The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-26 00:00:00

STATISTICS OF PARIS.

Count nambuteau, the Prefect of the Seine, being
called on Saturday to preside at the election of five
members of the Chamber of Commerce of Paris,
availed himself of that opportunity to present to the
electors an expose of the situation of the revenues,
trade, manufactures, savings'-banks, hospitals, schools,
embellishments, &c., of that capital during the year
about to expire. The tolls had produced 30,510,416 f.,
or 738,268 f. less than in 1843. The consumption of
butchers' meat during the eleven months of 1844 was
—oxen, 69,951; cows, 14,522 ; calves, 71,793 ; sheep,
401,044; showing an increase, as compared with
the corresponding period of 1843, of 2,856 oxen and
5,716 calves, and a decrease of 1,518 cows and 6,500
sheep. The ordinary and extraordinary exports re•
gistered at the Custom-house of Paris, during those
eleven months, amounted to 138,972,194 f. ; on the
Ist of December, 1843, they were only 117,469,4021.
—increase in 1844, 21,502,792 f. The trade of Paris,
it appears, was more extensive with the United States
than with any other nation, and had augmented by
10,000,000 f. The investments in the savings'-banks
on the Ist January, 1844, amounted to 104,786,243 f.
During the last 11 months the deposits had exceeded
the reimbursements by 3,479,9901. The Prefect then
proceeded to describe the improvements and additions
executed in several of the hospitals ; a farm had beep
purchased, in which 400 insane were employed at
moderate labour with complete success; and the foun-
dation of a new hospital would be laid in 1845, in
the Faubourg Poissonniere. The expenses of those
hospitals amounted to upwards of 14,000,000 f. Four
establishments of primary instruction had been
finished at a cost of 500,0001., and opened in 1844 ;
the expense incurred for the maintenance of those
schools, which were frequented by 39,678 children,
bad been 968,967 f., or 40,000 f. more than in 1843.
Several new streets had been opened, squares
laid out, 4,000 metres of sewers and 10,000
of fiagways constructed; the water of the
artesian well of Grenelle had been conveyed to the
reservoirs of the Pantheon ; additional fountains had
been erected ; the works of the new prison of La
Force, of the barrack of the Celestins, and of tlle new
market of Beauveau St. Antoine were carried on with
such activity that it was expected those buildings
would be completed in the course of next year ; the
church of St. Vincent de Pante had been opened to
Catholic worship, and the city put in possession of
the old church of Panthemont, which would be
shortly converted into a Protestant temple. " Our
admirable institutions," said the Prefect in conclusion,
"and, above all, the genius of the King, whose pro-
longed reign proves so great a blessing to France,
unceasingly develop that great national movement,
and in a few years the prosperity of Paris, as well as
that of France will repose on a basis too strong to
be shaken."

NEW ZEALAND.

