The Lyttelton Times. October 25, 1851.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 42, 25 October 1851, Page 5

The Lyttelton Times. October 25, 1851.

An advertisement has appeared in our columns, headed " Official Notification," ■ which catfnot have failed to attract the attention of our readers. It commences by •announcing that His Excellency the Gover-.nor-in-Chief has been pleased to appoint Lieutenant-Colonel James Campbell to exercise a variety of powers, under several local ordinances in respect to Crown lands, "liSJf^nding from the Kaikora peninsula, to Wslitangi river, excepting those included in -the Canterbury block. The peculiar language, grammar, and style of this document have induced several persons to pronounce it a hoax, —a quiz upon the Government for its angry activity upon healing that the Canterbury Colonists thought it would be better that all the plains should be placed under the same * pasturage

regulations. For our own parts, we are inclined to consider the document genuine, albeit admitting that a charity school-boy would have been whipped for such a specimen of composition. Let us peruse a sentence or two :—

" It is requested, in order to obviate delays in the adjustment of land claims by the Commissioner, as well as in his attending to applications for Sheep and Cattle runs, or for Rural lands, beyond the Canterbury block, that they should be transmitted through the proper channels."

Our limited acquaintance with the English grammar does not enable us to determine to what the " they " refers. Is it the "delays," the " land claims," the " applications," the " sheep," the " cattle," the " runs," or the " Rural lands," which are to be forwarded to the Commissioner. "My dear James," says Cobbett, in one of his letters to his son on the subject of English grammar, when criticising some such sentence as the above—" My dear James, such-language may do very well for kitchen maids and Members of Parliament, but not for plain folks, like you and me, who write simply so as to be understood." Nor are we sufficiently acquain ted with colonial etiquette, to know what are the mysterious '■ proper channels," through which these cumbersome goods are to be transmitted. The remainder of the sentence, too, is such a masterpiece of lucid composition and felicitous expression as to repay the trouble of a perusal. " And in every instance, strict attention must be paid to what is prescribed in the Ordinances of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, and those applications which have already been made for Runs, and even advertised, and which are not in conformity to these Ordinances, should be renewed, whilst Nos. 5 and 6 of the rules and regulations must be carefully observed by applicants, particularly in stating the number of sheep and cattle they now possess, and intend for their runs, if granted, as also what they intend to place upon them within six months from the date of application." The Notification goes on to say that these Ordinances, to which it is so essential the applicants should conform, " may be had—at Wellington or Auckland! !" Of course it would have been a monstrous absurdity to allow the applicants the privilege of obtaining them at any nearer place than Wellington. They may, howe.'er, "be seen" and " the printed forms of application for depasturing licences got at the Commissioner's office, where also other information may be obtained." We have next a little historical episode detailing the experience of the Commissioner, in the difficulty of defining runs. Maori names of natural objects " are to be used in preference to any other designations, which too often lead to confusion and disputes among the applicants ; and" (as a logical sequence, apropos of the use of the Maori names,) —"all persons are cautioned as to what they make themselves liable to, under the Ordinances" (which may be got at Wellington or Auckland;) "for trespasses upon the waste lands of the Crown." It really is almost incredible that this rambling "Notification " is official. Let us pass, however, from the originality of its style to the graver matter which it contains. If "it be possible to be serious over such a column of absurdity, let us be so over the following sentence. " Tt is to be observed, that the tract of country bounded by a Hue drawn from the northernmost point of Half-moon Bay, about seven miles north of the Kaikora Peninsula, back to the southernmost high peak of the Kaikora Range ; thence by a line running at an average distance of eight miles from the coast, thence striking- the first river (about five miles south of Amuri Bluff,) along its course to the sea, is not open for applications for sheep and cattle runs, but is so to applicants for rural land, according to Government regulations in the block above delineated." If this description is given as a specimen of the descriptions in the applications for runs upon which the Commissioner is to adjudicate, we hardly envy him his task. Strangely enough, the "first word used to designate a locality, "Half-moon Bay " is in English : despite the rule just laid down, that Maori names only are'to be used, and despite the predicted confusion and disputes which are to follow this mixed nomenclature. 11 may be gathered from all this however that a tract of country many miles in extent, described or "delineated " by unintelligible boundaries, is not to be let for pasturage purposes, hut is to be sold asr..ral land ; in the original language of the notification, " it is not open to affllications for sheesp or cattle runs, but is so to appli-

