No. VII. FIRST REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY
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PORT NICHOLSON, NEW ZEALAND.
Just Published,
A CHART OF PORT NICHOLSON,
(ONE LARGE SHEET,)
SURVEYED BY MR. E. M. CHAFFERS, R.N.
PRICE ONE SHILLING AND SIXPENCE.
Published, by permission of the New Zealand Company,
By JAMES WYLD, Geographer to the Queen,
Charing Cross East, London.
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No. VII.
THE
FIRST REPORT
OF THE
DIRECTORS
OF THE
NEW ZEALAND COMPANY,
PRESENTED TO
THE FIRST GENERAL MEETING
OF
THE SHAREHOLDERS,
MAY 14TH, 1840.
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At the First General Meeting of the Shareholders of the NEW ZEALAND COMPANY, held at their House, in Broad Street Buildings, on Thursday, the 14th of May, 1840:--
JOSEPH SOMES, ESQ., (DEPUTY-GOVERNOR,) in the Chair--
Moved by JEREMIAH PILCHER, Esq.--Seconded by EDWIN BRYANT, Esq.
Resolved:---
I. That the Report now read be adopted, and printed for the use of the Proprietors; and that the thanks of this Meeting be offered to the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Directors, for their attention to the interests of the Company, and their management of its affairs up to the present time.
Moved by EDMUND HALSWELL, Esq.--Seconded by JOHN HEATH, Esq.
Resolved:--
II. That the Deed now submitted to the Meeting (comprising the names of the Directors and Auditors this day chosen) be adopted as the Deed of Settlement of the Company.
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No. VII.
FIRST REPORT
From the Directors to the Shareholders of the New Zealand Company,
1. Your Directors consider the time to be arrived whenis their duty to present to you a Report of the progress and prospects of the important undertaking which you have confided to their charge. Although a year has scarcely elapsed since the operations of the Company commenced, yet the magnitude of those operations, and the success which has attended them, appear to be sufficient reasons for inviting your attendance at an earlier period, than that at which the shareholders of companies are usually for the first time assembled.
2. The plantation of a British colony in New Zealand is an object for the attainment of which numerous plans and projects have at various times been formed, but which it was reserved for you to carry into actual effect. The present Company is the result of the union of three distinct associations previously existing with similar views. To these united interests have been added the subscriptions of a new body of proprietors, whereby the Company has not only acquired a capital more than ample for the prosecution of its objects, but stands without a rival in the field of its enterprise, or in the favourable opinion of the public.
3. Of the three associations now merged in this Company, the earliest was the New Zealand Company of 1825. This co-partnership comprised names of high respectability; and its head was your first noble Governor, the earl of Durham. It despatched two vessels to New Zealand, at
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THE FIRST REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS.
an expense exceeding 20,000l.,--obtained the promise of a charter from the government of King George the Fourth, and acquired tracts of land, among other places, at Herd's Point, on the Hokianga, at Manukau, in the Islands of Waikeke and Paroa, and on the borders of the Thames. The Company was prevented by adverse circumstances from forminga settlement, but its lands were set apart, and have been respected by the natives up to the present day. A contract has been entered into, whereby these lands are to be forthwith conveyed to the present Company 1, and several of the most influential members of the old body now appear in the list of your Directors.
4. To the labours of the New Zealand Association of 1837, you are materially indebted for having directed the public mind towards the scene of your operations, and pointing out the peculiar advantages offered by New Zealand as an emigration-field. The aim of that society was to induce the legislature to apply to New Zealand the South-Australian principle of colonization, and at the same time to make provision for guarding the native inhabitants from the evils to which irregular intercourse with Europeans had long exposed them. After protracted negotiations, Her Majesty's government offered to the associationa Royal Charter, upon condition that it should form itself into a joint-stock company. "Colonization," said the Secretary of State, "to no small extent is effected in these islands. The only question, therefore, is between a colonization, desultory, without law, and fatal to the natives, and a colonization organized and salutary. Her Majesty's government are therefore disposed to entertain the proposal of establishing such a colony. They are willing to consent to the incorporation, by Royal Charter, of various persons, to whom the settlement and government of the projected colony should for some short term of years be confided. The charter would be framed with reference to the precedents of the colonies established in North America, by Great Britain, in the sixteenth and
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seventeenth centuries 2 ." The conditions required being at variance with the declared character of the association, which had expressly excluded from its objects all commercial speculations, its members had no alternative but to decline the charter, however desirable in other respects. The association determined to persevere in its original design. At its instance the Earl of Devon, early in the session of 1838, moved for and obtained a select committee of the House of Lords to inquire into the state of the islands of New Zealand, which collected and published a mass of authentic and important information relating to the country and its inhabitants, and proving the urgent need of systematic colonization. The Lords' Committee, however, expressed no opinion on the main question at issue, but resolved "that the extension of the British Colonies was a question belonging exclusively to the "Crown." The association, however, was not discouraged from proceeding with the bill which it had prepared, entitled, "A Bill for the provisional government of British settlements in the islands of New Zealand." This measure proposed to appoint commissioners under the crown, to treat with and purchase land from the natives, and, upon cession of sovereignty, to convert the lands into British territory, to be governed by British law: making, however, exceptional regulations, in favour of the natives, to protect them from their own ignorance and to promote their moral and social improvement. It proposed also to exercise legal authority over all lawless British subjects, in all parts of the islands. The colonial government was to afford an adequate provision for religious worship of every denomination, and a bishop of the established church was to be appointed by the Crown to reside in New Zealand. This bill was introduced by the Chairman of the association, (the Hon. Francis Baring), and on the second reading was defeated by means of the opposition of Her Majesty's Ministers, although it was ably supported by several influential and independent members on both sides of the house. The rejection of the bill caused great disappointment not
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only to its immediate promoters, but to the many enlightened persons who promote colonization generally, on public grounds.
