AN ADDRESS TO THE NEW ZEALAND LAND-PROPRIETORS RESIDENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
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AN ADDRESS
TO
THE NEW ZEALAND LAND-PROPRIETORS
Resident in the United Kingdom, &c. &c. &c.
IN the following pages I propose to address you on some matters which I deem of extreme importance to your interests, as proprietors of land in New Zealand. For this purpose I find it convenient, if not necessary, to contemplate you as a distinct class; but in so doing, I consider you so only in reference to my present purpose. Viewed in relation to the general well-being of the colony, I cannot separate your interests from those of the resident colonists, for I can scarcely discover an evil with which they are or may be threatened, which, if it occur, will not speedily reach you; while on the other hand, any measure of good of which they may become the objects, will as certainly extend to you, so soon as sufficient time shall have elapsed for the transmission. All this will, I think, abundantly appear, as we proceed together through the subject of this paper.
There are perhaps few who have not at some time or other read the fable of the old man and the bundle of sticks. It tells us how an old man, finding himself at the point of death, called his three sons to his bedside, and producing a bundle of sticks, desired each in his turn to endeavour to break it. Each accordingly made the attempt, but without success. The dying and enfeebled father then took the bundle, and unfastening the cord by which it was held together, snapped
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each stick with apparent ease. Then turning to his sons, he said-- "Do you, my sons, imitate the bundle of sticks: united you will be able to resist the assaults of the world, and to accomplish objects for which your individual and divided power will prove entirely inadequate."
Now, the divided bundle is a type of your condition. In your present individual state you are necessarily passive under every change of circumstances affecting the well-being of the colony. You are liable to every evil that can arise, without being able either to help yourselves, or to take advantage of what is good. You are numerous, and yet you can hardly be called a body. You consist rather of a considerable number of isolated individuals, without the least approach to organization or union, scarcely knowing each other; neither endowed with a common mind, nor actuated by a common purpose. Many among you can effect all that individual ability, energy, and worth of character are capable of, but that which requires the united forces of two or more must be left undone, because no two of you are united. I have reviewed in my own mind the whole history of the colonization of the Company's settlements, from the sale of the allotments forming the first colony in 1839 till the present time; and although question after question has arisen, deeply affecting your interests as owners of land, you have never once, to my knowledge, met together to offer a united or collective opinion to the government, the company, or the colony, on the prevailing question of the moment. This must be remedied. You must, as a body, assume a position commensurate with your real importance. You have rights which should be respected and maintained-- rights which are liable to be injuriously affected by mere inadvertency; you have interests not inconsistent, and often in common with those of others, which cannot be promoted unless you have a collective voice to declare and urge them; and above all, you have duties to perform towards the colonists, without a due observance of which you can scarcely
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expect your rights to be regarded. so long indeed as you remain individually isolated and ununited, you are in a false position towards the colonists. They only know you as "absentee proprietors;" they will be prone to regard your interest as antagonist to theirs; whereas, had you been from the commencement in a state of organization, capable of speaking to them, and above all for them, with a voice powerful by reason of its very collectiveness, you would have been regarded as a constituent part of a system, which in fact you are, in common with themselves; and as you contributed largely in the first instance to the successful establishment of the colony, so the impression of the beneficial function you then performed, would have been continued and perpetuated by the part which such organization would have enabled you subsequently to take. As it is, however, you are unknown to the colonists except as "absentee proprietors," driving bargains with the colonists through your several agents, in your respective relations of landlord and tenant; --bargains which they deem hard, but which I believe are not so advantageous to yourselves as a better knowledge of the circumstances of the colony would enable you to make. Now union, that is organization, would place this knowledge at your disposal. Each individual member of the collective body would bring in his quota of information, while in return, every one would have access to the accumulated mass. If no other advantage than this were to arise from union, it would be alone a sufficient inducement to unite. Assume, if you please, that there can be no points affecting your interests to be urged upon the company; take for granted that the government, that is, the colonial minister, hath as keen a regard for your interest as he has for his own; believe also that public opinion cannot reach you; but do not commit the egregious error of supposing that you are nothing to the colonists, or they nothing to you:--you are, indeed, all and all to each other. You have every interest in showing them
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that you believe their interests and your own to be similar. This you can only do by promoting, and even originating measures of benefit to them, and by showing yourselves ever ready to step forward whenever the interests of the colony at large are, in your opinion, threatened or assailed. In this way you could make your existence advantageously known in the colony. We should hear no more complaints of "absentee proprietors," but the colonists would gradually regard you as the enlightened advocates of their interests with your own, and would repose in you that confidence which ought to prevail between you. This, I repeat, cannot take place without a species of voluntary incorporation. Good, you may individually do. Many of you are no doubt proudly conscious of so doing. I know, and I will add, the colonists themselves know of many pieces of service performed by individual proprietors; but they regard them as the services of the individual, and the fact of his being an "absentee proprietor" is forgotten. Now, if all the services which individual proprietors have performed--and performed too because they were proprietors--had been known to emanate from the body, they would have given a tone and character to the body, which would have placed you, collectively and individually, on a better, and I will add, a more just footing towards the colonists, than you at present occupy. I shall not close this address without pointing out how this ought to be done; in the meantime, let me review some of the occasions on which you ought to have assumed an independent position, and should have met together, deliberated, and not merely expressed an opinion of the questions affecting your interests and those of the colonists, but have set in motion all your influence to attain good or prevent evil, as the case might be.
