broken
up soil, which, when ripe, produced a crop no larger
than marbles. This was on land situated two
miles above Auckland, on the Waitemala, and there
are some three hundred acres between the same spot
and Auckland, of the like quality of land. In the
narrow gullies intersecting this land, every quarter
to half a mile, the soil is in the opposite extreme of
richness and fertility ; and when cleared and cleaned
of fern and other roots, its pr duce is very large for
the first crop, half as large f.r th.- set ond, a quarter
for the third, and for the fourth the occupier will be
lucky if he get the quantity of his seed again.
What, so soon exhausted! Soil whose wild state
of natural vegetation astonished the eyes of the be-
hohler ? Even so. No sooner are the fern and other
roots (which intersect and bind the soil together, like
a rope mat), removed, than the rains and the winds
begin aid persevere in we ehing and blowing its fer-
tility a weiy, amid then it becomes poor and " hungry,"
an 1 crying aloud for manure. The settlers in New
Zealand, who one and all wish to sell their lands, and
can only hope to do so by " picking up" iiewly-arrived
immigrants, and the New Zealand Company having
land orders for sale, will say the facts are not so.
But I maintain they are. and my knowledge is derived
from eles- personal observation at and around Auck•
land. Moreover, a grub is at times most destructive;
for, to my knowledge, the grubs cleared away 13 out
of 14 acres of Mr. Joseph Hargreave's wheat, on the
Tamaki, hi December last, just as the plant was
bursting into ear; end had the same crop been but a
month leter, the locusts, which always devour a
s..cond crop, would have assuredly cleared it away in
the Iwo mJrner.

I beve no interest to bias my judgment ; but being
one of he many hundreds mi.-4:e,, and deeeieed by the
Ni:SV Zealand Company's publicatioee. it is a duty I
owe to my " neighbours," in the Scriptural sense of the
wore, to warn them against the mass of error and
false prejudice which pervades even Parliament itself,
on the subject of New Zealand. I defy any one to
tuelerstand New Zealand withont going and living
there for some time himself. The Company should,
one aid all, be compelled to immigrate and remain
there during the rest of their lives, and then would
their worst enemies be satisfied with their heavy but
righteous punishment.
The treaty of Waitangi is most unaccountably as-
sumed to be still binding on the New Zealand Chiefs
on the one side, and on the British Government on
the other. Ae well might it be assumed, that be-
cause a parish "A" consent to a proposed railroad,
all other parishes represented by the rest of the let-
ters of the alphebet, although they never before heard
of such oonternolated railroad, are yet bound by the
consent of " A." The native chief's, who entered
into the treaty of Waitangi, were a few only of the
chiefs whose respective territorial sway extend over
less than a half of the northern islend, that is, over
not one-sixth part of the New Zealand territory.
The rest of the chiefs were never asked, and never
heard of such treaty being in negnciation ! They
probably would have heard of the treaty, had it not
been suddenly put an end to, cut to shreds, and cast
to the wind, by the prompt and decisive proclamation
of British sovereignty at Akaroa on the middle wand,
six hours before the French (who were crossed and
jostled) were about to land, and do the same in favour
of their owe flag. To assume the validity of the
treaty of Waitangi, entered into by a few, as binding
on the many, and that, moreover, after the proclama-
tion of sovereignty at Akar is a puerility unworthy
the wisdom of any junior c'erk in the Colonial-office
The treaty of Waitangi, resting at best on a bat-is of
sand, was kicked dewn, before half erected, by the
British Government itself.
