REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT TO THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 103, 25 December 1852, Page 4

REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT TO THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.

Presented the 15th July, 1552.

The usual annual meeting of the Association, appointed to be held on the last Tuesday hi June, was, as you are aware, adjourned to this day.

The object of such adjournment was to enable your committee to lay before you, as.a complete measure, the Act of Parliament just passed for establishing the future constitution of New Zealand, and which received the Royal assent on the 30th of June last..

That important measure having now become law, the first duty of your committee will he to slate its effect upon the Canterbury Settlement, and your own position in relation to it. Your Association was formed with the special object of founding a colony, with institutions which might grow up into suitable form for the reception of immigrant members of the Church of England.

But you did not aim at establishing in this country any permanent organization for securing that end. On the contrary, coupled with it, you kept steadily before you, from the beginning, another principle essential to the well being of all colonies, however founded, namely, that of independent self-government.

Your view was merely to plant a seed, whose future growth should depend on its own vital energy—not upon artificial connection with the mother-country.

Your committee have kept these objects before them throughout their operations. The success of such a work must obviously depend almost entirely .upon the constituent elements of its early colonization.

Accordingly, the great end to which the efforts of your committee have. been directed, and to which all others have been subordinate, has been to send forth, in the first instance, a class of colonists whose sympathies would he engaged in the work, and who would carry in themselves, in their own principles and resources, the materials and means for the development of the plan.

Your committee feel no hesitation in congratulating you on the success which has attended this part of your undertaking, and they point with confidence to the first settlers at Canterbury, as being superior as a class to those of any modern colony.

With such a foundation-established, your committee have witnessed with unqualified satisfaction the passing of the recent Constitution Act, which has transferred "to the colony itself the future control of its local affairs. One principal feature of that measure is the division of the colony into provinces, of which Canterbury will be one. Its limits will be fixed by the Governor, and-will include and necessarily extend beyond the Canterbury block. The province so formed will (in common with others), possess within itself the amplest powers of local self government.

All legislative, as w^ell as executive authority will he in a great measure vested in the colonists themselves, restricted only as regards matters of general and imperial concern. An elective legislative body will be established, with full power to make laws relating to all local affairs with the consent of a superintendent, himself elective, subject only to the disallowance of the Governor-in-Chief. The restrictions on that power are specified in the Act, and comprise 14 classes of subjects, properly affecting the interests of the colony at large. _ The constitution of such a legislative body is in fact the completion and end of the work which your Association undertook. To that body we must look for the continuance and development of the plan which you have originated, and looking to the character of the present settlers, and the principles by which they are likely to be governed, your committee feel that it may with confidence, as it must of necessity, be intrusted to them. One important feature of this new measure, is the transfer to a Central Legislature of the general control of the waste lands of the colony. Iv noticing this provision, it is impossible to omit the expression of deep satisfaction at the first, and it may be hoped final, adoption of a principle essential, as your committee believe, XQ the well being of the whole colonial empire,

No persons cari be more deeply sensible than themselves of the futurity, of all attempts at regulating, in this country, that important branch of colonial economy, the disposal and management of waste lands. All attempts of the kind have hitherto been little more than successions of mistakes.

The experience of your committee has added another testimony to this truth, and though it has confirmed their belief in the general soundness of the principles on which your undertaking was first planned, particularly as regards the price of land, and the part application of its proceeds to religious and educational objects, it has satisfied them, that even these questions, and a fortiori all matters of detail and regulation, must, with a view to establishing a sound system on a permanent basis, be entrusted to the colonists themselves.

Acting on these principles, when your committee obtained larger powers of control over the occupation of the waste lands within the Canterbury Block under their Act of 1851, they forthwith transmitted to their chief agent in the colony an unlimited discretion as to the mode of exercising those powers, subject only to such fundamental conditions fixed by Parliament and by the charter.

Your committee therefore recognise in the most unqualified manner the wisdom of ■ that provision, in the new Constitution Act, which takes the control of the colonial-lands from the Colonial Office at home, and places it in the hands of the colonists themselves.

In Parliament and without, your committee have promoted this object by all means in their power.

