FAREWELL BREAKFAST TO MR. & MRS. GODLEY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 103, 25 December 1852, Page 7

FAREWELL BREAKFAST TO MR. & MRS. GODLEY.

On Saturday last a farewell breakfast was given to Mr. and Mrs. Godley, on the eve of t/heir departure for England. It took place in Hagley Park, in a capacious marquee which had been erected for the Horticultural Exhibition. One hundred and fifty persons, comprising all classes of the community, assembled to do honor to the occasion, and to testify their respect and esteem for their guests. A most excellent entertainment was provided and arranged under the supervision of Mr. Hart, of the White Hart Inn. Captain Simeon took the chair at 1 o'clock, and, after ample justice had been executed on the viands, proposed the health of Her Majesty, which was drank with the usual honours. The healths of Prince Albert and the rest of the Royal Family, His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand, Bishop Selwyn and the Clergy of the Diocese, succeeded. In responding to the last toast,

The Rev. R. B. Paul said that in the absence of the Bishop the duty devolved on him, as Senior Clergyman of the' Canterbury district, of returning thanks for the toast which they had just drank. Whatever might be the peculiar trials to which the clergy of an infant church were^ subjected, it must always be a source of comfort and encouragement to them to know that they possessed the confidence and the sympathy of those committed to their charge. He had never been one of those who thought tli3 ecclesiastical scheme of the Canterbury Association a failure. With the large provision made for the future endowment of the Church in this settlement, he believed that the time would come when her own property would be amply sufficient for all her requirements: and in the meanwhile they had the satisfaction of knowing, that some ojf the original founders of the Canterbury Association had pledged themselves to the support for three years longer of the clergy sent out at the commencement of the undertaking.. As one personally uninterested in the question, he might without indelicacy express a hope that the words of this engagement would be interpreted in the most liberal and comprehensive sense, and that no alteration in the affairs of the Association would affect the validity of the equitable claim setup by those gentlemen to whom the guarantee was originally made. In connexion with this subject he would say a few words respecting the appointment of their Bishop. It was now two years since the first detachment of Colonists had landed on the shores of the Canterbury Settlement, and month after month the arrival of the Bishop of Christchurch among them had been deferred. Would it be too much to ask their respected guest (Mr. Godley), on his return to England to represent to those in whom the appointment was vested, how anxiously the coming of our Bishop was longed for—how bitter would be the disappointment if, under any conceivable circumstances, this most important part of the Association's ecclesiastical scheme were abandoned, or even its execution delayed a moment longer than was absolutely necessary ? He had referred at the beginning of his speech to the comfort which the clergy derived from the sympathy and aid of the laity. They were in error who supposed that the clergy in general wished to exclude the laity from a due share in the management of ecclesiastical affairs. They might and most of them did, object to receiving the interpretation of articles of faith from a committee of the Privy Council, or to having points of discipline settled by a legislature, of which many members were not in communion with the Church of England—but he believed ninety-nine out of every hundred clergymen would rejoice in seeing such a church constitution established as would place the entire management of ecclesiastical affairs in the hands of a united body of clergy and of laymen, who were really ami bon&fde'members of the church. To such a body, presided over by the Bishop of the diocese, he believed the confidence of every faithful churchman would be freely and fully-accorded. Probably at the next, visit of Bishop Selwvn to the Canterbury settlement, he-would be prepared to lay before them some plan for the establishment of such a constitution as would place the Church of England in.New Zealand on.that footing of

equality w th other denominations, which she had not hitherto enjoyed, but which as a religious community unestablished, and entirely unconnected with the State, she had an undoubted right to possess. I„ conclusion he desired to express his thankfulness that while rumours of religious strife in the mother country were constantly reaching our ears, the little band of English churchmen which composed the Canterbury Settlement had continued thus far to be of one heart and of one mind (cheers) The Chairman then proposed the "Army and Navy. . -amiy

