NEW ZEALAND BANKING COMPANY.

CAPITAL £100,000,
10,000 Shares of £10 each.

DIRECTORS:
PRESIDENT,
James Ready Clendon, Esq., J.P.
VICE-PRESIDENT,
Henry Thompson, Esq.

Gilbert Mair, Esq., J.P.
Edward Meurant, Williams, Esq.
James Scott, Esq.
William Mayhew, Esq.
Edmund Pollen, Esq.
Philip B. Perry, Esq.

AGENTS IN SYDNEY:
The Commercial Banking Company.

NOTICE.

THE New Zealand Banking Company will commence Business on the 4th inst., and Interest will be allowed and charged at the following rates, until further Notice:—

INTEREST ALLOWED.—
On current Accounts:
on the daily balance 4 per cent per annum.
On Deposits at 10 days'
payable at ten days 5 per cent per annum.
Notice

INTEREST CHARGED.—
On Bills not having
more than 95 days to 10 per cent per annum.
run, at the rate of
On Bills not having
more than 60 days to 12 per cent per annum.
at the rate of

Discount Day—Wednesday at 12 o'clock.

Bills at ten days' sight are granted on the Commercial Bank in Sydney at one per cent Premium.

By order of the Court of Directors,

A. KENNEDY,
Manager.
Kororarika, 2nd Sept., 1840.

We beg to repeat our request, that persons indebted to this establishment, will discharge their bills without delay.

The New Zealand Advertiser,
AND
BAY OF ISLANDS GAZETTE.

KORORARIKA:—OCTOBER 22, 1840.

There are two or three questions that force themselves upon us with irresistible power, when we consider at one view the instructions of the Marquis of Normanby to Captain Hobson, the extracts from Lord John Russell's official correspondence of late, a period as just as it is short, applied to our last week's number, and the speeches of Sir George Gipps in the Legislative Council, and the Act which he has proposed to be passed in that body with respect to the lands of this country.

1. The published doctrine of the Ministry is—that this country was never regarded as a unit of the dominion of the British Crown.—that the Chiefs had an indisputable title to, and right in, the soil and property of their country—this right and title, together with their sovereignty, could not by transfer be to the British Crown but by their own free and unconstrained and intelligent act of cession. Apart of this sovereignty does not imply that the whole that the Chiefs are to be induced not compelled, to dispose of this Crown for the first purchaser of their lands—and that this title to property and that for that title already transferred will be confirmed by the new Sovereign, the sovereignty being transferred.

Now this, have the British Ministers ever published any documents in the slightest degree contradicting this doctrine? If they have, where are they to be found?

2. Sir George Gipps, and those in the Council who say the same, declare, that this country was always regarded as a dependency of New South Wales—that the Natives could have no absolute right in the soil, and, therefore, could not transfer it—that, consequently, her Majesty takes it as her own, and is entitled to do so without payment, the very existence of the Natives upon it being a matter of dependence—and, therefore, the soil is not property at all till it becomes so by the Sovereign's hands—that those who purchased land of the Natives well knew that they held it only during the pleasure of the Queen of England, who was its rightful and only proprietor and sovereign—that, therefore, there has been yet no such thing as title to be confirmed, but every man must derive his title from her. Here the question is, first, whether any possible mode can be found of reconciling these positions with the former? and, secondly, if not, on what authority Sir George and his faithful copiers venture on so broad a remarkable contradiction of their Masters.

Only two ways are apparent of getting out of this difficulty—which shall we adopt? as Sir George received secret instructions to thwart the published ones or in the confidence of his own superior wisdom and bravery, has he done what he has done on his own responsibility.

On the supposition, have not the Ministers risked the hostility of all the Settlers and Natives here, and that of the Americans as well as endangered the peace of Europe, without anything like an adequate motive? For every one here and in England, France, and the United States knows that this is actually the case by the peaceable assumption of Sovereignty in this country by the British Crown. And is not the entire feeling of the British public completely opposed to Acts of this sort? Are the Ministry in this enlightened day, and after so many lessons in History, prepared to incur the charge of being the greatest hypocrites in the world? We should think they were not.

Then it necessarily follows, that Sir George has assumed his doctrine, and passed this Act on his undivided responsibility. And here the question arises—has a Colonial Governor a men: Agent (we use not term disrespectfully of the Crown, the authority within himself, by virtue of his office, by any Act of his own, singly, or in conjunction with the advice of his subordinate Council, to set aside the published declarations of the Crown itself, the force of three or four general and separate Acts of the imperial Parliament, and a National Treaty and Act, by which several states of Christendom, including Great Britain, have united in declaring a given Nation independent? Has such a power ever been recognized as residing in the Governor of a Province? Is it possible, in any case, to conceive, that the land of existing universal war should thus lightly be given into the hands of a subject of the Crown?

