THE OUTLINE OF A PLAN FOR COLONIZATION.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 87, 4 November 1843, Page 348

THE OUTLINE OF A PLAN FOR COLONIZATION.

[From a Correspondent of the Standard."] The following is an outline of a plan for colonization to meet the present circumstances of the British empire : — The rapid increase of the population of the United Kingdom, and the great improvements making in machinery, which lessens the demand for labour, renders it necessary that some means equally extraordinary should be taken to provide for that part of the population for whom food and employment cannot be found at home. It is submitted that the possessions of Great Britain in North America, from their comparative contiguity to this country, as well as from their political situation, would at once afford an ample field for extensive emigration, and would soon be enabled to maintain a population of from one to two millions, which could be sent from this country immediately, besides adding great political power to the whole empire, and giving an immediate impetus to the trade at home, by

! making the necessary preparation for the emigration. For this purpose twelve divisions of the country, equal each to an English county, should be set out, and a name given to each, after the name of- a member of her Majesty's Cabinet, in whom should be vested, and his successors in office, all Church preferments, and appointments to schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, except those which may be vested in private persons. Any nobleman or gentleman shoula have sufficient land assigned to him for a village or a town, which might bear his own name, provided he undertook to pay the Government charge upon it, and to build a church, school-houses, and cottages, or farm-houses for the immigrants at his own expense; the same to become his freehold, with the presentation of tbe living, &c, as in England. All the roads, bridges, water-courses, wells, sewers and mills should, in the first instance, be erected at the expense of Government. A capital should be built and called after our most gracious Majesty Victoria, with a cathedral and all public offices. This city, with the cities of Peel and Stanley, should be bishop sees. Universities should be established in Wellington and Goulburn, by whose officers every school in the colony should be regulated. Each regiment or municipality hereinafter mentioned should take up their cantonments in the shire appointed for them, and on land being assigned to them by the proper officer, that detachment should be immediately marched with camp equipage and baggage to the ground so assigned, and so go on under the direction of the proper officer until the houses, cottages, &c, assigned to them be ready for their reception, and their settlement perfected. The emigration should be conducted precisely upon the same principle by which an army would be raised in this kingdom. As many gentlemen as possible should be induced to take appointments in the emigration force, and the situation, from the meanest colonist upwards, be made as honourable as possible. The companies should consist of the male emigrants, with their wives and children attached, and proper means should be taken to drill them according to their new occupation previous to embarkation. Each district regiment should be composed of companies under proper officers. To each regiment should be attached a rector and two curates, clergymen of the Church of England, who should have the charge of their spiritual instruction, and a schoolmaster and schoolmistress should be appointed, who should educate the whole population on Dr. Bell's sys,ter% under the superintendence of the clergymen.

a The clergymen should be the rector and curates of the parish of which their regiments should form the population of the same. In each parish the church, the rectorial house, and the parsonage-house for each curate, schoolrooms for males and others for females, should be erected wholly at the expense of Government and for ever free from taxation. The stipend of the clergy to be provided for in land, that of the schoolmaster and schoolmistress out of the public rates, both to be paid by Government for five years after tbe establishment of the colony. Professors of agriculture, and all the mechanical arts, should be employed to take artisans under their care and instruction, and all agricultural implements supplied by Government.

The colonization force should be embarked in ships provided by her Majesty -, provisions, &c, precisely on the same plan by which a military force would be embarked, and to be conveyed over the seas, and on the St. Lawrence, or any other river; the whole, or any portion of the force, should be marched on debarkation to the country assigned to them, the same as any military force would be, with baggage-waggons, &c. They should then form a regular encampment, tents, &c, every other necessary article being supplied to them at the ezpence of Government.

. A commissariat and medical staff should be appointed, and provisions of all kinds supplied the colonists by rations in tbe same way as a regular army would be supplied for two years after the cantonments were formed, regulations having been previously made to supply them from the time they joined the colonization force. Ways and Means. — The expense to be provided for by loan. It is presumed tbat tbe reduction in the poor-rates will greatly exceed tbe interest of this loan. Each portion of land should be charged with a certain sum payable every five years, which' would at the end of fifty years pay off the debt created by the loan, as also the charge for seed, corn and seeds, sapplied to the immigrants in the first two years. Emigration to all parts of .the world, whether on a large or small scafe; should be conducted on precisely the same principles. It is of no consequence, whatever may be the amout required ; if from 10 to 200 millions, it may be easily raised.