NEW ZEALAND. RETURN to an ADDRESS of the Honourable The House of Commons, "COPY of CORRESPONDENCE between Her Majesty's SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES and the NEW ZEALAND COMPANY, relative to the establishment of a PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT in the Islands of New Zealand." eet,} (signed) G. W. HOPE. Colonial-office, Downing-street, 5 June 1845. SCHEDULE. No. 1.-Copy of a Letter from Viscount Ingestre, M. P., to Lord Stanley, dated New - p. 1 No. 2.-Copy of a Letter from Lord Stanley to Lord Ingestre, M. P., dated Downingstreet, 23 May 1845 p. 8 No. 3-Copy of a Letter from Viscount Ingestre, M. P., to Lord Stanley, dated New P. 8 No. 4.-Copy of a Letter from Lord Stanley to Viscount Ingestre, M. P., dated Downingstreet, 29 May 1845 p. 9 No. 5.-Copy of a Letter from C. Buller, jun., Esq. M.P., to Lord Stanley, dated New P. 10 MAP of New Zealand, showing the extent of the proposed Proprietary Government p. 10 CORRESPONDENCE between Her Majesty's SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES and the NEW ZEALAND COMPANY, relative to the establishment of a PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT in the Islands of New Zealand. COPY of a LETTER from Viscount Ingestre, M. P., to Lord Stanley. My Lord, New Zealand House, 5 May 1845. IN consequence of a communication made to the Directors of the New Zealand Company by Mr. Charles Buller, they have appointed a committee of their body, "with full authority to conduct and conclude any arrangement which they may deem most expedient." On behalf of this committee I have the honour to inform your Lordship that Mr. Buller has laid before us copies of two letters, the last of which is dated the 26th April, addressed to your Lordship by him, and containing the outline of a plan for the settlement of the affairs of New Zealand. On full consideration of the plan contained in these letters, we are prepared to adopt its principles, as calculated to secure a satisfactory solution of present difficulties, to save the colony from great disasters, and to ensure its immediate and steady progress. We think that, on the principles proposed, the operations of forming the new Company and conducting its affairs might be honourably and usefully undertaken; and we should cheerfully recommend to the New Zealand Company to accept the conditions imposed on them by the plan. To bring such a measure, however, into practical shape would require considerable discussion of details, and probably no little co-operation with your Lordship, in determining the best mode of obviating such difficulties as may arise in the course of the discussion. To attempt to do this through the medium of written correspondence would be a very ineffectual and dilatory mode of proceeding; and I need hardly remind your Lordship that it is of the utmost importance to both the company and the settlers-that it is in truth essential to the success of any arrangements-that as little time as possible should be taken in coming to a decision in this matter. We have thought it best, therefore, to transmit the plan to your Lordship officially, pretty nearly in the same form as that in which it is given in Mr. Buller's second letter. And if it should be unobjectionable to your Lordship, we are inclined to leave the matter entirely in Mr. Buller's hands, in order that he may communicate with your Lordship on our part and that of the Company. I have, &c. (signed) Ingestre, Chairman. SUGGESTIONS for the consideration of Lord Stanley, submitted on behalf of the New Zealand Company. THE state of affairs in the colony of New Zealand is such as to require the adoption of very strenuous efforts for the purpose of saving the colony and all those who have embarked their fortunes in its colonization. The petition of the merchants of London is an indication of the very general sense that the public entertain of the value of New Zealand. Events, too, have occurred within the last three or four years, that have enhanced that value. The opening of our trade with China, and the proceedings of France and the United States, have rendered it important to us to have such a station in the Pacific as New Zealand can alone supply. Public opinion would justify a bold course under the altered circumstances, and it will hold none guiltless who shall carry on a controversy about the past, instead of agreeing to prevent the ruin of such a colony. NEW ZEALAND. No. 1. Viscount Ingestre, Stanley, 5 May M.P., to Lord 1845 NEW ZEALAND. It is vain to think of effecting that object by any half measures. All that has happened proves that there is some fundamental error in the system which has been pursued ; and no remedy that does not go deep enough to cure that, is worth trying. It seems to us that the two main evils in the system hitherto pursued towards New Zealand have been, first, the conflict between the missionary system and that of the New Zealand Company; and, secondly, the erroneous constitution of the Company. It is impossible to reconcile the missionary system with that of the Company. In every respect they go on opposite principles. The avowed object of the missionaries has been to prevent colonization, to preserve the nationality of the New Zealanders, to keep them apart from European contact, and to maintain their exclusive property in the whole soil of the islands. Our system, on the contrary, was to treat the soil as unappropriated wherever it was not in some way occupied, to vindicate to the Crown the ownership of all the unoccupied expanse, to encourage the settlement of European colonists, and to turn to account the peculiar facilities which the aboriginal race of New Zealand seem to possess for intermixture and amalgamation with the European population. These two systems are essentially antagonist. You cannot attempt to act upon both without vacillation or inconsistency, or so as to give either a fair chance. Neither ever has had a fair trial; both deserve one; both might have it in New Zealand, did you confine each to its own appropriate field. The conflict of these two systems has been aggravated in New Zealand by the vacillations in the policy of Government under different Ministers. The treaty of Waitangi went on what we have called the missionary principle. Lord John Russell adopted what may be called the colonizing principle, in his agreement and other proceedings with the Company. The second great fault in the system is the erroneous constitution of the Company. The Company in its incorporation acquired either too great or too little power. The Crown devolved on it the function of colonizing New Zealand; that is, of filling it with inhabitants. Now this, in a new colony, is the main function of Government. Everything else hinges on it. You must make every other consideration of policy (with reference at least to white people) subordinate to it; and you ought to delegate all the powers of Government to those to whom you turn over the business of colonization. This our ancestors perceived, when they gave those proprietary charters in which every English colony of the present United States had its origin. From the first, the London and Plymouth Companies, Lord Baltimore, Lord Delaware, Penn, and the proprietors of Carolina and Georgia, had the whole power of the Crown delegated to them. It is but fair to add, that it is the fault of the New Zealand Company itself that this system was not adopted in its own case. Lord Glenelg offered it a proprietary charter in 1838, which it rejected. It must be admitted, too, that the constitution of the New Zealand Company is not such as to fit it for proprietary privileges or the functions of government. For these purposes, it would have been necessary to constitute the Company on a much greater scale, with a far larger capital, far more numerous proprietary, and perhaps with some direct share given to the Government. Let us see whether it is possible to suggest any plan which shall avoid these two capital defects in the present system. It would not be wise to attempt any arrangement that would not substantially conciliate the interests and feelings of the principal parties concerned. Nor is it possible for the Crown to abandon its existing engagements, or take a course inconsistent with the leading principles of its past policy. The geographical circumstances of New Zealand present us with the means of satisfactorily reconciling the interests of the natives, the colonists, the missionaries, and the Company, and of putting matters on an entirely new and sound footing, without compromising the honour of the Government. The chief scene of the missionary labours has been the northern peninsula of the Northern Island. A great proportion of the native population is there. Auck land is there, with the tribes with which the Colonial Government has come in. contact. The chiefs whose independence we acknowledged are entirely included in that district; and there alone can the treaty of Waitangi have any legal force because there alone can it be asserted that the title of the Crown was founded on cession thereby. On |