Another fallacy is, the assuming it to be a fact
that there are waste. or uncultivated, lands to a large
extent in New Zealand, the ownership of which is
unknioen. The fact is just the reverse. There is
not a yard of land, no, nor even a blade of grass, that
a native will not (mule forward to claim, with the
sanction arid approval of his ne;ghhoto ing, tribes, en
its being approplated by a European. The land may
be the su ject of dispute between two or more of the
netives, hut that only makes the case worse for the
intruder, since each claimant will demand and enforce
payment. A farther fallacy is in assuming it pos-
sible to indie_e the, settlers to organise themselves
into e bedy of militia. The settlers are too good
juiges of :heir precarious position ! They have gone
out to till the land, not to fight ; and hying on their
lands, dispersedly throughout a wild country, they
could not leave their homes without inviting the
plunder of their property by the jealous natives, and
probably their own destruction in detail. None but
madmen amongst the agricultural settlers would en-
tertain, for a moment, the idea of organising them-
selves. into a militia. The thing is impracticable,
and if practicable, it would be the height of folly.
A further fallacy is the belief in a productive
customs duty. The settlers are now too poor to pay
for custeinable commodities ; and were it otherwise
there are alatudant able and willing people in New
South Wieee, who could and would employ the
natives to land goods in their large wer canoes, and
then who durst meddle with the warriors ?
I am no admirer of Captain Fitzroy's administra-
tion, but, considering.that he came out chock-full of
the wisdom of the Colonial-office, which he stuck to
longer and more tenaciously than any other man,
probably, would have done in his senses; he has,
considering his means, done much more good than
harm in New Zealand, and so far fLom his recal
being likely to be disagreeable, there is reason to be-
lieve that his recal, within ore month after his ar-
rival in New Zealand, would have been more grate-
ful to his feelings than a Parliamentary grant of
10,0001., so much had he been deceived on accepting
his appointment as to the actual state of the colony.
From Lord Stanley's remarkable dispatch to
Captain Fitzroy, on the subject of the Wairoa mas-
sacre, it is eleer that Captain Fitzroy's view of that
affair agreed in anticipation with his Lordship's opi-
nions ; and Captain Fitzroy's listening to the bishop,
clergy, and missionaries' intercession, when they pro-
mised to be answerable for Johnny Heki, at the Bay of
Islands, was in the same key-note of prescribed con-
duct to be observed towards the " darling" natives
And yet Captain Fitzroy is now made the " scape-
goat" of the Colonial-office.
Let Captaie Gray, or any other Governor, do what
he can, New Zealand is lost as a colonial field of emi-
gration. Its position is its best recommendation, for
its other advantages have been far, very far over-
rated. Hitherto the British Government in New
Zealand has been entirely based on opinion, and that
opinion being now lost, will never be regained, unless
a pestilence sweep off nine-tenths of the natives, and
so render the remainder controleble. In the mean
time, half a million of money, and twice that sum,
can be easily spent, without making the colony a
desirable field for emigration ! A second Algiers it will
prove, and the French (who would have carried mat-
ters in another fashion) will point at our government
of. New Zealand with derision.
And now, Sir for my remedy for the evils of
New Zealand. Compensate the settlers for removing
Land to Van Dieman's
fiancl withdraw the Govern-
ment, leaving the Britishandnolie t
ii4as an emblem of ex-
clusive protection,
ce/Nigvhe
who might
itoht fly under
under the sanction of scn,e chief,
duced, by a fixed gratuity, to protect thegresickentlliin-
charge of the flag. Let 1,0 one suppose that I enter-
tain foi, theineut an idea of the natives standing
stfaennroocdthiinidte
yob
against u bodyof
British troops. They •11
their disposition and so. They will fly,
being no more changed by their flight, than would be
the disposition of wolves chaced by bulldogs, ,
could never overtake them. Except along the sea
hore, and a few inland paths, New Zealand is all
but impracticable-to Europeans. The natives would
travel four miles through the tea-scrub whilst our
soldiers, would scramble one. The French were
taught that secret ivhen they landed a party of to ariees
tea th 4 Chsichaiii.lslands, some five years ago to punish
.the Ne*rZeillartders -resident there, for massacreing
the- aieW:of- as:French vessel. The New Zealanders
sligt4 leughed at the Freech,
troops-are to be sent from this country, they
halfeeatei Jle and then, be iz n=rnen,beled,
da.firet native bicxsa that is shed wiii organise a war