THE NEW SETTLEMENTS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, 13 January 1844, Page 384

THE NEW SETTLEMENTS.

One of the first beneficial results of the improved understanding between the Government and the New Zealand Company is the permission which the latter has obtained to plant its new settlements wherever it may think proper, subject only to the approbation of the Local Government. When Mr. Rennie, about sixteen months since, brought forward his scheme for establishing a settlement at Port Cooper, Lord Stanley objected to the further colonization of this island ; his permission, therefore, to select that spot as the site for New Edinburgh, is conclusive evidence that the petty jealousies between the Home Government and the Company, which have hitherto been the curse of the southern settlements, no longer exist. Mr. Rennie's plan, with certain modifications, is consequently revived, and active measures have been taken to carry it into immediate effect. The prospectus which the Company has issued will show the main features of the plan. The following are the only novelties it presents : —

" The Company offers for sale 120,550 acres of selected land in the proposed settlement of New Edinburgh, upon the following terms : — " 2. The land shall be divided into 550 acres for the town, 20,000 for suburban lots, and 100,000 for rural lots.

" The town land shall be divided into 2,200 lots of a quarter acre each; the suburban land into 2,000 lots of 10 acres each ; and the rural land into 2,000 lots of 50 acres each.

" There shall be reserved, free of charge, as a property for the future municipal corporation of the town, 200 town lots.

" One town lot, one suburban lot, and one rural lot shall constitute a single property. " There shall be reserved for the Company 200 properties. " The remaining 1,800 properties are hereby offered for sale at the price of £120 for each property." " 6. It is contemplated that, in addition to the reserves to be made by the Company for itself and for the corporation, the Local Government will make such further reserves for the natives, and for public purposes, as it may see fit.

" 7. The priority of choice in selecting the lands comprised in each property shall be determined by lot, for the Company's and corporation's reserves, as well as for the properties belonging to purchasers. The ballot for priority of choice will be so arranged that any party purchasing two or more properties may, with respect to rural lots only, take them in a contiguous block, provided that notice in writing of his wish to that effect be given to the Company three clear days previous to the drawing, and provided that such right of choice shall not extend to land on both sides of any river or main road. " 8. The purchase-moneys to be received, viz., £216,000, shall be disposed of as follows :—: — £54,000 to the Company, as the price of the land, at 10s. per acre. 30,000 for surveys ana other expenses of founding the settlement. 81,000 for emigration. 26,000 for roads, bridges, and other improvements. 5,000 as a church building-fund. 10,000 as an endowment for ministers. 10,000 as a school-fund, for building and masters. £216,000 "11. The Company undertakes not to dispose of its lands, in the case of any future settlement, at a price which shall yield to the Company itself less than 10s. per acre, as charged in the present case, in addition to the proportions of the purchase-money to be applied to special purposes." The increase in the price of land to £2 per acre may be regarded by some as a measure of questionable policy. However, as the allotments will be^imaU, we do not

think that it -will be found to operate injuriously. The reduction in the size of the town sections is a decided improvement; and the reservation of 200 lots for municipal purposes is a wise and liberal provision. The former plan of native reserves it will be seen is not adhered to, the Local Government being left to make such as it may think proper. These and other changes show that consideration has been given to the subject, and that the experience of the past has not been lost. The following extracts are from the Company's despatch to Colonel Wakefield : —

" The site for the New Edinburgh settlement is that which you will have to determine first. In making this choice, the Directors wish you to bear in mind that the leaders of the Scottish colony are very desirous to establish themselves in the Middle Island, of whose natural resources they have formed a high opinion. According to their present information, they seem to prefer Port Cooper to any other place. If you should agree with them as to the superior eligibility of that spot, the Directors trust that you may be able to secure the requisite quantity of land in that locality. But if this should not happen, or if you should be of opinion that Port Cooper is not the most eligible spot, you must never forget the essential importance of obtaining a good harbour at such a distance from any other settlement as to secure to New Edinburgh the benefits of its own emigration fond. • * • •

" Captain Wakefield so very much prefers the plan of surveying by contract to that of employing salaried surveyors, and appears to find it so easily managed, that the Directors hope you may be able to pursue the former method. They, however, leave the choice to your judgment. But you must, at all events, take care that the work is intrusted only to the most efficient hands, selected, if you should find it desirable, from any of the Company's settlements.

