Dunedin, Saturday. October. 25th, 1851.

Otago Witness, Issue 23, 25 October 1851, Page 2

Dunedin, Saturday. October. 25th, 1851.

Save me from my friends, well might the Governor-in-Chief exclaim ! Sir George has candidly enough admitted that he was jealous of the funds placed at the disposal of the two classWitrerjiertts4n^^ew^^alMrd7^n^paittts' the inconvenience and disadvantages of allowing the disposal of the waste lands of the Crown by colonizing Associations. Why His Excellency should have been so candid would have excited our surprise did we not see that it was necessary to his purpose to excite the cupidity of the older settlements, by suggesting, that as the whole of their funds were spent, what an advantage it would be to them to get hold of the funds of their neighbours ; but His Excellency has mistaken his men : the communities to which he was addressing this argument are too wise and honourable to jump at the bait and to swallow the hook of despotic rule for any such paltry consideration ; they prefer depending for immigration to their localities upon their own merits rather than relying upon damaging their neighbours. His Excellency next tries his hand at liberality of sentiment, toleration, and the disadvantages of sectarian differences, to support him in his attempt to overthrow class-settlements : but the first argument is too palpable to allow of the latter to have much weight or appearance of honesty ; and thus far Sir George has been too candid for his purpose. But well may Sir George exclaim, " save me from my friends !" when the Attorney-General comes in to his aid and exposes the whole affair. We have reprinted the speech at length as a curious specimen of the barefaced avowal of the (by him) desired system of colonisation. He commences his speech by an attack on the Wakefield theory of colonisation; or rather, he does not attack the theory, but shows the determination of himself and other Government officials to throw every obstacle in the way of a fair trial of its merits. He deprecates changes in the disposal of the waste land, and yet proposes to address the Crown to produce a change. He next attacks the Compariy : on the old score complains of their not granting titles to their purchasers ; but closes his eyes to the fact that it was the Government that prevented the granting of those titles. He complains of the Company's contempt for the farcical treaty of Waitangi, affecting great regard to the honourable performance

of engagement with the natives, yet uses it as an argument to break faith with the promoters of class- settlements. He next predicts the failure of Canterbury, and avows his determination to effect that object. This is mere advocacy ; and some may admire the ingenious perversion of facts and over-strained argument upon them in his capacity of Attorney-General pleading a cause : but is this the language of senators chosen to represent the colonist of New Zealand ? chosen because of his -wisdom, consistency, and integrity ? We have overstepped ourselves — the gentleman is only a nominee, and as such, look upon his appointment as a brief, % and does his duty to his client, (as a learned authority, Lord Brougham, has declared that duty to be,) even " though it should involve his country in ruin." But he has also argued his case con amore, as the last part of his speech shows. The previous declamation is, only a foundation to carry the gist of the argument — that Canterbury is an " Imperi. urn in Imperio." If this be so, then a Gas Company, a Railway Company — and still more, a Municipal Corporation, or any other body having local powers, are each an " Impcrium in Imperio." But upon what is this argument based ? Why, upon the fact that the Canterbury and Otago communities desire that public appointments should be given to those in whom they have confidence. This is indeed one of the leading principles of the British Constitution, that the rulers shall possess the confidence of the people. But the whole order of things must be reversed in the colony. The people are to be selected to possess 'the confidence of the rulers. Officers, are not to be appointed to meet the re. quirements of the community ; but the community arc to be taxed to meet the requirements of the officers. Individuals are not to be selected because of their capacity of office, but the office must be made to suit the capacity of the individual. New Zealand is an official

hunting-ground. The older settlements are overstocked, and the new ones are pastoral and rural districts, into which useless officials are to be turned out to graze. This has evidently been the view taken of New Zealand by the officials from the commencement of its colonisation, and any interference with this arrangement would of course be complained of by the Attorney-General as an infringement of public (i.e. official) rights. There is another reason for the dislike to colonising Associations. Many acts they have done are bad, and others are defective, but to them the colonisation of New Zealand is alone attributable. The class settlements have done more ; even one alone has done more in one year than the Government has done in twelve years, or are likely to do in twenty ; yet they have accomplished this with deficient means. They have but about 4,000,000 acres to dispose of, and no funds but such as they could raise by the sale of lands ; whije, on the contrary, the Government have had 74,000,000 of acres to select from, and the local revenue to work with, but yet it has done literally nothing. This presents a contrast which must be painful even to official obtuseness, and hence their jealousy of class settlements.

