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We are under the impression that the General Assembly and the General Government have undertaken to provide shelter and support for all who may need either the one or the other, as well as to compensate for what losses may have been suffered, so that to a great extent, if not entirely, it would appear that the object of the people of Canterbury when the subscription was raised has been superseded.

Nevertheless, the Committee are very anxious not to commit the error of parting with any portion of the fund before they are fully satisfied that it will not be wanted for the purpose originally contemplated; whilst on the other hand it is undesirable longer to withhold it from the many useful purposes to which it may be applied should it not be so wanted.

I have, therefore, to request that your Honor will be so good as to inform the Committee whether any claims are likely to be presented, or further, that you will be pleased to furnish them with any other information relating to the application of the fund, within the intention of the resolution to which I have before referred, which it may be in your Honor’s power to give.

I have, &c.,

(Signed) JOSEPH BRITTAN,
Hon. Sec.

His Honor
the Superintendent,
Taranaki.

Copy of Resolution passed at Public Meeting held July 25, 1860.

“That this meeting, having had laid before it a communication addressed by the Superintendent of Taranaki to the Superintendent of Canterbury, asking if it be in the power of the Province to assist the immigration to Canterbury of a portion of the Taranaki settlers, resolves that a subscription be immediately set on foot throughout the province for the purpose suggested in that communication, or for any other purpose which may tend to the relief of the Taranaki settlers.”

Superintendent’s Office,
New Plymouth, 6th April, 1861.

SIR,—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th ult., requesting information to guide your Committee in the disposal of the funds raised at Canterbury for the relief of the sufferers by the Taranaki war.

You will find, on reference to the Deputy Superintendent’s letter of the 14th Sept., an explanation of the reasons which prevented this Government from availing itself of the offer of the Committee to assist destitute settlers at that time.

With respect to the action of the General Assembly, I have to state that a sum of money was voted last session for the maintenance of destitute refugees at Nelson, which has enabled me to keep intact for future need the funds, about £1100, which have been placed in my hands by the Provincial Government of Wellington and the public of Auckland.

The General Assembly has also voted a sum of not more than £25,000 for the permanent relief, in the nature of compensation to settlers; but it has declared this vote to be final, and has refused to entertain a claim for compensation, quasi compensation, so as to prevent a precedent being made for the indemnification of any losses which may be incurred in future insurrections, if such should unhappily ensue.

This amount is very far short of the losses sustained by the settlers, and will altogether be inadequate to enable them to resume their farming operations. Besides the entire destruction of more than three-fourths of the homesteads in the country, and the injury the farms have sustained in the destruction of fences, the growth of thistles, &c., the greater part of the stock on which the mass of the farmers almost exclusively relied has disappeared. For months past the insurgents have been living on our cattle and sheep, and have wantonly destroyed more than they have consumed. The quantity which they have taken away, and which may some day be recovered, is small in comparison. But beyond this, during the whole of the war the settlers have been living on the sale of their stock to the commissariat butcher, for their incomes were gone, and they were doing enforced military service at 1s. 3d. per day and rations.

The great anxiety felt by our people throughout the war has been the uncertainty of their position at its close, and their prospects now are by no means cheering, for they will have to return to their desolated and unstocked lands with empty purses.

In the terms of peace proposed to the Ngatiawa no mention is made of the settlers’ losses; there is, therefore, no hope of reparation in that quarter. The southern natives have not yet been treated with, and I have had no intimation of the nature of the terms which will be offered.

In all cases where subscriptions have been made, and I have been applied to for advice, I have recommended the donors to appropriate the funds in their possession for relief at the close of the war, and the Provincial Council at Taranaki, anxious to