CAPABILITIES AND PROSPECTS OF NEW ZEALAND. (From Fraser's Magazine, Jan., 1849.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 333, 26 July 1849, Page 3

CAPABILITIES AND PROSPECTS OF NEW ZEALAND. (From Frasers Magazine, Jan., 1 849.)

We (rust that this fine and interesting portion of our distant possessions will continue to receive a large measure of attention, and thnt its progressive colonizition will be narrowly and zealously watched. It comprehends, in extraordinary abundance, all the requisite* ior a long career of happiness and progrehs, aud presents to noble minds and generous natures objects not leis exalted than exciting. In material resources it is, perhaps, supei ior to any of our colonial possessions. \ It contains an abundance of fertile land, many navigable rivers, deep and capacious bays, admirable harbours, possesses a climate in many respects resembling that of Great Biitair, and u adorned by scenery of surpassing magnificence. No colony of the British | empire offers, at the present tune, so m<iny attractions to an educated, intelligent, and enterprising emigrant. We know that H has proved peculiarly attractive to many who rejoice in the ktent energies which it has developed, aud the animating prospects which it presents. If the emigrant population does not yet exhibit all the virtues which may be justly expected from English- settlers, it is, we trust, making advances towards thorn ; and it certainly presents, in many particulars, a very favourable contrast to some neighbouring settlements. There, at least, is no taint of convict blood to infuse mistrust aud bitterness into the social state; and the native population is rapidly becoming worthy of the fellowship of Englishmen. Let, then, the Government beware of polluting 1 the pure source of a future nation by diiecting into it the turbiii stream of an indiscriminate emigration. No crime could equal that of introducing the seeds of disorder and vice into a country already raised, by its own efforts, high in the moral grnd ition of the world. The rude but sensitive virtue of the native population would rise in just rebellion against so monstrous a wrong. If settlers are encouraged to resort to these islands, they should be sciupulously selected, and carefully pi eparcd. In the recently projected Chuich of England colony, we recognise the true spirit which should preside over nil future settlements in New Zealand ; and we are disposed to augur most fuvourably of this entei prise, if care be taken to exclude from it every description of intolerance, and to guard it from extravagam hierarchical prettnsions. We have condemned the pieinature attempt to establish a free government j I but we see no reason to doubt that, under the fostering care of the parent stats, and at a period not very re- I mote, political power may be safely intrusted to both \ races alike, and that New Zealand may ultimately re- I fleet in an opposite hemispheic a faithful image ot the British constitution. The theories of colotmation are as conflicting as they aie numerous. We trust that the doctrines of an utilitarian school of matei ial philosophy will never obtain aq ascendency in this country. We allude to the system of which the late Mr. Mill was the acknowledged leader «nd ablest expounder. Colonies are regarded in this contracted philo'ophy only as a heavy burden on the resources ot the mother country, as the appendages of an exp oried coinmeicial system, or as the »upports of corrupt administration;). We have no sympathy with these opinions, and reject the lessoning which conducts to such fdlae and degrading conclusions. We protegt against »n application of the rigid priuciples of economical science to a subject involving such vast and various consequences as colonization, and hold it quite unjustifiable to exclude fiom a philosophical disquisition on the subject all the moral elements of a problem pctgmnt with results of the deepest importance to the highest Miterusts of man. We regard the extensive territories of the British empire as a high trust confided to it by ProViJence, to be exer- ! ched leis for it 6 own immediate benefit than for the j ultimate advantage of the human race, in carrying out His great nnd benevolent designs for peopling, civilising and Christianising the globe. Let the magnificent possessions be wisely governed, and firmly retained 1 They present obvious ni,uices againbt the evils of a redundant population, without which, only the mo*t calamitous results may ensue from our prodigious manufacturing devvlopeui>>nt. They may be the future homes of intelligent and virtuous, tut depressed and suffering mutuudes, duly prepared by education to comprehend the principles which alilte cause the fluctuations of employment and determine the limits of trade, to submit with resignation to the consi quences, and to seek an alicviution of their miatoitunei in the destined remedy of emigration. We inny be permitted, in conrliuion, to indu ge in a brief retrosp ct and anticipation. Li'B3 tb n two thousand years have elapsed since Great Batain was peopled by painted savages, aud immersed in a bar» bansm a'mont as deep as that which recently dis'inguished the inhabitants of New Zealand. Owing to a happy intermixture of races, the influence of climate and the advantages of position, the inhabitants of an island long considered as lying beyond the confines of civilization have acquired a m iral and territorial dominion unprecedented in the history of the world. We know not whether Pn.vi ience in the decrees of His inscrutable wisdom, has fixed a accessary limit to the duration of empires, or whether states bear within theircon:>titutions the principle of an inevitable decay. A period may undoubtedly auive when the commerce of England shall periih, her marts become deserted, and her power pass away. It m.»y be consolatory, therefore, even in this the noonday splendour of our greatness, to think that there m*y be forming, in an ocean the most remote from our shores an insular people deriving from us their religion, emulating our vir» tues, acquiring our language, perhaps destined to resemble us in our enterprises, and to rival our renown ; — that from this new abode of energetic industry and living faith there may go forth a &pii it and a power befoie which the decrepit empire of China may at length fall, from which its effete civilization may receive a renovating influence, and the multitudinous islands of the Pacific a fresh and invigorating life,— -that Wellington or Auckland may become ibe seat of aits yet to be invented aim of science now only dimly revealed, and pojsibly the metropolib of another empire as mighty as that which now extends its benignant oway over bo large a portion of the human rac<i.

