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Historical Records of New Zealand South

New Zealand Settlement Company Coincident

New Zealand Settlement Company Coincident.

In a communication dated Wellington, September 27. 1841, Colonel Wakefield, as principal agent for the company, addresses the following:—I take advantage of your Excellency's presence in this port at this time to represent to you the following circumstances. There are now lying at anchor here three vessels, the barques Whitby and Will Watch, and the brig Arrow, chartered by the New Zealand Company. They contain various stores and implements for the use of the surveyors, instructed to lay out a settlement for a body of colonists expected to leave England this month. The exact situation of the intended settlement is as yet unknown, and none of the passengers by these vessels have landed with the intention of remaining at this place. The Collector of Customs claims duties on the articles subject to them before the vessels can proceed to their destination, and otherwise requires the observance of all the forms known in recognised ports. Considering the nature of the enterprise on which the vessels are bound; that they only called for instructions and made a rendezvous at this place; and that the persons in charge of them had no knowledge when they left England that a Custom House was established here, I venture to solicit your Excellency to instruct the Collector of Customs to dispense with the regulations enforced, as regards vessels bringing passengers and cargoes to be disembarked here, and that no advantage should be taken of any informalities committed by the masters, who, in ignorance of the regulations now in force, have rendered themselves liable for duties on their ship's stores now remaining, and those expended on the vovage.

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Thereupon Edward Shortland, secretary to the Governor, replied, September 28, 1841:—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th instant, relative to certain vessels, now in the port of Wellington, being subject to Customs dues and regulations. In reply, I am directed to inform you that his Excellency has already given instructions to the sub-collector to permit vessels which arrive at Port Nicholson from Great Britain, in their passage to other settlements in New Zealand, to proceed on their voyage on payment of the necessary duties without their cargo being discharged at Wellington. But his Excellency does not consider it advisable to grant any further authority to depart from the general rules of the department before referring the matter to the Collector of Customs for the colony. In the meantime, his Excellency has directed the sub-collector, as far as the regulations under which he acts will allow, to avoid taking advantage of any informalities on the part of masters of vessels, which may have arisen from the causes referred to in your letter.