Major O Conner responded to the toast in appropriate terms and affirmed, that he felt his disconnection with the Service the less now that he was a resident in Canterbury (cheers) The. Chairman said, that the usual preliminary toasts haying been proposed, the time had now arrived for him to brine, f orw avd the business for which they h,d°met that day He , addressing Mr. Godley, said hat upon himself had devolved the pleasant though in some respects painful "duty of m-e----senting to Mr. Godley a farewell address signed b7-a very large number of the inhabitants of the Canterbury^Settlement, upon the eve of his departure for England. That address would speak for itself, and would, he trusted, convey fully and truly to Mr. Godley the esteem and admiration in which his public character and conduct had been held by the Canterbury people'r!!?"nS the time tliat te had held the office of Chief Agent of the Canterbury Association. His post had been a most difficult and arduous one, and he had at all times performed his duties with that integrity and ability which had so eminently marked his character (cheers). The Canterbury settlers especially rejoiced that this settlement, in the foundation of which he had had so prominent a share, should, under his fostering care, have been brought to its present state of prosperity. But inspeaking of Mr. Godley s public character, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not forget what he had been to them in private ; there washardlvan individual in the settlement who had not a personal acquaintanceship with him; few who could not speak of personal friendship; and he (the Chairman) was not expressing too strong an opinion when he said that the general feeling which Mr. Godley would leave behind would be that of affectionate regard (cheers). But another name appeared in the address he held in his hand, and when he mentioned that of Mrs. Godlev, he was sure that lady would allow him to tell her how equally all he had said in respect to her husband, in his private relations, applied to herself also (cheers). It was difficult to express how deeply indebted the people of this settlement felt themselves to her, for the universal kindness which she had shown to persons of all degrees and ranks of society; and how much they felt, how materially to her example and influence, might be traced the tone which so eminently distinguished the society of the settlement ; and more than this, how'materiallv to the influence of Mr. Godley and herself might be attributed the friendly feeling and unanimity which so happily pervaded the community of Canterbury (cheers). The prayers and best wishes of the whole of that community, for the happiness and prosperity of Mr. and Mrs. Godley, and their family, would ever attend them: and should they at any future period revisit these shores, their welcome back would be as warm and hearty as the sorrow for their departure was deep and heartfelt (great cheering).

The Chairman then read,and afterwards presented to Mr. Godley, the following Address:— Canterbury Settlement, New Zealand, December 18, 1852. Sin, —We, the undersigned inhabitants of the Canterbury Settlement, having learnt with deep regret that j Tour departure, which we had hoped would have been long deferred, is about to take place, desire to express in the warmest terms the high sense we entertain of the many and important services, both public and private, which you have rendered to the Settlement duiing your residence amongst us from the time ot its foundation.

" We are anxious to convey to you this Public Testimony of the uniform urbanity,^ zsal, and earnest regard for the interests of au, with which you have for two years discharged a very responsible and difficult position ; and to assure you, that, both by the

ability and integrity with which you have administered public affairs, as well as by the example which you have set in private life, you have Avon our confidence and esteem.

"It is a matter of sincere and just congratulation, that you have been permitted to witness the undertaking, of which you were one of the chief promoters, crowned with so great a measure of success; and, especially, that the Government of this Settlement, and of the whole Colony, has been at length established, to a great extent in accordance with those principles which you have ever steadily advocated.

" We should deeply regret to think that the connection between us were now to be wholly severed ; but we are persuaded you ■will never cease to feel a lively interest in the welfare of a Settlement with which your name has been so closely linked ; and that, in any future measures which may be contemplated in England affecting its prosperity, we may rely upon a, continuance of your services, to defend or advocate our rights and interests. Especially, in the final adjustment of the relations which are to exist between the Canterbury Association and the Settlement, we earnestly hope you will take an active part, as possessing the entire confidence of the great majority of its inhabitants, and being fully competent to express their sentiments and wishes.

