When a Governor was sent out from this country to
New Zea- land, it was understood that he was to act in the interest of his paymasters, the people of this country—to set matters in better order, and to rvern the colony—to administer British law, and make the territory available for British colonization. From the newspapers and letters which have been received this week, it ap- pears that Captain Fitzroy's conduct has been the very opposite ; that he has acted, not as an agent for the British Government in the interest of the settlers at the colony and the great emigrating class in Britain, but as an agent for uncolonizing New Zed— for rendering it back to sevenfold anarchy, and, under a pretence of " protection" for the Aborigines, preparing a state of things and provoking a state of feeling under which the Aborigines will in- evitably be swept away, root and branch. It will be remembered that a band of Natives had committed very violent and gross out- rages on the Bay of Islands town of Russell, which they held in possession four days ; and that Captain Fitzroy had sent for troops from New South Wales to quell the outbreak. The troops ar- rived, but Captain Fitzroy made no use of them. On the contrary, contenting himself with a written apology, and the empty tribute of ten guns in token of submission—which he returned—he abo- lished the custom-duties in the Bay of Islands, to please those same marauders ! And be it borne in mind, that when he made this con- cession to savage violence, his treasury was so insolvent that he had resorted to the expedient of deluging the colony with assig- nets ; and that the Cook's Straits settlements, where the customs are continued, were already suffering from the unequal burden of taxes chiefly raised at Wellington, Nelson, and New Plymouth, but spent mostly at Auckland. Captain Fitzroy has done yet more : undertaking to settle disputes about land between Na- tives and settlers m the Company's territory, he has reversed the decisions of the Government Commissioner of Land Claims— has told the Natives that they need not observe bargains which they confessed to having made, and has thus practically annulled the great social right of property. Yet again : he has broadly exempted the Natives from British law, while no other law is established in its place. The Colonial Gazette gives utteranee to the question that naturally arises, is the man mad? Poor Captain Hobson was seized with paralysis soon after his assump- tion of the government of New Zealand ; and it does look as if Captain Fitzroy's senses were gone. For all his mon- strous " concessions " to savage murderers and robbers, he has nothing to show ; he has obtained no profit or advantage to set against the 130,000/. and odd which New Zealand has cost in three years, and which has been paid out of British taxation,—rather too large a subsidy to Exeter Hall for Anti-Colonial objects. It is impossible that Sir Robert Peel's Government can suffer such a state of matters to continue.
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