THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, November 12, 1842.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 36, 12 November 1842, Page 142

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, November 12, 1842.

Les journaux devienncnt plus nlcesaaires a mesure que les homines sout plus dgaux, et 1' individualisme plus a craindre. Cc serai t diminuer leur importancs que de croirc qu' Us ne servent qu' a garantir la liberty : its maintiennent la civilisation. De TocatTEViLLE. De hi D&nocratie en Amerique, tome 4, p. 220. Journals become more necessary as men become more equal, and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve unly to secure liberty : they maintain civilization. De TocacEyiLLE. Of Democracy in America, vol. 4, p. 220. "We have heard with some astonishment a report, current in Nelson, of an intention on the part of the New Zealand Company to reduce the price of the allotments at present unsold. On reference to the Report of the Directors and elsewhere, we can find no foundation for any such supposition, unless it be some obscurity in the report of the remarks of the chairman. In its stead, is mention of a matter very important to be considered, and to which attention has been called before : we refer to the reduction of the size of the allotments. Mr. Alexander Currie " thought the sections might with advantage be diminished, and the land sold in smaller proportions. Two hundred acres would require a capital of four or five thousand pounds to cultivate it in a proper manner, and that was more than men could be expected to advance." Mr. G. F. Young said " the directors had already considered whether it would be possible to lessen the sections without doing injustice to the regular settlers, and they had declined to interfere. The subject however, was to be again brought under consideration, and he trusted that an arrangement, would be made which would satisfy all paities." This is a point on which we have not yet had an opportunity of ascertaining the opinions of our fellow-settlers. We would not, therefore, say at once, as an expression of pnblic opinion, that some such measure is at once desirable and desired by the settlers at Nelson ; but, for ourselves, we firmly believe that the Company could adopt no course so certain to be immediately and eventually beneficial to the settlement. Many actual settlers buy land as absentees do, viz., as speculators in town sections ; many, half as speculators and half with the intention of farming, if they get a particularly good suburban choice, and not otherwise. To these the sum of £300 is not important. But the very class of men wanted in a country like New Zealand are those to whom such a sum is a matter of importance. Large capitalists, who will farm at once their 200 acres, are rare in a new country. Many men, ignorant of what it is they are undertaking, will pay without grudging £300, and find, when they arrive and go -to work, the capital they brought with them is insufficient (after their fashion of setting about it) to cultivate any important section of their allotment. These are not valuable colonists. Large capitalists are great acquisitions, unquestionably ; but, taking one thing with another, we should say that the especial want in this country is a number of small capitalists — men not led, by the consciousness of possessing large property, into wasteful or unnecessary expenditure — whose wise knowledge of their limited means will enforce upon them the necessity for economy, and being at once and for a length of time — through much sacrifice, if needed — hard at work, making the foundation of an income which shall justify future expenditure. Such are the very men wanted here. The very fact of their being unwilling to advance much for land shows that they are careful of what money they have, and that they will be likely to make a good use of what is left after they have paid for- their land. If they think that fifty acres is quite enough to begin with (in a country which gives two crops in a year when well cultivated), who is there that knows the country that wilL not agree with them ? Is it not quite enough ?

For such men, at all events, it is quite enough. We are ourselve3 quite delighted to find that the directors have entertained the idea of by this means supplying a body of really active agricultural capitalists. Let us not be silent or idle in the thing. ,-If it is thought about, it cannot appear unimportant, nor can one well see that any other conclusion can be arrived at than that a lessening of the size of the allotments will be a benefit to the settlement. Every assistance in our power to give will be afforded, in case it should be thought ad-! visable to express the opinion of the settlers in favour of this new arrangement. For the present, we leave it as a thing to be thought about.

At the present moment, in consequence of the arrival of three immigrant ships, one so closely in the wake of the other, and of the last having brought no cabin passengers, there is, and, for a time, will be, an excess of labour in relation to the amount of private capital available for its agricultural or otherwise productive employment. Here is an accident which it would hare been impossible to prevent, arising from an | untoward occurrence of mobility and stillness in the atmosphere in the various latitudes between this and Great Britain. In a settlement founded upon no system, or a less perfect one, such an accident would have flooded the market with'labour, which would have cried aloud and then hurried off, its little savings nearly all spent, or, less fortunate, have starved, without any one having the power to prevent. At present, in this place, the result is far from being so appalling, or, indeed, in any way unhappy, save that one would like to see capital enough in private hands, and they willing to expend it in agricultural pursuits, to employ all the labour that may come. As it is, the united capital derived from the sums originally paid for land comes into the' market and employs the labour, not directly in agriculture, but in the next best way in which it can be employed, namely, in lessening the expense with which the present agricultural operations can be carried on, aud in preparing the way for the more economical application of the capital of all agriculturists who shall hereafter arrive. The " plantation fund " is expended in shipping emigrants from England, and in supporting them here at first for a fortnight without labour, and after that period by supplying them with employment until they shall be absorbed by the private-capital market. Here, then, is an equalizing force in the system. We do not call it perfect — far from it ; yet, so far, it works well. We believe it to be a legitimate occupation of such a fund, whether called plantation fund or otherwise, to employ labour in public works, such as road-making and draining. Not retracting, but qualifying, what we said above, it may after all appear desirable that all the capital should not be applied to turn labour to agriculture alone ; the two should go hand in hand — the preparing produce for the market, and the facilitating its transport to the market. If all the pur-chase-money given over the actual price of the land in this settlement had remained in the hands of the emigrating capitalists, they would have been obliged — before, during, and after first cultivation — to expend some of that money in this way (especially in road-jnaking). They might have _done it without plan, each for himself improving the road he was obliged to use; and then there would have been great want of economy, great waste cf the means existing foi the purpose ; or they might have combined and so produced all or a part of those beneficial results of combination which follow I from the present system. The direction o the labour employed by this fund lies vritr : the Company's Agent here : and, in conclusion, we would say. one word on tbii subject, which we trust to the candour o the people of Nelson, and their experienw ; hitherto of our disinterested conduct, not U

misinterpret. It is firmly believed. tht%k l

lat the Company's Agent here is above all }ings interested in the progress of the seteraent; that, though doubtless sufficiently itentive to the interests of the Company as s employers, yet that interest has in his md so identified itself with the larger in[rest of the settlement itself, as to make all -Otters presented to him undergo the ordeal j ' Will they be beneficial to the place and ie settlers ?" rather than " Will they be pofitable to the Company?" We beg raptain Wakefield's pardon for this mention f what we believe to be his motives. Our ptention is good. If any landowners or withers here have any proposition to make as to the particular road on which the present extra labour should be employed, they will always find the means of putting it forward in the columns of this paper ; and we are satisfied that any such proposed plan would be met by the Company's Agent in a proper •spirit ; and, if it was found to be disinterestedly supported by any number of laudowners, he would do his part towards carrying it out.

Yesterday, about one o'clock, a deputation of gentlemen, consisting of Messrs. Sclamlers, Otterson, Fell, Elliott, and Richardson, waited on H. A. Thompson, Esq., and presented a memorial, signed by 106 of the most respectable inhabitants of Nelson, requesting him to' call, a public meeting for the purpose of .ascertaining' the wishes of the population as to an immediate application to the Governor of the colony to proclaim Nelson a. borough. After some conversation, Mr. Thompson named Tuesday week, the 22d of November, at twelve o'clock, for the time, and the Court House as the place where the meeting should be held, which he promised should be duly announced. We omit for the present any remarks on this most important subject. We have been informed by Captain Cooney, of the Nimrod, that during his passage from the Bay of Islands, he saw fire issuing from Mount Egmont three n'ghts successively.