" We desire at the same time to offer our acknowledgments of the part, in private life, which Mrs. Godley has borne with yourself, by influence and example, in conducing to the friendly feeling existing throughout our young community. We are at a loss how to pay a just tribute to her worth, but we cannot do less than convey to her the very sincere expression of our regret at her depardeparture, and of the high esteem in which her name is held by all classes.

"In conclusion, we beg to offer, both to yourself and to Mrs. Godley, our warmest and heartiest wishes for your future happiness and prosperity ; and to assure 5 rou that, should you ever return amongst us, you will be welcomed back with the same cordial feelings of affection and respect with which we now bid you farewell."

After the reading of the Address, which was received with loud expressions of approbation, the Chairman- called upon the ladies and gentlemen there assembled to prove, by the manner in which they would receive the toast he was about to propose, how entirely they concurred with him in the sentiments he had expressed to their departing guests. He then proposed " the health of Mr. and Mrs. Godley, and might health, happiness, and eveiy blessing, ever attend them." He begged that this toast might be drunk with nine times nine, and as many more cheers as they chose to give. Me. Godley, after the cheering had subded, rose and said, —Ladies and Gentlemen, It is at best a miserable thing to say farewell. That must be a desolate and cheerless spot, which a man with a heart in his bosom, after having long lived in it, can look upon for the last time without regret; and those must, indeed, be uninteresting or unamiable people of whom such a man, when he has mixed with them for years in familiar intercourse, can think without a pang that he will never see them again. How much more, then, must I feel, Ito whom Canterbury has become a second home, dearer if possible than the first, I, in whose affection so many of its inhabitants have placed themselves beside my oldest and most intimate friends, how much more must ;I feel at the thought, that taking the ordinary chances of human life into consideration, I may he addressing the people of Canterbury for the last time. Don't mistake me; I earnestly hope, nay (if I may say so without presumption), I confidently expect to see you here again ; I hardly know how I could make up my mind to leave you if 1 were not supported by the anticipation of visiting you again within a few years, of recalling myself to your recollection, and of exulting in the progress which you will have made during my absence (cheers). But notwithstanding this consolatory hope, it is impossible for me to forget that humau plans depend upon very many

things besides human will; that man's life is precarious and frail; and that I, more than most men of my years, have cause to shrink from talking of wdiat I will do years hence, or next year, or even to-morrow. When, therefore, I go to the other end of the world, with the intention of spending' four or five years there at least, I cannot but feel a sinking of the heart and a dimness of the eyes, when I try to realize the thought of coming back. I have said that Canterbury is to me a second home. Have I not a right to say so? It is true that I have never possessed, and probably never shall possess, an acre of land in it, and that 1 cannot be said, therefore, to have a stake in the country, in the ordinary, vulgar, sense of the word; yet I venture to say that no man ever had in a more true and living sense a stake in a country than I have in this. For the last five years, ever since the plan of founding a settlement of Church people in New Zealand was first suggested to me, I think I may almost say without exaggeration that the thought of it has hardly been for a moment out of my mind; I have become, for the time at least, a man of one idea, to which everything else, public and private, has been made subordinate. Almost every intimate friend I have in the world has been induced by-me to take a part in this enterprize"; whatever reputation I may enjoy, or look to enjoying, is bound up with its success; indeed, I have often felt as though if this Colony had proved a failure, I could never again have had the heart and the courage to engage in any public enterprize. But this is not all; my affection is not, I can assure you, for the abstract idea of Canterbury alone ; I have formed since I came here, relations of a far closer and more attaching kind. Nearly every inhabitant of Canterbury is, more or less, known to me as I am to them ; with a large proportion, I had nearly said with the greater part of them, I have been inconstant personal intercourse. I have watched the foundation and growth of nearly every house, the cultivation of every field, the progress of every crop, in the settlement, as if it were my own. I have superintended the construction of your public works, the building of your churches, the management of your schools. I haveborne a part in all your political proceedings, and attended all your public meetings; in short, the affairs of this settlement have become part and parcel of my very life and being, to an extent which could hardly have taken place under any other combinationjof circumstances (cheers). All former local ties, —the ties of patriotism, of hereditary attachnient,of early association,appear weak in comparison with those which bind Canterbury and myself together. No other country can ever be to me what this country is ; no other people can be to me what you are. So that, when I meet you here to exchange farewells and blessings before we part, I feel rather like a man tearing himself from a family circle to which he was intimately and affectionately attached, than like an officer resigning a public trust into the hands of the community whose affairs he has administered. I am grateful, my friends, beyond what words can express, for the manner in which you have received me here to-day. This scene will live in my mind and in ray heart to my dying hour. For any service which I may have rendered to you it is a rich reward. Indeed, if I had done twice as much, I should be more than abundantly repaid by this demonstration of your sentiments towards me. I thank God that I have been permitted to witness it. I am thankful, too, that my wife^has been allowed to bepresent. I think I may say it will be an epoch in her life; and that she will ever cherish, among the most precious treasures of her memory, a recollection of the attachment and regard expressed towards herself and her husband by the people of Canterbury on this day. I will not pretend to say that all this was unexpected by me. It is only in accordance with the kindness which I have ever experienced in. this settlement. The duties which I have had to perform have been in many respects of a very invidious character. Having the whole responsibility of the public service on my shoulders, a great deal has been expected of me; more perhaps than under any circumstances one individual could have done ; more certainly than under the actual circumstances I had the means of doing. Those who came to me with requests, suggestions, claims, seldom were fully aware of the difficulties which I had to contend with, and the restricted nature of my powers, so that I feel as if for the h*.st two years

