PROSPECTS OF THE SETTLERS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume I, Issue 20, 2 September 1843, Page 2

PROSPECTS OF THE SETTLERS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Cense ! drain not to its dregs the urn Of bitter prophecy. The world is weary of the past — Oh might it die or rest at last.

There is no occupation more disagreeable, more hateful to the person and to the community than that of the prophet of evil, and yet nothing in itself can be more kind ov generous than the voice of the forewarner. It is in the moral world the same as the Barometer of the navigator at sea, although it cannot avert the rude impending storm, it still enables us to guard against danger from its fierce attack. But though the mariner will not hate or injure his kindly and faithful monitor, mankind in general do not exercise the same consideration towards the moral barometer, or him who seeks to protect and prepare them against the hour of danger. A prophet has no honour in his own country, and more especially so if he be the prophet of coming evil or calamity. He is despised and treated even as if he were not merely the teller of bad tidings, but also the very cause of them. The truth of this we have felt in our own limited experience. About eighteen months ago, from no extraordinary sagacity, we saw that even in our own small community many persons were building upon hopes that never could bo realized, and injuring themselves and others by cherishing expectations doomed to bitter disappointment ; we warned the community against such sad delusion, we endeavoured to open their eyes to the true state of affairs. In some instances we were successful, and were believed, but the majority were displeased and looked upon us as a person who felt no interest in the colony, who cared not for its prosperity, and who would even sacrifice his own interest to accomplish its ruin. We knew that we were regarded as such, we felt the injustice and the bitterness of the taunting accusation, but we strove in vain to remove the impression, time however, the healer of many wounds, came to our assistance, and sorrowfully proved the- more than truth of all our statements, and realized our most fearful apprehensions. We deserve and take no credit whatever to ourselves for the accuracy or keenness of our perception in discovering that this community must undergo a certain change, apparently for the worse, and that many individuals must be severely disappointed; We came'to this place from a neighbouring colony at a time when the effects of the same system which we saw in active and thoughtless operation in this country, were already beginning in tJtat colony to manifest their cruel effects, we knew that under similar circumstances, the same causes must necessarily produce the same effects, and they have done so both in the case of New South Wales and New Zealand ; although

happily in the latter not to so great, or so grievous an extent, just because they have not been permitted to continue so long in operation. The land speculators and schemers have suffered alike in both places, but in the latter they havo not, from various causes, •been so numerous. We are not now so apparently prosperous or so hopeful as we were eighteen months ago. Many of us havo lost much money, the marketable value of houses and town allotments lias fallen, and wo aro (some of us at least) beginning to despair and to feel disappointed ; many of us have just cause, for some of us havo actually been ruined, and the majority are suffering more or less, some are oven going away, and hopelessly abandoning the country. We must acknowledge all this, and wo must feel it too, and yet we, "the prophet of evil," now at the eleventh hour change our tone, and declare to this community, to the disappointed, to the ruined, to the unfortunate, and to those who aro about • leaving or at least thinking to ( leave New Zealand, that we think better of 1 her than ever we did, wo are hopeful, exceodiingly hopeful of our adopted country, we have ever been so, and we can fully distinguish between individual, accidental or causal suffering, and that which necessarily results as the essential or inherent fault of a country. We see nothing in New Zealand to justify us in making tho contrary assertion. It is true that we havo ourselves in common with others lost much money, but we cannot blame the country, for it may be our own imprudence, want of judgment or misfortunes. The loss of our money neither affects the fertility of the soil, the healthiness of the country, nor the beauty and loveliness of our climate. They continue the same as ever, and if we aro disposed to blame any other than ourselves as the cause of our misfortunes, it is the ignorant, impolitic, and mischievous Government of New Zealand, and not New Zealand itself. No calamity, misfortune, depression or suffering have befallen the settlers of this country, which cannot be satisfactorily accounted for without in the slightest degree injuring the character of the country. Tho best proof of this is the fact, that had the people who are at present living in this country, been situated in another part of tho world but New Zealand itself, with a Government so fearfully unjust and so cruelly regardless of the interests of the people, the amount of suffering and distress would have been a hundredfold greater than it has ever been here. These facts must of themselves be more than enough to keep up our spirits.. In spite of the worst Government that ever attempted to rule a colony or a people, we have still been enabled, to make head, just because the country is really rich and fertile, and why should we now at the eleventh hour, when we see that Government tumbling to pieces with its own monstrous weight,, give way to any foolish fears or alarms about the future. The very badness of this Government is the very best feature, the very strongest hope of a speedy deliverance. The character of , this Government is now v/cll known over the length and breadth of the whole British empire, so well known, that no colonial minister could dare, from very shame, even if he wanted it, to support a single person who has ever been connected with it. What colonial minister could stand in his place among the commons of England, and venture to justify the gross expenditure of New Zealand ; tho Boyd gift, or loan of £15,000, tho Clendon job, the Tauranga goose-chase, the Kororarika compromise, the Manganui war, the destruction of the old settlers, the annihilation of the Port Nicholson Company, tho ruin of the Port Nicholson settlers, the Weiroa massacre, and last, not least, the insult to the Crown of England in the attempt to endow erratic adventurers in the shape of petty Police Magistrates, with the sacred and peculiar prerogatives of august majesty? Where, but under "the tottering administration of Mr. Shortland, has a Police Magistrate dared to issue proclamations ? where, but under the deputed vice-regal authority of Mr. M'Donough, has a" Police Magistrate presumed to fill the solemn situation of a vacant Judgeship? If any one can tell where, then shall we believe that the present Government shall continue ; that New Zealand is doomed to ruin, and that the wisest man is he who is the first to quit her shores. But, independent of the hopeful fact that this Government is too bad to last much longer, we augur still further good to New Zealand from the same fact. Had the Government of Captain Hobson, and the accidental rule of Mr. Shortland been but a shade worse than that of any of the worst governed of our colonies, we might be afraid that a change of system might not attend a change of Governor. But in the present case, the one must necessarily attend the other, inasmuch as the present system is completely worn out, or rather fallen through, in truth, the 1 system is fairly done. The consummation of the' present system is accomplished. It is by all accounts fairly and legitimately finished at Port Nicholson, by

means of Mr. Shortland's last proclamation 1 to the natives, on the faith of this extraordi.l nary document, the natives are now, as 6 ! thought they would be, re-assuming theiri former powers and rights, and compelling the Fort Nicholson settlers to surrender, aniji to abandon their lands. r On the score of Government then, there.' aro two cheering prospects before the settlers' of New Zealand : a speedy change of Gotcrnor, and a necessary, and inevitable change : of system. The Governor and the Government have doubtless long before now been' carefully weighed in the scales of the Colo> nial Office, and found wanting. In inakint this assertion, we feel that we have removed a weight from the minds of the settlers; and that by this assurance, we have don* 1 enough, that the prospects of the settler. of New Zealand will at once become briglitlj apparent, and no doubt they will ; for thesi ' were the two deadly hindrances to the pros', perity of this colony, unwise and iguoran:' rulers, and an unjust, partial, and imprac-J ticable system of Government. These weft the fetters which bound down the man <r ! enterprise and capital ; these were the heavy, iron chains upon the starved limbs of tti'J labouring man ; these were the fiery flin;< stones, which cut off, and blunted the edgt,> of the mechanics' tool ; and these were thedead weights, the mill-stones which almost sunk the wliolo colony in fatal, in irrescuel able ruin, and these are they who must pitik jlessly suffer, and be utterly destroyed \h their turn. s ( To he continued.) ij