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Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 115, 19 March 1853, Page 8

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times,

Sir, —I think that Mr. Fitzgerald's communication, able as it is, fails to point out the Aveakest part of Mr. Sewell's letter. That gentleman, it Avould seem, Avishes it to be believed that the Canterbury Association (represented by Captain Simeon and himself) is ready to continue the salaries of the clergy and schoolmasters out of the moneys properly due from the Ecclesiastical fund to that object, and Avhich were being misappropriated by Mr. Godley. This appears to me, to be at the most only partly true. With the exception of the £400 from the pasturage rents, and about £170 from the school, I do not see any funds which the Association has to pay to the Church.

The £600 a-year is not the Association's to give, but is the interest payable to the Colonial Bishopric fund, the trustees of Avhich have, of course, a right to apply it in any way they may think best, consistent with their trust Avithout consulting the Association. If the Association have a right to mortgage the reserves at all, I do not see there is any thing in the Letters Patent (which alone mention such a poAver) limiting the disposal of the interest of the mortgage in any way the mortgagees choose. Suppose for a moment we take it for granted that the Agent's House, Barracks, &c, Avith the land they stand on, are the real and personal property of the Association. The letters patent give them the power (see p. 58 of the Canterbury papers) " to sell, alienate, mortgage, charge, or otherwise dispose of the property as well real as personal of the'said body corporate as they shall think proper." Suppose the Association had borrowed money from some private individual (as has I believe been done), would not that individual have a full right either to pocket the interest himself, or give it to any of our funds he chose—without asking Avhether the property on which the mortgage had been effected was purchased by the Miscellaneous or Educational Fund? And it is no ansAver to say the money was reserved for an Ecclesiastical purpose ; it Avas reserved for a special purpose, and therefore as much removed from the controul of the general Ecclesiastical fund as if it had been set apart to endow the King of the Cannibal Islands.

It seems to me to be little short of humbug to talk as if the Association Avas keeping its engagements with the Clergy, Avhen Mr. SeAvell on the part of the Bishopric" Fund gives them the £600 per annum interest. At the best it is but robbing Peter to pay Paul. Mr. Fitzgerald will, I hope, excuse these remarks on his othenvise admirable letter, originating possibly in a misapprehension of his meaning, and T trust your readers Avill not consider me intrusive if I endeavour again to impress upon them Avhat I think ought to be the first object of the Colonists to attain, viz., to ascertain Avhat is, or rather what is not, the real property of the .Canterbury Association here. The Letters Patent, as Aye have seen, give the Association power to hold real and personal property in New Zealand. But as until the passing of the 2nd Act it could not convey land to itself, and there being no other body in Canterbury having power to sell waste lands, the Association did not up to that period hold any real property in this Settlement. I have been informed that Mr. SeAvell now says, that the Association had power by the Ist Act to reserve. land Avhich afterwards by the 2nd Act they received power to specially appropriate and convey to themselves as a body corporate. Thus drawing a distinction between the words reserve and appropriate. Such, at least I imagine, is his argument; a little consideration Avill, I think, shew its unsoundness.

The words reserve and appropriate describe the same action viewed from different points. The land is reserved from the public by bein°appropriated to a special public purpose. Fotthere is no power anywhere given the Association to reserve land generally, but it must alAvays be for some specified purpose. Althouo-h the 10th clause in the 2nd Act seems to allow that purpose to he altered at a future time. The Bth clause of the 2nd Act states '' that it shall be lawful for the said Association .* « # to reserve and appropriate for any of the purposes to which the funds of the said Association are by the said Letters Patent made applicable any part or parts of the hind in the settlement being at the lime unsold and unappropriated."

To "reserve and appropriate" is evidently

used to describe a continuous action, and that the terms are considered as convertible ones, in the public documents relating to the Association, I shall presently shew.

The words " unsold and unappropriated" refer, I hold, to the only two Avays in which the Association are empowered permanently to dispose of the lands under their charge, viz., sale and reservation, and if it be so, the lands in dispute having, unquestionably, been reserved and appropriated long previous to the 2nd Act, cannot noAV be legally r^-reserved and appropriated by the Association, and consequently cannot be mortgaged, let or sold.

If your readers will turn to the 228 page of the Canterbury Papers, they -will find in the Ist division of the 2nd clause of the Ist Act, " That with the exception of such land as has already been or may hereafter be selected by the Agent of the Association for the site of the capital town, and of harbour and port towns, and of such lands as may be reserved by the Association for works of the public utility under the terms of purchase hereinbefore mentioned, &c., &c." Now turn to any one of the three first Terms of Purchase," and read tAvo of the later clauses, the only ones (with the exception of the 2nd, referring to the site of the capital) alluding to the poAver of reservation. In the Ist Terms, it is the 31 and 32 clauses, in the tAvo others the 29th and 30th.

The Ist of these speaks of appropriating lands for roads. The 2nd says, " The Association reserves to itself the right of selecting and appropriating all such lands in the ports and harbours of the settlement as may be required for wharfs, landing places, jetties, and other objects of public utility and convenience." Is not this "selecting and appropriating" Avhat is referred to in the clause of the Act I have just quoted by the term " reserved," and am I not right in saying the two terms are used to describe the same act ? If so, lioav is it possible, in the face of the Bth clause, to say that the 2nd Act is retrospective, and enables the Association to convey to itself lands long before reserved and appropriated. It is useless to say that such conveyance is necessary to enable the Association properly to manage such property,—as the 10th clause of the 2nd Act gives the Association power (if it had not it before) to occupy and build on public land without paying for it. It is, therefore, evident that such conveyance has only been made in order that the Committee of Management might have a convenient method of securing the payment of their debts. I think it behoves the Colonists to enquire strictly as to the legality of these transactions; for should they pass unquestioned, they may (I do not say they Avill) be used as a poAverful engine to force us to take the responsibilities of the Can-terbury-Association on ourselves Avhether Aye will or no; and it is useless for Mr. Sewell to say " there is no intention of disposing of the Town reserves," for should the vieAV of the case attributed to him be right, and the Colonists be unable or unAvilling to take the Association's debt, who is to prevent the Association's creditors enforcing their sale—especially where mortgages have been effected on them ? Besides, the ToAvn Keserves are ours by right, Avhy then should we owe them to Mr. Sewell's forbearance? I Avould have ansAvered Zeno's last letter did not the unwarrantable length of this Avarn me to conclude—and I will only beg him, if he thinks there Avas any appearance of undue assumption on my part in my former letters, to forgive it: as I can assure him nothing Avas further from my intention than to pretend to any knoAvledge on the subject but such as any one might obtain Avho took the trouble to read the different papers referring to it. And further, I should be very sorry if, in Avhat I have Avritten, I should seem to have forgotten the debt of gratitude Aye OAve to those good and disinterested men Avho formed the Committee of Management, or that I thought for a moment there Avas any intention on their part.to wrong the Colonists they had induced to emigrate. No, I fully believe their errors (and they are neither feAV nor small,) are errors of judgment only. But I consider the crowning blunder of all, Avas the entrusting themselves too implicitly to the guidance of another, instead of exercising their own conscience and judgment in an affair so important as the founding a neAV colony. I am, Sir, Z. Y. X. _ Christchurch, March 16, 1853.