The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 114, 12 March 1853, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

March 12, 1853.

In the absence of arrivals from any quarter* it is a fortunate circumstance that the interest created by Mr. Sewell's memorable letter continues unabated. Otherwise, we should have been non-plused for want of news, but as it is, we are enabled to place an unreserved space at the command of the public. Mr. Sewell's letter yet forms the chief topic of conversation, and from several letters received, we select two for publication which cannot fail to create considerable attention from the questions raised in them. To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sis,—l feel called upon to make some observations upon" Mr. Sewell's letter to 'Mr, Brittan, published in your journal of the 26th ult. I shall, feel obliged if you can find room for them in j^our next Saturday's paper.- : Mr. Sewell virtually accuses Mr. Godley of an intention to illegally misappropriate the public funds; that is to say to apply monies properly belonging to Ecclesiastical and Educational purposes, to the purposes of general expenditure: and states his intention, with the consent of Capt. Simeon, to restore those funds to their proper and

legal destination. He calculates the available income for Ecclesiastical and Educational purposes "at £1,150, of which about £750 arises from permanent investments, which are of increasing value, and about £400 the due share of pasturage licenses." Whilst, "the fixed engagements for. stipends, &c, do not exceed £800 per annum."

With regard to the last item of income, it is well known that the Association are about to forfeit, or have already forfeited; all power over the waste lands. It seems, therefore, strange to calculate upou an income which the Association have, in all probability by this time, no authority to collect or to apply. With respect to the remainder of the revenues", I conclude that they arise from the rents of the property which the' Association has conveyed to itself under the powers given to it by the second Act of Parliament. That property must have been purchased specifically on account of one or other of the Trust funds ; that is, the Ecr . clesiastical fund, the Miscellaneous fund, or the Emigration fund. It can have been acquired in no other manner; and the proceeds of such property must be, applied to the purposes of that fund on account of. which it was purchased. If the Jetty and Wharves at Lyttelton, the Agent's house, Offices and Store, and the Town Reserves at Chrislchurch, which are the principal sources of the revenues in question, were purchased out" of the Ecclesiastical fund, I call upon Mr. Sewell to produce the despatch in which Mr. Godley was informed that those properties belonged to the Church. I ask for an account of the trans?action of their purchase. , In what account? in the books of the Association, is the disbursement of the purchase money entered ? If they are Church property, was Mr. Godley informed of it? If not, and they were purchased on account of the Miscel-: laneous fund, then how can these proceeds be now applied to Ecclesiastical purposes ? . I am the last person in this Settlement to charge the Association with a breach of faith, or to believe such a charge asserted by others. But Mr. Sewell's letter unavoidably leaves the impression that the fulfilment of the engagements entered into with the Clergy involves. the alternative of neglecting the obligations under which the Association lies to the Colonists generally. "Mr. Seweii plainly contemplates the closing, "the Land Office and Survey Establishment." To my mind, Sir, the engagement of the Association to place the land-pur-chaser in possession of the land which he has bought, and to convey it to him by p. proper deed, is prior and paramount to all others. I say nothing of the incalculable injury to the Settlement which would result from the sealing. up the surveys of the pastoral districts, and putting, practically, a stop to the occupation of the country by pastoral settlers, Although an act of impolicy amounting to '....madnesSj.no, i aQtu&lo faith would, perhaps, be broken by such a step; but to put an end to the machinery for completing the sales effected to the landpurchasers would constitute the non-fulfil^ ment of a distinct contract, which the yendors might, I imagine, be compelled in the courts of law to complete.

Mr. Sewell has undertaken to defend the policy of the Association in withholding their accounts from the public. Whether the land-purchasers, as parties having an interest in the trust fund, have a legal right to be made acquainted with the management of those funds by the Trustees, or whether the Court of Chancery, or the Supreme Court of New Zealand, would interfere to enforce that right, I shall forbear to argue. But that the Association were morally and equitably bound to lay their financial proceedings before the public in

