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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 94, 23 October 1852, Page 9

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —Will you oblige me by giving insertion to the accompanying- extract from a letter I have recently received from Sydney? As 1 can add that the opinion of the writer of it is t>f value, it may perhaps prove useful to some of your readers. Your's truly, Jas. Spowees. Lyttelton, October 20, 1552. " I am disposed to think that the cultivation of wheat will not be so certainly lucrative in the Canterbury Colony as that of potatoes. I look forward to great fluctuations in the price of flour in these parts, as we may be restricted to our own now scant production of that article, or overpowered with imports of it from America and England. Potatoes, on the contrary, cannot be brought to us from foreign countries, and the deficiency of agricultural labour added to a vast increase of population, is likely to cause a great demand in relation to supply for that article of food in this Colony and Victoria."

To the Editor of the Lytlelton Times, . Sir,—The letter of your correspondent " H," i" a »Uf« F°J? from the inanSer- He-calls himself « An Old Colonist," but his sentiments do not breathe the feelings of one who has struggled through the maze of colonial difficulties. -His policy in pastoral matters would be, —let the tree take root; afford it sustenance enough to establish it firmly in the land; watch the budding, the blossoming, and the ripening and when the care of the husbandman is beginning to be rewarded, place the treasury bags under the bou-hs and shake them so violently that the cultivator may abandon his charge in disgust; then may room be given to whole shoals of anonymous " H's," to reap where they never sowed, and the ruin of those who had endured the toil and heat of the day be made the very pretext for remodelling the pastoral regulations in their own favour. Such I conceive to be the marrow of his letter. I find the advocacy of the policy of givinomore permanent security to the pastoral interests, opens up a h'eid much too wide to expect space m your columns for its insertion ; I shall, therefore, only briefly sketch our position. I think it will be allowed that the development ofits pastoral resources is the destined lever to raise every other interest in the colony from the ennui of stagnation. Of itself it will produce a considerable direct, and a larger indirect, revenue, unless its capacities are clogged or hampered by the adoption of short sighted measures arising from ignorance or vague and groundless jealousy. Here there is no reason for such a feeling—a limited country, a rigid survey, the whole length and breadth of the land 'open to purchasers ; aye, inviting purchase through its opening up and general improvement. Here we are, pursuing an occupation full of extreme risks and hardships, giving a value, by the expenditure of our capital, to otherwise unprofitable waste lands; bound to retire before the first trumpet note of" Freehold ;" surrendering lands which we have perhaps doubled in value, and on which we have laid out the profits of years in creating the shelter and conveniences which nature has denied. -And yet your correspondent " H, 5' an " Old Colonist," would deny a pre-emptive right to us (though restricted by so many risks and provisos), would form a scale to measure our bleeding capacities, would force us to compete for our own improvements, and place the interest, to whose enterprize and capital the colony will be mainly indebted, in the humiliating position of a sponge, to be squeezed at the pleasure of alien and unsympathising officialism. I remain, Sir, Your most obedient servant, Mark P. Stoddakt.