[New South Wales, Vol. 157.

Baron C. de Thierry to Earl Bathurst.

After the nature of the answers to the letters which I have had the honour at various times to address to Your Lordship, I would not again intrude upon your time respecting the Islands of New Zealand if it were not that I claim an act of justice from His Majesty’s Government, to obtain which I cannot better address myself than to Your Lordship, whose impartiality and justice are so well known.

The act of justice which I plead for is, that should any privileges be granted to any individual in New Zealand that His Majesty’s Government will bear in mind that I was the first to seek their assistance, and the first to set on foot the colonization of New Zealand. I should not therefore be the last to be listened to with a favourable ear.

A Captain Stewart, of the whale trade, is to wait upon Your Lordship to request that Government will grant him the island which bears his name, on the southern extremity of New Zealand. I will not enter into any length on the hostile tendency of the step towards myself, and will confine myself to two facts—the one, that he deserted from His Majesty’s Royal Navy, and only dared return to England on the general pardon some years back; and the other, that he has deserted me, who had employed him, not knowing his former offence.

I write not to you, my Lord, as an informer, but simply that Your Lordship may be enabled to draw a line between an aspirant who deserted the service of his King and a claimant who has served him faithfully and will ever be at his disposal.