the Colony, no one who has ever read their prospectus can for a moment doubt. It is no answer to say that the Colonists had neither right nor ability to audit the accounts. The question is one of information, not of audit. The land-purchasers could not exercise, any real control over the expenditure of their money ; but they ought to have had some account of it; There could not possibly be a stronger instance of the propriety of such publicity than that afforded by Mr. Sewell's letter; for he has thought proper to appeal to the public, and to cast a slur upon Mr. Godley, upon a question which is one solely of ae\r'counts, and upon which he well, knows the ■public, from want of information, can form no opinion whatever. I may be permitted to say that it will require something more than, an insinuation to persuade the public of this Settlement that Mr. Godley ever contemplated the appropiation of public money to any other than its strictly legal uses. And therefore1 Mr. Sewell's letter cannot but- leave the impression that those who conducted the Association's affairs in London withheld proper information as to their accounts not only from the colonists but from their own Agent in the colony;—an impression which can only be effaced by the production of the despatch instructing Mr. Godley that the property, to which I have before alluded, had been purchased out of the: Ecclesiastical fund,- and that its proceeds were to be applied solely to Ecclesiastical uses. I have but one farther remark to make. It is said that the accounts are too voluminous, for publication. No doubt the shipping accounts relating to the first 8 ships were voluminous. But that did not prove any obstacle to the publication of a very distinct digest, when the object in view was to prove that the emigration carried on under the management of the Association had been commercially a profitable concern. A digest of a similar nature, comprising the whole accounts of the Association, is what the public now require. We have been recommended, upon high authority, to extract the truth from Mr. Sewell. And this, as far as I am able to judge, is the truth which the public require. It is idle to say that four monstrous ledgers will be laid on the table of the Provincial Council. It is prior to the meeting of the Council that information is needed by the public; information which any tolerable accountant could supply in a few days, if the four folio ledgers were placed before him; information in a simple popular form, shewing the monies received from all quarters, and the monies upended upon all objects under general heads. •• I am certain that the production of such a document, however it might awake criticism as to the wisdom of certain items of expenditure, would allay much of the discontent, and all the suspicion of which Mr. Sewell complains; and wouid greatly enhance the respect and gratitude of the colonists, towards those' noble and disinterested men who have been the founders and patrons of. this Settlemenc. Some such document I conceive Mr. Sewell, as holding the honour of the Association in his keeping, is bound to produce with the least possible delay. The more so, as he has not hesitated, upon a matter of accounts, to cast a serious imputation upon Mr. Godley's policy. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, James Edward Fiiz Gebald. \ Tha Springs Station, Feb. 28,1853.

To the Editor of the Lyltelton Times, Sin,—Mr. Sewell's letter involves a curious contradiction, one not unworthy of note. He shews very fully why-the Association could not recognize the late Society of Land Pur-

chasers-^a body " self created," not lespresenting "the colony at large," found on his arrival to be "in a state of practical dissolution." la the teeth, however, of these and numerous other reasons against any' official recognition of the society, he boldly ventures to address to the quondam chairman a letter intended really for the colonists " at large."