I had been engaged in perpetually saying no, to people who thought they had a right to yes. Then, too, besides these unavoidable clashings and differences, I know I have many short comings and faults to plead guilty to. I say so not in the conventional language of one who is fishing for a complimentary contradiction, but solemnly and sorrowfully. There are many even here present to whom I ought to apologise for hasty words and inconsiderate recriminations -, for indolence, carelessness, and illtemper ; many whose presence here is doubly grateful to me as an earnest of their forgiveness. But what I have been coming to is this; notwithstanding that I have held a position so invidious and so productive of occasions of offence and misconception, I declare to you that, on a careful retrospect of my intercourse with all of you, I can hardly call to mind one single expression of unkind or angry feeling towards myself personally. The allowance that lias been made for me—the Consideration shown to me, have, I assure you, often appeared to me almost incredible, nay, have often and often put me to the blush from feeling how little I deserved them. I take advantage, then, of this public opportunity of thanking most sincerely the people of Canterbury for their uniform kindness to me, shown not only on the present occasion, but invariably, always, everywhere, both iv my public and private capacity. If my life be spared, and if I am ever again engaged in the public service elsewhere, I may have in many ways, fewer difficulties to contend with ; I may have ampler means, a less restricted authority, freer scope to follow out my own plans, and to act at my own discretion ; but one advantage I well know I shall never have again in an equal degree; the advantage of having to deal with people disposed to receive any proposal of mine with favour: disposed to indulge rather than to cavil; disposed always, even whenever I most widely differed from them, to give me credit for wishing and endeavouring to do what I thought most conclusive to the public good (cheers). Again, I am anxious to take this public opportunity of expressing my grateful acknowledgments to those gentlemen who have been engaged, in conjunction with me, in administering the colonial affairs of the Canterbury Association. In fact, lam the more bound to do so, as they have been the means of conferring on myself a great deal of undeserved credit. 1 know that visitors have often gone away from hence, loud in praises of the arrangements at our Land and Emigration Offices, of the excellence of our surveys and maps, and of the regularity of our accounts, and have spoken of them as though they were due to me. But the fact is, that as you all know, my share in these matters has of necessity been exceedingly small. The credit which those departments have eavned, is due to the gentlemen who have had charge of them, and to whom the people of this settlement are more indebted than most of them are aware, of. I may add, that it is a most gratifying reflection to me, that with one painful.exception, I have not only never had occasion to dismiss any of the servants of the Association, but I have hardly ever had occasion to find fault; there has rarely been a difference of opinion among us ; never, I believe, a single offensive or angry word (cheers). But I have said enough, and more than enough, about myself, and my own feelings. 1 could not say less, in justice to those feelings and to your kindness ; but I must not forget that time is passing, and that you ought not to be detained too long. Still I know you will, with your usual kindness, bear with me, while I say a few words upon the position in which I leave the colony, which I have taken so active a part in founding. On the whole, that is, looking back at our enterprize as a whole, not dwelling upon this or that detail, not indulging in the plaintive truism that we might have done it better if we had had more experience ; but looking on it, I say, as a whole, I am prepared to maintain not only that it was a great and noble enterprize, but that it has been successfully carried out. (Hear, hear.) We have a magnificent colony in embryo, certain (humanly speaking) to prosper in a material point of view, as rapidly as any other colony of modern times, and to become within" a man's lifetime, a great people ; actually containing too within itself \as much of the elements of high civilization' as, I now believe, it is possible to plant in a new country, unless where some forcible instrumentality hap 1 pens at a particular period, to expel from the old a large section of its people. We have a