5. On the dissolution of the association, some of its members formed a plan, according to the suggestion of Her Majesty's Government, for the prosecution of its leading objects, by means of a joint-stock company. On the 29th August, 1838, a private co-partnership was established under the name of the New Zealand Colonization Company, which gradually increased in strength, until, in the spring of the year 1839, it had raised funds sufficient to purchase an extensive territory in New Zealand, (principally surrounding the harbours of Hokianga and Kaipara in the northern island), and to fit out a preliminary expedition for surveying the coasts, making further purchases and preparing for the early arrival of a body of settlers. The parties by whom these objects had been effected, agreed to transfer their interests to a more extended company in consideration of receiving in such new company an equivalent amount of stock, to be determined by arbitration 3 : and they have accordingly assigned the whole of their property, rights, and interests, of every description, to the present proprietary. On the 2nd of May, 1839, the co-partnership called the "New Zealand Colonization Company," ceased to exist, and the first prospectus of the "New Zealand Company," called for a time the "New Zealand Land Company," was issued to the public.
6. Your Directors, although they at first contemplated raising a larger sum, determined, after some deliberation, to fix the amount of the Company's capital at 100,000l., in 4,000 shares of 25l. each. The whole of this capital having been subscribed, your Directors consider the amount to be amply sufficient for the Company's operations.
7. The views with which the preliminary expedition was despatched, both as regards the acquirement of territory for colonization, and the treatment of the native race, are fully developed in the first instructions given to Colonel
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Wakefield, the Company's principal agent, which have for some time been before the public. In accordance with the plan indicated in these instructions, your Directors in the first instance offered for sale a limited portion of the lands to be comprised within the first and principal Settlement to be founded by the Company. The following extract from the Terms of Sale, dated 1st June, 1839, expresses the conditions under which these preliminary sales were made:--
"The object of the Company will be so to determine the place of their first Settlement, as to insure its becoming the commercial capital of New Zealand, and, therefore, the situation where land will soonest acquire the highest value by means of colonization. Within this district, the site of the Company's chief town will be carefully selected; after which, out of the whole territory there acquired, a further selection will be made of the most valuable portion as respects fertility, river frontage, and vicinity to the town. The site of the town will consist of 1100 acres, exclusive of portions marked out for general use, such as quays, streets, squares, and public gardens. The selected country lands will comprise 110,000 acres. The situation of the whole quantity of acres constituting the first settlement, will, accordingly, be determined by a double selection;--first, of the best position with reference to all the rest of New Zealand; and secondly, of the most valuable portion of the land acquired by the Company in that position, including the site of the first town. The lands of this first and principal settlement, therefore, if both selections are properly made, will be more valuable, and will sooner possess the highest value than any other like extent of land in the Islands.
"These doubly-selected lands will be divided into 1100 sections, each section comprising one town-acre, and 100 country-acres. 110 sections will be reserved by the Company, who intend to distribute the same as private property amongst the chief families of the tribe, from which the lands shall have been originally purchased. The remainder, being 990 sections of 101 acres each, are now offered for sale in sections, at the price of 101l. for each section, or 1l. per acre.
"In return for the purchase-money, the Company will deliver to the purchaser of each section, an order on their officers in the settlement, which will entitle the holder thereof, or his agent, to select one town-acre, and a country section of 100 acres, according to a priority of choice, to be determined by lot, subject to the provisions hereinafter mentioned.
"The lots for priority of choice will be drawn at the Company's office in London, in the presence of the Directors, on a day of which public notice will be given.
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"An officer of the Company will draw in the same manner for the 110 sections reserved and intended for the native chiefs; and the choice of these reserved sections will be made by an officer of the Company in the settlement, according to the priority so determined.
"The choice of sections, of which the priority has been so determined by lot in England, will take place in the settlement, as soon after the arrival of the first body of colonists as the requisite surveys and plans shall have been completed, and will be made under such regulations as an officer of the Company in the settlement, authorized in that behalf, may prescribe. Neglect, or refusal to comply with such regulations will occasion a forfeiture of the choice; and vest the right of selection in such officer as to the sections in regard to which the choice shall have been forfeited.
"The land-orders will be transferable at the pleasure of the holders; and a registry will be kept at the Company's offices in London, and in the settlement, as well of original land-orders, as of all transfers thereof.
"Of the 99,990l. to be paid to the Company by purchasers, 25 per cent. only, or 24,997l. 10s., will be reserved to meet the expenses of the Company. The remainder, being 75 per cent., or 74,992l. 10s. will be laid out by the Company for the exclusive benefit of the purchasers, in giving value to the land sold by defraying the cost of emigration to this FIRST and PRINCIPAL SETTLEMENT.
"Purchasers of land-orders intending to emigrate with the first colony, (which it is proposed shall depart by the middle of August next), will be entitled to claim from the Company, out of the 74,992l. 10s. set apart for emigration, an expenditure for their own passage, and that of their families and servants, equal to 75 per cent. of their purchase-money, according to regulations framed by the Company with a view to confining the free passage to actual colonists. But unless this claim be made in London by written application to the Secretary, delivered at the office of the Company, on or before aday of which public notice will be given, it will be considered as waived.
"The remainder of the 74,992l. 10s. set apart for emigration, will be laid out by the Company in providing a free passage for young persons of the labouring class, and as far as possible of the two sexes in equal proportion."
