The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 83, 7 August 1852, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

August 7, 1852. Otjk latest intelligence from England leaves the ultimate solution of the question of representative Government for New Zealand, in as much obscurity as ever. There is no hope of a final settlement before the dissolution of Parliament. It was generally thought that the new Colonial Minister would propose a continuance of the Suspension "Act; leavingthe whole question for final'adjustment, until the meeting of the new Parliament, which'will probably hold its first session in the autumn of the present year. But the Colonial Reformers appear to have made up their minds to oppose this proposition ; and it is expected that their opposition will be successful ; prefering rather that Earl Grey's Act of 1846 should come into operation, than that the present intolerable Government should have any longer existence in the. Colony. In either case, the "Electoral Rolls now forming, will be so much waste paper. Should the Government proposition be carried, matters must remain in their present state for another year at least.

Should the Colonial Reformers succeed, Lord Grey's Constitution will become the law of the Colony next March, and the electoral franchise will be entirely altered. The latter contingency seems so probable that we shall give our readers, upon an early occasion, a brief account of the form of constitution which will then exist. There is no intelligence of much importance in reference to the sayings and doings of the Canterbury Association. No revival had taken place in the sales of Land ; but a considerable immigration was likely to take place in the course of the ensuing year, including many families of respectability and wealth. Amongst others, Sir Thomas Tancred, Bart., was about to sail for Canterbury in the course of a few months.' This is the healthiest sign which a Settlement can exhibit, when the friends and relations of the Colonists follow their steps, induced, no doubt, by the private accounts they receive, and upon which they can depend.

Oxm readers will find amongst the advertisements the Balance Sheet published by the Canterbury Association, for the information of " the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade," containing a statement of their financial position for the year ending 13th November, 1851. However satisfactory this document may appear to the Government Inspector and to their Lordships, it cannot fail to be most unsatisfactory to the Colonists. It is not in fact any " account" at all. On the credit side the payments are made " to the Emmigration Fund ;'" —' •To the Miscellaneous Fund." But of what has been done with the monies so paid over to the " Trust," —there is no account. Yet there is sufficient information given to provoke an enquiry for more. It appears from Mr. Wedgwood's, letter, that the whole of the monies accounted for must have been spent in England;—" The sums expended in the Colony" having been "not yet brought into account." There must then have been above £8,300 spent in England out of the Ecclesiastical Fund. Spent in what ? It is really a matter of importance that the Colonists should be informed how this enormous expenditure has taken place in England. Does it include the Endowment of the Church in Land ?—or the money invested for the Bishoprick ? What does it include ? We do not mean to insinuate that the money has been misspent. Wa simply desire to know how it has been spent. The same may be said of the-other Funds. The majority of the Emigration Fund is, of course, disbursed in England. But there is a payment of nearly £13,000 to the " Miscellaneous Fund." Now we cannot conceive any charge upon the Miscellaneous Fund in England, except the expenses of management. Surely this has not cost £13,000 in one year. Yet from the mode adopted of stating the accounts, it would seem so ; for there is an entry below of a Bill for £1,000 drawn by Mr. Godley, which would imply that the above item does not include any of the expenses in the Colony. How £ 13,000 of the Misi. cellaneous Fund can have been expended in England, is really a great mystery. We repeat, we have not made these remarks with any view of unfairly criticising the conduct of the Association ; but we feel bound on the part of the Settlement to enter our strongest protest against the system hitherto adopted by them of concealing their accounts. Until th;re is a full and unreserved statement of receipts and expenditure—discontent will be expressed, and unworthy motives imputed ; and the Association must take the inevitable consequences of the want of judgment of which they have been guilty.