Why this gentleman (officially considered of course) is not yet in the same state of " practical dissolution" as the whole body of which he was supposed to be the organ, it is difficult to conceive. It is not so to see that a compliment of most doubtful character is paid—first to him, when he is told that as a "medium of communication," he " may suffice" for a " present purpose," and then to the settlers at large, when they are talked a£ instead of to. This mode of " communicating" has been by no means happily devised. Three-fourths of us know nothing but vague traditions of a society extant in the mythic stage of the settlement, and defunct as soon almost as organized. If. no "lawful organ," representing the colonists at large now exists, one will not be long wanting if required. Mean time all they ask for—and nothing less will content them —is information full and complete on all subjeeisof general concern. "Public opinion" will then not be slow to find its representative, and a very sufficient medium of communication besides. All facts then, necessary for us to form our judgment, cannot be too soon laid before us. It were better gracefully, to yield them all up now, than before long to have them wrung out one by one at the risk of unnecessarily keeping open important questions. There is an old saw about chaff and old birds. It is somewhat musty I grant, but may be applied with advantage in this case. Much of the discussion that has lately been excited, and more that is to come, would doubtless have been unnecessary had it been thought fit to publish the despatches of Mr. Godley and the Committee of Management. Inferences in the highest degree unfavourable to Mr. Godley are to be drawn from Mr. Sewell's half statements. It is confidently reported that Mr. Godley wrote very fully to the Association on most of those important questions now being discussed in the settlement.; The publication of them is an act of justice which that gentleman's friends have a right now to demand ; not less so the settlers "at large." Especially they have a right to call for the expose of his "financial plan for the current year,' 1 to,which Mr. Sewell refers. So long as this is withheld, the impression that has been created by his indirect allusions will remain as it is—very far from favourable to the writer, and a practical confutation here at least of the old saying " Les absens ont toujours tort." I am, Sir, Your very obedient servant, One of the Public. Christchnrch, 9th March, 1853.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. g lß> —The Official notification in your columns of the sth March, " That no intention was ever entertained by the Canterbury Association to dispose of the Town Reserves" would have rendered any further reference to the subject unnecessary, but for the erroneous impression which the second letter of your correspondent, X.Y.Z., is calculated to produce in the minds of your readers, when he boldly; makes the assertion " That the Association, or whoever occupies their place, will always have the power to lay out the Town Reserves in Town Sections, to be sold at not less than £48 per acre ;" an averment, not only at variance with the second conclusion at which he professes to have arrived in his first communication, but so directly in breach of all good faith towards the proprietors of the Town Lands disposed of, that it is most devoutly to be hoped the Association will never attempt to exercise such power, even though they should possess the right. The reasoning on the subject is already before the public, and the additional argument furnished by your correspondent, "That the accession of so large a sum as the sale of those reserves would produce, would amply compensate for any loss the Town would undergo, by a deprivation of common right over them," is .surely not intended to justify so gross an attack upon" the rights of thfc proprietors and inhabit-

ants of the Town and Town Lands-—which they have acquired by purchase. Z. Y. X. professes to be at a loss to conjecture " To what public use (further than as forming part of the site of the Capital) these reserves have been appropriated," and yet assumes to possess an amount of knowledge upon the subject to which your humble servant does not presume. Were he, however, for one moment to contemplate the uses to which such an appropriation of land to the public might be by them applied, he would have no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that the mere forming part of the site of the town was not the public use intended ; though it afforded evidence of the intention that it be applied to public purposes, and that though mere pasturage ground at the present time applicable only to the convenience of the inhabitants, and to maintain their cows, they would one day provide the " Champs Elysees" of the Plains, as applicable and beneficial to Christchurch then as at the present day they are found important to the city of Paris; and thus would he. be provided with a suggestion that might weil have swayed, if in fact it did not determine, the Association and their advisers in the settling of their plans, and appropriating 300 acres only of land for private allotments and building sites and the residue for public purposes not specified, to continue vested in the Crown and the inhabitants, as the word " Keserves" imports, and for appropriation by them to public purpose grounds, in so tar as the purposes were not already specifically named. - The Association having, however, exercised the power committed to them by their Act of Parliament in the erection of the site, are now, as I apprehend, " functus officio " in regard to it, and are, hencsforth simply continuancy agents for the protempore administration of the Beserves. With many apologies for thus trespassing on your pages, I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, ;. Zeso.

