PERFECT INFORMATIONS: history of paper.

It is a matter of history that the systematic colonisation of these islands was first proposed by a private association, formed in 1826, under the title of “The New Zealand Company,” and that it proceeded so far in the practical initiation of its project as to purchase lands for settlement at Hokianga and the Thames. But notwithstanding the influential position of a large number of its members it was prevented by adverse circumstances, easily understood at the time by those who were acquainted with the then condition of the native population and with the history of the missionary settlements established in the north, from carrying its objects into effect, and it was consequently dissolved. Its project was afterwards taken up by a body of persons of high position in the social and political world, under the title of “The New Zealand Association,” which, before attempting any active colonising operations, applied itself diligently in directing the public mind in England to an appreciation of the advantages offered by these islands as a field for emigration, its aim being to induce the Legislature to apply to them a system of colonization similar to that which had recently been successfully applied to South Australia under the auspices of “The South Australian Colonisation Society,” in the formation and active labours of which Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield had taken a prominent part, as, indeed, he was then doing in connection with the New Zealand Association. It was not, however, until the first year of Her Majesty's reign that the British Government were approached upon the subject by the promoters of the movement; but ultimately, in 1837, after protracted negotiations, it was induced to offer to incorporate the association by royal charter, authorising it to carry out the colonisation of the islands upon the indicated lines, but it insisted, as a condition precedent, that the members of the association should be converted into an ordinary joint-stock company with capital sufficient to insure the success of its project, in which case the Government expressed its willingness to confide to it the settlement and government of the projected colony for a short term of years. This offer, however, was clogged with conditions so completely at variance with the main objects of the association that it was compelled to refuse it, and, no hope being held out of any modification of the obnoxious conditions, the negotiations came to an end.