The first occasion which occurs to my memory on which a mere expression of your united opinion would have been serviceable to the colonists, to the company, and to yourselves,
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was when the question of title was in abeyance. I well remember the alarm which many of you felt, and I admit it was not without foundation, when there was some ground to apprehend that the hostility with which the proceedings of the company and the colonists were viewed by the government might induce them to refuse to confirm the title of the company to their lands. No doubt the principles of international law were in your favour. The government had been placed in the wrong by a "memorandum," 1 as it was called, issued by the colonial office, denying the sovereignty of the crown. This really opened the lands of the natives to any purchaser, and assured the company and the colonists that when the sovereignty of the islands should be assumed by or conceded to the crown, it could not be considered retrospective, without a degree of injustice which no minister of the crown would willingly perpetrate. Every one except perhaps its author saw the complete dilemma in which the government were placed by this ill-judged "memorandum;" and it is not impossible that the difficulty in the path of government may have operated as a facility to the company in their subsequent proceedings. While the company were labouring diligently to obtain from the government a recognition of their title to the lands they had purchased, or to a portion thereof sufficient for their purpose, the colonists were as actively at work within their appropriate sphere of action. They organized themselves into committees, --they memoralized Sir George Gipps, --and they sent a deputation to Sydney, consisting of Dr. Evans, by whose indomitable perseverance the question of the colonization of New Zealand had been kept alive when others deemed it hopeless; Mr. Hanson, who had been actively connected with colonization for a dozen years, and knew its principles and practice, and Mr. Moreing, a gentleman who enjoys the confidence of his fellow colonists, to enforce and urge upon the go-
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vernor an immediate recognition of their titles. And why was not your voice heard on that occasion so vitally important to your interests? Because you were not in a condition to act together even in your own defence; so that what some attributed to an unaccountable blindness and apathy to your own interests, really arose from the accident of your not having adopted that preliminary step without which unity of action is out of the question.
I have often heard complaints of the "negligence of agents" in the colony, but these complaints are not less strong than those which have reached this country of the restrictions which have been placed on the power of leasing given to agents. We have evidence, no doubt, that many persons who have undertaken the business of agents have neglected their duties, and perhaps in some cases abused their authority; but it is equally true that there are others who have conscientiously fulfilled their duties, and who still enjoy the confidence of their principles. Many proprietors, it is equally clear, have imposed very absurd conditions as to the terms on which they will permit their agents to let their lands. Some, for instance, will only let on building leases for seven years!--others would fain exact a high rent at once. Now, these absurdities deprive their agents of the power of letting at all. We can hardly conceive that any man who intended to fulfil his contract would take a lease for seven years with a covenant to clear, fence, and build; but in time, no doubt, these mistakes will be found out and remedied. There are no doubt many landowners who have given their agents more liberal instructions, both as regards town and country lands. Some have directed their agents to grant beneficial leases free of rent for the first three years, and increasing gradually afterwards. Others are willing to grant leases for twenty-one years, with an option to the lessee to purchase during the continuance, or after the expiration of the term. These more liberal proprietors will reap a much higher profit in the end than those who are disposed to drive a closer
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bargain in the beginning. Touching both these classes of complaints we may reasonably infer that there are "faults on both sides." What so likely to correct these faults as the organization I propose? Your committee would take official cognizance of all such complaints. The faithful as well as the unfaithful stewards would be alike known to every member of your body; punishment of the proper kind, namely, a loss of business would fall upon the latter, whilst the former would receive the reward of their integrity by a transfer to them of the business which the negligent had forfeited. Again, statements of the several modes of letting land, and of all the conditions imposed, would speedily find their way to the archives or records of the united body or association; those who suffered by their own errors would soon begin to correct them, and a custom would speedily grow up as well ascertained as what is called " good husbandry" in some of our agricultural counties. Nothing then is so likely to correct these faults on both sides as union and organization on your parts. Keep in your present divided isolated state, and you are a rope of sand: unite, and you at once assume that importance which intrinsically, though in a latent state, you in fact possess.
