—No. 3.—

The Secretary of the Company to Earl Grey.

The Directors of the New Zealand Company have perused with attention the important letter which they have had the honor to receive from Mr. Hawes, dated the 10th instant, communicating by your Lordship's desire the arrangements into which Her Majesty's Government is willing to enter, for the purpose of enabling the Company, first, to resume and carry on its colonising operations during the ensuing three years; and, secondly, to decide, at the end of that period, as to the continuance or discontinuance of those operations, upon the terms stated.

It has been gratifying to the Directors to receive an intimation of your Lordship's readiness to admit that the Company has established a claim against Her Majesty's Government, and your acknowledgment of the importance of the objects to which it has devoted itself, and of the services which it has heretofore rendered; and they appreciate fully the reasons which induce your Lordship on public grounds to desire that, in lieu of regarding the losses of the Company as a mere matter of account between it and the Government, it shall itself be placed in a position in which it may at the same time both repair those losses and promote the future welfare of the Colony, by means of its own exertions.

Viewing the several arrangements now proposed, as one entire measure, and coupling therewith the sentiments which your Lordship has avowed on more than one public occasion, and the principles which are laid down with such clearness in your despatch of the 23rd of December last, on the all-important subject of Crown Lands, the Directors are willing to believe that these arrangements afford at length a fair prospect of success, notwithstanding the difficulties by which page 30 the later stages of their enterprise have been attended; and in this belief, they are prepared to take upon themselves the continued anxiety and exertion, by which alone, they are fully aware, the realisation of this prospect is yet to be ensured.

Avoiding, therefore, the discussion of all particular details, and subject to the requisite approval of the General Court of Proprietors, summoned for Friday next, the Court of Directors, I am instructed to state, accedes on behalf of the Company to the several proposals contained in Mr. Hawes' letter of the 10th instant, and in the Memorandum which is thereto annexed.