We should have considered, it hardly necessary to say a word in defence of class settlements, which are so much in favour at home that hardly any New Zealand immigration has taken place excepting to them, had not an attack been made on them from so high a quarter as the representative of Her Majesty : and that, too, accompanied with such a total change of sentiment as must be implied from the fact that not one word was said by His Excellency against these settlements at their formation, when his opinion might have been of sufficient weight to have prevented these schemes being tried.

Class settlements are of very old date. The first colonies founded in North America were class settlements ; and it must be admitted that the noble deeds of these determined little bands were disfigured by acts of intolerance; but they were perpetrated in an intolerant age ; — so much so that at the same time

old women were being sentenced by English judges and burned to death as witches ; and persecution had soured the tempers and increased the rigour of these early Christians. We therefore protest against an argument founded upon an analogy between the class settlements of the sixteenth century and those of the present day. Since the foundation of the colonies of New England and others in North America, when persecution drew men of all classes, but^of the same faith, to seek for peace in a distant land, colonisation has never been systematically pursued. The earlier colonies of this hemisphere were composed of criminals to supply the labour market; and in too many instances of capitalists whose proceedings at home might, but for a lucky chance or prudent absence, have placed them in the same class as those they employed. Years have rolled on, and ■we find, as more respectable persons have emigrated, the dislike of convict labour, and the desire to improve the moral and intellectual welfare of the community, have increased; and consequently churches and schools have also increased, but yet so inadequately to the want, that a prudent man who looks upon -education as essential must have felt a keen remorse on leaving his native hojnie when reflecting upon to what he was exposing his children. Indeed, the want of education has been the complaint of all classes in the colonies, until religious ordinances were almost totally neglected, and would have been so, but from the efforts of piously disposed individuals.

It is to obviate these evils, and to provide church and school from the outset, that class settlements were formed; And well have they done so. The {Communion -roll of the Otago Church, and our orderly and wellconducted community, are the clearest evidences of these advantages; and the constant accession to our numbers of men of the same stamp, attracted by

these considerations, proves them to be advantages accumulating on themselves. A class settlement, therefore, differs from others only in this happy result produced by applying the trifling sum of ss. per acre to a fixed and defined object, instead of scattering it so as to render it of no avail. The trumpery that such a provision interferes with the right of conscience may be all very well as a display of eloquence, but can have no weight wi'h men of sense. The present state of Otago may plainly illustrate this position. A few obstructors, who have been admitted into the community by reason of its liberal basis, on their agreeing to adhere to the scheme, raise this plausible argument of " liberty of conscience," and arrogate to themselves the whole wealth and respectability of the community; affirming that, but for their wealth, the community would have starved long since ; yet they have made no honest effort to provide themselves with either Church or School, but attempt to reproach the founders of the colony with the fact of the funds for religious and educational uses not being sufficient ; and that the stipend of the Minister is not paid, forgetting that this is an argument against the smallness of the fund, and not against the fund in toto ; forgetting also that the body of the colonists who adhere to the scheme do provide for their Minister, and that with a liberality which other denominations would do well to imitate. We trust that if there be any denomination of Christians who are sufficiently numerous to establish a church in the settlement, they will do so at once, and put to shame these noisy disturbers of the harmony of the community who aiTogate to themselves the distinction of leaders of men, who, however they may differ from the religion laid down in the scheme, will be the last to allow themselves to be made use of as cat's paws to carry out the pecuniary or private views of these self-appointed leaders.