I will not further dwell upon past questions in the discussion, furtherance, or opposition of which your own interests should have induced you to take part, and would, perhaps, had you been in a condition to do so; but will at once come to the present, in which you are quite in time to interfere, reminding you at the same time that your interference will be of little avail except as a united body.
You must be well aware that a gentleman of the name of Rennie has proposed to the New Zealand Company the immediate establishment of a fourth settlement on a plan differing considerably from those of the settlements hitherto formed. Now, I am one of those who believe, and I have over and over again stated my opinion, that New Zealand,
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from its physical character, can only be successfully peopled by the establishment of successive settlements, or colonies as they have been somewhat improperly called. I think, moreover, that every wisely constituted and well placed settlement cannot injure those which already exist, but must add to their prosperity and wealth. Whether Mr. Rennie's plan is in every respect such as the company should adopt, is a question for discussion, in which you, of all other classes should take part. Mr. Rennie's plan, undoubtedly, exhibits some obvious improvements upon former plans, but it has been found fault with on two grounds: first, that the price proposed would be unjust to the other settlements; and, second, that the establishment of a settlement at all at this moment is premature. The first objection appears to me unanswerable. It is proposed to form a settlement which shall be more attractive than anyone hitherto planted, and yet the purchasers are to have the land at a lower price than the lands of New Plymouth and Nelson have been sold for, and than is still demanded for the unsold portions of those settlements. This carries with it prima facie the impress of injustice; it is fortunately a point left entirely open by the company, and there cannot be a doubt that an expression of your opinion on a question so closely affecting your interests would have great weight with the court. The question of time does not present so insuperable an objection. It is a fault which is daily wearing out; but no lapse of time could cure the evil which would be inflicted on the present holders of land, should the company determine to sell "a better article at a lower price;" at all events this, like the first, is a fair question for an expression of your opinion. Indeed, Mr. Rennie's whole plan, good as it undoubtedly is in many of its features, embraces several disputable points, all of them, more or less affecting your interest as holders of land in the other settlements. But, again and again must I remind you that you are not in a condition to express an
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opinion, until you reduce yourselves to a state of organization under some such arrangement as I shall presently propose. This I earnestly entreat you to lose no time in doing, the subjects demanding your vigilant attention will henceforward continually increase in number, and your duty to yourselves, no less than to the colonists, demands that your existence should at length be known.
Supposing you were in the state of voluntary incorporation, which I contemplate, it would be quite within your province to hear Mr. Rennie in support of his plan. This would be a measure of fairness to him, and of advantage to you. Generally speaking, the propounder of a scheme best knows its good points, though he be blind to its defects; whilst you would learn his views, so far as he might be disposed to disclose them, you would impart to him your objections. Some, perhaps, he might be able to answer; and if he be wise, he would, under the influence of such fair and candid intercommunication, modify his plan so as to disarm reasonable opposition. By this course, no one will be able to accuse you of having come to a resolution without the most cautious deliberation. Your decision may be wrong, for all men are liable to error, but you will have adopted every precaution to lead you to a right decision; and you will, at all events, have the inestimable satisfaction of having performed your duty to your fellow proprietors in the colony, as well as to yourselves. 2
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But the subject above all others, in which your interests are most deeply involved, is that of an adequate supply of capital in proportion to the land disposed of, and the labour transmitted to the colony. The tendency of the principle of colonization upon which the New Zealand Company have proceeded, is undoubtedly to promote a due proportion between land, capital, and labour. By guaranteeing a due supply of labour, capitalists are gradually attracted to the colony; and after a time, there will perhaps be neither deficiency or excess either of the one or the other. But in the early progress of a colony, circumstances may occur to disturb the due proportion. The motions of the streams of capital and labour respectively, are not coincident, in point of time. To fulfil the condition of attractiveness, this supply of labour must not be merely guaranteed, it must be provided; and when so provided, it may be some time before the capitalist obeys the impulse. The capitalist is not impelled to emigrate by that stern necessity which drives the labourer from his country and his friends: he therefore waits until the advantages of emigration become very conspicuous. Moreover, when these advantages become sufficiently apparent, it is only the smaller capitalist who ventures to move. I have also pointed out in my letter to Mr. John Abel Smith, that nearly all the capital which does find its way into the colony (and it is considerable), has a tendency to assume such a form as to create a necessity for a further supply of capital in another shape, to render it productive, and to enable it to fulfil the distinctive function of capital--the employment of labour.
