(136)

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 3rd December, 1847.

HIS Excellency the Governor has been
pleased to give directions for the publi-
cation of the following Despatch, from the
Right Honorable, Her Majesty's principal
Secretary of State for the Colonies, for ge-
neral information...

By His Excellency's command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR,
Colonial Secretary.

(No. 76.)

Downing Street,
19th June, 1847.

SIR,

I enclose copies of a correspondence which
has lately taken place, relative to the affairs of the
New Zealand Company, which will put you in pos-
session of an arrangement which Her Majesty's Go-
vernment have thought it advisable to enter into with
that Association. I also transmit a copy of a Bill
which will be proposed to Parliament for the more
effectually carrying this arrangement into execution.
This measure, as you will perceive, has been re-
solved upon by Her Majesty's Government, with a
view to the resumption of the Systematic Coloniza-
tion of New Zealand. It is proposed that the New
Zealand Company should for this purpose receive an
advance of Public Money, and should be entrusted
with the disposal, for three years, of the Crown De-
mesne in the Southern Government of New Zealand,
in order to obtain the fullest assurance that
these trusts and trusts shall be faithfully applied to
the objects aimed at by Her Majesty's Government,
a Commissioner will be appointed to attend, on their
behalf, the meetings of the Directors of the Company
and will be invested with ample powers to control
all the proceedings of that body. The Commissioner
will act under the instructions of the Secretary of State,
to be given from time to time, as occasion may re-
quire.

By this arrangement, Her Majesty's Government
entertain the hope, that they may obtain in aid of
Systematic Colonization, the energy, the ability, and
experience, of a body of Gentlemen associated toge-
ther to promote an enlightened plan of Colonization,
and whose private interests are identified with the
success of these public objects, and possessing, as
they do, the confidence of those classes from which
the best description of Settlers are likely to be drawn
-men of character, enterprize, and small capital,
they have the means, which no Government can pos-
sess to the same degree, of promoting and directing
towards Colonization that spirit of enterprize for
which our population has always been remarkable,
The success which attended the early operations of
the Company, so far at least as regarded the collec-
tion of bodies of Emigrants, admirably fitted by their
energy, perseverance and self-reliance, for the ardu-
ous undertakings in which they embarked, affords
the best ground for hoping that the same Company
may again be enabled to send successive parties of
equally efficient Settlers to New Zealand, and that
these arriving there under happier auspices, may
rapidly form thriving and prosperous communities.

Such is the general design of Her Majesty's Gov-
ernment, in the arrangement which they have en-
tered into.

I shall now proceed to call your attention to a few
points, the due understanding of which in the Colony,
may, in its present state, be conducive to public
good.

In the first place I have to remark that, in order to
dispel that jealousy of the Company, of which I am
sorry to perceive various symptoms, in the more re-
cent advices from the Colony, it is of great import-
ance that you should use your utmost efforts to make
it generally and thoroughly understood, that Her Ma-
jesty's Government, in placing for three years all the
Crown Demesne of the Southern Province at the diss
posal of the New Zealand Company, have had for
their main object the public interest in promoting
Colonization, not the private advantage of the
Company.

The Company will indeed (and most justly,) be
remunerated, if the plan should prove successful, for
its large outlay of capital, but by the provision that
no dividends shall be payable, except from a mode-
rate portion of the gross pro-
ceeds of the sales of land which it may effect, this
remuneration will be made exactly in proportion
to the extent to which the Company, by its activity
and good judgment, shall promote Colonization.

Moreover, the Company, in the exercise of this trust,
will act under the supervision of the Government
Commissioner, whose duty will obviously lead him
to consider every projected operation of the Company
for the disposal of Crown lands, with reference, not
alone to the interests of the Company, but to the in-
terests of the Public, both here and in New Zealand.

The proceeds of the Sales and Leasings of Crown
lands, which the Company will effect, will be de-
voted, after the necessary deductions, to Colonizing
purposes, and the gradual settlement of the island.

By these means, it is hoped, that both Capital and
Labor, may be again beneficially directed towards
these islands. That the capital already so largely in-
vested, and the property already acquired by the
actual Settlers, will be enhanced in value, and gain
additional security.

The interests of the actual Settlers will thus, in
the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, be more
effectually promoted, than by any other means which
could have been adopted, since the effect of resuming
Colonisation, in augmenting the value of their lands,
will be certain and immediate.

I am aware, however, that an apprehension exists
in the minds of many of the Settlers, that the benefit
which may thus accrue to them, will be more than
counterbalanced by the system adopted by the Company,
of selling land in this country, and which will oppose
a difficulty in the way of its acquisition by those
who have already emigrated, and more especially to
its being obtained by them upon terms consistent with
its being profitably occupied for pastoral purposes.

This apprehension I do not consider to be well
founded. The system of permanently alienating
land, only by sale, will indeed be strictly adhered to,
and I trust, that notwithstanding the prejudice in fa-
vor of cheap land, the Company's Settlers will not
forget the views on which they originally emigrated,
or fail to perceive that their own welfare and pros-
perity are vitally interested in maintaining the sound
principle of Colonization on which their settlements
were formed. Nor is the maintenance of this prin-
ciple inconsistent with the adoption of a mode of sell-
ing land, which shall give every proper facility to the
original Settlers to extend their holdings, nor to their
being permitted also, under proper regulations, to ob-
tain the temporary occupation of land for pastoral pur-
poses, upon easy terms. On the latter subject I have
already addressed you in another Despatch, in which
I have transmitted to you the papers lately laid before
Parliament, which shew what has been done in the
same subject, in New South Wales. With respect to
the just desire of the present Settlers, to be enabled
gradually to extend their holdings, this object will
be provided for by conducting in the Colony, instead
of in this country, the sale of lands which accompany
existing settlements, and by taking care that all new
settlements to be formed by bodies of Emigrants pro-
ceeding from this country for that purpose, shall be
planted in situations where they cannot injuriously
interfere with those previously established.

You will continue to retain in your own hands the
exclusive management of all negotiations with the
Natives, for the sale of their lands; but when any
transactions of this sort are concluded in the South-
ern Province, the New Zealand Company will pro-
vide the means of payment, from funds placed at
their disposal, and have the disposal of the lands so
acquired.