PREFATORY ADDRESS.

Colonist, Issue 1, 23 October 1857, Page 2

PREFATORY ADDRESS.

Since '48, so many Crowns llave had their turn of ups anil clowns, It is no wonder of creation ~ That Nelson now should start a NATION. It is this Nation's wish to please^ Addressing men of all degrees.; And, lest that object should be miss'd,-1 lie's brought a friend — Tlte Colonist. We've copper, coal, and gold in plenty f In1 places 1 could name, p'rhaps twenty Circumjacent. And by.St. Ja»ol" (As Gil Bias says) weve gotplumbago!" Having these riches to excess, Enough to work a dual-press, Induces many to assist Establishing The Colonist. Men like'newspapers, and would run To read " The Motueka Sun," , " the '■ Waimea Star," " The Wairau Mail," Or any " Comet's" printed tale. For half the truth is often toldy The other half is often sold ;' s ' Support Newspapers! and no doubt : The truth! complete'will then ooze out. » The Colonist is independent, . In politics no class ascendant, Utilitarian to a shade, The friend of Commerce and Free-Trade/ ' Full, gen'ral knowledge who derides? Twill therefore talk of markets, tides, •' Police,.inventions; and, forsooth, Give fl'ow'rs of fiction, gems of truth. Quite conversant with blue-book lore," ; With strong reservfe of facts in store,"' On any subject it can write, '. Sound, racy, earnest, erudite. j Those who our visits will permit/ •'" •' - M Tp Mr. N. ])ray lUfiftion it— . 1 ™ Acquaintance is a thing of course Which new arrivals never force. Gdiujltjs/

REVIEW. Letters from (knt'erbwy, New Zealand. By Robert Batcntan Paul, M.A. With a Map of the Province, by Edward Jollie, C.E. London: Rivington. 1857.'We are indebted to the Saturday Review for the following notice of the Venerable Archdeacon. Paul's Work on NewZcaland; it will be perceived that the remarks of the reviewer bear more on the foundation of the Canterbury Province, than on the work it professes to review: We have not had the pleasure of seeing the book, therefore, we cannot enrich our paper with any extracts from it. Mr. Paul's very matter-of-fact little book presents us with the .sequel to one of thii most amiable, and at the eamo time one of the. dreamiest, hallucinations which the nineteenth, ccutuiy ha-* witnessed. It required a singular combination of circumstances, and a very peculiar state of feeling, to produce such a scheme a.s that of the Canterbury Association. Since the independence of the United* States, colony altar colony had been rpi'in^i.ig1 up on the sho.es of the Pacific— some as peiu--l settlements, some under the auspices, of speculating companies ; and the pro^writy developed from their-great, natural resources by tho energy of the settlers, had made them a very valuable portion of the British dominions. To the economist, their., thriving and growing commerce loft nothing to be wished; but in the eyes of the philanthropi.t, they labour-d under a serious dr.-iwba.'k. They were colonised at hap-hazard. To divcibo them as offshoot*, of England was a false nut&phor, for they did t a-tv with them tiic organism, or even nil thii coiirt--tucnt cl'Muents, of the parent tre;>. They might .have been more correct y described, a-s the strainings which straitened means or ruined chsract .'.r hsd filtered from English society. Comniunitiijs thus formed for purely material objects were not likely to think much of any but material considerations. They might claim much admiration for the viitues which a struggle with difficidties brings out—for energy, during, perseverance; but they wore inevitably deficient in the religion and. tho refinement which only abound tniiVjr tho shelter of a nettled1 civilization. Thews evils were pttent to eveiybody; but it was only a fow philanthropists who imagimd tho possibility of over-riding this result of natural laws by artificial interference. A knot of able, and in some ca-ses, experienced men, fancied they could construct a miniature England, and export it in a flout of emigrant'ships. The state of public feeling was not unp;opitlous to the .experiment. The I Ugh; Church mov ment had passed its zenith. The defection of Newman had spread a fatal panic through the ranks of his divciple.!; and; in their perplexity, many earnest spirit-i began to dream, a~s baiHed innovators in every age had dreamt before tl em, of virgin soils in which their favorite- theories might have sp.