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Historical Records of New Zealand South

Petition From The City Of London

Petition From The City Of London.

Petition of the undersigned merchants, bankers and ship-owners of the City of London and others humbly showeth:

That the exclusive British possession of the group of islands commonly called New Zealand is an object of the deepest importance to her Majesty's colonists in Australia, whose great and rapidly increasing trade with each other and with the Mother Country would, in case of war, be at the mercy of a foreign Power established in their neighbourhood, and in the direct tract of Homeward bound vessels, and that the establishment of colonies by more than one Sovereign Power in a country not so large as Great Britain would, to judge from all experience, have a direct tendency to produce wars between the parent States by means of intercolonial jealousies and collisions. That the said islands comprise a territory nearly as large as Great Britain, rich in natural productions, blessed with the happiest climate, intersected by numerous rivers, abounding in convenient harbours, and thinly inhabited by a race of savage tribes, without any regular form of government, continually at war with each other, and, as your petitioners are informed, so destitute of nationality as to have no name in their language for the country that they inhabit. That the said islands (although the northern extremity of one of them page 39may have been seen at a distance by Abel Jansen Tasman in 1642) were, in fact, originally discovered by the illustrious British navigator, Captain Cook, who circumnavigated them in 1769, touched at numerous places, and, in pursuance of a commission from King George the Third, took formal possession of them in the name of the Crown by acts performed in each of the two principal islands. That in the year 1787, when the British Government determined to colonise the barbarous lands discovered by Captain Cook, a Royal Commission was granted to Captain Philip appointing him, in pursuance of the British Sovereignty in possession which Captain Cook had established, to be Captain-general and Governor-in-chief in and over the territory of New South Wales and its dependencies, which territory was described in the said commission as "extending from Cape York (latitude 11 degrees and 37 minutes) to the South Cape (latitude 43 degrees and 30 minutes), and inland to the west-ward as far as 135 degrees east longtitude, comprehending all the islands adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, within the latitudes of the above-named capes." That the islands of New Zealand form part of the territory described in the said commission in the same way as Norfolk Island and Van Dieman's Land, neither of which, any more than New Zealand, was specifically named in the said commission; and that this commission, founded on the previous acts of Captain Cook, which was published to the world, and immediately carried into effect, without impediment or question from any Sovereign Power, constitutes, as your petitioners believe, the sole and sufficient title of the British Crown, as against all foreign Powers, except the natives, to the territories of New South Wales, and to the dependencies thereof, such as New Zealand and Norfolk Island and Van Dieman's Land. That, in pursuance of such British Sovereignty in New Zealand, the Captain-general and Governor-in-chief of New South Wales and its dependencies did, as your petitioners are informed, on the 9th of November, 1814, by public proclamation and by regular commissions of dedimus potestatum, appoint certain persons, some of them being aboriginal natives of New Zealand, to be Justices of the Peace in and for those islands, as a dependency of his government, by name and that the said persons, as well as others subsequently appointed by similar commissions, acted on the commissions within New Zealand, by apprehending offenders against the law of England and sending them as prisoners for trial at the seat of such government in New South Wales. That, by means of the various acts whereby New Zealand had thus come to form part of the British dominions in the Southern Pacific, numbers of persons were encouraged to settle there, and more especially at the Bay of Islands, where missionary settlements were founded in the year 1814; and that, in consequence thereof, the means of administering the law of England by the appointment of natives and settlers as Justices of the Peace, according to the proclamation whereby those appointments were announced, "to protect the natives of New Zealand and the Bay of Islands in their just rights and privileges, as those of any other dependency of the territory of New South Wales," were soon found wholly inadequate to the maintenance of order, and that, while the property and lives of the settlers were insecure, the most atrocious crimes against the natives were committed by the masters of trading vessels and runaway sailors, or convicts who had escaped from New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, and these evils were found to arise chiefly from the character of the government of New Zealand, as a distinct dependency of the territory of New South Wales, and, of course, the great want of a sufficient authority on the spot. That, in order to put a stop to these evils, an attempt was made in 1835 to place New Zealand under a kind of National Government, by means of forming a confederation of chiefs residing at or near the Bay of Islands, to whom an officer of the British Crown (who had been appointed to reside there) presented a flag, intended to express New Zealand nationality; but that, in point of fact, this attempt to establish a National Government for New Zealand utterly failed, in consequence of the incapacity of the native chiefs to act either as a legislature or am executive, and that, page 40accordingly, the only means by which order has been in any degree maintained in New Zealand down to the time of the latest accounts has been the occasional visits of British ships of war, whose captains have administered a sort of rude justice in the name of the Crown by determining disputes among the settlers, and now and then inflicting punishment on offenders against the law of England. That, notwithstanding the absence of any regular government in New Zealand, the fine soil and climate of the islands, their valuable natural productions, and their admirable position as a centre of maritime trade, have attracted hither several thousands of her Majesty's subjects, including about 1200 persons who have emigrated directly from the United Kingdom during the past year in ten vessels, proceeding from the ports of London, Glasgow, and Plymouth, and that other bodies of persons are preparing to emigrate thither from the United Kingdom during the present year. That frequent and urgent applications have of late years been made to her Majesty's Executive Government, as well as by settlers in the islands and by bodies of British merchants, praying them to establish