To the Editor of ike Lyttelton Times. . Sir, —The self-laudatory and self-sufficient letter of Mr. W. G. Brittan, which appeared in the last number of the Lyttelton Times, will not tend to enhance that gentleman's public character in-the eyes of the Colonists. Mr. Brittan plumes himself upon the respect he entertains for the Queen's Representative, and, like a very devout Pharisee, thanks God that he is not one of a " factious minority," but a loyal and peaceable man. It is not difficult to divine the motives which prompted this outpouring of flunkeyism. Mr. Brittan, doubtless, has sufficient reason for his present loyalty, but the day is not so very remote when he was Chairman of a Society which placed itself in distinct and open opposition to Sir George Grey; but Mr. Brittan was not a " Registrar" then ; hinc Wee laudatidnes ! I should not have noticed Mr. Brittan's letter had he simply given his reason for not signing the Address to Sir George Grey ; but his throwing stones at those whom he is pleased to designate a "factious minority," vividly calls to mind that he is himself living in a glass-house, and that when the Address was first mooted he was personally engaged in canvassing for signatures to it; at least, so I have been credibly informed. : I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Cantab. Chrißtchnreh, March Bth, 1853.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —Being in the habit of readiug your Colonial contemporaries, I have observed that they periodically publish an official account of the receipts and expenditure of their Provinces. This more particularly refers to our nearest neighbours, Otago and Nelson, where a quarterly account is published, signed by the SubTreasurer, or Collector of Customs. It is very desirable that the same should be the case here, as we are completely in the dark on the subject, and have no means of ascertaining what our revenue is, and what proportion the Provincial expenditure bears to it. Your insertion of these remarks will, I trust, have the effect of bringing about this great desideratum, and will oblige, Sir, Your obedient servant, A Qiiat-maw. Lyttelton, March 9th,|lSs3.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times, Sib,—l am sure every Canterbury Colonist will heartily thank " A Land-purchaser" for his able exposi. of Mr. Sewell's letter, and I think that gentleman will find it rather difficult to answer him satisfactorily. There are, however, one or two passages in " Land-purchaser's" letter which appear to me open to misapprehension, and which, I doubt not, a little consideration .'would *: induce him to word differently; I allude, principally, to the reference he makes to our Ecclesiastical and Educational establishments. For, I would most earnestly repudiate the idea that the clergy have the sole, or even the primary, interest in the well-being of the Ecclesiastical establishment. On the contrary,- it is essentially and peculiarly the property of every colonist, endowed by ourselves, out of our own property for the benefit of ourselves and our posterity, and we have a right to see that the money so advanced be laid out in accordance with our original intentions. I think, therefore, that " a Land-purchaser" will agree with me, that the Bishop's Commissaries stand in the position of our clerical representatives, and are only fulfilling their duty to their fellow-churchmen in seeing that whatever belongs to our establishment be duly paid to it; and it is most unfair to a body of men, such as our clergy are, whose interests and sympathies are identical with our own, that they should be placed in a position so invidious as Mr. Sewell's proposition involves them in. " Divide et Impera": is so obviously the policy of a party conscious of having mismanaged a trust, thai we should cautiously avoid anything

tending to promote jealousy or disagreement among ourselves ; the more so as it will, 1 suspect, require all our united strength (as Mr. Wakefield has kindly hinted) to extract the jewel Truth from the tenacious grasp of our friend " the Constitutional Lawyer." As the appropriation of the interest of the Bishopric fund money (amounting to £600 per annum derived from the rents accruing from the public property held in trust by the Association), to the payment of the already guaranteed salaries of the clergy and schoolmasters, seems to have been thrown as an apple of discord amongst us, I think it may not be uninteresting to review the origin and progress of that little episode in our colonial history. It is, I believe, pretty generally understood that the Government insisted on £10,000, in cash, being deposited in the hands of the Trustees of the Colonial Bishopric Fund before they would agree to appoint a Bishop of Canterbury. By some means, at present unknown to the generality of the public, this sum has been borrowed by the Association, who have given, as security, a mortgage to the amount of £600 per annum on what they assume to be their real property in Canterbuiy. Now, if the mortgagees are really the Trustees of the Colonial Bishopric Fund, and they hold the deed of mortgage under the seal of the Association, it was clearly their business to see that the property mortgaged was really th c property of the Canterbury Association. If it is not so (as I have endeavoured to prove in former letters), then, though the Trustees may have their action.against the Association for fraud-—yet the deed itself must be invalid. At least, so far as that the Canterbury Association has no right permanently to burden the lands in question with the payment of it. While the Association continues in power (which can only rightly be as long as it fulfils its engagements with the land-purchasers and Government), it can, of course, pay the interest, but it cannot force that liability on its successor, the Provincial Council. What power Mr. Sewell has to appropriate the £600 per annum, set apart for the Bishop, to the payment of the salaries of the other Clergy is best known to himself. As long, however, as the Association chooses to hold the reins of power, there are two points, I think, we have a right to insist upon. First, that the survey department shall be kept in a sufficient state of*efficiency to put every holder of a land order into legal possession of his land, and to collect and manage the pasturage rents, &c\, &c; and, secondly" that the funds necessary for the carrying on of our ■ Ecclesiastical and Educational Establishments, at least as effectively as at present, shall be forthcoming. If to this it is answered that the funds are