Church oj England. — Tuaotaiuanisvi in the Diock<»e of JExiitbr.-— The Bishoj> of Exeter, as is well known even lieu* at tin 1 Antipo-Jes, is one of those Prelates wh'>, wiule they regaul it as liisutun/; to apyh to them the d< situation of u J'uaej i.c " ytt really iostei a directly Roman ism/j tendency in thrii clrrgy, by llicir mainU'Dviiiceoi vauous ot the docilities of th« " Tracts for the Times,'' and their iippioval - or, at least, (ami and tendeily expiessud dnai)])reval — of the characixrialic practices ol the sect ol which Dr. Pusey and Mi. Newman weie amongst the puncipul founder.-,, \'no l.iity ia his lordship's diocebe have seveial times interposed to ward oft ihe efftfcls wh.ch the) apprehended

fi 0111 this line of procedure on the part of their Bishop ; and, with this view, the Churchmen at Plymouth* having (irst memorialized the Archbishop of Canterbury, have, at a public meeting held for the purpose, adopted the following Petition to the Queen. It evidently procecdi from men who, if they love the Church ot England well, love Protestantism better.

To the Quehn's Most Excellent Majesty. May it please your Majesty, We, inhabitants of Plymouth, Devonport, Stonr i house, and the neighbourhood, lay memberrf of the Church of England, assembled at a public Meetings held at Plymouth, on Tuur.day, the 11th day of Junuary, 1849. Humbly desire to approach your Gracious Majeßty, deeply impressed with sentiments of devotion ami loyalty to your Majesty's sacred person — of thankful apprc-iat ; on of the many blessings vouchsafed to us under your Mbjesty's protection and govern qient— and of genuins attachment to the constitution under which it is our happiness to live. We debire especially to record our sincere adherence to llio Church of England — recognising in the Protestant principles on which she is ebtiblisheil by law, a valued security, as well for the continued puiity of her general teaching-, at also for the stability of your Majesty's throne, and the happiness and well-being of your people. Esteeming the maintenance of those principles ia their full ititegi ity, as of paramount tmd bacrcd importance, we have, for some years pa»t, observed with, deep and increasing apprehension, the adoption, by a large body of the clergy, of a system of divinity and ministerial teaching, which has for its object the depreciation of the distinctive docirines of the Reformation, as taught by the Articlos of our Church, and the encouragement, in an equal degree of opposite doctrines of the Church of Rome ; a system which, in proportion to the extent to which it is received or avowed* either leads its adherents to an open conformity to that' Church, or, as weijelievß more frequently happens, to a virtual adoption of the essential principles of Ko~ manism, under a nominal and ill- sustained allegiance. to our Protestant Church. The class of unsound divinci to whom we refer, invaiiahly base the defence of the principles on their construction of certain passages and forms of words which occur in some of the offices of the Church — particularly in those appointed for the ordination of minister!— the baptism of infants — the visitation of the sick, and the catechism— 'orms of expression which taken alone, and unexplained by the lenor of the articles and the Church's general doctrine, m iy perhaps be of doubtful meaning, and therefore afford opportunity for mi- interpretation. It is, unhappily, too notoiious, that thia system of en or has become widely prevalent throughout Great Britain, and this diocese in particular, and we grieve to state it to be our deliberate and painful convicfion, that its principles, as well as the ceremonial practices which its advocates have introduced, receive encouragement from the Lord Bishop of Exeter. Impressed with these sentiments, we luve felt it ta he our du'y recently to present a memorial to his Grare the Archbishop of Canterbury (a copy of which we pray to be allowed to append to this petition), in which we have alliged as follows :— " Tractarian principles and practices have greatly increased within this diocese. It is within