branch of the Church of England planted here, with a competent supply of clergy, and ample permanent endowments, although the Association, acting, I have no doubt, in ignorance of the value of land in a new country, have made a mistake in trusting too exclusively to land endowments, instead of reserving a fund to meet ecclesiastical expenses until they should be provided for out of those endowments. We have provision for the higher and lower branches of education to as great an extent, I now find, as there is an effective demand for, among a population situated as this is ; we have, moreover,to thebestof my belief, a more concentrated population, a larger proportion of resident proprietors, and consequently a greater command over the applicances and civilities of society, than has been attained before, under similar circumstances, by agricultural colonists. Af the same time that we enjoy these special ad-, vantages, there has not been any deficiency iii opportunities of profitable investment for capir tal, and of profitable employment for labour. On the contrary, considering the inexperience of the colonists, and aniong a large proportion of them the Want of sufficient means to, meet their habitual requirements, there have been wonderfully few instances of actual failure; wonderfully few instances of men who are unable to look forward, (through struggles, no doubt, and privations, but still to look forward) to an ultimate and certain competence. I know there are many who will not take this view, and who will feel perhaps more or less angry with me for expressing it, as though I insulted their disappointments. Yet, at the-risk of offending them I must remind them that though there have been cruel and undeserved disappointment, there have been also many which were caused by people's expecting impossibilities. I don't blame them for it; for to a great extent, I. did so myself, but such is the fact. They expected that such an edifice of civilization as it has taken many laborious centuries to build up at home, could be created in a few months out here ; while they expected, in addition to this, that a capital, of which the interest would not have supplied them with the commonest necessaries of life in England, would provide for them and for their families, when invested, in ,New- Zealand,' not only necessaries, but luxuries in profusion, without difficulty, or anxiety, almost without toil. I will not say that I have not been disappointed in many things myself. No man in this world can go through any enterprize that has greatness in it without being often and sorely disappointed, because nothing great is ever done without enthusiasm (hear), and enthusiasts are always over-sanguine. When I first adopted and made my own, the idea of this colony, it pictured itself to my mind in the colours of a Utopia. Now that I have been a practical colonizer, and have seen how these things are managed in fact, I often smile when I think of the ideal Canterbury of which our imagination dreamed. Yet I see nothing.in .the dream to regret or to be ashamed of, and I am quite sure that without the enthusiasm, the poetry, the unreality, (if you will,) with which our scheme was overlaid, it would never have been accomplished (hear, hear). This colony, full of life, and vigour, and promise, as it is, would,never have been founded, and these plains, if colonized at all, would have fallen into the hands of a very different set of people from those whom I see around me. Besides, I.am not at all sure that the reality though less showy, is not in many respects sounder and better than the dream. Take - for example that common notion which so many educated and intelligent' people ;have of colonization, the notion that it will enable them to live a sort of careless, indolent, easy-going life, uudeivtheir vines and their figtrees, among their children and their flowers, to revel in the spon- >,/ Jneous plenty of an exuberant soil, and to t^injoy all the luxuries of civilization without its i responsibilities, its restraints, and its labour. [ This is the kind of life that many of us fondly I dreamed of. I will not say that I did not.someI times dream of it myself. But would this, even j if it were not out of the question, be a life Worthy of a man—of an Englishman ? Is the desire to fly from toil and trouble a worthy motive for colonization ? Ought not our motive rather to be a desire to find a freer scope, I and a more promising object for our toil and I our trouble? We all know now that when I men colonize, more perhaps than in any I other walk of life, they have to eat their bread I in the sweat of thefr face. But this is the adI vantage, and pridefland glory of colonization. I- w

