The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 495, 1 August 1857, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Saturday, August 1. Amongst the many English friends of Canterbury who continue to take a deep interest in its welfare, the province has been called upon on several occasions to record its gratitude to two or three gentlemen in particular. If we had wanted any proof of the totally unselfish nature of the Association's labours, it is to be found in the readiness with which many of its quondam members give up so much of their time to our concerns, long after their official connection with the province has ceased.

Conspicuous amongst these gentlemen, Lord Lyttelton. Mr. Godley, and Mr. Selfe constitute a hind of standing sub-committee in London on the affairs of New Zealand and those of Canterbury in particular. Their

time, energies, and interests appear to be always-at the service of the province and their intimate knowledge of everything that takes place here makes their advice on all our business in England peculiarly valuable. In private letters which have reached this colony before, during the time of, and since the Provincial Council's debate on the subject of Immigration, these gentlemen have repeatedly urged on this province the neces sity of a larger expenditure on Immigration than we have yet attempted. They strongly insist on the useless extravagance of sending home an agent without an ample command of money immediately at his disposal. Since the Australian Colonies have determined upon sending home their own agents. it is expected that there will be a greater difficulty in obtaining a good class of emigrants for our province.

Mr. Selfe, who has been gratuitously doing the duties of Immigration Agent since Mr. Harman's return to the colony after pointing out the difficulties under which he has laboured for want of information as to the intentions of the province concerning the loan voted for Immigration by the Council in November, and the steps he has taken to despatch some immigrants in the mean time, says, with reference to sending home an agent, that it would be a piece of useless extravagance, " unless you have £20,000 to spend, and want it spent expeditiously." Again, he says, that he should recommend the sending home of an agent, if we had the money to spend on Immigration that Mr. Godley recommends viz., £50,000, or even £30,000. It will be remembered that Mr. Godley's letter to which he alludes, a portion of which was published in the "Lyttelton Times" of the 6th December, mentions 1,000 immigrants per annum as not too many for our resources. Our English friends do not calculate upon the Provincial Council's "prudence."

We quote with pleasure the following extract from Mr. Selfe's private letter: —

" The result, however, is, Willis and Co. have laid on the Glentanner, which will sail for Canterbury direct punctually on the 8th of June. She will bring at least 80, more probably 100 emigrants. In the absence of further instructions from the colony, I have not felt justified— except in two or three peculiar cases, in accepting; any emigrants, excepting those who have either bills, or who can pay £10 10s. in cash, half the amount of the passage. The amount payable by promissory notes of the emigrants themselves will therefore be very small. Messrs. Willis have behaved very well, as you would have expected, and will wait patiently for payment by the Provincial Government."

One or two other items of information received by private sources may be acceptable to our'readers. Firsl, as to our credit at home. A gentleman has just bought £500 of the Association's Debentures as an investment at par. He applied at first, in vain, to purchase from Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Cavendish, and Sir J. Simeon, but they all refused to sell, being perfectly satisfied with security and interest. This is very satisfactory intelligence, when it is remembered that the Association's Debentures only bear 6 per cent, interest.

Mr. Sewell has had two or three interviews with Mr. Labouchere, the Colonial Secretary. He is supported by Mr. Adderly and other men of influence, and has some hopes still of obtaining the guarantee by the assistance of Lord J. Russell. Although, from what we hear, success is very doubtful, we heartily wish him success. Sorry as we are to dash the delight evinced by our humorous contemporary, the ' Indeendent" on the prospect of his failure, with the slightest shade of doubt, we are, nevertheless, bound to say that his mission is by no means hopeless. Our readers will agree with us in thinking that if Mr. Sewell obtains £500,000 for the colony, at 4 per cent., it will be a very great boon, especially in the present embarrassed state of the General Government finances.