the knowledge of many of us, tbat whilst a large bo'ly of the clergy, chiefly young men, deeply committed to the Tractaiian system, have fi celt/ obtained appointments * and are now ministering within the diocese, a considerable number of oilier clergymen of piety and Icatn-v ing, but not holding Tractarian views — some of thciu. advanced in years— beneficed, and serving in this, and the neighbouring county of Cornwall, have been front time (a time rejected by the Bishop as unfit t-j receive itis.Uulion or license, ' by reason, (as his loruehip has alleged) of their holding doctrines contrary to the trua Christian faith.' "This practice having been extensively pursued by the Bhhop,\ias been necessarily attended by the twofold effectjof attracting Tractarians to the diocese, »nd of deterring clergymen of opposite views from accepting appointments within it — so that patrons and incumbents of Evangelical sentiment?, can, with difficulty, procure ministers and curates whose doctrinal principles shall be congenial with thi'ir own. A great and crying evil has thus arfcen. The ministerial care and oversight of large bodies of the people, especially in our popu'ous town, have- bten committed to clergymen, to whose teaching and ceremonial practices the people at large entertain a we 1-grounded aversion, and who consequently withhold or w.thdraw attendance at their chu dies. Thus the in ention of the Legislature in making provision fur the spirituil destitution of the pcop'c, the liberality of the public in contributing to I the erection and purchase of churches, and the especial purpose* of a Chuich as a national establishment have been in those cases alike defeated,'' and which. Memorial Contained a respect ul request that bis Grace would be pleased to introduce a Bill into Parliament for the redreis of the evils which it treats, by the aU tainment of the following objects .— Ist— A better definition of the ceremonial of the Church in accordance with the usages to which the people have for generations been accustomed. 2nd— An express declaration of the supreme authority of the Thirty-nine Articles. 3rd— A determination of the sense in conformity therewith of any ntub'guous phrases in the formularies of the Church : or 4th — The adoption of such other measures to the like effect, as to his Grace might beem meet." To tuch memorial his Grace has been pleased to return a kind and courteous reply, (a copy of which, we al.io pray to be allowed to append to this petition,) in the course of which his Graoe observes as follow:—"The time may possibly art ire when such a change as you contemplate might be effected, without occasioning far greater evils than those which we wish to remedy" — and adds :— " It must, however, be generally acknowledged that such a time is not yet come." We defer cheerfully and readily to the high auiho» rity of bis Grace, and to the opinion which he has thus been pleased to express — and we trust that it will net be found inconsistent with t'.ie un'eigned and deep veneration in which we hold his Grace's chaiacter to give respectful expression to our b'lief, that the facts which we have bet forth in this Petition, added to public events of recent occurrence in the Church, emphatically announce that the time lo which bio Graco lias adverted, but which he regards as not having yet arrived, is not — cannot be fur distant. Under a deep conviction tbat the extensive evils to which we huva adviitod will be aggravated by any lengthened delay, and that the strength and cfhcieiiey of the Chuicli, and the best iutei^ts of the community will lie largely piomotcd by a removal of the occasion of ti comj'lanit ho geneial and toe!l->fouiidi\l, we liiiinb y but pnrui'fctly pray that your M ijesty -'1 be i/ac.ousiv ploiibC.J to ducct the .ulopt.on oi Mir;h ji)",ijorui ft»th c. view to an aiiUiori ativc and PiouhU;*' U.unni.i.. ( '''>i of the sense ot the l^uigy in all it 1 pailfi, »i<<l .'No m: d.'iinui'j lini cciPinoiii.il of the Chun n iu coinoin.ity to c rablHird uvigr*, -is to your Majesty's wisdom may seem best calculated tv obtaiu (hoae deaiiaWu obj 'db.