All this while the opinion of the public may be decidedly in favour of the colony. There exists great, and I may
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add, well-grounded confidence, in the adequacy of the principles to promote its success; and this confidence is increased by the accounts of substantial prosperity which are continually received. Now, considered in reference to the due proportion between land, capital, and labour, this state of opinion, aided by a general state of commercial confidence and credit, may render a colony too attractive. That is, it may render the possession of land desirable to a large class of persons who have no intention of emigrating and who do not contemplate employing capital there through an agent. Your motive in purchasing land was to make money by the certain advance on its value which must take place as the colony makes progress. Some of you treated it as an article of merchandize to sell again; whilst others among you intend to hold it as a profitable investment, yielding in the shape of rent, an annual profit which can be made in no Other way. Now what is the effect of your purchases, considered in relation to the due proportion between land, capital, and labour? It is to interfere with that proportion-- it is to supply a fund for the transmission of labour without the means of employing it. The actual settler, who purchases land has, generally, some small means of clearing and cultivating it. The purchaser of 100 acres may not be able to cultivate all, but he can generally cultivate a portion; thereby giving employment to the labour he provides. But few settlers would be improvident enough to expend all their capital in land; but as regards the colony, you may be said to have been guilty of that improvidence. All the capital which you have set apart for investment there, you have expended in land. For every £100. so expended, you have sent four persons, or two labourers, to the colony, and very few of you have sent capital there in a shape to give employment to labour.
If there had been no countervailing circumstances, such as a considerable transmission of capital in other ways, and especially from Sydney, the evil would have been conspicuous.
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Your lands and your labour would have been in excess. The only effective portion of the colony would have been the lands for which capital has been provided, and we should have had "agricultural distress," and "commercial distress," as conspicuous as in this country. But the fact that wages have kept up, is a proof that some part of the evil which your Operations have a tendency to create, have been otherwise remedied. The capital from New South Wales is estimated at upwards of £200,000, divided between all the settlements in New Zealand; many of the capitalists who have gone out, have an amount of capital greater than the due proportion to the land they hold. The commerce of New Zealand, besides being carried on by persons possessed of more or less capital, is probably always indebted to the English merchants to a considerable amount, and there is some, though not an adequate amount, of banking capital employed in the company's settlements. All these resources of capital have contributed to make up the deficiency created by your purchases; but I must impress upon you, that although, taking all circumstances together, there is no positive evil, yet there is a considerable drawback from the good; that is, all the above resources, supposing you had supplied capital in proportion to the land and labour, would have gone to augment the prosperity of the colony; whereas at present their function is rather to prevent disaster. Still let me impress upon you, that the tendency of your operations is to limit the quantity of capital in proportion to the supply of land and labour. It may be that there are other sources whence the deficiency is supplied, but this does not change the character of your operations; hence it should be your especial care to promote a sound plan for introducing floating capital into the colony. I do not suggest this as a measure of pure and unrequited benevolence towards the colony, but rather as the best mode of promoting your own interests. It is capital and labour united which create a demand for land. If there be a deficiency of capital so as
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to produce an excess of labour, there must be an excess or land also. Some of the land in your hands might as well be still in the hands of the company--nay, better, far better, for in your hands it has supplied labour to the colony without capital, and therefore has tended to produce the phenomena of our own country, an evil state, which it is the especial business of colonization to remedy.
So long as this excess of land continues, you must be disappointed in your expections of an advance in the price or rent of land. If capital had been transmitted to the colony in proportion to every acre of land sold, and every labourer sent to the colony, you would have been gladdened by a much more marked and rapid advance than has taken place; but so long as you neglect to supply capital, or as capital is not in some way or other supplied, you may consider your possessions as the excess of land, which perpetually tends to prevent any general advance of prices. I am not here to enquire whether this does not carry some advantages with it. Combined with the establishment of several settlements, within a few years, it has checked undue speculation, and discouraged land jobbing; but as far as regards your interests, it is decidedly injurious; and, therefore, I say, you, above all Other classes, have a powerful inducement to provide a remedy, or to give your best aid to any which may be provided by Others.