It will be observed that the principle of colonization thus adopted by the Company is the sale of its lands at an uniform and sufficient price, and the employment of the greater portion of the purchase-money as an emigration fund. The South Australian system has thus been followed as nearly as the diversity of circumstances in the present case would permit.
8. The lands comprised in the preliminary sales were,
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it has been seen, offered to the public by anticipation. But so strong was the public confidence in your Directors, that within a few weeks, the whole of the preliminary sections had been disposed of, and the Company had realized a land-revenue of 99,990l. The priority of choice of the purchasers was determined by a ballot held at the Company's office, in the presence of your Directors, on the 29th July, the native-reserves partaking of the same benefits as other sections from the chance of the lots. The whole of the preliminary sections sold, from No. 1, to 1100, have since experienced a considerable rise in value, according to the priority of choice, and the predilection of purchasers.
9. Your Directors have spared no pains to select an efficient surveying staff. The Surveyor-General, Captain William Mein Smith, of the Royal Artillery, is an officer of the first ability and of great energy; and under him are three assistant-surveyors and twenty-two men. The surveying staff, (together with a Commissioner instructed to negotiate farther purchases of land) was despatched, on the 1st of August, in the barque Cuba, which vessel carried a cargo of merchandize for the purpose of barter, and to provide against the possible contingency of any accident to the Tory. Your Directors furnished the Surveyor-General with full instructions in regard to the surveys, and especially tothe laying out the plan of the town. They desired that ample reserves should be made for all public purposes, such as a cemetery, a market-place, wharfage, and probable public buildings, a botanical garden, a park, and extensive boulevards,--that a broad belt of land should be left for public use between the town and the country sections,--that in the form of the town the future should be provided for rather than the present,--and that the public convenience should be consulted, and the beautiful appearance of the city secured so far as possible, rather than the immediate profit of the Company. Your Directors are fully aware how much depends upon the judicious operations of the surveying department, and it is their intention to add further strength to the surveying force when necessary; so that the surveys may always be kept in advance of the demand for land.
10. Having despatched the surveyors, your Directors
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proceeded to make the arrangements for the departure of the first colony; which comprised not only labouring emigrants, but a body of settlers of a superior class, comprising members of some of the oldest and most respectable families in the kingdom. From the annexed tabular list (Appendix A.) you will perceive that 216 settlers of the superior class, and 909 labouring emigrants, have already been forwarded to New Zealand by means of the emigration fund, and that 12 ships, whose united tonnage amounts to 5390 tons, have been despatched thither by the Company. Six of the ships were taken up exclusively as emigrant ships, by contracts, containing all requisite provisions for securing the health and comfort of the passengers. A statement of the price per ton at which each ship was hired will be found in Appendix A. Every vessel, whether emigrant or storeship, was taken up by public competition, after advertisement and tenders; and no contract has been entered into without the sanction of a board of Directors, nor without a satisfactory report from the Company's surveyor of the sea-worthiness of the vessel and her adaptation for the service intended. It has been the uniform object of your Directors to select the best and cheapest ships which it was in their power to obtain, having regard on the one hand to the security, convenience, and comfort of the emigrants, and on the other hand to that strict economy which it is their duty to exercise in the administration of every branch of the Company's expenditure. It was not to be expected that the rates of freight to a country in the circumstances of New Zealand should yet have fallen to the level of the freights to longer established Australian colonies; but with the growth of the infant settlements, and the increasing means of obtaining return freights, the rates from British ports to New Zealand will of course experience a gradual reduction. The emigrants on boardeach of the Company's ships were placed under the special charge of a surgeon-superintendent, appointed by your Directors, and were subjected to regulations, framed with the view of promoting their physical well-being, and moral improvement during the voyage.
11. The capital invested by the settlers in property consigned to the colony being very considerable, your Directors
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found it necessary to charter one ship for the principal purpose of conveying passengers' goods, for which there was not room in the emigrant ships. Your Directors have also deemed it their duty to send out an ample stock of provisions, to supply the first wants of the settlers--to provide arms for their defence in case of unforeseen attacks,--and to forward buildings to be erected near the place of landing, sufficient to afford temporary shelter to several hundreds of women, children, and invalids, part of which will form a hospital, where medical aid will be dispensed to all such as may require it. These precautions your Directors have considered indispensable for the relief of the early necessities of the infant community.
12. In regard to the two ships, (the Brougham and Platina) despatched in the month of February last, it is proper to explain that the Brougham was chartered for the conveyance of a further supply of flour and provisions rendered advisable on account of the recently advanced prices in neighbouring colonies, which will, at all events, render the sale of such articles an operation of profit to the Company. The Platina was appropriated to the obviously desirable object of conveying to the colony the government-house built in this country for Captain Hobson, R.N. the eventual Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand.
13. Your Directors have been deeply impressed with the importance of doing all they legitimately can towards imparting to the colony the means of religious and moral instruction. Accordingly a resolution has been passed whereby a free cabin passage to New Zealand has been, and continues to be offered to religious ministers of every denomination, provided the grounds of application in each case are considered satisfactory. Your Directors are gratified in stating that two clergymen, the one of the Church of England, the other of the Kirk of Scotland, have already availed of this resolution. The former (the Rev. John Frederick Churton), proceeded in the Bolton, with an endowment from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to which the colonists added a considerable sum by subscription; and the latter (the Rev.