(Concluded from our paper of Dec. 11.)
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE.
The observations already made will enable your
Committee very briefly to express their opinion on
the question which has led to so much discussion, as
to whether the New Zealand Company are entitled to
call upon her Msjesty's Government to put them in
possession of a large extent of land without reference
to the validity of their supposed purchases from the
natives. If the view which we have taken of the
right of the Crown to the whole of the unoccupied soil
of New Zealand, and of the nullity of all private pur-
chases of land from the natives, be a correct one; and if
this were also the view of the then Secretary of State
at the time that the arrangement with the New Zea-
land Company was concluded ; it follows, as a matter
of course, that by that arrangement it must have been
intended to give to the Company a claim binding,
in good faith, upon the estate of the Crown, to
the number of acres awarded to them by Mr. Pen-
nington ; and that this claim could not in any way
be affected by the character of those supposed
purchases from the natives, which it was the very
object of the whole arrangement to set aside as altoge-
'her null and invalid. We have already fully stated our
reasons for the conclusion to which we have come with
respect to the rights of the Crown ; we hare therefore
only to add, that we cannot doubt this conclusion to
be completely in accordance with what were the
views of the then Secretary of State, since we find
that the charter under the great seal, by which New
Zealand was erected into a separate colony, and the
original instructions under the royal sign manual,
which were drawn up at nearly the same time that
( the arrangement with the Company was under dis-
cussion, were couched in terms which, as we have
already observed, clearly imply that the ownership of
land by the natives was regarded as being confined
to that which was " actually occupied and enjoyed by
them," and that all unoccupied land was vested in the
Crown ; while the acknowledgment of any claim of
right on the part of Europeans to land, in virtue of
supposed sales from the natives, was in the most ex-
plicit terms denied. Upon these grounds we have
come to the resolution which stands 4th amongst those
which will be found at the close of this report.
The error in policy which your Committee have
pointed out as having in our opinion been fallen into
by the officers who have held the Government of
New Zealand, in not asserting the right of the Crown
to all the unoccupied soil of these islands, is very
closely connected with another, to which we also feel
it necessary to advert. It appears to us that there
has been a want of vigour and decision in the general
tone of the proceedings adopted towards the natives;
measures have not been taken, as we think they ought,
for making the original inhabitants understand that
they are now to be considered as British subjects, and
must therefore abstain from all conduct inconsistent
with that character. The local authorities may have
been guided by a desire to treat the natives of the
soil with the most scrupulous justice and with
the greatest consideration; but we are not
the less persuaded that, not only in what has been
done with regard to the ownership of land, but also
in showing too much respect for native customs, they
have been led to pursue a line of policy which in its
consequences must be injurious to the true interests
of those out of consideration to whom it has been
adopted. We agree in the opinion expressed by one
of the witnesses we have examined (Mr. Earp), that
the rude inhabitants of New Zealand ought to be
treated in many respects like children, and that in
dealing with them firmness is not less necessary than
kindness. In the first instance, there was on the
part of the natives a disposition to defer, with almost
superstitious reverence, to the authority of the
Government; and had this authority, been firmly
and judiciously exercised to suppress intestine war
and all savage and barbarous customs, and to enforce
between different tribes and between individuals the
great principles of justice and respect for property,
no serious resistance would probably ever have been
attempted. But from an over-sensitive fear of in-
fringing upon native rights, the authority which,
had it been decidedly assumed, would, there is
every reason to believe, have been willingly sub-
mitted to, has been lost, and the consequence has
been that murder and cannibalism have been
allowed to be committed unpunished, and that
very serious hostilities have broken out between
different tribes, while the right of the British Govern-
ment to interfere has been repudiated by the more
powerful party, and the want of the promised protection
loudly complained of by the weakest. Your committee
are persuaded that an enlightened humanity and a re-
gard for the real welfare of the native tribes require
that British power and authority should be resolutely
exerted to put a stop to such a state of things, to main.
tain internal peace, and to prevent native customs
and usages from being acted upon in a manner incon-
sistent with good order and morality, and with the
progress of civilisation. We would beg to refer to
the report of Captain Grey, the Governor of South
Australia, on the best means of promoting the civili-
sation' of the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia,
which was transmitted by Lord J. Russell to Captain
Hobson, for his guidance, as containing an able expo-
sition of the policy which ought to be pursued upon
this important and difficult subject.
It is necessary to observe, that the policy we re-
commend requires for its safe adoption, In the present
state of affairs, that the Governor of New Zealand
should have at his disposal more power than he now
possesses of enforcing obedience to his authority. We
see no reason to apprehend a successful attempt by
the 'natives to overturn by force the power of the
Government; we concur with Major Bunbury
in thinking that " the jealousy and rivalry of
different tribes amongst themselves would pre-
vent their acting with any effect against the
European population," and we have no doubt that
civilisation and intelligence, in the event of a struggle,
would maintain their accustomed superiority ; still
we consider that it is of the utmost importance, in
order to avert the calamities which must ensue from
even an attempt at resistance to the authority of the
Governor, that he should be armed with so obviously
superior a power as to prevent any such attempt from
being made. Additional means of enforcing obedience
to lawful authority are required, not merely against
the natives, but against the lower class of emigrants ;
an account of whose insubordinate proceedings at
Nelson, which from the want of force could not be
properly put down, will be found in the Appendix.
Adverting to the scattered situation of the settle-
ments which have been forthed, and to the importance