" I am desired to point out to you the expediency of commencing the survey at New Edinburgh with the suburban lands, after irrevocably determining the site of the town. By this means, land for cultivation will be the sooner got ready for the agricultural settlers with small capital, of which the Scotch colony will principally consist ; and the division of the town site into streets, &c, may take place after the first colonists 6hall have been put in possession of their suburban lots. * *

" Although the leaders of the Scotch colony are very desirous of leaving this country at the end of October next, the Directors imagine that it will not be in their power to do so, and even that a sufficient number may not be ready to depart before the ensuing spring; and, indeed, it seems desirable that not less than six months should elapse between your receipt of these instructions and the arrival of any considerable number of settlers. At the same time, the Directors would impress upon you the necessity of prompt and vigorous measures for getting the suburban land at New Edinburgh ready for occupation with the least possible delay."

The New Edinburgh settlement appears to be highly popular in Scotland. Its originator, Mr. Rennie, has published an Address to Scotch Farmers, which, being a strong appeal to their prejudices, is admirably adapted to forward his object. After adverting to his father's connexion 7 with the agriculture of Scotland, he says —

" At a time when every body is complaining, you are perhaps more severely pinched than any set of men above the mere class of labourers. There may be exceptions ; but, as a body, you have not for many years been able to lay anything past. If you can, by pinching and sparing, make both ends meet at the end of the year, it is as much as any of you can do, and more, it is to be feared, than most of you have done.

" If you will but reflect upon your position, the cause of this is easy enough to be seen. It is not hard harvests, nor worn-out soils, nor spoiled markets ; and if it be in part from high Tents, these rents are themselves not the cause of your condition, but merely one of the effects or symptoms of that cause. "The truth is that there are more of you want farms than can get farms. If any one of you who has had the luck to get one were to give up his farm to-morrow, the landlord would be beset by a dozen applicants, each offering a rent quite as high, if not higher, before nightfall. You know this, and therefore stick to your farms, you that have got them; though you complain, and with truth, that it is a losing business.

" Every year makes matters worse, for every year young men of your class are coming to that time of life when they look round them with a view to set up for themselves. Every year adds to the number of farm wanters. Either a great many must go (without, or the size of the farms must be diminished — one must be split up into several. " They may dispute elsewhere about the superior advantages of large or small farms, but we know in Scotland, by experience, that a tolerable-sized farm, managed by a tenant with some capital, and a number of decent cottars working for wages on it, is a better arrangement for all parties than when each cottar was the laird's tenant, scratching his field or two to little purpose without capital or skiH. " We know by experience that our Scotch

system of good-sized farms, held by leases, is better for all parties than the old system; and, if you look to your present position, you cannot fail to see that, by the mere operation of your own successive numbers, you are in great danger of falling back into something nearly as bad as the old one. It is a duty you owe both to yourselves and children to struggle against this backsliding manfully. " Some might say—' Why stick to farming i Why not try some other occupation ?' " It would be easy to show that the same overstocking will be found to prevail in all occupations in this country; and that, if any of you were from farmers to become merchants,* or manufacturers, or tradesmen, you would only increase competition (already excessive) in the profession you choose, without benefitting yourself, or materially relieving those who continued farmers. " But there are other and better reasons for your wishing not to give up the farminfj trade : you have been bred to it and understand it, and are not so certain that you could understand another. You have been bred Scotch farmers —accustomed all your lives to live among Scotchmen— and are not sure, even if you could get farms in England or Ireland, that you would feel comfortable among people whose ways are so different. Like the matron in the scriptures, you doubt whether you could feel happy if you cease to * dwell among your own people.' You are averse to the riskful anxieties of trade; you wish to pass through life cultivating your fields, pursuing a healthy occupation m the open air; you wish to have it in your power to indulge from time to time in our national sports; you wish to live under a decent minister, and you wish your children to have 'decent schooling,' as you had before^ them. " These wishes are natural and creditable to you. The scheme of life you chalk, out for I yourselves, if attainable, is a wise and prudent I one. And it is attainable. " If there are not farms enough for all here, there is land enough and to spare in the colonies. Though any one of you, who was merely to cross the border and Bettle down there, would feel himself among a strange people and strange ways, that need not be the case if a number of us resolve to go together, and sit down neighbourly in a new country where we may make our own arrangements. Iris not our hills and glens alone that make Scotland. It is our kirk, I our schools, the homely Scotch tongue, ihej bonspiel, the market — in short, all onr Scotch) ways. In any climate nearly approaching to! our own, a knot of us can make at any time a Scotland for ourselves." j The address, which is of considerable! length, points out the advantages which, industrious and intelligent farmers, with moderate capital, may realize, and refers! them for further information to the Edin-' burgh committee, in the list of whom are the names of the Lord Provost, the Right, Hon. Fox Maule, M.P., W. Gibson Craig,; Esq., M.P., P. M. Stewart, Esq., M.P., and several other gentlemen of the highest respectability. The " Church of England Settlement," we hear, is to be on a larger scale than any of its predecessors, but the plan is not likely to be matured before the spring.