It is the corroding evil of old and highly-peo-pled countries, that in them whole classes, from the Sybarite peer to the work-house pauper, have this curse hanging heavy on their lives, that they have nothing to do; and this it is that justifies us in urging men to emigrate, that in new countries every man must do something, and every man finds something to do, (cheers). I have seen here clergymen ploughing, and barristers digging (laughter), and officers of the army and navy '-riding in" stock, aud no one thoughtthe worse of them, but the contrary. (Cheers). The principle then which it is the business of colonizers to assert, is the nobleness of work—work of any kind, so that it be hard and honest work, (hear, hear,); and a sound and true principle it is, though it has its own dangers and abuses, against which colonists would do well to guard. But this is a digression; ]To return to what I was saying. There may have been disappointments among us to individuals, but on the whole, and to the community, there has been remarkable success; and I say with perfect confidence, that;.'.fiv.e or six years hence those who battle through the ■ first difficulties will have no more to say about disappointments. I trust I shall be pardoned for quoting, in support of what I say, two or three cases which have come lately to my personal knowledge, and which I have no reason at all to suppose extraordinary or out of the way. There may be many more of a stronger kind, but these happen to have been brought before myself. One is the case of a gentleman, of good family and education, who landed in this colony with a land-order for 50 acres, and 300/. He has now horses and cattle alone to the value of his original capital 3001. He has built an excellent house, has 14 acres fenced and cropped, and owns 400 sheep and lambs, and, moreover, he does not owe a farthing in the world. The next instance is that of a man whose capital was still smaller. lam informed it was just 50/. He too had 50 acres of land, and a large family, including two grown-up sons. I visited his farm the other day, and found the whole of it fenced in, and divided into five separate fields, all with substantial fences. He has a comfortable house, a .particularly -neat i and . well-cropped garden, two cows, with their.calves, several pigs, and no less than 27 acres (including the garden) under crop; and lam happy say, I never saw crops look finer or more promising. The third and last case which I mean to quote is this. I Was told two days ago by a working mechanic— a man who had no money at all when he arrived, not a farthing —that he had saved and laid by in two years, from the labour of his own hands, no less a sum than 200/. (cheers). Such instances as these show that those who said that this colony would prove a fine field for the exertions of a working man, said nothing but the truth : for I happen to know that there is nothing exceptional or peculiar in the opportunities or advantages which the men whom I have referred to possess; they have simply exemplified the rewards which honest industry can reap in a new country. I have.little doubt, but that success of a similar kind to this would have been to a still greater extent the rule among our colonists if it had not been for the discovery of the gold-fields of Australia. The check which that discovery has given to our growth has undoubtedly been very severe. We have felt it in the price of provisions, in the emigration of labourers, above all, in the difficulty and expense of procuring stock. But my firm belief-is, that within a very short period you will begin to, reap the benefit which must;, ultimately result.frqm the neighbourhood of a country so enormously rich as Australia is becoming. If there be one point on which all those who have visited the diggings agree, it is this; that of the hundreds of thousands that have flocked thither from every part of the world, not one intends to live there. Every man intends to go away as soon as he shall have made money enough. No amount of money could tempt a man°to make deliberately an El Dorado his home. Now, I cannot but look upon it as mathematically certain that a very large proportion of these people will come to New.Ze.aland. \ou may depend upon it, the great majority of those who have come,even with the intention ot returning to England, will not return. Experience shows, that when a man, especially a young man, leaves England, and remains for a few yeirs in a new country, he does not care to go bai-k ao-ain for good ; somehow or other a new set of luabitshave been generated, not necessarily woise habits, but different ones, which make the thought of a permanent residence .in an old

