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A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island, Volume One.

No. 1. — Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Durham

page 9

No. 1.
Lord Glenelg to the Earl of Durham.

Downing Street, 29th December, 1837.

Dear Lord Durham,—

I have the pleasure to send you, agreeably to my promise, a summary of the principal topics on which I touched in our interview, on Wednesday, the 20th instant, on the subject of the colonization of New Zealand.

1.The intelligence which Her Majesty's Government has received, from the most recent and authentic sources, justifies the conclusion that it is an indispensable duty, in reference both to the Natives and to British interests, to interpose by some effective authority to put a stop to the evils and dangers to which all those interests are exposed, in consequence of the manner in which the intercourse of foreigners with those Islands is now carried on.
2.The proposal made by the late Parliamentary Committee on Aborigines appears inadequate to meet the existing evil; and the repression of practices of the most injurious tendency to the Natives of New Zealand can, as it would seem, be accomplished only by the establishment of some settled form of government within that territory, and in the neighbourhood of places resorted to by British settlers.
3.In yielding to this conviction, Her Majesty's Government is fully aware of the danger with which European settlements amongst uncivilized men must always be attended to the weaker party. They would feel it their duty to oppose any scheme, however inviting in other respects, which might involve the probability of a repetition in another quarter of the globe of the calamities by which the aborigines of American and African colonies have been afflicted. Rather than incur such a danger, Her Majesty's Government would leave the social improvement of New Zealand to be worked out by the gradual influence of Christian missions; but experience has shown that it is impossible to take that line in this case. Colonization to no small extent is effected in these Islands; the only question, therefore, is between a colonization, desultory, without law, and fatal to the Natives, and a colonization organized and salutary.
4.Her Majesty's Government are therefore disposed to entertain the proposal of establishing such a Colony.
5.They object, however, to the establishment of it by Act of Parliament, a mode of proceeding unusual and unnecessary. They are willing to consent to the incorporation, by a Royal Charter, of various persons, to whom the settlement and government of the projected Colony, for some short term of years, would be confided. The charter would be framed with reference to the precedents of the Colonies established in North America by Great Britain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Assuming the mode of proceeding by charter to be agreed to, the whole question will turn on the provisions of that instrument; and here it is proper to state some provisions or conditions to which the Government attach especial value and importance.

6.The Government would reserve to themselves a veto as to the persons of whom the governing body of the Corporation would, in the first instance, be composed, and the right of nominating a certain number, if they should think it expedient.
7.The Government should have a veto on the nomination by the corporate body of the governor, judges, ecclesiastical officers, and all other functionaries in whose hands may be placed any considerable trust or authority.
8.The Queen should have the right of disallowing all laws enacted for the government of the Colony.
9.To the corporate body or their officers would be confided, during the continuance of the charter, the whole administration, legislative, judicial, military, and financial, of the affairs of the settlement.
10.As a check upon the exercise of these large powers, arrangements should be made for giving the utmost publicity to the proceedings of the Corporation, not merely by periodical reports to the Government and to Parliament, but by the necessity of holding quarterly courts or other proceedings of that nature, in the most public manner, in the presence of all persons in this country interested in the affairs of the settlement, for the discussion of all subjects affecting its progress and welfare.
11.It would be required that the proposed Colony should be limited in extent, and that it should not be co-extensive with the whole of the New Zealand Islands. Her Majesty's Government would also reserve to themselves the right of advising the Crown to grant a similar charter of incorporation of any other body, provided only that the limits of the jurisdiction of any such Company shall not interfere with those of another, and that the same restrictions shall be imposed on each as to the price at which land shall be disposed of, and as to any other important particulars.
12.The settlement of the Colony must be effected, if at all, with the free consent of the existing inhabitants or of their chiefs.page 10
13.Her Majesty's Government would stipulate for the nomination of officers, with whose concurrence alone contracts with the Natives for land for the proposed Colony should be made; no such contract to be valid unless sanctioned by the Crown, and the Crown shall be at liberty, within a limited period, to disallow such contract if necessary. Until the express sanction of tho Crown had been obtained, or the period of such disallowance had expired, it would not be permitted to the Company to enter into such agreements with individuals for the sale to them of any part of the land comprised in any such contract, except with distinct notice that the contract was liable to be disallowed.
14.Of that part of the proceeds of the sale of land which is to be expended on local improvements, a fixed proportion would be appropriated to the erection and maintenance of places of Divine worship and school-houses, for the support of the ministers of religion and schoolmasters—the aborigines to be secured the most ample participation in the benefits of this provision for religious and scholastic instruction.
15.The same fund would be subject to a charge for the maintenance of an adequate number of officers, to be appointed by Her Majesty, for the protection of the aborigines; and to those officers every power necessary for the effective discharge of their duties would be confided.
16.The general principle as to the sale of lands, at a fixed upset price, by public auction, with the prohibition of all gratuitous grants, would be introduced into the charter.
17.It may be necessary to stipulate for the protection of rights already lawfully acquired in New Zealand by British subjects, and for securing to the missionaries, who have established themselves there, the freest exercise of their functions in imparting religious instruction to the Natives.
18.The Company would be required, before entering upon the transaction of business, to provide themselves with a certain subscribed capital, of which some definite portion should be paid up before any authority is exercised by virtue of the charter.

I have thus indicated, in general terms, the outlines of those provisions which the Government think essential to the plan; they are not worded, perhaps, with precise accuracy, but they are sufficiently intelligible. Other points may probably occur to us in the course of our communications.

I must beg to be understood as not entering into any positive engagement limited to the contents of this letter, but as attempting to reduce into some definite form a view which may require much reconsideration before they could be carried into effect. My object is merely to invite discussion, and so to narrow its range as to conduct it, if possible, to some practical and well-considered result.

I have, &c.,

Glenelg.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Durham, &c.