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Alexander Macfarlane), sailed from Glasgow in the Bengal Merchant, with a liberal endowment from the National Church of Scotland. The expediency of conferring endowments from the Company's lands upon all religious sects, in aid of their respective forms of worship, and in sums proportioned to the numbers of each sect, according to the principle of the New Zealand Association of 1837, has not escaped the consideration of your Directors, and they would feel pleasure, if the increasing revenues of the Company should, at an early period, justify them in granting such endowments for religious, as well as educational purposes, upon the principle mentioned.
14. The establishment of a circulating medium in the new colony was one of the most obvious wants of the first settlers. Your directors, with this view, have effected an arrangement with a bank of the first respectability, (the Union Bank of Australia), for the opening of a Branch Bank in New Zealand, and the manager and officers of this bank have sailed in the Company's ship Glenbervie. A colonial currency will, by this means, be at once brought into circulation, and settlers are afforded the means of effecting their pecuniary transactions with convenience and security. The Union Bank issues bills on its New Zealand Branch without any charge, on the money being deposited, thus enabling Colonists to transmit their funds without any deduction.
15. It is incumbent upon your Directors to acknowledge with gratitude the remarkable encouragement they received from public opinion during the progress of these operations. The realization of your large land fund is of course entirely attributable to the confidence of the public at large in our principles and plans. The period of the departure of the emigrant ships from London was marked by strong demonstrations of public sympathy, and the sailing of the Scotch emigrants from the Clyde was hailed with a burst of enthusiasm such has rarely has been witnessed. The dinner in the Trade's Hall at Glasgow, on the 22nd of October, and the public meeting at the Mansion house, Dublin, on the 2nd of November last, will be recorded as gratifying
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proofs of the good-will of persons whose station and influence in society are such as to confer peculiar value upon their approbation.
16. The active support of public opinion has proved of the greater importance to your interests, inasmuch as your Directors have, up to the present time, had to contend with difficulties of no ordinary kind,--difficulties which at the time when their plan of action was formed, they had no reason to apprehend,--and which they lament to state have their origin in the hostile spirit entertained by Her Majesty's Executive Government towards this Company and its objects. At the present day, when the national benefits rising from systematic colonization are so well understood, and so generally appreciated, it could scarcely have been believed that Her Majesty's advisers would have looked with indifference upon any well contrived scheme for spreading the English name and race over distant lands, and for raising up in another hemisphere new markets and new consumers of the produce and manufactures of the mother country. But in the present case, where not merely indifference has been exhibited, but the policy pursued towards this body has been on every occasion to discountenance and frustrate its operations, by every means of which official jealousy could avail, your Directors consider that they have just grounds for complaining of the treatment, which as representing the Company, they have received at the hands of the government. Your Directors fully admit that it would have been the duty of the government not only to discourage, but absolutely to prohibit and punish any attempt by this, or any other association of private persons, to invade in the slightest degree the legitimate authority of the Crown, or of Parliament. But the supposition that your Directors have ever entertained such views, or made such pretensions, is one to which they are desirous of giving the most positive contradiction, and is at total variance with facts. The present Company was formed for the purpose of employing capital in the purchase and re-sale of lands in New Zealand, and the promotion of emigration to that country. Its object has never been political, but purely
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commercial, as will be best understood by reference to its original prospectus published on the 2nd of May, 1839:--
"The purchase and improvement of waste lands in New Zealand," said this prospectus, "has been already carried on to a great extent, and with much advantage by missionaries and others, who have settled in the country, as well as by persons residing in the adjacent Australian Colonies; and such an operation upon an enlarged scale is the proposed object of the New Zealand Company. The attention and business of the Company will be confined to the purchase of tracts of land,--the promotion of emigration to those tracts directly from the United Kingdom,--the laying out of settlements and towns in the most favourable situations,--and the gradual re-sale of such lands, according to the value bestowed upon them by emigration and settlement. It is also proposed that to facilitate the transmission of capital between England and New Zealand, the Company shall act as agents for that purpose only. Such an undertaking affords peculiar advantages to the employers of a large combined capital, and is further suitable to a Company, inasmuch as it can neither impede individual enterprise, nor is liable to the competition of individuals, and is capable of being managed at little expense and upon a system of fixed routine."
It is important to keep in view these objects of the Company, as originally notified to the public, and never since altered or departed from by your Directors, because in the official correspondence relative to New Zealand 4 , recently laid before Parliament, there appears a letter 5 written by direction of the Marquis of Normanby, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which the following charge is made against the Company:--
"Lord Normanby now for the first time learns that a body of Her Majesty's subjects are about to proceed to New Zealand to purchase large tracts of land there, and to establish a system of government independent of the autho-
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rity of the British crown. It is impossible that his Lordship should do any act which would be construed into a direct or indirect sanction of such a proceeding."
The imputation contained in the above extract was promptly repelled by Mr. Hutt, then acting as Chairman of the Board, who on the day of his receiving Mr. Labouchere's communication, addressed to him in reply the following explanatory letter, which your Directors regret to state has been suppressed in the official correspondence laid before Parliament by the Secretary of State. A copy is therefore inserted here:--
MR. HUTT TO MR. LABOUCHERE.
3, Southampton Street, Strand,
1st May, 1839.
SIR,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this day's date. In reply I have to request that you will be so good as to assure Lord Normanby that the Company which I represent does not contemplate, nor has ever imagined the possibility of establishing a system of government in New Zealand either independently of the British Crown or any other way.
Our objects are solely commercial, being similar precisely to those which have for the last twenty years actuated great numbers of Her Majesty's subjects in purchasing land in New Zealand.
