The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-28 00:00:00

Adiztlssion, Is.; Schools, Half-price.

A New Edition of the CATALOGUE, containing Three Hundred
additional 'Works of Art, &c., since the last revisal, is just published
price Is.

NEW ZEALAND.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sia,—ln common with other friends of New Zealand,
I have read with much interest your article of Tuesday
last, and I trust you will continue to draw public atten-
tion to that ill-used colony. Its cause is a most just one,
aad your powerful advocacy of it is sure to bring succei,s
in due time. If the state of your columns c ill allow it to
be done, would you kindly insert the following. letter,
written on a subject of great importance to Now Zea-
land?

A pamphlet, addressed to Lord Stanley, by Mr.
Dandeson Coates, Secretary to the Church Missionary
Society, and severely censuring the Report of the Par-
liamentary Committee appointed to consider the affairs
of New Zealand, has recently appeared, and it is neces-
sary to make a few remarks upon it.
Considering the position of Mr. Coates as an officer of
the Church Missionary Society, and the obvious interest
he has in the line of argument he supports, I am sur-
prised that delicacy did not keep him silent. I should
have imagined that after his declaration that he would
" thwart the New Zealand Company to the utmost of his
power," he would not have condescended to write under
a false pretence, and would not, as on this occasion, have
made the rights of the natives the stalking-horse of the
wrongs of the missionaries. Lord Stanley is well aware
that the missionaries of New Zealand have not been
wholly unmindful of their own temporal interests—that
in their ordinary care for the natives, they have not
omitted taking extraordinary care of themselves, and he
will see how likely it is that they should be jealous of,
and opposed to, any other colonization than their own ;
for, with all respect to the Church Missionary Society,
to which I have subscribed for many years, I say that it
is a scandalous thing that her agents in New Zealand
should have been so mixed up in land jobbing. Out of
35 missionaries in 1838—for 21 to be land claimants,
18 to the tune of 118,000 acres, and the others
to the tune of 40,000! It is most discreditable and im-

proper, and must grieve every friend to missionary ex-
ertion. These grants all being in the northern part of
New Zealand, we are at once supplied with a key to the
opposition of their owners to colonization in the southern
part. But is it not " drawing the feather" rather too
openly for these men and their friends to assert their
objections on principle to all southern colonization ?—an
objection which this very highly-paid officer of their
body, and the avowed foe of the New Zealand Company,
urges with his half-coaxing, half-bullying appeal, on
Lord Stanley, and all forsooth on principle? But let no
one fancy that the missionaries have well-founded
religious grounds on which to oppose the systematic
colonization now going on. The opposition of the
missionaries in New Zealand to me appears simply of the
earth, earthy!
The hole pamphlet, when stripped of its unneces-
sary verbiage, resolves itself into one point, and upon
that point I will undertake to show that Mr. Coates is
completely in error.
Mr. Coates rejects all previous matters, and confines
himself to the treaty of Waitangi. " Here," says he,
"is a treaty made by the representative of the British
Government and the native chiefs, and I take my stand
upon it. I care not for a priori arguments or facts—l
stand upon this solemn treaty, and I say, that until you
destroy this, the resolutions of the late Parliament Com-
mittee are dishonest and bad. Tal not to me of the
inexpediency or absurdity of the treaty it has been
formally made and ratified, and it cannot be avoided."
Now, admitting all Mr. Coates's assumptiun., I say
that the Parliamentary resolutions are wholly consistent
with the treaty of Waitangi, and perfectly honest. and
good; and I further say, that the very terms and spirit
of that treaty itself furnish us with a full justification
of the Parliamentary Committee's report. By the
second article of that treaty her Majesty " guarantees
to the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand, and to the re-
spective families and individuals thereof, the full, exclu-
sive, and undisturbed possession of their lands, estates,

forests, fisheries, and Other properties, which they may
collectively or individually possess, so long as it is their
wish to retain the same in timr possession. But the pri-
vilege of pre-emption is yielded to her Majesty over
such land as the proprietors thereof may be disposed to
alienate."

