ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 36, 23 December 1843, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Company. — A special Court of Directors and members of the New Zealand Company has been held at their house in Broad-street buildings. The Governor, Joseph Somes, Esq., in the chair. Among the directors present were William Hutt, Esq., M. P. ; Ross D. Mangles, Esq., M.P.; Stewart Majoribanks, Esq., M.P. ; Jno. Abel Smith, Esq., M. P. ; Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Bart. ; Sir John Pirie, Bart.; Jas. R. Gowen, Esq. ; Alexander Nairn, Esq. ; PI. King, Esq. ; Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Esq. ; and others. After a iwv words from the Governor, to the effect tTraf^the meeting had been convened for the purtoose of raising a loan of £50,000 to carry outfne establishment of two new colonies ; the one to be called New Edinburgh, the other the Church of England Colony, the Secretary, Mr. Harrington, read the report. From this it would appear that the Company desires to increase their capital by way of loan instead of calling upon the shareholders to pay the remaining moiety of their liabilities. That the three .distinct settlements are going on satisfactorily, and they comprise a population of at least 10,000 souls. These settlements have been placed in this position upon a capital of £200,000, and through which the Company have acquired a property of about a million of acres of fertile land in favourable portions of a colony in which the minimum price of waste -land is fixed by the Legislature at £1 per acre. "While our capital," says the report, " has been only £200,000, our actual outlay for colonizing purposes has been nearly half a million ; the difference, your directors must repeat, was supplied by the confidence of the public." The report concludes by stating that the directors are on the best terms with Government, and that the settlement of New Edinburgh is a favourite one in Scotland. Mr. Hutt, M.P., aad Sir Isaac Go'ldsmid then expressed their

determination to lend the money required at 4i per cent., should the subscribers and the public fail in making up the amount subscribed. The objects of the meeting having been carried without dissent, thanks were voted to the chairman, and the assembly separated. New Colony. — In the month of August last year, we mentioned the plan of a settlement in New Zealand, projected by Mr. George Rennie, the former member for Ipswich, under the auspices of the New Zealand Company. Its chief features, as distinguished from others of the Company's settlements, were, the setting apart a specific sum for roads, bridges, and- other improvements, and a preliminary survey and laying out of the colony before the departure of the first emigrants. Unavoidable circumstances delayed the plan ; but we learn from the Colonial Gazette and an advertisement in our own pages, there is now every prospect of its being speedily carried into effect, though under considerable modifications. The elaborate anticipatory preparations are abandoned, as the Company have a strong force of surveyors in the colony, so that preparations of the kind are no longer deemed necessary. On the other hand, the plan has received some positive additions. The body of emigrants is to be collected principally in Scotland, Mr. Rennie 's native country ; the colony is to be called New Edinburgh ; of the £216,000 to be paid as purchase-money for the district of lands, £10,000 is set apart as a provision for ministers, and £10,000 for education, in accordance with the principles of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and £5,000 as a church-building fund. Further, £26,000 will be appropriated to roads and bridges, and other improvements ; a 630,000 to surveys and other expenses of founding the settlement ; £8 1,000 to emigration, a,nd£s&, 000 to the Company for the cost of the land at ! 10s. per acre. The land will be divided into j 2000 "properties, "each comprising a quarter acre of town land, ten acres of suburban I land, and fifty acres rural land ; each property to be sold at .£l2O. Instructions are at once to be sent to the Company's Principal Agent in New Zealand, to select a site for the colony ; the first body of colonists to set out in October next ; and they are to be accompanied by their pastor, the Rev. Mr. Burns, late of Monkton — the son of Gilbert, and nephew of Robert Burns, the poet. — Spectator.