\co to bloom, unblightotl by the inveterate corruptions of older lands. They began to long for somo Forlunulw Insider., in. whicli Dhsont should be unknown, and Erastianism should cease. The Young England movement, too, had produced a vague feeling ih\ta nection of the English aristocracy was indi.-p nsible to t!ie existence of ai-y English community. Tlie founders 01 the Cant rlmry Association wero not slow to avail themselves o!' t!ic' opportunity wliieh. was thus pre«nted by the exiting state of feeling, for supplying the two elements of Engli-h society whicli it had been hitherto, most difficult ""to attract to a colony—the religious element, and the reiined dement. The particular form which their -enterprise assumed was due to to their eoi.nexion v.it'i ?rt r. ; Edward Gibbon W«keneld, a man who had been almost as fniitfid a parent of eoloincs as tho Abbe Sie.ye+! was of eosbtitul ions. He had propound-.*! a system, which at tho time made many converts, by whicli ho proposed to give, from the fust, an or/f-niza: tion to wloni.U (society; and to pr ivejit it from becoming, what it had become in America., an aggregate of isolated peasant-proprietors, each working only for himself. This iie sought to effect by raising t!w price of land to. tho f.rfc'liclal h»ighfc of at le.t-t 1/ p.ir acre. By this means he hoped to .restrict the proprietary class to pen-ons who sta'tsd with sonv3 amount of capital, and to drive the poorer sort to become labourers instead officeholders. The proceeds of the sale of land were to be laid out in road-making and imniegration. His system was largely adopted by statesmen. It was established in" Australia by law. The. result of exposing Australian land, at a (Vsfcanoe of ninety dnys, and a price ot'J,L, to a competition with American land at the distance of a fortnight, and .'a' price of five shillings, may be easily conceived. Shoals of emigrants loft the;o shores during the 'Irish and the Highland famine; but, until the gold diggings were discovered, tho proportion who found th-'ir their way to Australia was very small indeed. Mr. Wftkofiold, however, pos«eiseil Hiillicivnt influence with the founders of the. Cmterbury Association to induce them to adopt an expansion"of his scheme. Their 1-uul was to be sold at a mi; imum p ice of ?,l. an acre. Of this, 10s. an acre,was to be pr.id in purchise money to tho New Zealand Company ("of which Jlt. Wakefield was the iufonning ipirit), for knd which the Company had pu-chas -4 of the natives for a mere trifle. The remaning SSZ J.Os. was U) he- applied in fixed proportions to immigration, roriil-maktiig. tho building of churches and schools, and Ihe provision, of endowment*. The-prospectuses we e/is'sU'.id,. Of course they spoke in glowing ternw oM!W-^wi«%fc.£,. of the climate and the fertility of the.soil, tin; rich p^turage'andljadmir-tble 'harbors. Those Advantages were shared, onp.-:per at loa-t, by every colony in the Pacific; but the high piico of the Canterbury land. was to secure for it : peoi.il privileges, Tho colonist* would not'have to dep-nd for their roads on tho dila- I to:y energies of a. Govemne t—they were to.have them at once. The emigrair,s were to be wsLvted ! with peculiar car*—ho on<i was to be s".nt out who had not been' favoured witli a test'inoir'a' to ehai a 'far from the elergym-in of his parish!— tl.e'r vee '.0 be the cream, find not, as heretoft il'--, t'edr'gs of the labouring elas<. The high price of 'land, cog'.ther , with the special nature of the mlu>e.-iio'.its otfered, would secure a class of purchasers fitted by th'-ir education to imparts healthy tone of mor.