' The " Australian Gazette" is occupied in a series of attacks upon the Canterbury Association and the Canterbury Settlement. The " Lyttelton Times " has not escaped. Our representation of affairs has been pronounced to be wholly false, and the Colony is described as in a state of ruin. One word we will say to our friends and subscribers in England on this point. Can there be anything more silly than to suppose that a newspaper could have been published for eighteen months in a small community—could have commanded an unusually extensive circulation—could have been habitually forwarded by many of the settlers to their friends in England—and yet could have been in the habit of habitually misrepresenting the state of affairs in its immediate neighbourhood ? Would the sense of this community have permitted so gross a fraud ? If the settlers have allowed this, they are as much to blame as we are, for we have never refused to publish a single letter containing a denial of any fact ivhich we have printed in our columns. During all this time there was another press and types in the Settlement, with which an opposition Paper might at any time have been started. Those types are now in use. They print the " Christchurch Guardian" ; and if any fact were wanting to prove that we have faithfully discharged our trust as long as we enjoyed the sole patronage of the public in this settlement, it is that the new journal has rigidly adhered to the line of policy we have always followed, —well knowing that any other would have met with no support in the settlement. We say this much as a complete and final reply to the absurd attacks which have been made upon us in England. But the " Australian Gazette" has news of its own from this settlement, of which the following is a specimen :— " But we imagine the truth of our next extract will not be impugned, when we tell our readers that it is from a lady of one of the principal officers of the Canterbury Association itself in the colony ! In all our colonial experience— and it has not been small—we have never met with such an instance, and, for the sake of colonization, we trust we may never meet with such another. < Canterbury, July 28, 1851. " Would that we had taken your common-sense advice, and come to this place with our money in our pockets, or rather not at all, for it is altogether a fearful delusion; even those that have the best of it, and capital to enable them to ' bide the time,' look upon it as a mere swindle. As to church matters, 'tis fearful to think how its sacred name was bandied about to mislead us all. For the very best land, good judges say not more than ss. or 10s. should have been given, seeing there is no wood, and in s< me parts no water, save in this horrid wet weather. Then I heard a gentleman say that he fears the sheep will be subjected to the rot upon the plains in the winter, because of the great raius and swampy nature of the soil. All looked sunny when we first arrived ; fine weather, and the excitement, caused many persans to send home letters.of a cheerful character, which, to prevent uneasiness to friends, they fear to contradict; besides, the Association people here say, ' Oh, when others come out, —more gentlemen, more men of money,—things will flourish, buildings will increase, &c, so for your own sakes do not send home bad stories ;' this, I believe, prevents many from writing the truth. But I need not say more to you, who so truly called the whole scheme another Wakefield delusion. I believe had the Church funds been left to the management of Bishop Selwyn, and the gradual colonization of the place to his direction, it would have been better. Many of the people who could leave have done so,—drownings and wreck, I think, will soon do the rest. Poor Mr. Jackson ! I often think of his rhetorical flourishes at Gravesend, and your remarks upon the same. 'Tis reported here that Mr. Godley has offended the Association; very likely, for I believe him an honourable man, and he may be disgusted with the Wakefield doings at home; for, of course, such men as Lyttelton, Har- j rowby, &c, however they may err in judgment, would not in principle.' " Let our readers imagine what must have been tbe mental suffering, real or anticipatory, of a highly accomplished lady, before she would reveal to her friends in England the delusion which bad been practised upon her. Her bus.

band, talented and generous, had been induced to go out by the highflown promises of the Association, and had been mainly instrumental at home in aiding its progress. His talent, though with inexperience, had been used to the full by the wily concoctors of the scheme, trained by a long course of similar practices;—and here is the result. Can any member of the Canterbury Association, who is not lost to all gentlemanly and human feeling, read the above letter without a blush of shame ?"— Australian and New Zealand Gazette, Feb. 7, 1852. If this letter be not, as is probable, an impudent fabrication, the publication of it here, on the spot whence it professes to have been sent, is the severest punishment which it is necessary to inflict on the writer. We cannot even guess, and do not wish to know, the authoress ; if indeed there be one, we do not envy her the shame of reading so false and silly a composition in print, and only hope that she may escape the further disgrace of being recognized as the writer.