LYTTELTON COLONISTS' SOCIETY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 80, 17 July 1852, Page 7

LYTTELTON COLONISTS' SOCIETY.

A Meeting of this Society was held, pursuant to notice, on Wednesday evening at the temporary Church, for the election of officers and Committee, and for the discussion of various matters placed upon the paper. The attendance was very numerous, and we are happy to announce that since the last meeting, 25 more members have been enrolled on the Society's books.

Mr. Godley read a letter he had received from Mr. Hamilton, who declined being nominated on the Committee on the plea of being connected, as an Official, with the Government. The following is Mr. Hamilton's letter:—

" Sir, —May I request that my name be withdrawn from the list of Candidates nominated to act on the Committee of the Lyttelton Colonists' Society. To take an active and prominent part in public disunions which may lead to the adoption of measures calculated to thwart and oppose the Government, appears to me to be inconsistent with the duty of those in its employ, and with the subordination that is expected of them.—l am, &c, J. W. Hamilton."

. . .Captain Simeon declined also for the same * reason. Mr. Godley then called upon the meeting to present their votes for the Candidates for offices, and to appoint Scrutineers for receiving and attesting the same. This was done, and Messrs. Compton and Tribe were elected Scrutineers, who at once commenced proceedings which were protracted to nearly 11 o'clock, owing to the large number of voting papers submitted. We may as well state here that the following Candidates were elected to serve for one year from the 14th of July :—Mr. Godley, Chairman ; Mr. Fitzgerald, Vice-Chairman ; Mr. Alport, Secretary ; and on the Committee—The Eev. Mr. Paul, Messrs. Birch, Bayfield, Varyer, Willcox, Spowers, J. T. Cookson, Cholmondeley, Luck, Reader, Richard Davis, Allwright, Donald, Pratt, Derry, Rutland, Mountfort, and Hare.

The Chairman said that previous to calling upon Mr. Cholmondeley to propose his resolution, it would be better to read the Provincial Councils' Ordinance, to enable those who were

not yet acquainted with its details and purposes, to form some opinion respecting the measure. At the conclnsion of its being read from the Chair, Mr. Cholmondely was called upon, who at once rose and said, Sir, —The great interest which, the. subject now before us has raised at Christehurch is well known, and is proved by the able report, which has been adopted by the Coloniats* Society there —ra report which you will have read in the Guardian newspaper. The general opinion is, however, that the subject has been very from being exhausted, and that much remains for the Lyttelton Society to do. It cannot be denied that we have been, as a body deceived ; I will not say by the Association ; nor will I lay to the charge of the administration at home, what perhaps is rather the fault of a single man. When we remember the promises of free institutions so frequently and unhesitatingly published to the Colonists before yet a ship had spread her sails for Canterbury ; when we compare them with what has been done, and with the proposal now.made to us in the proclamation which has just teen read to us, it is impossible not to he disgusted with the vast difference, or rather the entire want of resemblance between the promise and the performance. A constitution which throws together distant settlements like Nelson and Otago, and which sends us along with, them up to Wellington to fight for the few miserable rags of power proffered to us cannot be regarded as in any degree fulfilling the idea of a provincial constitution for Canterbury. (Hear, hear.) As to the interest generally felt in the question involved in the business of this evening, I will not for an instant suppose that it is necessary for me to make out a regular proof of the interest you all must feel. To do so would be to forget the strong and explicit language of former public meetings held here, in which you have already pledged -yourselves, if ever men were pledged. You have already claimed a constitution ; you have already declared that nothing should tempt you to accept of a whit less than the full measure of what you ought to have. It may be said, granting the promise, where is the danger of delay? Why not let the Government take its own time? Sir, I answer there is danger in allowing a false, unwholesome, political system to be engrafted upon us at all. It will steal its way, and eat its way, into our dealings one with another, and before we are aware, perhaps, of what its real name is, the evil genius will have found means to make his poison circulate in our veins. lam sure there are some cases and certain positions in which it is little less than wicked to be contented. Some one may perhaps decline his duty by attempting to slur over or laugh faway the moral warning of one who is chiefly solicitous for the preservation of an upright and manly tone in society. If there be any such here, I have an argument for action which may reach him if nothing else will. I assert that for want of some sufficient Legislative power among ourselves we are sufferers in some respects, and that we are likely to be great sufferers in many more. For instance, it is the general opinion that the establishment of a court of registration for Deeds to commence from the beginning of the colony, would save thousands and thousands of pounds, which will, if this is not done, be wasted in litigation. (Hear, hear.) You know that such a court would require the sanction of law to make it binding. You cannot get such an enactment. If applications have been made, they have only been slighted. Another thing: the towns of Lyttelton and Christehurch are in want of Corporations, not entrusted with much power to be sure, hut strong enough to keep dowu an accumulation of nuisances and petty annoyances. Are no steps ever to be taken for draining our towns ? Are they even surveyed for drainage ? Undrained towns are not generally over-healthy. Are we waiting for the advances of the cholera or the subscriptions of a deadly fever? I think such matters must come home to every soul among you. A third measure much wanted is a new Cattle trespass Ordinance equitable in principle and intelligibly worded. (Hear.) The present Ordinance has been virtually repealed by disuse. All these matters would, if we possessed legislative power, come under our immediate notice. And this is what makes it so very important to determine whether his Excellency the Governor's present proposal can be supported, by us or not. To determine this, I propose that your Committee, if you appoint, one, shall be empowered to advise as to what steps ought to be taken by

