Page 1 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume I, Issue 23, 12 September 1840, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND COMPANY. Capital, £100,000, in 4000 Shares of £25 each, all paid up. Governor: The Earl of Durham. Deputy Governor : Joseph Somes, Esq. Directors : Lord Petre, Hon. Francis Baring, M.P., John Ellorker Boulcott, Esq., John William Buckle, Esq., Russell Ellice, Esq., , James Brodie Gordon, Esq., Thomas Alers Hankey, Esq., William Hutt Esq., MI.P., Stewart Majoribanks, Esq., Sir William Molesworth, Bart., M.P., Alexander Nairn, Esq., John Pirie, Esq., Alderman, Sir George Sinclair, Bart., M.P., John Abel Smith, Esq., M.P., Wm. Thompson, Esq., Alderman, M.P., Sir Henry Webb, Bart., Arthur Willis, Esq., George Frederick Young, Esq. Secretary : John Ward, Esq. THE main features of the system of colonization adopted by the Company, are, — Ist, the sale of lands, at an uniform and sufficient price; and 2ndly, the employment of a large portion of the purchase-money, as an Immigration Fund. In these respects, the principles of South Australia have been followed as nearly as circumstances would, in the present case, permit. The grand object of the new, or improved, system of the disposal of colonial lands, is to regulate the supply of new land, by the real wants of the Colonists, so that the land shall never be either superabundant, or deficient, either too cheap, or too dear. It has been shown that the due proportion between people and landmaybe constantly secured by abandoning the old system of grants, and requiring an uniform price per acre, for all new lands, without exception. If the price be not too low, it deters speculators from obtaining land, with a view to leaving their property in a desert state, and tluii prevents injurious dispersion: it also, by compelling every labourer to\vork for wages, until he has saved the only means of obtaining land, insures a supply of labour for hire. If, on the other hand, the price be not too high, it neither confines the settlers within a space inconveniently narrow, nor does it prevent the thrifty labourer from becoming a land-owner, after working some time for wages. A sufficient, but not more than sufficient price for all new land, is the main feature of the new system of colonization. It_ obviates every species of bondage; by providing combinable labour, it renders industry very productive, and maintains both high wages, and high profits; it makes the colony as attractive as possible, both to capitalists and to labourers; and not merely to these, but also, by bestowing on the colony, the better attributes .of an old society, to those who have a distaste for what has heretofore been the primitive condition of new colonies. The great object of the price is to secure the most desirable proportions between people and land ; but the plan has the further result of producing a revenue, which will not only supply the requisite profit to the shareholders of the Company, but furnishes the means for an 'Immigration Fund, — a fund constantly applicable to the purpose of bringing labour to the colony — that is, in causing the best sort of colonization to proceed at the greatest possible rate. And this is the second feature of the new system. The employment of the purchase-money, or the principal part of it, in conveying settlers to •the colony, has the following effects. It makes the purchasers of land see plainly, that their money will be returned in the shape of labour and population. It tends, in fact, to lower the necessary standard of price, because, with a constant influx of people to the colony, the due proportion between people and land may be kept ■ up by a lower price, than if there were no such immigration . It therefore diminishes the period during which the labourer must work for hire, and by the rapid progress which it imparts' to the best sort of colonization,, it explains to the labouring class of immigrants, that every one of them who is industrious and thrifty, may be sure to become not merely an owner of land, but also in his turn, an employer of hired labourers, a master of servants. From these considerations; the Company has adopted the same system of disposing of its waste lands, as has already proved highly fa1 vourable to the productiveness of industry in South Australia. In a new colony, planted m a fertile and extensive territory, it is obvious, that the establishment of such a system is a matter of the deepest moment to the future welfare of society. f'From it the best effects may with confidence be anticipated: a constant and regular supply of ne.w land in due proportion to the wants of a population increasing by births and immigration;, all the advantages to which facilities of transport and communication are essential ; certainty of limits, and security of title to property in land ; the greatest facilities on acquiring the due quantity; the greatest encouragement to immigration and settlement ; .and the most rapid progress of the people in material comfort and social improvement. Port Nicholson. April 14, 1840.