exhausted, the Association should be ready to shew that they have been fairly and equally divided amongst the different funds, and this full exposition of accounts is due, I maintain, to us as Land Purchasers by virtue, not only of the repeated verbal promises made to us to that effect, but, also, of the assurance contained ; in the Canterbury Papers—documents acknow- j ledged to have issued from the Committee of Management. With regard to the insinuations against Mr. Godley, I shall say nothing further (as they have been so effectually disposed of by my friend, the Landpurchaser) than that Mr. Sewell need not expect them to be listened to for a moment by any Canterbury colonist, until they are shewn to rest on some other foundation than his singularly evasive and unsatisfactory letter. I am, Sir, your's &c, Z. Y. X. Christchurch, March 7, 1853. P.S. I was glad to see in your last that you had been informed that "No intention was ever entertained to dispose of the Town Reserves." Curious—that Mr. Godley should have had them laid out in ten-acre sections with the avowed inteution of offering them on 21 years' leases the ensuing week, when he was checked by the earnest remonstrance of some of our townsmen ! Doubtless the letter or despatch to which he referred us, and which, I believe, was seen by several now in the colony, giving him directions to raise the wind on the reserved lands by sale, or otherwise—must have been a forgery!

Tothe Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —You are pleased to observe that the Settlement has been seized with " Caeoethes scribendi,"a complaint I rejoice to find so prevalent, seeing that it is called forth by an event which justifies the most watchful attention on the part of the public. That it may increase and inoculate every one is my very particular wish, as it is only when great principles are in question that the cerebral faculties are brought fully into play, and we really gather what vovs the Settlement possesses. I am not, however, about to run a tilt at Mr. Sewell; that I leave to others (and their name seems to be legion)/ who, to allow them full justice, seem quite prepared to jam him into a corner and pummel him without mercy. He is not, at present, in the place, and I think that fact should induce a little moderation. " Hit him hard—he has no friends," is a principle I should loathe to see gain ground here. To the question, however, on which I wish to make a few observations. The letter of a " Land Purchaser,'' able as it is, and to the point, would nevertheless have been more so, and have obtained a larger amount of commendation, had it not aimed an indirect blow at the Clergy. A "Land Purchaser" may disclaim this imputation, but when he asserts that Mr. Godley's arrangements are to be upset because " some half-dozen Clergymen have complained that they hadbeen informed there was not money enough to pay them," he obviously infers that had they not, in a spirit of self-interest, so complained, we should have heard nothing of the present commotion. This is neither fair nor complimentary to the public at large, who have an equal stake wi,£h the Clergy in seeing that the money, arising/^from Educational and Ecclesiastical endowments, should not be diverted from its legitimate channels to flow into any other, however desirable that maybe. Education must not be stopped, and the youth of the colony kept in ignorance, even though some inconvenience may arise from the partial closing of that admirable department, —the Survey. Of two evils, the latter is the least, even putting aside the consideration (a great one) that the funds are derived from the sources of the former. There is a large and rapidly increasing juvenile population springing up around, and it is of infinitely more importance that education and the great principles of the Gospel should be instilled into their minds, than that swamps should be drained and our resources applied to making mud roads. I may be wrong, but this is my opinion. I have no personal interest in the question, for I am unincumbered, and revel in the misery of bachelordom. No olive branches clamber round my knees, and lisp the endearing name of " Papa." I write, therefore, in an absolute spirit of disinterestedness. I said, at the commencement, that T would leave to others the task of dealing with Mr.

