Page 4 Advertisements Column 2

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 138, 27 August 1853, Page 4

As a.last resource, the Association then resolved to transfer their functions at once to the.Canterbury province, of course with the following slight condition ; namely, "to adopt and make provision for the Association's outstanding liabilities; amongst which they will reckon any sums which, under the proceedings instituted by the Company agaiust the guarantees, may be found ultimately due." Here they thought they had done the trick completely;—by a mere sleight of hand, shift the debt and liabilities on to the shoulders of the land-owners of the Province ; let them find the money; and all will be right. But this most honourable Association again reckoned without their host; the assent of Her Majesty's Government had here also to be obtained to the transaction, and Sir John Pakington, to his infinite credit, refused it, with a quiet intimation that they had better pay their debts first. As the Association could not pay, he extinguished them ; for which act alone, and for thereby sweeping away the Selfe and Sewell clique that were to be quartered on the province, and the rest of the home jobbers that were to fatten at the Adelphi, Sir John Pakington is entitled to the warmest gratitude of the whole body of Canterbury settlers. Now comes the cream of the joke ; for such transactions seem hardly credible as mere matter of fact. When Sir John Pakington had decided to put an end to this precious set of repudiators; out comes Lord Lyttelton with the following pleasant intimation :— " With reference to the points at issue between the Association and the New Zealand Company, it was impossible for the Committee with the conviction they had of the paramount importance of investing the colonists with the powers they had themselves hitherto exercised, to delay that proceeding (of the transfer) till these points had been settled. The Committee could not suppose that their proceedings were in any way unfair towards the Company, nor in prejudice of their pecuniary claims ; for, as a matter of course, the rights both of the Crown and the Company were distinctly reserved in the Act; and the remedy of the Company would be, in fact, much more effectual against the colony, which is fully able to bear any charge that may be placed upon it, than against the Association, which has no resources to meet any charge." Thank you, Lord Lyttelton! We did not until now know that the Canterbury province was to pay for your failures as well as for those of the New Zealand Company; nor were we before aware of one little fact of which you acquaint Sir John Pakington, at the last moment; namely, that Mr. Henry Sewell, the " gentleman who is always in a hurry," and who, probably, on that account, is not Attorney-General of the Canterbury province—had come out here as the Special Agent of the Association, to make the settlers pay their debts ; and who before leaving England, protested against the Association's being extinguished, on the ground, that "it was doing all in its power, by causing the debts to be undertaken by the colony ; an effort which would be defeated if Sir John Pakington's intentions were put in force." Of course it will, now that the colonists know that they were trafficked in by the learned gentleman. But the correspondence on the part of the late Colonial Minister stands out in bright relief amid all the trickery which he had to fence off. But, after this, how is it possible for a new ministry to recklessly undo what has been so wisely done by its predecessors. But perhaps the above will also explain how it is that the prime movers and active Agents of the Canterbury Association came to emigrate in a hurry. Though these curious doings have necessitated me to run into greater length than I intended ; and though I refrain for the present from touching upon other matters ; yet I ought still to allude to what may also one day find its way into a Blue Book; namely, another bit of jobbing on the part-.of the Committee of the Canterbury Association. It is well known that, about a year ago, a number of town sites in Christchurch and Lyttelton, as likewise several sections of rural land in various parts of the Canterbury block, were by Mr. Godley, aided by Mr. Brittan, supposed to be sold, or conveyed to the Church., No money was received or paid on the occasion. Now, the fact is, this was an attempt to conceal that a large sum of money which had accumulated in the Committee's hands from land-sales, and belonging to the Church, which,could, legally, be only applied to church or scholastic purposes, had been misapplied by the Committee; and thus the Church was to h-.ive pawned upon it, in place of much-