-thV and ro fmemi;nt to tlie nascent community. But the principal bait—the crowning glory of tho scheme—was the complete ecclesiastical organization which was to greet tho emigrant on his arrival. An cud. w»d bishop and clergy, chu"chrs, s hools, ami college ready built, were to continue to him and to his children the refining and exalting influences to which. h« had been accustomed at home, and the. want of which is one of the severest privations of a settlor's rude ami savage life. The Canterbury Association promised all these things in perfect good faith—they fully counted ou being able to provide them. I3ut their calculations were based on the silent assumption that their scheme would meet with .enthusiastic support; and that assumption proved to be fatally delusive. They pro cured a grant of more than two million acres, and, according to the. lowest estimate, they counted, ou being able to sell One hundred thousand at starting; but when the time came, scarcely a third of tlut number were taken. Tfioy had mi.-erably overrated the attachment'of tho upper and middle classes to a perfect ecclesiastical organization. The scheme, in all its essential features, utterly broke down. . The home expenses in getting it up, which were necessarily ■the same whatever tlie amount of the sales, had eaten .-away a fearful proportion of the proceeds. There was no money for churches, no money for clergy, and very little for ro;-;ds. Tho harbour .which had been selected was a bay encircled by mountains, naturally impassible to vehieies-^for want of .funds the road across them had not, and has not yet, been made—-and the unhappy settlers, in order to resell the available part of the country where they were to live, wei'o compelled to convey their goods in small crafts along a dangerous coast, at a cost equal to that which they had in- , eurred in bringing them from England. The assisted -emigrants, instead of being model English laborers, were in many cases the sweepings of the Unions. Church there was none, nor the ghost of one. Divine service at Lytteltonwas, and is still,■perfonnod.in an emigration barrack-room, A bishop, indeed, was sent out, and arrived within two inbn'ths after tlie landing of the first settlers. He was a.'man of a saiiguine turn of mind; He brought with him plans for two palaces. But when he saw the natuvo of liis diocese", he turned tail and fled in continently. Happily the'clergy, did not follow: his example.; but how far they "realized" their expectations which had boon held out tp them, Mr, Paul shall tell in"his own words:—' " Iti the colony, itself matters were as bad almost as they couldbe. Three of the clergy, sick at heart .and hopolcs of any change for the hotter, accepted en'gaqemonts fit JMboiuno. Taivr^ki. and Wellington; tlr.ee moio lived as we 1 as they cou'd on p; ttauccs insured to them for five pears by the guarantee- of private individu.ils at homo: and the remainder, a\ ith a noble disinterotedneas worthy of the clays of primitive Christianity, lcmained at their posts, providing for the daily wants of themselves and families by the labor of their own hands.'1 ■Tho College fared no better than the rest of tho ecclesia=tieal programme A magnificent design was icnt out by the Association ; but as this, was tue extent of itscontributions, the design was judiciously locked up in the land-agent's cupboaid. In short, the