This is the celebrated treaty of Waitangi. And pray
how, attentively considered, does this in any way conflict
with the report of the Parliamentary Committee ? Mr.
Coates says that the recommendations of the Committee
nullify- tile above clause of this treaty. I say they do
not nullify it, but leave it wholly undisturbed.
The argument arises upon the word possess. The
treaty guarantees to the natives all the lands, &c., which
they possess. So far so good. But then the Parlia-
mentary Committee does the same.—( Vide the Report,
P•q •ssim• ) The report throughout admits and enforces
possession and occupation to be the means of acquiring
she title to land in New Zealand, and therefore advocates
the very terms of the treaty by impliedly confirming the
natives in whatever land they may possess.
Any person who reads the report, and who is in the
least degree conversant with the subject, will at once
see this, and that the claim for the settlers extends only
to such laud as may be unoccupied or unpossessed by the
natives. The report regards such unpossessed land as
part of nature's waste, and open to the first occupier.
This doctrir.e has been held by the best writers of all
ages, c.g., Grotius, Blackstone, Locke, Puffendorf, and
Paley.
The native New Zealander dees not occupy or possess
a thousandth part of the country for his own support
or use (se& Parliamentary papers), and yet Mr. Coates
and his missionary friends would keep the remaining
999 parts to themselves, and proscribe other Europeans
from acquiring it. But then " they have purchased it !"
An equitable purchase, truly, it has been! even admitting
some purchase for the sake of argument. A blanket for
one thousand acres, a gun or a cloak for 5,000 acres,
and so on ! Why, is it not clear to any one, that the
natives in their own minds know they are selling what
they have no right to, or they would not accept such
moonshine equivalents as these ? It is like Sheridan
getting a shot at a flock of geese for sixpence, and when
he had killed three, and was chuckling at his bargain,
being advised by the bumpkin who had received the six-
pence to make himself scarce, as the real owner was
coming into the field. The sly fellow was glad to accept
the smallest sum, because what he gave in exchange did
not belong to hint.
The treaty of Waitangi most properly confirms the
natives in the lands they possess, but leaves open the
remaining lands to lawful settlement, and the Parlia-
mentary reports hold the same doctrine, and I defy any
impartial reader, be he lay or clerical, to come to any
other conclusion than this. Mr. Coates first conceals
the true spirit of the report, and then argues in the
most dogmatical manner on such false foundations.
This is as palpable a piece of Jesuitry as I ever met with.
Of course, looking both at the treaty and the report,
the true meaning of possession is always to be carefully
regarded. It must be settled with a due respect to cir-
cumstances and the habits of the people. It would be
as absurd to construe, e. gr., mere walking over the
land once in a lifetime into an act of possession, as to
require a legal possession by deed, signed, sealed, and
delivered. The animus is the true criterion, whether
the individual intended to take possession, and followed
up the intention by a corresponding act ; but in such a
possession as this, the New Zealander would be disturbed
neither by the treaty nor the Parliamentary report.
I therefore do trust that Lord Stanley will not, now
the way has been opened, refuse to enter upon it from
any false feeling towards the aborigines. Their rights,
like those of Europeans, rest upon one foundation, both
by nature and treaty, viz., possession or occup /lion. Let
these rights be openly recognised, and so let an end be
put to that sad state of doubt and dread which at present
exists. Let rights, whether of the red or white man, be
settled and enforced. A young colony cannot stand
still—it must go on or fall back; and the uncertainty
which yet prevails in New Zealand is enough to stifle it
in its infancy. But as Carlyle says, it is a sad time for
Governments when the governed pray to be let alone.
Lord Stanley may continue to neglect New Zealand, but
rely upon it the effect will be most prejudicial to himself
and his charactar with posterity. Let Lord Stanley do
a little in the business of his official connexion with
New Zealand in the right direction, instead of allowing
himself to be put forward as the tool of the missionaries,
and mixed up with all their transactions. Let him carry
out the principle of the Parliamentary report and of the
treaty of Waitangi, for the principle of both is identical
—" That possession or occupation alone give an original
title to land, and that claims to compensation not founded
on this principle are to be disregarded, as unsound in
theory and unjust in practice."—l am, Sir, your obedient
servant, CIVILIS.
Nov. 23, 1844.
[We have ventured to abridge the communication of
our correspondent " Civilis," for a reason which he will
infer, from the large space it still occupies in our
columns; but we have retained all its important features.
—ED. Sun.]

We understand that Sir John Rae Reid, who at
the last Court of Common Council took up his freedom,
was a volunteer, and is not one of the gentlemen to
whom the letter of the City Solicitor was sent.
EXTRAORDINARY ARRIVAL Or - On
Sunday thirty, and on Monday seventy-two ships were
entered at the Custom-house. They were from China,
Sidney, America, Archangel, France, St. Petersburgh,
Hamburgh, Dantzic, indeed, nearly all parts of the
world. Last week the average arrivals were about
thirty a day The effect of such a vast importation of
produce has caused a great activity at the Custom-house,
and at the various docks an immense number of men
have been able to obtain full employment. A larcare fleet
of vessels has also been entered outwo,r(L%