cants for rural land." In fine that a settlement is to be formed somewhere about the Kai Kora Peninsula. Report says a town is to be laid out there. Now there has been some talk amongst us New, Zealand journalists, of late, as to how settlements ought to be founded. The government does not talk—it acts. It publishes an "official notification " saying, "so and so is rural land, so and so is pasturage." It says that with respect to country which has never been surveyed, which has not even been examined, which has hardly been visited, and which scarcely an English foot has trodden; it sits in its office, opens its map, measures off a square with its ruler, and writes down " in the name of the prophet—Rural Land." Suppose a person of sufficiently unsound mind to desire to purchase land in the Rural Land Square, were to call at the Commissioner's office and say, " Sir, is the land within that block a plain, or is it a mountain ? Is it open, or is it heavily timbered ? Is it a barren heath, or is it irreclaimable bog ?. Is it near a harbour, or is it on an open coast ?" What answer could, the commissioner give to such an applicant ? If he be an honest man he would say, —" My good friend, I know no more about that district than the man in the moon, and there is no.one in New Zealand who is much wiser. All I know is that part of it is inaccessible mountain covered with snow, because I have taken care to include ' the southernmost high peak of the Kaikora range' within it. If you would like the ' peak, 3 it shall he put up to auction at the upset price of 11. an acre." The Captain of a coasting vessel once asked his Irish pilot if there were any dangers in the harbour into which his vessel was being taken. " Faith, then," said the pilot, " there are plenty of'em, rocks and shoals that neither you nor 1, nor any one else knows anything about." If the pilot to this new settlement be as ingenuous, his answers will probably be similar to the above. For our own parts, however, we shall not fail to make what enquiries we can about this rural district, and lay the result before our readers. It will of course be said that we write this in a feeling of jealousy, that the government should endeavour to establish a settlement on the land which the Canterbury colonists desired might be annexed to their settlement. We have no such feeling ; on the contrary, we are glad to see the Government, however badly, by however inefficient agents, however impelled by example, or driven by fear, we are glad to see it in any way endeavour to resume its colonizing duties. No one will rejoice more than ourselves to see the Kaikora country colonized. But we are justified in suspecting the motives which have instigated this movement, and the means by which it is to be .accomplished. The whole transaction looks very much as if Sir George Grey, having asserted to her Majesty that the Canterbury hi -ck ought not to be enlarged, because there were settlers in the colony who would think it a hardship to be brought under the land regulations of the Association, and finding that assertion to be hardly consistent with facts, had resolved to make it true. Having said there were, settlers in the district, it may be convenient to take care that there shall be some as soon as possible. We suspect the means too. There is an appearance of desiring to form the Kaikora settlement out of the Canterbury settlement; to take advantage of the colonizing operations of the Association, to sell land ; to draw off the labouring population which we have imported at vast cost from England ; if this be the intention, it is a base design, and will be watched and exposed. If the Kaikora country is to be really colonized, the work must be commenced in a far different manner. It must be properly surveyed, and its character and qualities 'made known ; above all, emigrants must be brought from England, not enticed from the neighbouring settlements. At all events the undertaking must not be left in the hands of a Commissioner who cannot write an intelligible sentence in his native language. Since writing the above, the " Notice " in our last page to day, has been sent to our office.

We have been requested to state that the number of the Roman Catholic families at Akaroa, which was left blank in the Memorial to be presented from the Society of Land-Pur-chasfirs to her Majesty, and to 'both Houses of Parliament, has been filled up as follows: twenty men, ten women, and twelve children, in all forty-two instead of two hundred, as stated by his Excellency.