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Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 39, 3 December 1842, Page 155

the Government, its doings or misdoings, he is not sparingly reprehensive ; there is nothing to be found anywhere to give the idea of partisan • ship, unless perchance in favour of the land r claimants, and here he is a great deal too cool and temperate to justify the notion of his being an advocate. With regard to the total silence on the subject of the Company's settlements, we can no^fce how it is to be accounted for. We do n^Vish to ascribe intentional injustice : but, be tb^t as it may, this neglect has made the book exceedingly imperfect, and it does not, as, it now lies printed, give a true idea of the posi- * tion of New Zealand ; the most important part of New Zealand, at present, at least, being that in the neighbourhood of those settlements. Mr.

Terry came out originally to Port Nicholson, .but, we believe — on what account we do not yknow — was not on shore more than about a

couplo of days, and immediately went on board ship again, and proceeded to the north. If there was from the commencement an intention to publish, as we have the very best reasons to believe there was, the settlements in Cook's Straits, so every way important, should not have been passed by unnoticed, unlooked at ; or, jf it was impossible, from private reasons, so to occupy the time necessary for a survey of this part of the country, the book should not have been entitled " New Zealand, &c, &c," but " The Northern Part of the Northern Island of New Zealand." At least it should have been staled wj*h more precision than it is in the Preface, how limited a scope for observation had been open ; and any intention to give an idea of what had never been viewed should have been deprecated. It is because we look upon this work as valuable that we the more regret this important omission. But to leave this. Let us ask ourselves the question, " What sort of prospects has Mr. Terry held out to persons intending to emigrate ? What would be the effect produced on their minds by reading his book ? We think it would be found decidedly below par. We fear that New Zealand would be looked upon by them as a far less desirable field for settling and residence than we have found it t * be here, and than any coming out and remaining twelve months would find it. It has been stated before in these columns that New Zealand is not a place to make a fortune in to return home with. There will doubtless be a few exceptions ; but this is the rule. It is impossible to determine how far this may be altered when the flax shall be made available ; but, until that shall be actually done, we prefer to speak as though the country had no such resource. Let the question, however, be asked of any person (not a mere bird of passage) who has been from six months to two years in the colony, " How do you like New Zealand ?" tlhe almost universal answer is, " I was much disappointed on my first arrival, for my fancy had pictured too highly; but every day that I remain f like it better;" commonly adding, " I would not leave the country on any account," or " 1 am a New Zealandcr, now," or " having once lived in New Zealand, I woi:U not go back to England for the world." We do not in this

speak of the labouring classes, for with the majority, unfortunately (quoting from the Cape of Good Hope paper), " every change is a hardship." The exceeding beauty of the scenery, the delicious climate, and the luxuriant growth of all vegetation in the good land— of which there is abundance for all our wants — cannot fail to attach settlers, once arrived and established: of this we are confident. Mr. Terry does not give so fa\ourable an* impression as would be realized. He is, apparently, greatly under the fear of exaggeration. He is aware that there has been much exaggeration by others, and he has fallen into depreciation in endeavouring to avoid it himself. Mr. Terry has laid great stress upon sending or inducing to come out to New Zealand a class of small farmers, to form a body similar to that of the old English yeomen. We quite agree with him as to the importance of euch immigration. It is impossible to smooth the difficulties of settling in a new country absolutely down to nil ; it is not to be expected ; and the class of persons intended are the best fitted to clear the way and bring the resources of thecountry into action : they will with their own hands labour for that which is to be a direct benefit to themselves. Labourers sent out — the steady and industrious of them — will undoubtedly raise themselves to this position ; but, while they are raising themselves, a large available field of production is left unattempted. Yet, though perfectly aware of the advantages which would result from the immigration of small farmers, we must not forget, as Mr. Terry appears to do, the advantage which larger capital, applied'with due attention to the principles of " union of labour" and " division of employments," must eventually give to the farmer on a more extended scale. There-

fore we do not agree that this is no place for large capitalists intending to reside and till the ground. Unusual exertion, stimulated contina-

ally by all that is most exciting to it — the desire of making an independence for himself and family — will always give far greater progress to the Jicres of the small farmer, working with his children on his own land, than could be attained or expected from the same number of hands hired to do their daily labour on a farm of the same size. But this advantage

must soon sink into insignificance when placed in competition with larger and judiciously applied capital. So convinced are we, however, _of the certain prosperity both to themselves and ~ the settlement that would result from the arrival

of a considerable body of farmers of moderate ( capital, who would commence with their own to till a few acres of land, that we would upon the New Zealand Company to carry out at once aj^d with vigour a scheme which we hear has been mooted by them — that of dividing the present allotments of 201 acres into

smaller portions, not in any case exceeding 50 acres of country land, and disposing of them solely to agriculturists who should b"e actual settlers. We shall find another opportunity of adverting to this, but could not refrain from alluding to it here, led on by the subject before us.