With respect to the measure which you think it probable that Her Majesty's Government will adopt for regulating the Colonization of New Zealand, I beg leave to submit, very respectfully, to Lord Normanby, that the founders of this Company have long urged upon Her Majesty's Government the expediency, or rather necessity, of adopting such measures. This indeed was the object of the bill which I had intended to submit to the House of Commons, the notice of which I withdrew, in consequence of Lord Normanby's assurance to Mr. Somes, Mr. Halswell, Mr. H. G. Ward, and myself, that his Lordship would undoubtedly introduce a measure for that purpose during the present session.
The steps which we have taken, as a commercial body, have been pursued with the more confidence in consequence of his Lordship's assurance to that effect.
I have the honour to be, &c.
(Signed,) WILLIAM HUTT.
The Right Hon. Henry Labouchere.
&c., &c., &c.
Your Directors deeming the publication of Mr. Hutt's letter to be very material to the character of the Company,
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requested that gentleman to address himself to Lord John Russell, begging its publication. Accordingly the subjoined correspondence followed:--
MR. HUTT TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
New Zealand House, 9, Broad Street Buildings,
23rd April, 1840.
MY LORD,
Referring to the correspondence relative to New Zealand, laid before the House of Commons on the motion of your Lordship, I have observed with surprise, that a letter addressed on the 1st of May, 1839, by me, as Chairman of the New Zealand Company, to Mr. Labouchere, has been omitted. The publication of this letter is of importance to the Company, as explanatory of their conduct on a point in which it is seriously misrepresented in the previous letter of Mr. Labouchere, which appears in the printed correspondence, and it is absolutely essential to a right understanding of the proceedings of the Company by Parliament and the public.
I trust therefore that this letter will no longer be withheld by the Colonial Office, but that it may be laid before Parliament without delay.
I have the honour to be, &c.
(Signed), WILLIAM HUTT.
The Right Hon. Lord John Russell,
&c., &c., &c.
MR. VERNON SMITH TO MR. HUTT.
Downing Street, 2nd May, 1840.
SIR,
I am directed by Lord John Russell to acknowledge your Letter of the 23rd ult., and to acquaint you, in reply, that your Letter of the 1st May, 1839, was not included in the Correspondence relative to New Zealand laid before the House of Commons, because it appeared to his Lordship to be unimportant to the general question. His Lordship desires me to assure you there will be no objection offered to your moving for the document in question.
I am, &c.,
(Signed) R. VERNON SMITH.
William Hutt, Esq., M.P.
The circumstances connected with the above correspondence appear to your Directors so extraordinary, and the suppression so remarkably unfair, as to require no further comment. Many other indications of official hostility will be found in the correspondence laid before Parliament, and for which your Directors are utterly unable to account. In one recent despatch from the Secretary of State for the
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Colonies, the course taken by this Company is characterised as unjustifiable 6 . Your Directors unhesitatingly ask in what respect? They appeal, with confidence, to you, and to the public, against this strange language of her Majesty's advisers, and they throw back the imputation of unjustifiable conduct against those who have done what in them lay, first, to prevent your Colony from being planted at all, and then to nip it in the earliest shoots of its opening growth.
17. The nature of the Company has been always, as already stated, exclusively commercial. But your Directors, from the first, felt a great and natural anxiety to secure for the colonists embarking under their sanction, the protection and benefits of British law. Accordingly, at an early period, they solicited and obtained an interview 7 with the Marquis of Normanby, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, at which they urged upon his Lordship the indispensable importance of making immediate provision for this purpose. Although Lord Normanby, on that occasion, declined to give any express sanction to the objects for which the Company had been instituted, yet the assurances of his Lordship were so far encouraging, as to leave no doubt in the mind of your Directors that the Company's purchases, being bona fide, would be confirmed by the crown, and to induce them to persevere, without hesitation, in the investment of their capital for the purposes of the intended colony. Shortly previous to the sailing of the emigrants, your Directors again addressed the Marquis of Normanby, requesting another interview, in order to learn the nature of the arrangements contemplated by Her Majesty's Government, for enforcing British laws on the arrival of the settlers. The interview sought was declined by the Secretary of State, nor could your Directors obtain any information on the subject, beyond the contents of the Treasury-Minute of the 29th July, to which Lord Normanby referred them. It was only when your Directors were satisfied of the hopelessness of placing any reliance
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upon the care or caution of Her Majesty's Government, that they gave their sanction, (so far as they lawfully might) to the voluntary agreement for order and self-defence, which has been published in the official correspondence 8 . This agreement did not originate with your Directors, but was framed, after much consideration, by the Colonists themselves, as a temporary expedient for preventing the evils of anarchy and disorder after their arrival in New Zealand. You are already acquainted with the correspondence which ensued, in reference to the agreement, between the Secretary of State and one of your Directors, and of the threat of the Secretary of State to institute legal proceedings in consequence of the agreement. Your Directors thereupon laid the agreement before an eminent counsel, and having been advised by him that the parties would not be justified by law in acting under it,they immediately issued orders to the Principal Agent, and all the Company's servants, not to do any act whatever under the agreement, the same having been abandoned by your Directors. The result will have been, that the law of England will be respected in the Company's settlements even to the extent of inducing the settlers to abstain from adopting any means of enforcing the law of England there. Your Directors recommended, at all hazards, implicit obedience to the course which, as they were informed, the law prescribed. They cannot, however, conceal from you their apprehensions, that the dilemma in which the settlers have thus been placed, may have involved them in some degree of social disorder. And although your Directors earnestly recommended to the colonists the formation of a voluntary association for order, yet, reflecting that, in the neighbourhood of the Company's settlement, there would be many lawless and dissolute persons, totally unaccustomed to the restraints of law and morality, who would be pretty certain to visit the settlement, and perhaps take up their abode there, (a state of things which has unhappily been too long permitted to prevail in most parts of New Zealand) your Directors availed themselves of an accident, which
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they trust may prove fortunate for the colony. Having learned that the Rev. John Gare Butler, late of Sheffield, held a commission, received from the Governor of New South Wales, in 1819, whereby he was authorized to act as a Justice of the Peace in any British settlements in New Zealand, your Directors induced Mr. Butler to return in the Bolton, in the capacity of interpreter to the Company. His commission, or Dedimus Potestatem, was as follows:--
"By his Excellency, Lachlan Macquarie, Esq., Captain-General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty's territory, called New South Wales and its Dependencies, &c.