You are as well aware as I am, that the aid which the colonists require, is a fund to furnish loans on the security of real property, for periods of greater length than is consistent with a sound system of banking. In my letter to Mr. John Abel Smith, I have endeavoured, and I hope successfully, to show, that New Zealand affords an eligible field for the employment of capital in the manner contemplated; and several methods have, at different times, been under consideration, for effecting the object. It has, for instance, been suggested--
1. That the New Zealand Company should avail themselves
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of a provision in their charter, which enables them to borrow money here, and to lend it in the colony; and should themselves undertake the business.
2. That a separate company be formed for the purpose.
3. That the Australian Trust Company should be invited to extend its operations to New Zealand, as the Union Bank of Australia has done.
It would be quite out of place here to discuss the relative merits of these several plans. There is every reason to believe, that one of them will be adopted; and whichever it may be, even supposing it should be the worst in your estimation, (though there is reason to believe it will be the best) it ought to obtain your warm support.
Unlike the other questions to which I have alluded in this address, there is not one of you who may not singly, and without the contemplated organization, do great service to the colony, and to the owners of land, including yourselves, by promoting the object in question. There are two modes of contribution which will be open to you: 1. You may respectively take a share or shares in the undertaking; or 2, In any one of the three cases, you may become lenders to the company.
Should you become shareholders in the undertaking, you will have the advantage of such dividend as the high rate of interest, which prevails in the colony, may warrant. For permanent investment, this may appear to you preferable than the alternative of becoming lenders; but the latter course has its advantages, though the interest is confined to five per cent. You can incur no risk, and you receive in exchange for your money a negotiable instrument, which you can convert into money at an hour's notice, should you desire so to do. The negotiable notes of the Australian Trust Company (and whatever course may be adopted, this part of the plan will be retained), are calculated to perform all the functions of Exchequer bills. They bear interest at five per cent., and in order to facilitate their negotiability, the voucher for
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the interest is in the form of a coupon, which the holder can cut off at the end of each quarter. Now, supposing the holder of these negotiable notes to require money at any time, there is scarcely a money-broker or banker in the city who would hesitate to take, or advance upon them. Indeed, from their highly negotiable character, they will be voluntarily chosen as a convenient security in which to invest money for temporary purposes. Thus any one having a few hundred pounds, for which he has no immediate use, may safely invest the same in the loan-notes in question; secure, that in case of need, he can raise money upon them, through his own, or indeed through any bankers to whom his name is known.
Supposing that, with your aid, a fund is provided for the colony, it is impossible not to perceive that you will be especially benefited thereby. Those who have commenced cultivation, will be disposed to extend their operations; whilst those who on account of their limited capital, have feared to embark in agriculture, will at once begin to clear and cultivate. Thus the lands in the hands of actual settlers, will be speedily occupied, and a demand will grow up for your lands, which, for the most part, may now be considered in excess, but which will be so no longer.
Although, as I have stated, you may individually contribute to this object, it must be obvious that you will be much more able to afford effectual support thereto as a united body. What any one among you may do individually, affords no example to the rest, and will not be considered to be done by you in your capacity of absentee proprietors; but if a formal resolution be passed, expressive of your approval of the object, and of your determination to support it, every individual contribution, made in pursuance of the resolution, will afford an example to all others among you; and it will become a point of honour, either to take a share, or to subscribe to the fund by way of loan.
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Besides these important questions and measures, in which, in your united capacity, you will be in a condition to take a conspicuous and useful part, there are many subjects of minor importance upon which your committee may advantageously employ themselves. It frequently happens that there are measures of benefit to recommend to the company, which can be urged with but moderate force by an individual, but for which a resolution emanating from you would secure immediate notice. It is true that such measures would go before the court, as emanating from, or approved by, a particular interest; but that interest is one of which the court is disposed to recognize the importance; and, as in most cases, it will be found to coincide with other interests, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that beneficial measures will often be carried by the addition of your weight. As a particular interest, you will, no doubt, be sometimes watched with suspicion. All particular interests ought to be so. But as you will, I have no doubt, always act with candour and honour, you will shortly disarm that suspicion, and come to be regarded, not merely as the best guardians of the interests of the colony at large, but as an enlightened ally of all associations connected with the Australian colonies; all of whose interests are linked together, and all must, consequently, indirectly benefit by that which is intended for the advantage of one alone. This action upon the New Zealand Company is one which cannot be called into play without the organization I propose; and it seems to me to be alone a sufficient reason for the course recommended.