project was a failure in a-U Hut waspuculiff'toit; and the 'colonist* found thst tlic\' had paid 3/.'ft» .°.<|iv tor adva'iikkefi which they might lwve prm<im.'d in fit: North of Sew Zealand lbr 1/.. Alter all.^ however, th:;re was one superiority p»s.se>sed by the Canterbury .settlement, to which tli • apologist* of the Association delight to point. A much linger number of highhbred and accomplished geiitlcnn-n than suy other colony could boast of, hsd been tempted o.it to this antipodes in pursuit of tho fait' hope hekU'P to them at homo by thu imaginative agents of the Assoemt'on:— » . " Another incidental advantage ha<* bet.", ™*fc <»« ecclosia-stioal scheme of the Association l'W brought tog.ther a body of .settlors second to none in intelligence, moral worth, and persevering industry; men who fire proving every diy that polished winners and literary attainments arc no obstacle to their " going ahead " M surely as the roughest. backwo-vl1 *"1™ t]\f t ever handled aiuxn in the forests of the rV " '-wt- ' We must submit to Mr. Paid that this is no pro >ftl a,> tho Canterbury scheme was) not a delusion, l»nt merely tliit tlie delusion was succeKsful. That thishooi'-ty ot re lined gentlemen, of whom he so justly''o'-^i evcl' left, our shoixw, U due t» the fact thai jnymi-'cb wore nude to them which were never kept. The result i.-s 'a happy one for the colony, and the victim-* °} lQ cx * periinent may now eea--e to regret it,"in tlu% ir natmvl love for a home won for themselves by thi'ii'_ own energy; but it is not » r suit of which tho A^so 'i.'tion arc entitled to speak with triumph. ' Nor is it much more to the purpose to urge tlut tho colony pro-spurs, and. that tho Chnrcii of England flourish* in it. Of course it do1-. / With a healthy cliniat" ami a t'".'m-' ing soil, in tlu>. IhiuN of three thousind Englishmen how can it but pro-p.T ? AVli.it sin mid t; uvu tJiou-Hiid ChurehiiKin—lUnijvd !>y the very daydre.-ini to whii-h they yielded, as m.>n of n<> ordinary eamwtnes* —do but exeit themselves for the, maintcnam'O. and perpetuation of their faith? lint they miglirinve dono this without paying 'M an sere for it. Mr. I'aul is very indignant that' the charge of fraud. .shimld.havc been hazarded agf.inst the leaders of the Aw>cifiliou: — "It was'too lud to hold up fl body"of the most honorable men that ever lived to puhlie'exeerstion, when th-jy were dr.i\v:n< In\;-1\- on th"ir private m.-v His". for the m/untmunce of th«» Assovidti'm's eccle-siastc'-l scheme." We most fully concur with him. Any person who can have coupled dishnnt^tv with Lord Lvttelton's na:n.'. must luve been.iiKiiie. But it is gnU« consistent with the most ample rc-ognition of his earnest and self-denying philanthropy to expres-i a regret that ho should ti-vj been the instrument of a widely-acting, though unintentional deception. Jle er'ro«l'iiv oommitting the fortunes of his countrymen to tin; keeping of an untried thoorv— of a h-l'-^Awiiwl, hiK-'ncdiasval s])eculatu-jii. Jt is tlie old story, Minm'. rcyex, ■ pleclimlttr Achivi. Wlien great men get drunk with a theory, it is the little men who h.ivo tlie headache ; Titeso political quo-tions are not the main subject of My. Paul's work. His aim is to furnish an intending emigrant with sound advice—to record his own hard experience for the b'Tinlit of hissueccsors. Accordingly, he enters largely iut-o details as to the most profitable., modes ot" farming and grazing, and the implements with -which"an emigrant should provide li.iint.clf before leaving EugUnd. Thesj nwttcw will bo of littlo inteiv.-t except to the class for whom they are intended. To them.his .coun-s'.'l will derivo great weight from the •fact that that it is.bs.<ed ui>on jx'i-.s.iual experience, and yet can be liJM^<-d by no jwivonal motive—'jualin<-a-tions which the emigrant, to bio cost, knows to be rare among liii volunteer advisers. Mr. Paul im neither a puiP'i1 nor a mere theorist. As a clergyman, lie is shielded from any temptation to be the forme."—is a clergyman s snt out by tli.j Ca.nU:rbury Association, he was pre-'ludwl by a lianl n*x;of>sit.y fio.»a)iyp>ShibiUty of being the latter. The volume concludes with twne i'rtaiwting statiaticj?, which sln-w tlut tlie colony has s'H'cw'ded as w - okniably as the Asidi-'ution has failed. Favored by nature, and buoyed up by the gAlUntriniggles of its settlers, it lia-e pros|>cred, and is prosjxjrlng, in spite of its inanspieiou-i coinmoncement.' Its hiotory rever-e* the description of the popular novel—it is a giv.it fact founded on v.o less great a fiction.