Sewell's letter. I would now gently submit that there is an " aliter ego," who is the fans et origo of every scheme ; Mr. Sewell is but " Proxinras htric, longo sed proximns inteivallo," and all the shafts of epistledom should not be reserved to shoot at him. I beg to subscribe myself, Sir, Your obedient servant, A^ti-Besedict. The Plains, March 9th, 1853.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —On Saturday .last after dinner I took up your journal, and searched for the promised letter of W. W., wishing to gain a \vrinkle vf from the experience of that great horticulturist for the. benefit of" Flora Garden," the model section of West Christchurch, and the envied property of your humble servant. I did not at first discover the desired letter, and I concluded that the gardener had been jostled out of the paper, and pushed into next week by the numerous correspondents who occupied your columns. There were Pilgrims, Land-purchasers, Colonists, et hoc genus omne ; some criticizing an Address, and shewing little address in their criticisms ; some denouncing a mysterious stranger, who recently quitted Lyttelton, leaving a most unsatisfactory letter at his lodgings. There was The Colonel, like the Wizard of the North, calling attention to the Illusion, the Grand Experiment, which he had the honor of exhibiting to the Canterbury Association in August '50. By the bye, who has been altering the Colonel's letters, cramping his style, refining his grammar, condensing his ideas into short matter-of-fact sentences as plain and intelligible as the book of Proverbs ? The original style was an ornament to your columns, where I have seen —yes, seen and measured— thirty-seven inches of type hanging from the nominative case of a strong substantive before the verb came up to the support; at last it arrived, an active-looking verb, fully entitled to govern something, and as anxious to do so as the Colonel, separated by eight lines of parenthesis from the noun which it governed, and unable to see its subject.

The gardener's signature at last caught my eye, and I perused his account of the harvest. His jokes upon the had weather were positively cruel; his pleasantry was bitter when he mentioned "the present delightful harvest weather"—so very likely to produce a flood, thought I—while the continued pattering sound of the rain upon the windows had its usual influence, and I fell asleep. Suddenly I was in Covent Garden, near the door of the theatre, and it was raining there. The hour was late, the performance of " The Critic" had just concluded, and Puff without change of dress or character, stepped from the theatre into the market. Mr. Puff first visited an emigration oflice in the Adelphi, where.he left a speech for the Chairman of the next meeting-—also three letters received from settlers, who were making rapid iortunes in the new Colony. He then returned' to, CovM?t Garden and joined Mr. Bucket, a nurseryman from Fulham, when the following colloquy ensued :— Bucket. Rayther cold this weather for harvest, Mr, Puff I Puff. A diminution of temperature, Sir, most beneficial to vegetation, checking the pre- . mature germination of the grain before its separation from the parent stem: agriculturists should be happy, in this climate. Bucket. But\when a farmer has a determined bad harvest— Puff. Persuade'him that he has a good one: if the farm fails, tlie garden probably succeeds - r mix both together :, for example, " The wheat 1 crop would be very respectable if it was not smutty ; barley is d very fair crop considering y oats, allowing for, circumstances, also a fair crop; potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, mangold wnrzel, luxuriant everything." Here are tiventy-three reports of a favourable harvest in as many counties, which I composed this^ morning for a daily paper: in this weather, Sir, my services are in great request. Your advertisement will appear in to-morrow's papers :~i( George Bucket, Improver of Estates, Landscape Gardener, and Ornamental Architect. Between two and three millions of fruit-trees of most esteemed varieties. Vine?ries, Greenhouses, and Conservatories, not exceeding the length of the Crystal Palace" (a

judicious limitation); finishing with— SN, B. About forty miles of iron hurdles." Bucket. Kayther strong that, Mr. Puff. Puff. Not at all, sir, not at all. Your advertisement will introduce you to the aristocracy of gardeners and amateur farmers; your own ingenuity must maintain your position. Invent novelties; new ideas in your trade are always lucrative. Chemical principles are fast going out of fashion ; recommend a new system of manur* on rules of natural affinity and congenial nutriment—seaweed for seakale— Bucket, (inquiringly) Cowdung for cowcuml>ers ? Puff- Precisely: horse manure for horse radish, bone-dust for marrowfats, ashes for coleseed; thus assimilating natural properties. The idea is novel; whenthat idea is used up another will be forthcoming to establish your credit in the world of vegetable science. My assistance is most valuable in your line of business: it is painful, sir, to imagine the suicides of des- ., perate farmers and desponding gardeners which mustensue_,if my encouragement is wanting. Mr. Puff continued, as we descended the steps leading to Mr. Evans's supper room. Kidneys and roasted potatoes were in my thoughts: the jingling of glasses and rattling of plates were distinctly audible : somebody was ordered io " open the door" as we approached the entrance, the order was repeated in a louder tone; then the door was opened, and in came my wife with the tea things. I had been dreaming—tut Puff is right; gardeners cannot do without him. I am, &c, Spareowgkass. Flora Garden, March 10,1553.