Take another body, upon which, collectively, you may exercise considerable influence; but upon which, as individuals, you can exert more: namely the two Houses of Parliament. You have among you members of both houses, who, if they were now to address either house, would be liable to the suspicion of obtruding their private affairs thereupon. Charged with a petition from you, they would as-
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sume an entirely different character. Can you think of no subject which might not advantageously have been urged upon the notice of parliament by you, or if so urged by others, would not have been aided by your sanction and support? Lord Eliot's proceedings in July, 1840, were of this character. He took up the subject of the petition of the merchants and bankers of London, and ably and faithfully did he fulfil the duty he imposed upon himself. To him we are to a considerable extent indebted for the justice which was ultimately done to New Zealand. Would not his exertions have been aided and supported by a petition from you? I am not blaming you for not having petitioned, because it seems to me you have never once thought of uniting for a common purpose. Not one of you seems to have known that he had a neighbour in the same position as himself, so that the first step towards union was never dreamed of. But that objection is at an end, and a mere modicum of trouble and activity on the part of three or four of your body can bring the whole into a state of union in a few weeks.
Again, there are many subjects which should be brought before the notice of the house, which your parliamentary members would not hesitate to do if backed by a resolution of yours, even without the formality of a petition. The estimates of the public income and expenditure are of this character. The colonists have been extremely desirous that these accounts should be laid before the house, because they believe that Captain Hobson's extravagance is calculated to produce prodigious mischief. The people of Auckland, in particular, are loud in their complaints, because they foresee that their emigration fund will be utterly sacrificed. Indeed, although the land and emigration commissioners have authority to send out emigrants, and to announce to the public that they have a fund for the purpose, the great and unnecessary deficiency of revenue, as compared with expenditure, must soon bring emigration to Auckland to a close. Captain
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Hobson owes a debt to Sydney of about £40,000.; his first year's estimated expenditure was £50,000, and the second is nearly £60,000, whilst his actual revenue is not one half of this. Where is the balance to come from? Will Lord Stanley permit emigration to go on, and ask parliament for an annual vote to meet the governor's extravagance? I hardly think he will venture to do so. You may think that this is not a point for your interference, because the company's emigration fund is secured from violation. But you have a strong interest in an economical public expenditure; and even had you not, it would afford you an admirable opportunity of showing that, although we think Auckland an inconvenient site for the seat of government, remote as it is from the seat of population, yet you have no wish that the people of Auckland should suffer evil, and are, at all times, ready to exert yourselves to prevent it. The financial accounts of Captain Hobson's government should have been laid before parliament long since, 3 but for a long time there was no one to ask for them. The members of parliament connected with the New Zealand Company, may be presumed to have felt some delicacy on the subject, and an individual member of your body would have been open to the suspicion I have pointed out. Clothed with your authority, he would have asked for the accounts, as the representative of your interests; and, when produced, they would have spoken for themselves.
I could enumerate a vast number of cases, in which "absentee proprietors" have conferred benefits on the colony in numerous ways. For these benefits, credit is given to them individually, nothing being placed to the credit of the absentee account. The aggregate of little benefits is very
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considerable; and if the authors had been known to be associated, as I propose, they would still have enjoyed the honour and credit due to their exertions, but there would have been an emanation thereof to the society to which they belong. The very phrase, "absentee proprietors," would be arrested on the colonist's lips by the good some members of the body had done; and mutual confidence would grow up between yourselves and the colonists, not only of New Zealand, but of the whole Australasian group.
Another great use to be. made of an association of the kind is, the collecting and recording of information valuable to yourselves, in your character of landowners. The New Zealand Company have, no doubt, much information as to the condition and prospects of the colony, but they have but little of the precise kind which you require; and if they had, it might affect persons and interests, in a manner to render it improper that it should be communicated to you. Each member of your body would, on receipt of information of a character likely to be useful to you, communicate it to your committee, considering it, as it were, the purchase-money in consideration whereof similar information would be placed at his disposal by other members. In this way, a knowledge of the several settlements would be placed at the disposal of every member, more extensive and accurate than even the best informed now possess. This, again, is almost of itself a sufficient reason for uniting.