How many points of vast importance Mr. Terry touches upon relative to the government of this colony, our readers are aware. He cannot see his way clear to the support of an efficient Government without large annual advances from the Home Exchequer; nor can we, as things now stand. The expense of Customs establishments must be, from the nature of the country, enormously disproportioncd to the amount of duties levied. The expenses of Government arising from the certain scattered position of the settlements must likewise be great, out of proportion to the population and its wealth. In speaking of this subject, we would start with a broad and distinct proposition — that for a colony to be dependent upon the public Treasury of the mother country for the defraying in whole or in great part the expenses of its government, is a direct cvil — what is called a necessary evil it may have been, it may still be, but not one jot the less an evil. Advances from the mother country are never a mere gift — always either a loan at exorbitant interest, though not rated by per centage of pounds, or else a price paid for the exercise of some right or privilege eventually proving valueless to her and more or less injurious, sometimes absolutely ruinous, to the colony. Just consider it. There is the right of levying duties, protective in their character: who can, in justice, deny it to a Government that has advanced money ? Yet these duties are levied, not with a view to the interests of the colony; no, they form a portion of some great scheme of legislation, some project of protection — discouragement — prohibition, in which half the globe is concerned, and in which the interests of the poor little bantling of a colony are wholly forgotten, nay, cannot be looked after, for the mother country is pledged to this scheme, whatever it may be, by years of similar legislation — oceans of blood, perhaps, shed, thousands of pounds, perhaps, expended, to support it elsewhere ; and shall she give it up because this puny child of her charity may not get on quite so well under it ? Again, has not the mother country for years had colonies, and has she not always found it advisable to arrange their Government officers and offices in a particular manner ? Does not every hanger-on to a party know that, in the establishment of a new Colonial Government, there is a certain number of offices tS be distributed ? Shall useful men be disappointed, and rat from the only party whose continuance in office can " save the country" to that whose tactics would " ruin it " because it is found that the filling of an appointment is a useless burden to a colony ? Suppose the circumstances of a colony to require peculiar institutions in some important respect different from those of the mother country — would it be safe to establish a precedent contrary to established practices, risking its being taken for a model of aught at home, and so to be the downfall of the country, because similarity of institutions would be found inimical to the progress of the colony ?

Surely, no one will deny that economical government is possible in New Zealand as elsewhere. One would have but a poor opinion of his judgment who should say that, because government has been conducted expensively in many or all colonies, therefore it must be 60 here. That it will be so, there is, unfortunately, too great a probability ; making it the more incumbent on us to move heaven and earth tc avert the evil. Let us not call in the " oystereater," because he promises to divide the shells modestly gulping down the luscious mouthful they enclosed. This seeking assistance of the mother country is like a son's joining his father in cutting off the entail of an estate worth £1,000 per annum for the petty consideration of £10 ready money. If it were possible to convince colonists of this. There is only left us, however, to bid them look about them and think. If every settlement in New Zealand having a district marked out for it, had to bear its own expenses and that of no other portion of the colony, the Governor presiding at the Legislative Council, or Representative Assembly — a Corporation, in each district levying rates upon property for the support of the necessary executive there, and not elsewhere, and from which a certain subsidy proportionate to the amount raised should go to defray the general expense of the Colonial Government — the Legislative Council or Representative Assembly having no power to levy taxes or duties of any sort, only to determine the per centage which should be taken aa subsidy from the revenue raised in each district ; the corporations having large powers in the direction of the local executive, hnprovsments, by-laws, and such like : — If some such scheme were carried out, we believe we should not find the expenses so very enormous. The duties of the Legislative Council or Representative Assembly would not be very heavy; they would deal only with matters of general and extensive bearing. All local legislation would be in the hands of the corporate body; not allowing, of course, any enactment from them contrary to the spirit of the enactments of the higher body. The expenses of the Central Government establishment would be thus reduced to a mere nothing. The only officers necessary would be those immediately attendant on his Excellency. There would be no intricate accounts to pass through and under innumerable clerkly hands &nd eyes. The Home Government should pay all or part of the expenses of whatever directly concerned the Governor's establishment alone, for he is in the Legislative Assembly as their_ representative with his veto.