country distasteful to him, and he will rather seek for the blessings of order and civilization, if he can get them, in a neighbouring colony, than in the old world, from which he has with such an effort uprooted himself. It is to be remembered, too, that precisely the best people among the immigrants into Australia will be likely to leave it again soon, because the best people are the least likely to be satisfied with such a state of society as a goldproducing country exhibits. I see nothing, therefore, in the Australian gold-diggings to make me alter the sanguine view I have always taken of the fortunes of this colony, or to make me less satisfied with the part which I have taken in founding it. It is impossible for me, my friends, altogether to abstain on such an occasion as this from some allusion to the colonizing association which I have represented in this country. The Canterbury Association has not escaped the ordinary fate of colonizing bodies in two respects at least; it has exceeded its "means, and it has incurred considerable unpopularity in the settlement it has founded. This result seems to be inseparable from the nature of such bodies ; they generally manage badly, and they are always disliked for managing at all. Yet, without them, many of our noblest colonies would never have been founded (hear, hear) ; so that embarrassment and unpopularity are to be taken, I suppose, as part of the necessary burden which those who embark in the glorious work of founding colonies must be content to bear, and for my part, I will willingly take the one with the other; lam content to bear a share of the burden, if I may be permitted to bear a hand in the work. lam not about to defend the Association's policy in detail, but this at least you will pardon me for saying, (and I say so with the utmost confidence,) that no body of men ever engaged in a public enterprize with higher, or purer motives, or ever prosecuted it with greater zeal, energy, or disinterestedness. They have made plenty of mistakes no doubt; that, asl have said, was inseparable from their constitution as a distant governing body, and nobody has protested against what I believed their errors more strongly than I have ; but if they have made such mistakes, the leading members of the Association have nobly done their best to redeem them by voluntary personal sacrifices, which no one had a right to demand at their hands. I know those men intimately; they are not rich, any one of them ; they were under neither legal nor moral liability to spend their private funds in the service of this Settlement; because, as you know, they were not in the position of a trading corporation, and they could not, tinder any circumstances, have made one farthing by its utmost conceivable success. Yet sooner than hazard the failure of the enterprize—nay, sooner than that funds should be wanting for its vigorous and rapid prosecution, they came forward cheerfully and simply, and without making a fuss about it, and paid sums, and incurred liabilities, which, in comparison with their means, were exceedingly, almost ruinously, large. (Cheers.) Remember this when tempted to forget what they have done for you ; remember that errors of judgment and calculation are venial, when redeemed-by sincerity, earnestness, and self-denial. (Cheers). I must just say one word about your new constitution. I rejoice to see so lively and intelligent an interest taken in its working, but I clearly foresee that there will be a reaction and that there will be great disappointment with it at first. 1 clearly^ foresee that a great many of you, probably the best people among you,- will be disgusted with the turmoil and agitation and strife inseparable from the working of a popular constitution, and disappointed because us beneficial results will in all probability not become very obviously or rapidly visible. But you must fight against this feeling. You must rememoer that we were never-meant to enjoy quiet lives. Quiet lives are for beings of a higher or a lower nature than man's ; for beatified spirits, or tlie brute creation. It is the business ot man, aixct most of the noblest men, to work, to struggle, and to strive. (Cheers). Life is a battle, not a feast; and those conditions of existence are the best and the most wholesome, which most tend to strenothen and harden us lor the combat (Cheers.) It is in this light that 1 have learned to regard and value political liberty ; not primarily because it tends to promote material prosperity, ease, and enjoyment, but becau e^by providing a high object for our aims, .ai cLa noble field for our intellectual exercise and by forcing us to take a part vi matters which do

