The adjourned general meeting of shareholders in the New Zealand
Company was held yesterday, and was again adjourned, for reasons stated in the subjoined report. From the tone of the document, it does not appear that any real progress has been made towards a settlement of the matters in issue between Government and the Company.
" It was not till yesterday that your Directors received an expression of the views of the Secretary of State for the Colonies with respect to the re- =lations to his Lordship mentioned in their last report. They were then red with some unofficial communications ; from which your Directors understand, in the first place—That her Majesty's Government would be strongly disposed to entertain favourably a proposal for pecuniary assistance to be afforded by the Government, on the following conditions. 1st, That such assistance shall not exceed 40,0004 in the whole. 2d, That it shall be applied to the payment of the bills now unpaid which have been drawn from the colony to provide for the employment of labourers; and to the payment of such other bills as may be drawn for the same purpose during the interval which must elapse before a report can he received from Governor Fitzroy . as to the state of the Company's settlements and the steps which he may have taken in consequence. And 3d, That the whole of the property of the Com- pany, including that part of the capital which has not been paid up, and which the Company would be required to engage to raise within a limited period, shall be made liable as available security for the repayment of such advance. " And secondly,the Directors have received assurances of the desire of the Government to maintain the most cordial relations with the Company in carrying on the work of colonization ; and that the instructions issued to Captain Fitzroy were intended to have, and it is believed will have had, the effect of quieting the titles of those settlers who have obtained land under the Company, and of facilitating the acquisition by the Company of a valid title to the remainder of their lands.'
" There are, however, various points respecting the relations between the Government and the Company which are of more importance even than that of pecuniary assistance ; and without the satisfactory settlement of which, your Directors think that nothing could be gained by the acceptance of that assist- ance. The negotiation has not yet advanced to the settlement of these points; and on them, therefore, it would be obviously improper to offer partial information, or to enter into any discussion. Your Directors consider it in- dispensable to the establishment of the affairs of the Company on a satisfactory basis, after the crisis that has occurred, that the points at issue should be set- tled as a whole. Having, therefore, as they considered themselves bound, laid before you thus much of the communications received from the Secretary of State, they abstain from all comment on the subject. And they accordingly recommend that you should adjourn the present meeting until Friday the 26tis of April; assuring you that they should have much preferred an earlier day, were it not that the near approach of the Easter holydays precludes the hope of their being sooner able to lay before you the full information which you- must receive before you can prudently determine on any course of future proceedings."
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