THE CANTERBURY BONDS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 123, 14 May 1853, Page 10

THE CANTERBURY BONDS.

[From the Australian and New Zealand Gazette.]

We have received a communication from Mr: Adderley, in which he informs us that Mr. Selfe would reply to our wish of stating more generally the relations of the Canterbury Association with their colonists. That gentleman has done so in a long letter.

Mr. Adderley, in a private note to ourselves, stated a ground for the non-payment of the bonds, which we cannot but wish that Lord Lyttelton had given to the Times and Herald. We subsequently requested Mr. Adderley's permission to make use of a portion of this note, as he himself was too busily occupied with his Parliamentary duties to enter fully into the matter. The permission was at once granted, and we append the portion of the letter alluded to. ,

"You speak of two advances of £25,000, the first such sum being in no respect an advance by the Company, but an amount of shares of land sales, guaranteed by four bondsmen to the Company, which liability the bondsmen never have repudiated in any possible sense. On the contrary, they contest they have paid all that is due—-that is,, that the Company has received ail that was guaranteed to them ; if not, they confess themselves bound, That is no repudiation."

Why could not Lord Lyttelton hare made this simple and straightforward statement to the Times and Herald, in place of his discourteous brevity ? Tibe ■ tiring, by Mr. Addeiiey's statement is clear enough. The New Zealand Company, having received over the amount of the guaranteed land sales, has put down the bonds to th^ account of money lent, which the bondsmen contend is not what was intended on their part. If they be wrong, and the law compel them to fulfil bonds under such conditions, they are willing to do so, and not otherwise. The%yfnments. of the Times, Herald, and ourselves, were based on the New Zealand Company's version, as given in their report, and this should have been contradicted in another mode than by general denial. There are grounds, then, for the bondsmen going to law ; and now, knowing those grounds from Mr. Aclderley's statement, we have not the slightest hesitation in admitting that we, in commonwith our contemporaries, erred from ignorance of those grounds, which were not permitted to come before the public, though an adverse version was before it. For this Lord Lyttelton can only blame himself. Public journalists can only take things as they find them.

We can now understand the admission of Mr. Few, the solicitor to the New Zealand Company, in stating that he preferred going to law rather than to arbitration ; as an arbiter " might attach weight" where a judge would not. We confess we thought the admission a strange one, as we had an idea that an equity judge would deliberately weigh all circumstances in opposition to law, which judges not so nicely. We do not see why any false delicacy should have prevented Lord Lyttelton from making known the exact state of the case, even though it were his own. To prejudge'a criminal case, would be both un-English and indecorous. But a civil one is a different affair, especially when the integrity of the litigants is called in question. We have no hesitation, if we have erred from ignorance, in retrieving our error on principle, and we have no doubt our contemporaries, after Mr. Adderley's statement, will follow our example.

SIR RODERIC MURCHISOJST AND THE REV. MR. CLARKE. Most of our readers have heard of the Rev. •G> Mr. Clarke, of Sydney, and his geological investigations in Australia. Years before gold was known to exist in any quantity in the colony of New South Wales, Mr. Clarke had given it as his opinion that the precious metal existed in great abundance, even pointing out the localities, for which he was laughed at by all except one man, who, taking the hint, contrived to bring down an occasional lump of gold to the Sydney jewellers, but he made a secret as to where he got it, and no one thought it worth while further to investigate the matter. "*• The discoveries of Mr. Clarke—for he actually produced the gold years ago—were duly forwarded home to learned geologists, Sir Boderic amongst the number,—Mr. Clarke being a member of the London Geological Society. Mr. Clarke kept on predicting the mineral wealth of Australia, especially from its sU milarity to the Russian gold districts, taking care to confirm his predictions as he went along by actual successful explorations. In short, the reasonings and pickings up of Mr. Clarke became so clear, that Sir Roderic Murchison appears to have thought that he might as well turn gold prophet too, whether on the strength of Mr. Clarke's communications we will not say here, but it is certain that Sir Roderic was in possession of these before he turned prophet on his own account. This took place more particularly in two addresses to geological societies, and in a communication which he made to Earl Grey, urging upon the ministry the exploration of* Australia in search of gold. In these communications Sir Roderic appears never to have mentioned the name of his informant, Mr. Clarke .-—the prediction, as the latter gentleman had foretold long before Sir Roderic had opened his lips on the subject, has turned out to be true, and Sir Roderic has been trumpeted forth from one end of the kingdom to the other as a prophet surpassing all others from Balaam to Mother Shipton. As soon as Mr. Clarke knew of this, he modestly put in his claim to a share of the credit, seeing that it originated solely with him, and in no degree with Sir Roderic Murchison. Some of the partisans of the latter gentleman Were indignant that Mr. Clarke should lay claim to his own prophecies, and at once engaged in the very amiable task of writing down the real prophet. Mr. Clarke was not likely to submit to this in addition to the appropriation of his predictions, and he at once put the matter beyond the shadow of a doubt, in the minds of .all but Sir Roderic Murchison himself, who h'as, v writr, t , ten to Mr. Clarke an ungracious letter.' And how does Sir Roderic vindicate his assumed powers of prophecy?—By sneering at Mr. Clarke, after a geological fashioi .erhaps, but not after a very logical one. v Although you have trodden on my toe" says Sir Roderic, " I will give you some credit." Why did not Sir Roderic do this before ? Again, says the -great geologist, " I have as much credit here as you have in Australia."—Sir Roderic should have added, "Thanks to you for it, as far as .gold prophecy is concerned." Sir Roderic attempts to convict Mr. Clarke of ignorance in what he has written about the gold mines of the Ural mountains,—and why ? Because, to avoid circumlocution, Mr. Clarke has spoken of the Russian mines generally under this denomination. I do not subscribe to your theory (for such it is)," says Sir Roderic, " but I will speak of you as an exploring geologist worthy of every praise and encouragement."—" Your Silurian discovery will enable me to introduce you with flying colours in a little work I am about to publish," &c, &c. So Mr. Clarke is a discoverer after all, and Sir Roderic will condescend to patronize him. Mr. Clarke, aided at the last moment by Mr. Hargraves, has simply made the two greatest geological discoveries which have been made in the Southern Hemisphere. One of these Sir Roderic has no objection to give him credit for, y but on the other rests his prophetical reputation, so, practically, he will condescend to go shares with him in his own discoveries. When we were at school, we have seen two boys with an apple each, and a bigger boy who had no property whatever in the apples teaching the lesser lads how to share them more scientifically than simply having one apiece. " There," says the big boy,—" there is one for you tivo, and one ]

for me too." The little fellows stare in amazement at the logic, which they cannot comprehend, though at first sight it seems plausible,— they, however, wonder most at how the big boy, who had no apples at all, became possessed of a whole one to himself. Much after this fashion is Sir Roderic's reasoning. Thus, there happen to be two geological discoverers in Australia— Mr. Hargraves as well as Mr. Clarke. " There," says Sir Roderic in effect—" there is the Salurian discovery for you two, and there is the gold prophecy for me too. Don't you see the reasonableness of the thing?" We will venture a prediction;—and that is, that Sir Roderic owes it no less to his own reputation than to that of Mr. Clarke, to state the matter to the English public as it really is; and—that he will do so.—Australian and New Zealand Gazette.