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Chapter VI.

In the meantime other matters progressed not unfavourably, although slowly. In June, 1843, Captain Fitzroy left England to assume the Governorship of New Zealand vice Captain Hobson, whose death had occurred in the September previous. Prior to his departure he received full instructions from Lord Stanley to give every facility in procuring suitable lands for the New Edinburgh settlement. Mr. Rennie had also several friendly and satisfactory interviews with him on the subject. The Directors issued instructions in August, 1843, to Colonel Wakefield, their principal agent in New Zealand, to confer with Governor Fitzroy immediately upon his arrival, and to obtain from him the requisite permission to select a suitable site, and thereupon to commence the surveys. From additional information gained as to the eligibility of Port Cooper, that site was now commended to Colonel Wakefield's special examination in preference to the Kaikoura district, which had previously been spoken of in very favourable terms by the Company's surveyors. Two brothers, William and John Deans, squatting on what are now known as the Canterbury Plains, had written home to their father at Riccarton, Kilmarnock, describing in glowing terms the magnificent well-watered plains on which they had pitched their tent, and expressing the hope that any new settlement might be founded near them. The present well-known family of the Deans of Dean's Bush, Riccarton, near Christchurch, will here be recognised, and it was upon their recommendation that Port Cooper was thus specially suggested for Colonel Wakefield's selection. Under such hopeful circumstances closed the year 1843, and he must have been skilful indeed who at this time could have discerned a cloud in the bright sky.

Early in 1844 Mr. Rennie announced that about forty page 28heads of families, in all numbering over 200 people, had enrolled themselves to leave with the preliminary expedition, which was provisionally fixed to start in the coming spring. Apparently the sole thing wanting was intelligence from New Zealand stating the locality definitely selected by Colonel Wakefield for the emigrants. Alas! a grievous and bitter disappointment was at hand. The news of the dreadful Wairau massacre had but recently reached England, causing consternation amongst all, especially amongst those who were in any way interested in New Zealand affairs. But it was not from this source alone that the fresh blow to the enterprise came. So far as that was concerned the Company and Mr. Rennie endeavoured to allay any apprehensions by showing that the affray was local, unpremeditated, and had occurred hundreds of miles away from where it was presumed the new settlement would be placed. It arose in this way. Captain Fitzroy departed for his new sphere of duties as Governor of New Zealand, well versed, as he thought, with the terms of this favourable arrangement. On the very eve of his departure the apple of discord was thrown by somebody who was shrewdly suspected to dwell in the unfavourable atmosphere of the Colonial Office. This individual suggested to Captain Fitzroy doubts as to the meaning of very important parts of this agreement. Thereupon Captain Fitzroy wrote to Lord Stanley requesting an interpretation of the supposed ambiguous passages, which related to the validity of the land titles. The reply he received placed a very different interpretation upon these passages from that which the Company considered they bore—a construction, indeed, which placed the Company as far off as ever in procuring satisfactory land titles for its clamorous purchasers. But this was not the extent of the evil. Of this correspondence the Directors knew nothing until seven months after it had taken place, and then to their chagrin and dismay they found that the carefully-planned New Edinburgh bid fair to be dissolved like a baseless fabric.

Mr. Rennie was completing his arrangements in Scotland when the disastrous news reached him. The Directors requested that he would at once suspend all operations. He immediately repaired to London, there to find the Company's affairs in a disorganised state, the Directors again involved in warfare, and declining to incur any further responsibility in inducing persons to proceed to New Zealand. In this dilemma Mr. Rennie had again page 29recourse to Lord Stanley, whom he implored not to compel abandonment of a maturely-formed plan, which meant heavy loss to some and complete ruin to others. He instanced the case of the Rev. Mr. Burns, who had relinquished his living, and who, with his wife and five children, was waiting to embark; of farmers who had given up their leases, tradesmen their businesses, and others who had thrown up their situations without prospect of reinstating themselves. A long correspondence ensued, alternately encouraging and dispiriting; but the assistance offered by Lord Stanley proved of too limited a kind to be of any real service. Mr. Rennie persistently adhered to the main features of his scheme, and would consent to no variation which involved the loss of its character of a distinct Scotch settlement with special provisions. He sought to effect an arrangement whereby the Company might act merely as agents in carrying out some of Lord Stanley's suggestions, and as a skilled colonising body might improve and extend them without interfering with their spirit. But his lordship curtly declined any fresh transactions with the New Zealand Company; and Mr. Rennie, defeated, retired from the fight. One hope remained, and to that he firmly clung: that on his arrival in New Zealand Captain Fitzroy would do his utmost to redress those grievances under which the colonists groaned, and that despite the Delphic ambiguity of Lord Stanley's agreement—source of all disaster—he would interpret it straightforwardly and in accordance with the exigencies which surrounded him. As a matter of fact this was precisely the course Captain Fitzroy had pursued. He now in the beginning of May addressed a long letter to his friends and intending fellow colonists detailing his weary and fruitless negotiations, deploring the ineffectual result, and, whilst not urging them to wait, expressing his own intention of doing so.

