THE SHAGROON'S LAMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 70, 8 May 1852, Page 7

THE SHAGROON'S LAMENT.

" The climate of New Zealand is superior to the south of France."—Extract from a Canterbury Settler's Letter. Among the dreary mountains, far up above the gorge, There lives a potent demon, ever working at his forge, A worker at the winds is he, a flatulent old buffer, He sends his manufactures down, that man and beast may suffer. I've witnessed all the winds that blow, from Land's End to Barbadoes, Typhoons, pamperos, hurricanes, eke terrible tornadoes, All these but gentle zephyrs are, which pleasantly goby ye, To the howling, bellowing, horrid gusts which sweep down the Rakia. 1-cit£~l'' That little cloud now sailing down is foreman at the bellow* At Mount Hutt's base, he'll take his place to overlook his fellows; There's Gust and Puff, and Shriek and Howl, and demons without number, And they're coining now, with dusky brow, to waken summer's slumber, They're armed with the winds of the wild west coast, Which they've cooled in the mountain snow, And they're riding down on their steeds of dust, Making dismal havoc below. The crops which looked bright in the summer's light, And pleasantly waved in the breeze ; Are wither'd and dead, the unripe grain shed, And leafless the rocking trees. All huddled in vain are the sheep on the plain, Destruction is nearing them fast; And the cry of the lamb, as it bleats to its dam, Is mingling its tones with the blast. And the settler at morn may well look forlorn, As he hastens in search of his flock ; For lambs dead or dying, and ewes fled or flying, All his hopes ofprosperity mock. The Prince of the Air is ronsed from his lair, And howls in his bullying might; The gravel and dust are now mixed with the gust, And the demons shriek out with delight. The wild pigs sniff the air, and with grunts they declare, They'll be Gauged if they stand such a gale ; " -' - While both barrows and boars^ud sows by the scores Cut their sticks with the wind at tneir tail. The garden, my joy ! —my leisure's employ ! — Where are now thy flowers, or thy trees ? They are blackened and bruised, and most awfully used, With the cabbages, carrots and peas. The onions are whipp'd, the potatoes are nipp'd, The willows have lost ev'ry leaf; The fruit trees are dead, or torn from their bed, And the garden>r'is dying of grief. Oh! Squatters, beware of the Powers of the Air, When you come with your cattle or sheep; For New Zealand*, a spot just loosed out of Pot, And the wind there is never asleep. It comes from the South with a burst in its mouth, Bringing snow, sleet, or drizzling rain ; Or its chanses to West, and does its behest, With a blast twice as furious again. The vessels at sea, stout and strong tho' they be, Are totally lost to command : Their canvass is rent, their strong masts are bent, Or they're hopelessly cast on the strai.d. The best of good fellows can't stand the strong bellows. That are ever at work on this shore; So stick where you are, Australia's butter by far, Than ne'or to be heard of no more.

meantime these ports are already crowded with passengers proceeding to and returning from California. The Transportation Question.—The address to a commercial association may not generally embrace subjects of social and moral character. But the position of our colony is peculiar ; and I trust, too, that it is unnecessary to plead that the material interests of society are not more to be aimed at than its virtue and happiness. lam the more encouraged to allude to the absorbing question of transportation, because I feel that not only in this institution, but throughout the entire colony, there is but one sentiment on the subject. Truly it is an enormous evil that into the bosom of these our rising societies, there should be thrust the thousands of criminals annually ejected from the vast population of a mighty empire! The evil does not enter by direct communication with the Mother country. But experience has repeatedly taught us, that transportation to Van Diemen's Land is simply transportation to Victoria in another, and not by. any means a less objectionable form. In this great question the interests of these colonies are identical. We have recently .received, through an undoubted channel, a statement emanating from a principal member of the Home Government, purporting that the system of transportation is still to be continued to this part of the world. Our Australian colonies are already, from the effects of this system, overcharged with criminal elements, which, under our altered circumstances, with reference to the discovery of gold, are now presented with additional opportunities and inducements to break forth into every vice and atrocity. We had hoped that these discoveries would have 'effectually settled this question. But by ah extraordinary perversion of reasoning, an opposite conclusion appears, from the statement alluded to, to have been arrived at. The accumulating evils resulting from such a system, the overwhelming with criminals our small and struggling societies, had several years since forcibly arrested the attention of the home government. In a penitential moment a pledge had been extracted that a system, in its results alike disgraceful to the British name, and terrible to the interests of humanity, should altogether cease. This pledge was first neglected, and new it has been denied. The patience may have passed away, habit may have reconciled even the darkness of this picture ; but the evil it not thereby removed, and it is even more alarming than before. But even adopting this view, that no pledge has yet intervened to abrogate a clear legal right on the part of the Home Government thus to dispose of her convicts, we must then finally assert, that a far higher law than tbe accidents of human statutes guards the social, moral, and religious interests of society ; nor can any civilized Government stand accused on such grounds for wilfully persisting in a cGurse, which, on authentic evidence, long since, and repeatedly tendered and acknowledged, has exhibited the phases of society in appalling blackness and developed scenes of infamy and atrocity that are, perhaps, unparalleled in the history of man. Let us hope, therefore, that this resolve, emanating, as it has done, solely from the Right Honourable Secretary for the colonies, may prove but the injudicious and obstinate purpose of a single mind, not the active persistence of the General Government, and still less the deliberate resolve of that great nation, of which we are proud to consider ourselves a part. I cannot conclude without alluding, in the strongest terms, to the noble prospect lying before us. Our colony is in the midst of a race of unexampled progress. An exuberant nature has lavished upon us unbounded resources. It is for our colonists to meet these auspicious circumstances, by promptitude, energy, and liberality, in the path of improvement, in order that the full benefits of our position may be realized. In departments affecting commerce, it is the especial duty of this society to take a prominent position. Our port is crowded with shipping pouring into our colony the innumerable requisites of society, in which every class and every individual has a direct, and to a great extent an equal interest; but from the total inadequacy of our^ arrangements, all business connected with this department is carried on at an enormous sacrifice and waste. This is a consideration for governments, and for public bodies like

ourselves. Time is valuable; most persons are incessantly occcupied with their own affairs ; individual complaints, and individual exertions, therefore, are comparatively few and ineffectual; but delay, expense, and obstruction on every hand, are not the less swelling up an enormous account altogether adverse to the interests of the colony. Our neighbours of South Australia have in these respects set us an example. Inferior in natural resources, they have surpassed us in energy of character, on the part both of Government and people. The misfortunes of 1840 and 41, with which they were bowed down, had scarcely passed over ere they appear again erect and prosperous before us, as producers of the finest wheat on the London Corn Exchange— ah expression equivalent, I may add, to that of the finest in the world. The gold fields of Victoria have again depressed them; but they are up and doing as before to make the best of what is left. Our highly auriferous soil is an accident, but the immediate projection of a road between Adelaide and Mount Alexander is a principle ; and the first escort that traversed the new-line, bringing with it £21,000 worth of gold, gave alike the triumph and the reward of such energy. The prospect before us, I repeat, is noble : but it is in intimate, indissoluble, association with our own industry, enterprise, and resolute perseverance.