"By virtue of the powers vested in me, I do hereby nominate,constitute, appoint, and assign you, the Rev. John Butler, a Justice to keep His Majesty's Peace, and for the preservation thereof, and the quiet rule and government of His Majesty's people, within and throughout the British settlements at New Zealand, a dependency of the said territory.
"Given at Government House, Sydney, New South Wales, this 24th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1819.
(Signed)
"L. MACQUARIE."
Under this commission, Mr. Butler has repeatedly acted, by apprehending offenders, and sending them to Sydney for trial. Your Directors trust that it will have armed him with the requisite authority to preserve the peace of the Company's settlement, and will have partially remedied the evils which must otherwise have resulted from the non-establishment of any description of legal tribuna lby Her Majesty's Government.
18. You will have observed that in Mr. Butler's commission, New Zealand is expressly described as a dependency of the territory of New South Wales. This description is in perfect accordance with the acts of possession performed by Captain Cook, the original discoverer, in 1769,--with the Royal commission granted to Captain Phillip, in 1787,--and with the Proclamation of the Governor of New South Wales in 1814, in pursuance of which, several other persons besides Mr. Butler, were appointed magistrates in New Zealand, and who performed magisterial functions in various parts of these islands accordingly 9 . You will not
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fail to remark the discrepancy between the language of the public documents last cited, and that of a memorandum of the Secretary of State for the Colonies recently published in the official correspondence. This memorandum lays great stress on the recognition by Parliament, and by his late Majesty, of the fact that New Zealand is not a part of the British dominions; thereby meaning, as your Directors infer, that Her Majesty has no more right of pre-emption from the natives, than France, or any other foreign power. Without attempting, on the present occasion, to discuss at length questions of international law, your Directors cannot but lament the inconvenient position, to say the least, in which the colonists are placed, by the inconsistency thus appearing between the public acts of the British Government affirming the dependence of New Zealand upon the British crown, and the recent official memorandum, in which even the right of pre-emption of Great Britain as against foreign powers in those islands, would seem to be repudiated by the Secretary of State.
19. It is the belief of your Directors that from the year 1769 downwards, Great Britain as the discovering power has possessed the sole right of acquiring territory from the natives of New Zealand, or in other words, that she holds the sovereignty of those islands against all foreign civilized powers. The Treasury-Minute, dated 19th July, 1839, (which forbids the exercise of British dominion, until after cession of sovereignty by the native chiefs shall have been obtained,) has been erroneously supposed by some to amount to a disclaimer of British sovereignty, whereas your Directors conceive the question of paramount sovereignty cannot be affected by acts having for their sole object to procure the consent of the natives to the proceedings of the government. The Treasury-Minute should be regarded as prescribing a course which the Crown is entitled to adopt in conducting the relations which Great Britain alone is entitled to hold with the native chiefs. This construction appears in accordance with principles of international law which are recognised by other civilized states: and, if to pursue the just and and humane policy of treating fairly with the aborigines in British dependencies,
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were to be construed as a repudiation of sovereign rights, and an admission of foreign pretension, then such tenderness towards the aborigines might have the effect of exposing them to the rough handling of powers by whom the principle of justice to savages is not acknowledged, and would tend rather to their destruction than to their advantage. For although the British Government may fulfil its own contracts and obligations towards the aborigines with that strict and undeviating justice required at its hands in such transactions, it would be obviously impracticable for it adequately to fulfil such obligations, or to shield the natives effectually against injury and wrong, if it remained in the power of any foreign state to pursue a contrary policy towards the same aborigines, under the sanction of a right alleged to be derived from a repudiation of sovereign rights by the British crown.
20. The attention of your Directors has been fixed on the excitement which has prevailed in France with reference to New Zealand, since the departure of Captain Hobson and the publication of his instructions and the Treasury-Minute. The facts of the formation of a French Company, with a very small paid-up capital, and the despatch of one ship from Rochfort, would be unimportant in themselves, were it not for the aid afforded to the expedition by the French government, and the alleged intention of that government to plant a penal settlement at Banks's Peninsula. These foreign pretensions have been so strongly condemned by the public voice, as expressed especially at the great meeting in Guildhall of the merchants, bankers, ship-owners, and other inhabitants of London, on the 15th April last, that it is only necessary for your Directors to declare their entire concurrence in the prayer of the petition to the Queen and both houses of Parliament, unanimously adopted at that meeting, "that these valuable islands may be preserved to Her Majesty's dominions, and the regular authority of British law, and a lawful system of colonization established throughout the same, under a distinct and sufficient colonial Government."