a proper authority in New Zealand for the protection and restraint both of British subjects and of the native races inhabiting the country, but that all such applications have hitherto been without effect. That, in consequence of the want of a regular authority in New Zealand, emigrants to that country have had no means of acquiring land for settlement except by effecting purchases from the barbarous natives of the country—a practice which is forbidden by every other civilised Government having relations with savages, and which is calculated not only to produce great uncertainty and endless litigation with respect to titles of land, but also to render impossible the adoption of any judicious system in the disposal of waste land by competent authority for the purposes of colonisation; and is also most injurious to the native inhabitants, by preventing any general and systematic reserves of land for their use, so that tribe after tribe is gradually deprived of its ordinary means of subsistence. That it appears by a Minute of her Majesty's Treasury, bearing date 19th July, 1839, that a sort of diplomatic agent has been appointed, with the title of Consul, who has been instructed to obtain cession of sovereignty from the native chiefs, in order that the territory ceded may become a part of the colony of New South Wales, but whose authority to treat appears to be confined to such territories as are possessed by British subjects. That, according to the principles hitherto recognised by colonising States, and which, as your petitioners believe, form a part of the established law of nations, Great Britain, as the discovering Power, has, from the year 1769 downwards, possessed the sole right of acquiring territory from the natives of New Zealand aa against all foreign Powers whatever, and therefore neither the presentation of the national flag to a small number of chiefs in one corner of one of the islands, nor the appointment of a consul, instructed to treat for cession of Sovereignty in any way resemble an abandonment or repudiation of the right of Great Britain to exercise dominion before all foreign Powers, but are to be regarded simply as acts which the Crown has performed for regulating the political relations which it alone is entitled to hold with the native chiefs. That shortly after the departure of the said Consul in her Majesty's ship Druid, and the publication of a portion of his instructions, together with the said Treasury Minute, the public mind in France became suddenly excited on the subject of the acts of the British Government, and the departure of the said colonists from Great Britain, and that the result of this excitement has been the formation of a company, with a capital of one million francs, for forming a settlement in New Zealand, and the despatch of an expedition from Rochfort, charged (in violation, as your petitioners consider, of the law of nations) to effect a settlement at Banks Peninsula, in the South Island; which expedition is reported to have had an armament of forty sailors from the French navy, the aid of money from the French Government, by whom the leaders of the expedition are said to have been instructed to report on the fitness of Banks Peninsula as a place of transportation for convicts, and, at all events, to reserve for the use of the French Government one-fifth of the territory which they page 41might acquire in this part of the British dominions. That, even if France really possessed any right of colonisation, your petitioners would deprecate, in the strongest terms, her proposed establishment of a penal colony, it being evidently impossible that convict discipline can be maintained in the immediate vicinity of native tribes and native settlements; and the escape of the convicts must therefore be anticipated, who, associated with British runaway convicts from Australia, would gradually demoralise the whole country, preclude the possibility of its becoming the resort of respectable British emigrants, and exterminate the native inhabitants by taking part in their wars and teaching them only the vices of civilisation. That the ship in which the said Consul proceeded to his destination has been ordered to leave him there and proceed to China, and the Consul will therefore be destitute of all means not only of repelling foreign aggressions, but of affording any degree of protection to the orderly and well-disposed of her Majesty's subjects; while, under the present circumstances, it appears not at all improbable that hostile collision may take place between settlers from this country and the settlers who have emigrated from France. That unless immediate steps be taken to establish the complete administration of British law in New Zealand, it is greatly to be feared that the large and respectable body of her Majesty's subjects who have recently proceeded thither will be placed in a state of anarchy, and subjected to great evils accordingly. That the state of anarchy in New Zealand, against which no sufficient provision has been made by her Majesty's Government, cannot but be deeply injurious to the helpless natives when placed in contact with settlers from Europe, unrestrained by any law or any other authority than that which they may establish for their own defence. That unless an immediate stop be put to the acquisition of land from the barbarous natives of New Zealand by private persons, the most serious injury will ensue as well to the natives as to settlers from this country, and that it is indispensable to the well-being of all classes of her Majesty's subjects there, and to the future prosperity of the country, that decisive steps should be promptly taken to remedy the evils that have already arisen from the said private acquisitions of land. That, although the said Consul is instructed to act as Lieutenant-governor of any territory of which the Sovereignty may be ceded to him, still that his authority to treat for such cessions is encumbered with restrictions which may deprive it of all or of any considerable effect, inasmuch as possession of the land by British subjects is made a condition precedent of any attempt on his part to obtain cession of Sovereignty rights; and, furthermore, that, according to the said Treasury Minute and Instructions, any territory of which the Sovereignty may perchance be ceded, is to form part of the colony of New South Wales, and to be ruled by the Governor and Council of that colony as a distinct dependency, whereby the numerous evils which have already arisen from the distance between New Zealand and the seat of government cannot be remedied, but will be perpetuated. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that your honourable House will be pleased to take the premises into your consideration, and by such measures as your wisdom may deem expedient, to preserve these valuable islands to her Majesty's dominion and establish throughout the same regular authority of British law, and a lawful system of colonisation under a distinct and sufficient colonial government. And your petitioners will ever pray, etc.