Us —to put it to you whether it is your pleasure to support the Government plan or to oppose it. This will give your debate a practical issue. I shall not enter now into the terms of the Proclamation—that is the province of the Committee. But I think enough has been said, and a very clear case made out for a careful consideration of this question in which I hope the meeting generally will take part. (Cheers.) Mr. Cholmondeley then submitted the following resolution:—

" That a Committee be appointed to report upon the Provincial Constitution lately proclaimed by his Excellency the Governor of New Zealand, and upon the steps which should be taken by the people of this settlement with respect to it." Mr. C. C. Bowen seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. Some discussion ensued with respect to the formation of the Committee, several of those proposed, declining for several reasons to act; ultimately Mr. Cholmondeley proposed, and Mr. Fitzgerald seconded, that the Committee consist of the following persons:—Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Birch, Mr. Reader, Mr. Cholmondeley, Dr. Donald, and Mr. Cookson, which was agreed to. A. friendly discussion arose out of Mr. Hamilton's letter chiefly between Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Hamilton, as to whether officers in the service of government were justified in taking part in public affairs in opposition to the Government. Mr. Fitzgerald was of opinion that, here as in England, those servants of the Government who were not in its confidence, and who had no political connection with it, but whose duties were merely of an official nature, were not expected by the Government to give it political support, or to abstain from opposition to its legislative measures; and that so long as the duties for which they were, paid, were faithfully performed, there was no impropriety in their exercising in other respects the privileges of other citizens.

Mr. Hamilton on the other hand thought that in the present Constitution of the Colony, all servants of the Government ought as long as they held office to abstain from opposing the Government in any way, and that for that reason he should take no part in the political proceedings of the Society. The conversation was one of considerable interest. Both gentlemen seemed to agree that the question was one which must be left in a great measure to each person's individual sense of duty. It was then proposed by Mr. McCardell, and seconded by Mr. Ed. Davis, that a sub-com-mittee be appointed to form a choral class; to consist of Mr. Maunsell (who expressed the great pleasure he would experience in coining over from Christehurch to attend), Mr. Davis, Mr. McCardell, Mr. Jaggar, and Dr. Donald. The Chairman then said that as Mr. Compton had withdrawn the resolution he intended submitting, the meeting was at an end. He augured well for the success of the Society from the absence of discussion on Mr. Cholmondeley's proposition, which showed that its Members were not disposed or anxious to rush into debate and argument, upon a question as yet but imperfectly understood by the majority. He had no doubt, however, from the discussions that would ensue amongst themselves in the interval, that on their next meeting that evening fortnight to receive the report of the Committee, the opinions of the inhabitants of Lyttelton would be deliberately expressed on SixGeorge Grey's proposition. In the mean time also, no doubt the determination of the other Settlements with regard to the measure would be known. The Meeting then broke up.

By the " Twins" we have a few Wellington papers to the 7th instant, but observe nothing of consequence in their columns. We learn the "Necromancer" left Wellington for this Port with a mail, previous to the sailing of the " Twins," but she has not yet arrived. No accounts had been heard at Wellington of the schooner " Mary," which left Nelson for Lyttelton towards the end of May. A Service'of Plate has been presented to Dr. Featherson, but we are without the particulars, not having received the number of the Independent which records the event.

We have received the report of the Committee of the Christehurch Conveyance Company, but too late for insertion this week. We hope to be able to publish it in our next, We are happy to state that the Company is in a prosperous condition, and has declared a dividend of 20 per cent for the last eight months, upon the paid up capital.