Now as to the means. As a first step, every proprietor of land resident in or near London, should be collected together for the purpose of forming an association to watch over the interests of the whole body. When they are thus brought together, the object of the meeting should be explained to them, and they should be invited to name a committee of seven or more of their own body, to draw up rules, to be
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submitted to a subsequent meeting. When these rules shall have been agreed to, a permanent chairman and committee should be elected, to serve for one year.
For the purpose of promoting the business of the association, a very small subscription would be sufficient. A sovereign per annum would certainly be adequate; and it is probable that even half-a-sovereign would be sufficient. Perhaps it would be well to subscribe a sovereign the first year, reducing it to half that amount the second year.
One important element of success is the appointment of a paid secretary, to record, keep, and arrange, all the information you obtain, to keep the minutes of all meetings, and otherwise to exert himself to further the objects of the association. He should be capable of using his pen, as the drawing up of petitions and memorials, the framing of resolutions, and the writing of the reports of the committee to the general body, would be a necessary portion of his duty. He should be well acquainted with the principles of colonization; and if not already acquainted with the history of the colonization of New Zealand, he should make himself familiar therewith. In a word, he should be possessed of qualifications, and above all, of zeal, to enable him to sustain the spirit of such an association; and should not be a mere automatic clerk or servant. There will be some care necessary in the selection of the secretary, but not to an extent to deserve the name of difficulty. There are many young men of intelligence and zeal already connected with colonization, who would be glad of a moderate addition to their income, in return for the moderate amount of labour which would be required; for as it would only be a portion of the secretary's whole time that could possibly be required, a person having other occupations must necessarily be chosen, so that a moderate stipend would be sufficient.
As to the meetings of the committee, they should be weekly. A small number, say three, should form a quorum,
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and the committee might arrange among themselves in what manner to divide attendance among them. Once a month there should be a full committee; and twice a year there should be a general meeting of the association, to review the report of the committee.
There should be a further understanding, that should any circumstance arise on which the committee should deem it necessary to take the sense of the whole body, they should have the power of calling a special meeting of the association; and a similar power might be given to a certain number of members, by a requisition in writing, addressed to the committee. For all ordinary purposes, the committee should, of course, be declared competent to act.
The committee should, as soon as possible after the formation of the association, put itself in communication with the New Zealand Company, and other public bodies connected with New Zealand. It should also open a communication with such societies as the Horticultural Society of Wellington, the Mechanics' Institutions, and with any other similar associations which may be formed, capable either of affording the association information of the state and prospects of the colony, or through the instrumentality of which you may establish relations of mutual confidence with the colonists. With these societies, and even with individuals of character and influence, your secretary should open a correspondence; indeed, it should be deemed the most important function of your committee to give and receive information; so that, in the course of time, your records would contain the best, most complete, and accurate body of information respecting the state and prospects of the colony to be met with in this country.
The advantage of such an organization as I now propose, would be immediately seen and taken advantage of by the colonists. It would at once impress them with the conviction that you are really desirous of contributing to the prosperity
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of the colony by every means within your reach; and I think it not improbable that the colonists, not trusting to the existing societies, which have really objects of their own to attend to, will organize a committee of correspondence, for the express purpose of communicating with your committee on all matters within the scope of your plan. This I think will be done in every one of the Company's settlements. In this way the colonists will soon come to regard you as their recognized representatives. The local committees will be the depositories of public opinion within their respective jurisdictions, and you will be the representatives of the aggregate public opinion of the colony. To you the colonists will appeal, whenever questions arise which they are desirous of bringing before the company, the legislature, or the public. With a press which has always been recognized as the especial organ of the colonists, at your service, your present feebleness will be converted into strength; for not only will the sticks in the fable be firmly united, but your association will derive increased importance from the representative character which it will acquire.
I trust I have now said enough to induce you at once to unite together in the manner I suggest. The trouble to each of you individually will be extremely small; the expence next to nothing; --among you there are many energetic men zealous for the welfare of the colony, who will gladly undertake the office of committee-men; and the advantages to be derived from such association are too conspicuous to he doubted or disputed. The balance on the side of good is, indeed, overwhelming.
I am.
GENTLEMEN,
Your obedient Servant,
H. S. CHAPMAN.
Farrar's Buildings, Temple,
29th September, 1842.