Now, if the questions of the day are as we suppose, they must be—what is the legal value of the Act under review? We leave the answer to this enquiry to those who understand it better than we do. We may require, however to say that the Natives are fully prepared to interpret the matter in their own way under the laws of act of session which will surely not by the Governor that would attempt to carry that Act into future.

We have every reason to believe that the property held by the white people directly from the Natives will be defended by the latter and claimed as their own in case of its seizure by Sir George Gipps. If it be true as asserted in the British press, that a very large portion of this country has never been ceded, what becomes of British sovereignty and power without an infraction of the most solemn engagements? And who that knows the Natives, would like to quarrel with them on this account?

What did certain Members of the Council mean when they said, those who acquired property here knew, that they were likely to be deprived of it by the Crown of England? They knew nothing—they dreamed of, nothing of the sort. They were with the Natives, confirmed by the concurrence of other Nations, and even now declared by Lord John Russell to be binding. Acts of a Colonial Legislature in opposition to such transactions of imperial power? We again ask, what are they worth?

FATAL ACCIDENT.

On Monday the 11th instant, a fatal accident on the road between Waimati and Kerikeri, which has plunged the family of the Revd. Mr. Taylor, of the Waimati, in deep distress. Mr. Taylor's eldest son, a boy of 10 years of age was, with two youths in the seminary, accompanying his father to meet his mother and sister, on their return from Tupuna—while riding gently along, a touch from a switch which he held in his hand caused the horse to start—he fell, and was dragged by the stirrup, the animal at full gallop, for more than a hundred yards, when his foot became disengaged. His father was instantly with him, but he expired immediately in his arms. The suddenly bereaved parents had to return home with the corpse of his son, borne by Natives, and a friend met the mother with the appalling intelligence. The event has excited the deepest sympathy. The funeral took place on Wednesday the 14th, and was attended by the young gentlemen in the Church Missionary Seminary, of which Mr. T. has charge, and many European settlers in the neighbourhood, in addition to the Missionary and Mission families.

Arthur Taylor was a remarkably intelligent boy, and has left strong evidences, for so young a child, of a reflective mind.

We have to record a most melancholy event that occurred on Saturday last, and occasioned the death of Captain John Robertson. His boat upset in a sudden squall and instantly disappeared. He was the seventh son of the Revd. William Robertson, of Trial's Hill, near Nelson, in this parish. His six older brothers all took to the sea, and all met watery graves, and now the last, after numberless dangers, having abandoned the sailing merely for his own amusement in harbour, and in sight of his own house and family, has experienced the same disastrous fate. Diligent search has been made for the body by his friends and neighbours also by the Native population, by whom he was exceedingly beloved, and whose lamentations for his loss are most distressing. We trust his widow and infant offspring will never be disturbed in the possession of their little island by any Act of Council to expel widows and orphans from house and home and all its endearments, which would reflect but little credit on the Government of England. So great a cruelty, so crying injustice, would rend the hearts of all and lovely Queen. Captain Robertson was in his 44th year. He had but one boy with him in the boat, a Native of South Australia, who was also drowned.—CORRESPONDENT.

NEW ZEALAND BANKING COMPANY.

10,000 Shares of £10 each.

DIRECTORS:
PRESIDENT,
James Ready Clendon, Esq., J.P.
VICE-PRESIDENT,
Henry Thompson, Esq.

Gilbert Mair, Esq., J.P.
Edward Meurant, Williams, Esq.
James Scott, Esq.
William Mayhew, Esq.
Edmund Pollen, Esq.
Philip B. Perry, Esq.

By the Commercial Banking Company.

NOTICE.

THE New Zealand Banking Company will commence Business on the 4th inst., and Interest will be allowed and charged at the following rates, until further Notice:—

INTEREST ALLOWED.—
On current Accounts:
on the daily balance 4 per cent per annum.
On Deposits at 10 days'
payable at ten days 5 per cent per annum.
Notice

INTEREST CHARGED.—
On Bills not having
more than 95 days to 10 per cent per annum.
run, at the rate of
On Bills not having
more than 60 days to 12 per cent per annum.
at the rate of

Discount Day—Wednesday at 12 o'clock.

Bills at ten days' sight are granted on the Commercial Bank in Sydney at one per cent Premium.

By order of the Court of Directors,

A. KENNEDY,
Manager.
Kororarika, 2nd Sept., 1840.

We beg to repeat our request, that persons indebted to this establishment, will discharge their bills without delay.