21. The official correspondence will put you in possession of the instructions issued by Her Majesty's Govern-
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ment to Captain Hobson, R.N., the present Consul, and eventual Lieutenant-Governor. Two points in these instructions appear open to objection; first, the contemplated cession of sovereignty is to be sought less as regards the whole country, than as to "those districts within or adjacent to which Her Majesty's subjects may acquire lands or habitations," which coincides with the Treasury-Minute, whereby the authority to obtain cession of sovereignty is expressly limited to territories possessed by British subjects: secondly, according to the Treasury-Minute and instructions, any territories in New Zealand, of which the sovereignty shall have been so ceded, are to form a part of the colony of New South Wales, and to be governed by laws enacted by the Governor and legislative council at Sydney. Your Directors regret that Captain Hobson's authority should have been limited by such restrictions, and they deem it a matter of paramount importance to the well-being of the colonists, and the good government of the settlements, that New Zealand should be altogether detached from the jurisdiction of the Governor and council of New South Wales, and placed under the distinct and separate jurisdiction of a Governor on the spot, corresponding directly with the Secretary of State.
22. Your Directors cannot but advert with regret to another fact disclosed in the official correspondence, which they consider a serious departure from sound principles of colonization, by Her Majesty's Government. They refer to the reduction of the price of Crown Land in New Zealand to 5s. per acre, until 12s. per acre shall be the usual upset price, in the Australian Settlements 10 . Your Directors are unable to reconcile this proceeding with the principles recognised by Her Majesty's Government, in their instructions to Captain Hobson, and in their more recent instructions to the Commissioners for Colonial Lands and Emigration. But your Directors have determined to persevere in their adherence to the approved plan of sale at an uniform and sufficient price, and notwithstanding the obstacle thus thrown in their way by the Government, they will continue to sell at their established price of 1l. per acre
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and at no lower rate, guaranteeing to purchasers that 15s. per acre shall be applied exclusively as an emigration fund, so that the actual sum reserved by the Company is 5s. per acre only.
23. The lamentable results of the absence of any authorized system of the disposal of land in New Zealand, have unhappily, of late years, become too notorious. They have been exposed by several able writers and have been brought prominently before the public in the Report of the Lords' Committee of 1838. Your Directors will not withhold from you their opinion, that the practice of Land-sharking, or the acquisition of land from the barbarous natives by private persons, without any reserves for the use of the natives, or indeed any sort of regard for their just rights, has inflicted irreparable injury upon the aborigines of the soil, and at the same time has proved highly demorailizing to British settlers. Upon mature reflection your Directors see no other effectual remedy for these evils, than for the government to take upon itself the duty of a trustee for the public, and to become the sole proprietor of all the lands in New Zealand, on the principle of equitable compensation to those who have bond fide obtained possessions there. It would be easy to avoid injustice to present holders by allowing them a pre-emptive right of purchase over such lands as they have already acquired, at an established price per acre, allowing them in each instance as a drawback the amount of their actual expenditure in acquiring the land and conveying emigrants thereto. The means would thus be at once opened to the government of re-disposing of the Crown lands to individuals upon the most approved method, viz., that of an uniform and sufficient price, with the employment of the purchase-money as an emigration fund. A well-devised plan of this description would have the hearty concurrence of your Directors, as fraught with no injustice to the interests of the Company, and eminently calculated to strengthen the hands of the government, and to promote the moral and social improvement of all classes of the inhabitants of New Zealand.
24. From the first moment when the mission of Captain Hobson came to their knowledge, your Directors have been
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anxious to promote its success by every means in their power. Accordingly they have from time to time instructed the Company's officers in New Zealand to spare no exertion in rendering to Captain Hobson all possible aid and assistance, and to do whatever might tend to his comfort and convenience. The following are extracts from despatches to the Principal Agent on the subject.
The Secretary to Colonel Wakefield, 16th September, 1839.
"Captain Hobson sailed very lately in the Druid frigate from Plymouth. It is the wish of the Directors that in case you meet with that gentleman, you should give him any personal assistance that he may require and you may be able to afford, and they need not express to you how much pleased they will be if your co-operation with him should prove of any service in the public duties with which he may be charged.
The Secretary to Colonel Wakefield, 14th November, 1839.
"Finally, with reference to my letter of 16th September last, I am again desired to impress upon you the anxious wish of the Directors that you and all the servants of the Company should do whatever may be in your power to promote the success of Captain Hobson's mission, and to accelerate as much as possible the time, when it is to be hoped that he, as Her Majesty's Representative, may establish a British authority, and the regular application of English law, not only in the Company's settlements, but throughout the islands of New Zealand."
The Secretary to Colonel Wakefield, 7th December, 1839.
"Although the Directors feel assured that their previous instructions will have led you to do whatever may have been in your power to promote the success of Captain Hobson's mission, yet they are induced to think, in consequence of Mr. Vernon Smith's letter, that some more specific directions may be of service, by leading to a more efficient co-operation on your part with Captain Hobson, in the steps by which the success of his mission may be best secured. You will observe by the Treasury-Minute, of which a copy has been before transmitted to you, and to which the Directors have been referred, by Her Majesty's Government, for information as to the views and purposes of the Crown, in despatching Captain Hobson to New Zealand, that he is directed to obtain cession of the sovereignty to Her Majesty of such territories therein as may be possessed by British subjects.
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It is most expedient, therefore, that whenever you purchase land for the Company, you should obtain at the same time a cession of the sovereignty over such lands to Captain Hobson, on behalf of the crown. And in cases where you may have purchased lands already, without at the same time obtaining cession of the sovereignty to the crown, the Directors trust that you will spare no pains to obtain such cession, with the least possible delay. Whenever you have the opportunity also, it is most desirable in case Captain Hobson should think such a step not inconsistent with his instructions, and should wish it to be taken, that you should obtain cession of sovereignty to him on behalf of the Crown, as to parts of the country where the Company may not have purchased any lands. It may further happen to be in your power to facilitate Captain Hobson's operations, by assisting him in obtaining extensive cessions of land, as well as of sovereignty, to the Crown, and there can be no doubt that if this should be accomplished as to the greater parts of the islands, the important object of enabling the British government to establish a beneficial system in the disposal of lands would be very greatly facilitated.