But in the application of that principle your committee ventured to bring under the consideration of her Majesty's Government the better arrangement (as it appeared to them) of vesting the control of the waste lands in each province in the inhabitants of such province separately, and not in the Central Legislature. That plan appeared to them likely to answer many good ends. In particular it would have created a strong feeling in each settlement of the importance and value o^ its territorial possessions as a source of revenue and a means of self-development.

It would also have enabled the different settlements in New Zealand, formed upon diffe-rent-.plans and under different circumstances, to pursue each for itself the course best suited to its own particular interests and aims.

That proposal, however, having been negatived by her Majesty's Government, and it being deemed impolitic upon this subordinate question to risk a measure containing such promise of good, your committee felt that their wisest course would be to acquiesce in and to further as much as in them lay the passing of the measure in its present form. . They cannot but look forward with hope to the Central Legislature itself giving effect to a proposal conducive, as your committee think, to the general welfare and progress of .the whole colony. Tt is, at all events, a subject of satisfaction that the colonists of Canterbury will, in the central as well as in their own provincial legislature, have full power of giving expression to their own wants and wishes on this subject. With a more direct view to such an object, your committee sought for and obtained the introduction of a clause in the bill, enabling them to transfer to the Provincial Legislature of Canterbury the special functions and priviliges vested in the Association.

The 76th clause of the Act provides for that object, and enables you to make such transfer, subject to such terms as may be arranged between yourselves and the Provincial Legislature.

And one important point to which your attention will be this day directed will be the adoption of measures under that clause.

You will observe that a simple transfer of power under that clause would have the effect of placing the Provincial Legislature in;the same position as the Association itself, invested with like functions and subject to like disabilities and restrictions'.

Your powers. are two-fold, those derived under charter, and those conferred on you by Act of Parliament.

Your charter has created you a permanent corporation, for a fixed and continuing purpose, viz., to found a colony for the reception of immigrants of the Church of England, and for the maintenance of religions and educational institutions, in connection with that church. Under these powers, coupled with special prqT

visions in your Act of 1851, you hold in permanence endowments for religious and educational purposes] you also hold extensive and valuable property, such as wharves, buildings, and land, appropriated for public purposes, but subject to your absolute control. Your Act of 1850 gave you a limited and temporary control over the lands in the Canterbury Block ; you were to exercise your power of selling land there for a term of ten years—-renewable if thought fit—but subject to be resumed in various events —in particular in the event of your not selling £50,000 worth of land in each year, ending the Ist of March. Your Act of 1851 added further powers of regulation, but did not alter the essential condi-

tions of the former Act.

Thus you will perceive that the functions which are to be the subject of transfer under the 76th clause of the new Government Act, will be—

Ist. Those of a permanent and fixed nature, created by charter.

2nd. Those temporary and conditional powers vested in you by Act of Parliament.

In order that you may understand distinctly your position, and judge accurately in reference to the question thus presented to you, it will be necessary to notice shortly the principal circumstances in the present state of your affairs.

After stating various particulars as regards the quantity of lands sold, the present position of the Association ; the claims of the Crown and the New Zealand Company, and the disputes with that body, who have laid claim to the whole Miscellaneous Fund, the report sets forth a proposal to be embodied in an official letter to the. Colonial Office, and to be recommended to the New Zealand Company, containing specific suggestions.

It embraces also a general outline of the terms on which it is proposed to transfer the Association's functions to the colonists, under the 76th section of the new Act, viz., that the colony shall provide for the .outstanding liabities, receiving a transfer of the Association's property ; and that a suitable trust shall be created for the management of the ecclesiastical and educational funds.

As regards future land-sales, the committee propose to complete all pending transactions, and for that purpose to keep open the landsales in this country till the 30th September next; after which they would cease, in this country.

But referring to the claims made by the New Zealand Company upon the whole Miscellaneous Fund, the report runs thus :—

The result at which your Committee have arrived, and which they submit to you as their deliberate judgment is—That clogged with so large a payment to the New Zealand Company as is now,insisted on, it will be generally inexpedient to continue the system of selling land in this country. Looking to the unfinished state of the works in the colony, particularly the road from the Port to the Plain, and to the comparatively small sum exacted from other settlements towards the Company's debt, they think it would be impolitic.and unjust to charge the Settlement of Canterbury with a tax so oppressive and unequal.

