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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 56, 31 January 1852, Page 5

A Letter to John Robert Godley, Esq., Chief Agent of the Canterbury Association, on the Present Prospects of this Settlement. By Thos. Cholmondeley. The above is the title of an eight-paged pamphlet that has issued from the press during the past week. Although we believe little more than a private circulation has been calculated upon for it, the subject is one of too much importance to be passed over by us altogether without notice. Mr. Cholmondeley appears to think, and justly so, the present position of the settlement a very critical one, between the nonrealization of the expectations of its supporters at home to anything like their full extent, and that inexplicable step apparently intended to be taken by the Association, the sendiug out of a " board of guardians " in the shape of a nominated Committee of Management to act within the settlement. Mr. Cholmondeley also expresses dissatisfaction with, among other matters, the limited publicity given to the home accounts of the Association, and with the want of reference to the colonists themselves, for their approval in disposing of the fund for ecclesiastical purposes. The letter is addressed to Mr. Godley, not merely as the-Association's Agent, but as one who has obtained a deserved position at the head and in the hearts of the colonists, who look to him to direct and lead them in the assertion of their independence. It will afford him an opportunity of taking up that position, and of justifying the belief that he will be the first to resist any encroachment upon their political liberty and right of managing their own affairs. We regret that want of space compels us to defer a fuller notice of the letter.