But month after month passed, bringing none of the longed-for news from New Zealand; nor was it until nearly the end of the year 1844 that the patience of those that waited was rewarded by learning that not Port Cooper but a district called Otago or Otakou had been selected for the settlement. These months of stagnation were not devoid of incident. It seemed as though almost all interest in the subject had ceased. Captain Cargill contemplated leaving for India, and Mr. Burns could not decide whether to hope on or to take a charge in the Free Church. The New Zealand Company, ever fertile in page 30resource, having little now to lose and all to gain, determined to bring its immense parliamentary influence to bear in obtaining a committee to investigate its own and New Zealand affairs generally. The earliest history of this settlement is so bound up with that of the New Zealand Company, and the struggles of the latter with the British Government, that it is impossible to dissociate them. The report of the committee submitted to the House of Commons was, on the whole, favourable to the Company's claims. And now Mr. Rennie's star began to set. As nothing succeeds like success, so nothing is condemned like failure. The Directors professed to consider that in his recent negotiations with Lord Stanley Mr. Rennie had displayed towards them a want of loyalty—a readiness, had opportunity served, of severing his connection and escaping, as it were, from a sinking ship. Now, too, his former trespasses, like chickens, came home to roost. Again the Directors heard, and this time listened to, the stories of his unyielding temper, of his refusal to concede, of his want of touch in so many points with his two chief associates. No longer was he estimated to be a fitting leader. Perhaps the Directors began to see that, after all, their success lay in identification with the Free Church—that the special settlement must be still further specialised. And so Mr. Rennie was gradually deposed, and Captain Cargill reigned in his stead. In taking farewell of one who played so chief a part in this story, it must be admitted that by his ability and energy was laid the sure foundation stone of this settlement, and the force of circumstances of which he was the victim alone forbade him from adding to the superstructure. The promised land was all but spread before his view, but, like Moses, he might not enter it. He sought to carry out his views in no narrow spirit; unfortunately, instead of conciliating the prejudices of others, he trod upon them with a prejudice greater still.

Although Mr. Burns persistently refused all church preferment, though pressed by his friends to accept one of the many livings offered him, he yet engaged himself in various Free Church duties. He thus made the acquaintance, and then the warm friendship of Dr. Andrew Aldcorn, whilst the latter was visiting the different sustentation associations of the Monkton Presbytery. Dr. Aldcorn, whose profession was that of medicine, was of independent means, and had latterly at Dr. Chalmers' request devoted himself to departmental work in the Free page 31Church, of which he was an ardent supporter. He was a first-rate practical agriculturist, of keen enterprise, sound judgment, extensive information of the most varied kind, and one who afterwards proved himself to be an invaluable acquisition to the enterprise. He owned considerable property in that portion of New South Wales now known as Victoria, but at that time as Port Philip, and it was doubtless this fact which induced him to take a special interest in the proposed new settlement brought under his notice by Mr. Burns.

Recent disclosures have shown that the condition of the poorer class of Highlanders has in no way been ameliorated of late years. Fifty years ago, as now, theirs was an unhappy and deplorable lot. The wealthy landholders viewed them as an encumbrance upon their estates, and by converting the crofters' small holdings into parts of huge deer parks sought to relieve themselves of the apprehension of a heavy poor-rate. The extremity of these poor people afforded the opportunity of showing how their necessities might be relieved by judicious emigration. With characteristic humanity Dr. Aldcorn travelled amongst them, rendering every assistance and information in his power. Though little came of these and other efforts it was by them that the movement was preserved from utter stagnation, and that hope, though burning low, remained unextinguished.