not concern our individual selves alone, it tends to form a great and glorious national character. (Loud cheers.) Try to work the new system with these aims, and in this spirit, and you will learn to exercise with satisfaction and advantage, that most troublesome as well as most precious privilege, political freedom. Forgive me if I have seemed to speak in too presumptuous and didactic a tone. My approaching departure, and my deep interest in all that concerns you, together embolden me to express myself freely; and I know I speak to indulgent ears. I must now offer my best and most cordial thanks, on behalf of my wife, for the manner in which you have received her today. She bids me say that she has to thank the people of Canterbury for two of the happiest years of her life ; she bids me ask you not to forget her, as she can never forget you ; she bids me say that she never could have believed she would have felt such sorrow as she now feels, in parting from any country but her native country, from any people but her own people. (Loud cheers). But it is time for me to stop —if I were to go on till I had. said all that I want and should like to say, till I had expressed all the fullness of my heart, I feel as if I should hardly ever come to a conclusion. But the parting word must coiiie—that word which I have-been dreading to pronounce—farewell. God bless you, and prosper you. God grant, if it be his pleasure, that we may meet again on'earth, and that whether we meet on earth or not, we may meet in the everlasting mansions of his kingdom. Mr, Godley resumed his seat amidst, loud cheers, a great portion of the company being deeply affected by his parting words. :The following toasts were then given from the Chair.:—" Tlie Members of the . Canterbury Association;" and " Sir John Pakington and the friends of New Zealand in England." .Mr. E. J. Wakefield said—l am afraid that those who see me standing up to return thanks for such a distinguished body of men, will think --1~-am„guiltyjjf great presumption. But as it has been represented- to n ne that my father has been for many.years one of the warmest friends .of New-Zealand, I-have overcome my reluctance to put myself forward on this occasion. I feel confident, too, that I am not saying too „_much for any of those distinguished persons, and espe^eiallv-for-«uch..pf them as are members of the Canterbury Association, when I assert that they would cordially and earnestly join in the : object of this assembly, and be as anxious, as any of us to do honor to our esteemed guest. (Cheers). lam sure that they would rejoice to see this brilliant and unanimous body, of colonists, both as a sign of the great progress of the project of colonization in which they have displayed so much interest, and as a token that they made a right choice when they selected Mr. Godley to direct the first efforts and energies of this settlement. (Cheers.) I hope that I may be allowed to answer for my father, that he, as one of the earliest associates of Mr. Godley, in forming the plan of this settlement, must feel the utmost esteem, respect, and gratitude towards that gentleman for having, so ably behaved, as the founder,itsleader,and its hero. (Cheers). In. that feeling I need hardly say that I most cordially concur. While witnessing, indeed, the graceful and earnest expression of esteem this day offered to Mr. Godley, and. while thinking over the able summary of our present condition, and the wise and touching advice as to the future, which he has so eloquently given us, one cannot help being reminded of those occasions in early American history, when similar scenes took place between the. early Colonists and their honored rulers. One cannot help thinking that he must have had in his mind the words of a modern American poet: — " Lives of great men all remind us . We can make our lives sublime ; And, departing, leave behind ns footprints on the nanus of time: " Footprint", that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's Holernii main,— A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, may take heart again." (Cheers). I will not detain you, at this late hour, by dwelling at as great length as I could wish on the subject, but I will only repeat my conviction that all those gentlemen, whose health you have just drank, would joyfully join with you in thanking and honoring Mr. Godley, and I beg to give- you hearty thanks, in their name for the honor which you have done them.

The Company, after a few more toasts, broke up, and MVi and Mrs. Godley returned to Lyttelton, after taking personal farewells with the assembled company.