"In all these points the Directors wish that you should confer with Captain Hobson, and place at his disposal all the resources at your command. They imagine that the interpreters, Mr. Butler, Nayti, and Mr. Batts, may be of essential service to Captain Hobson, and if you find that either or both of the Company's vessels, Tory and Cuba, can be beneficially used for the public service, you will not fail to place them at Captain Hobson's disposal.
"In case Captain Hobson should desire it, you will provide him with a proper site for his government house, at the Company's principal settlement, and afford him any assistance in building it up, and making it a comfortable residence. In case he should require it, you will also supply his party with provisions from the Company's stores.
"So far the Directors are enabled positively to instruct the servants of the Company. With respect to the settlers generally, over whom they pretend not to exercise any other influence than that which they trust may be due to their unceasing desire to promote the advantage of all who have emigrated under their guidance, they trust that the view which they have taken of this subject may meet with general approval. They are satisfied that the interest of every settler is deeply concerned in the most complete and early success of Captain Hobson's mission; and it is really for the sake of the settlers, for whose fate they cannot but feel the greatest anxiety, that they hail with so much satisfaction Lord John Russell's invitation, (it may almost be termed,) to the Company and the settlers, to aid in promoting the objects of Her Majesty's government."
Your Directors entertain no doubt that Colonel Wakefield will cordially act up to the spirit of these instructions,
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and they trust that the difficulties of Captain Hobson's mission may, by the active aid of the Company's servants, and of the colonists, be yet, in a great measure, effectually surmounted.
25. It is with the most lively satisfaction that your Directors announce to you the receipt of two important despatches from Colonel Wakefield, on board the Tory, the former dated at Teawaite, Queen Charlotte's Sound, on the 2nd September, the latter in Cloudy Bay on the 10th October last. Extracts from these despatches have already been printed and circulated amongst you, and you cannot but have derived high gratification from the communication made by Colonel Wakefield, in his last despatch, of the acquirement of the valuable harbour of Port Nicholson, and the whole surrounding territory, comprising a surface of nearly a million square acres. It is impossible to appreciate too highly this valuable purchase, either as regards the admirable locality of the harbour, or the fertility, salubrity, and beauty, of the surrounding country. From the map exhibited to you, it will be seen that Colonel Wakefield had fixed the site of the first settlement on the shores of the inner harbour, or port, called Lambton Harbour, in honour of your first Governor, the Earl of Durham. Upon the first town to be built on this spot your Directors have seized the earliest opportunity of conferring the illustrious name of "Wellington," a name so eminently calculated to connect with the future city some of the most honourable national associations of the mother country. That the town is now in the course of erection your Directors entertain little doubt, and they confidently hope, that under the favour of Providence, the whole body of the colonists of last season are at this time located on the shores of Lambton Harbour.
26. Your Directors submit to your approval the annexed financial statements B and C, showing the receipt and expenditure of the Company from the day of its formation up to the present time, and its general assets and liabilities. Although a considerable balance thus appears in favour of the Company, yet after mature consideration your Directors have determined to recommend to you to postpone
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the declaration of a dividend, until intelligence shall have been actually received of the arrival and location of the main body of the emigrants of last year upon the Company's lands. That period will, in the judgment of your Directors, be the most appropriate for making among the Shareholders such a distribution of surplus profits as the increased wealth and stability of the Company may reasonably entitle them to claim.
27. Of their own labours during the past year your Directors will merely observe, that they have devoted themselves to a task which has proved by no means a light one, and has required on their part unremitting vigilance and attention. Since the commencement of the Company's business on the 2nd May last, there have been held 55 general Boards of Directors fully attended, and 76 Committees at which from three to six Directors were usually present. In addition to these duties, it has devolved upon your Directors to hold frequent conferences with the colonists and others, to inspect the emigrant ships, and to exercise the requisite superintendence over the whole business of the Company. The removal of your establishment to the present house in Broad Street Buildings, so well suited to the purposes of the Company, in respect both of accommodation and locality, will, it is hoped, meet your approbation.
28. In conclusion, your Directors have to state that they are about to renew emigration to the principal settlement, and entertain no doubt of being able to carry forward the operations of the Company, during the ensuing season, with vigour and effect. Numerous settlers are preparing for their departure, and in several parts of the country local associations are in the course of formation, having for their objects to purchase tracts of this Company's lands, and to effect settlements of persons emigrating from the particular districts where the associations are formed. The Plymouth Company of New Zealand is already in operation, in the west of England, and has met with that degree of public support, which from the high character of its Directors might naturally be anticipated. Your Directors cannot but regard the Plymouth Company as a valuable and important
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connexion, and are most anxious to promote the success of this and similar institutions. For they are satisfied that the more our principles and plans are known and diffused, the more favour they are likely to find in the discernment and good sense of the British public.
It only remains for your Directors to submit to your approval the deed of Settlement now presented, including the list of Directors proposed to be elected for the ensuing three years. The majority of the Directors now proposed are those to whom your affairs have hitherto been confided, and, should it be your pleasure to re-elect them, they offer you their assurance that they will continue to devote themselves with assiduity to the work you have enabled them to begin, and which, notwithstanding all obstacles, has hitherto proceeded under their management with such unexampled success.
London, May 14th, 1840.