They shortly notice some additional points of interest and importance:— The correspondence laid on the table will be read with interest, as containing the outline of a plan for forming a new township, to be called Gladstone. Your committee hope to be able to proceed with it; but it will be necessary in the first instance to settle distinctly the extent of the claims of the New Zealand Company on the proceeds of land sales in such new township. Circumstances, to which it would be needless to advert, interrupted the arrangements for instituting the gentleman first designated as" bishop of the new diocese—-(the name of which, in consequence of a change of the capital, has been altered from Lyttleton to Christchurch). Your committee trust that no further delay will occur in supplying the vacant office ; and they have reason to believe that, so soon as the necessary preliminary arrangements can be made, the Rev, Mr. Gell, the late President of the College in Tasmania, will be ready to accept it. One cause of delay hitherto has been a defect in the official instruments executed by Bishop Selwyn. That defect has been remedied by an Act of Parliament just obtained, and no formal impediment now exists to the constitution of the new see. • < ■ ' -

As regards the prospects of the colony itself, your,committee are happy to state that, notwithstanding groundless rumours to the contrary, the latest intelligence gives ho cause for apprehension of its having suffered from the gold discoveries in Australia. The latest accounts received are to the 3rd of January last, at which time the exciting news from Port Philip had reached New Zealand, and its effect had been so far ascertained to be harmless.

The s.une advices describe the state of the colony as at that time in the highest degree promising. Stock was being fast imported ; population was increasing; a large breadth of land was under cultivation; towns were rapidly rising, and churches and schools were being built at Lyttelton and Christchurch.

It would be right to notice one great drawback to the progress of the colony-—namely, the incomplete state of the road from Port Lyttelton to the plains.

That subject has been recently investigated by the colonists themselves, and a report has been received from them, in which the cost of completing it is estimated at upwards of £30,000.

When this is accomplished there seems little doubt as to the advancement of the Settlement.

That work will have to be done by the efforts and through the means of the colonists themselves. But there appears every reason to believe that the revenue, of which they will shortly have the control, will prove sufficient for the purpose, and they will have full powers of local legislation.

Your committee conclude by expressing thengeneral satisfaction at the result of their labours. Through many difficulties and discouragements, and with some pecuniary sacrifice and risk to individuals, not foreseen at first, your undertaking thus far offers a promise of success equal to all reasonable expectations which could have been formed. Many miscalculations may, no doubt, have been made, and some disappointments experienced, but these are inseparable incidents to such undertakings. As a general result, a new and highly promising colony has been founded, which' may be looked to in the terms of the charter as, in, a special manner, suited for the reception of immigrants of the Church of England. The institutions of that Church have been planned and partially organised ; the foundation of endowments laid ; a society superior to the ordinary class of colonial communities has been formed, including several clergymen and their families. Though as yet only the beginnings are visible, yet these offer the fairest promise for the future. Much, no doubt, remains for the colonists themselves to do under the powers conferred by the new act; but, possessing those powers, your committee are confident they will not fail to complete the work in which many of them were engaged actively from the first. Through their instrumentality and co-operation, your committee look forward to the establishment of the Canterbury Settlement on its original principles, more firmly and permanently than would be practicable through any distant agency in this country. H. F. Alston, Secretary. — New Zealand Journal.

Bread made by Machinery.—According to the last report of the Academic dcs Sciences, a baker, named Rolland, has at length succeeded in constructing machines for making bread. By one of these machines the dough is perfectly kneaded, and with less than onehorsepower. The other is a new kind of oven, with a circular moving base in iron, heated by i wood or coal fire underneath. The heat and rsnoke pass round the walls of the oven and |over its top. The loaves are put into this oven j with great facility as its base turns round, and I the workmen can always watch the progress of I the baking through a glazed aperture, which is I furnished inside with a reflecting light. Instead lof the glaise which bakers use to prevent the j dough from adhering to the shovel, and which j sometimes gives a bad taste to the bread, M. j Holland contrives by a current of air to form j a very thin dry skin, which causes the loaves to I slide on and off the iron base. Satisfied as to I the economy of this invention, as well as of its j superiority in all other respects to the manual I process, the Commission deputed to examine it I have recommended! its adoption for the public I service.— Galignans.