LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 243, 28 February 1855, Page 7

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

The following portion of the report of the Committee appointed to investigate the accounts of the Canterbury Association, has been handed to us for publication. Appendix B. List or Charges proposed to be Disallowed. 1. Excess of expenditure on account of Ecclesiastical Fund £'295S 6 9 2. A second Commission on Emigration Receipts for -the time during which two Emigration Agents, viz., Mr. Bowler and Mr. Young were employed ... 939 0 6 3. Payments to the New Zealand Journal 125 8 0 4. Petty disbursements, &c. to Mr. Felix Wakefield 85 12 0 5. Advance to Mr. Felix Wakefield beyond Commission earn - ■ •■*'■ ed by him 162 10 0 6. Purchase of 200 acres ou the Quarantine ground 500 0 0 £4770 17 3 1. The Committee think that any debt which has been incurred for strictly Church purposes, ought not to be thrown upon the

Province at large, especially as the Association holds in trust for the church extensive and valuable property, for the purchase of which this debt may be said to have been in a great measure incurred. 2. The Committee, after perusing Mr. SewelPs explanation on this item, cannot but consider the payment of two commissions for one service as unwarrantable. It appears to them, that if Mr. Young was not competent by himself to superintend the shipping and emigration, he ought hot to have been paid the usual remuneration for such services; if on the other hand Mr. Young was. competent, the employment of a second agent was superfluous. 3. The payments to the New Zealand Journal appear to have been of the nature of subsidies. On the face of the Journal it was announced that the New Zealand Journal was " entirely .unconnected with, and independent of, any particular Association, or local interest in the islands." Under such circumstances the Committee consider that these payments ought never to have been made. 4. These disbursements are principally for personal expenses, and which were to have been covered by Mr. Wakefield's commission. The Committee do not infer from Mr. SewelPs answer to their query, that Mr. Wakefield was engaged on services of an extraordinary character during the period to which these charges refer. 5. This advance to Felix Wakefield over and above the Commission earned by him, ought, in the opinion of your Committee, never to have been made. They think, therefore, that the loss resulting from it should not be thrown on the colony.. 6. The Association had full power to reserve from sale the extent of land required for a quarantine ground; this reservation was sufficient for every purpose; the purchase of 200 acres was utterly uncalled for, and ought never to have been made. .