The Lyttelton Times. February 21, 1852.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 59, 21 February 1852, Page 5

The Lyttelton Times. February 21, 1852.

After all, it is an ungrateful occupation, the exercise of that true Englishman's privilege of —but what are we to do? Are we quietly to fold our hands, and submit to laws, how unjusl soever, in the passing of which we have had no share, and to taxes, to be expended we know not how ? The position of the settlers at Canterbury is unusually galling. There has been some pretence, however absurd, for the maintenance of despotic Government in other colonies. Some were convict settlements, and have grown into free colonies ; and the military government has had to be gradually changed to suit the altered character of the community: some have had hostile native tribes to be subdued, and the Home Government which has incurred much of the expence of supplying protection, has, it would seem, chosen to take it out in arbitrary rule, it repays itself by the satisfaction, such as it is, of meddling and mismanaging. But this was nut our case, at all events. We had no convict system with its nej cessary concomitant of government by military I force. We had no natives to contend with. Our | settlement was a fair field for the establishment from the very first, of the best form of Government which could be devised. More than this, the enjoyment of a form of Government based upon the principles of the English constitution was held out to the settlers as one of the greatest inducements to join in rounding the new set- ! tlement. The Colonial Minister especially pro- ! mised that Canterbury should be formed into a ! separate Province as soon as it. could pay the cost of its Government; and the reason for asking this was, because causes which might be supposed, however groundlessly, to impede the working of a free representative system in other Provinces, would not exist in the settlement about to be formed. We are not urging this as an argument for establishing a different form of Provincial Government here from that existing elsewhere, or claiming for the settlers at Canterbury privileges denied to our fellow colonists in the other settlements; we are only stating a reason why the Government under which we live should appear more peculiarly odious to us, and why we should feel its burden more intolerable. When Wellington and Nelson were formed, colonial grievances were not so much a topic of discussion in England as they have since been, and the settlers have only learnt them by sad experience since their sojourn in the colony. We, on the other hand, were schooled into a state of wholesome discontent before we left our own country. We came here fully resolved that we would not live under this form of Government, and pledged, as it were, to regain the political heritage of Englishmen, of which we have been despoiled.

Now what have we done as yet towards this object? We have been here more than twelve months, and that object is as far as ever. Not one man in the settlement has yet been able through any legitimate channel to express an opinion upon any question relating to the public welfare . —no one has voted for a candidate :—no one knows how the public revenues are applied ; accidentally we have learned that our surplus revenue for last year—that surplus, the very existence of which is evidence of the gross breach of the Minister's faith, has been taken to build a new goal at Wellington. There} is a sort of account of the income and expenditure of our settlement published in the Gazette, but what difference does it make to vs 4 ? Which of us could alter it, —who would not be laughed at if he objected to any item ? Now can any one of our readers tell us in what his political condition differs from the Russian serf, or a subject of the dingy Emperor of St. Domingo ? How long is this to last ? Sir George Grey has declared he waits for despatches from England before, he can create Canterbury into a separate province. And suppose it were a separate province, what then ? Would the proposed Provincial Council satisfy our ideas of a Constitutional Government? We have indignantly declared that it would not. His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief in General Legislative Council assembled, could undo all that the Provincial Council did. We should not acquire the control over a single farthing of the revenues. But will not the General Government be altered next Session of Parliament ? Who knows ? Parliament again threw us over last session. From session to session our matters are put aside for those of more pressing interest to the English people. Of course they are ; —how can we complain if our countrymen attend to their own business first. What did we care about New .Zealand Government when we were in England ? Yes,—but we are told next session a New Zealand Constitutional law will really be enacted; so we have been told again and again. But what guarantee have we that the promise will be kept ? Does the discussion which the ministers have promised of a new Reform Bill for England next session, offer much prospect of spare time for the discussion on New Zealand affairs ? We doubt not. We urge our friends to lay all these matters well to heart ; and then let them turn carefully over the pages of their country's history, and learn how all real lasting reforms in Government have been achieved. They have been achieved solely by the steady and unflinching resolution of the people. No great popular movement, (we mean a movement which embraces the great majority of the intelligence of the people, and endures amid all the lesser political movements around it), ever has been, can be, or ought to be resisted :—it is the destiny of a nation. The greatest example of this truth in England is contained in the history of the Corn Laws ; and iv the Colonies, perhaps iv the story of the Cape of Good Hope and the convicts. This is the condition of our settlement in its relation to the General Government. But how do we stand in respect to the Canterbury Association ? We shall reserve the answer to the question until our next number. m

The Crops.—Favourable reports have reached us of the general state of vegetation upon the plains, now that the arrival of the harvest season renders it possible to judge fairly upon the subject. Tb? yield of both wheat and green crops in the lowlving lands is, we hear, equal if not superior to the average of the old country, a fact that is sufficiently encouraging when the newness of the soil and its consequent sourness and impurity is taken into consideration. In some of the cultivated spots at the foot of the bills, indeed, we hear of failures—probably referable to the choice of land upon the rise, and therefore inordinately drained for tillage The grain crops are generally rather short iii the straw. We believe that the reverse is the characreristic of their growth in the more cultivated parts of New Zealand. Altogether affairs argue well for the plenty of future years, when the soil shall have become cleaner and more pervious to air and moisture. The latter part of the growing season has been considered unusually wet, a fortunate circumstance, and one that supplied in a great measure the want of other requisites to successful farming. AYe shall be glad to receive for publication more specific notices upon this subject.