The long-announced general meeting of the New Zealand Company was
held yesterday, at their house in Broad Street Buildings. The attendance was very numerous, and many influential persons were present. A long report was read, and listened to with breathless interest. It announced a final rupture with the Government. To this subject we must recur next week, time and space preventing us from doing more than state some leading points. In May 1893, Lord Stanley entered into an agreement with the Company respect- ing their lands and relations with Government ; but in the next month, he gave instructions to Governor Fitzroy, unknown to the Com- pany, which put a new and different construction on those terms. Other instances of bad faith were stated. The vexatious proceedings of the local authorities respecting land-titles fomented a feeling among the natives which resulted in the massacre of Wairoa. The general result is, that the Company, after spending half-a-million in colonization, is without income, without the pion:lad title to its land, and the im- portant settlements are threatened with disastrous consequences. A Parliamentary inquiry was therefore demanded. Resolutions were passed, unanimously, adopting the report, and expressing unabated confidence in the Directors.
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